Games & Activities That Build Purposeful Listening Skills



Active ListeningActive listening intentionally focuses on who you are listening to, whether in a group or one-on-one, in order to understand what he or she is saying. As the listener, you should then be able to repeat back in your own words what they have said to their satisfaction.? This does not mean you agree with, but rather understand, what they are saying.Active Listening StepsAlthough the feedback step is at the heart of active listening, to be effective, each of the following steps must taken:Look at the person, and suspend other things you are doing.Listen not merely to the words, but the feeling content.Be sincerely interested in what the other person is talking about.Restate what the person said.Ask clarification questions once in a while.Be aware of your own feelings and strong opinions.If you have to state your views, say them only after you have listened.962025127000Games & Activities That Build Purposeful Listening SkillsBy Chad Buleen, eHow Contributor Although listening is a skill that often is not specifically taught in schools, it is true that just as reading and writing are skills that must be learned, listening must be learned as well. Hearing is easy, but it takes effort for a person to truly listen. However, this does not mean that learning to listen is tedious. There are games and activities that can build listening skills.Mime GamesOne of the ways that listening can be taught comes by using no words at all. Listening does not necessarily need to relate to your physical ability to hear. Watching for nonverbal clues is also a big part of listening to others and effectively communicating. Play a mime game or charades to allow students to watch a person's body language and facial expressions. This helps students gain understanding about other aspects of listening aside from audible hearing. Draw the DescriptionDo activities that require students to listen to specific instructions and act on them. For example, you can explain an object in detail to the students, who then draw the item you describe. After you have finished the description, allow the students to hold up their pictures and show what they have drawn. Pass the MessagePlay Operator. This is a simple listening game that requires at least three or four people to play, but the more students involved, the better the game is. The game starts when the students get in a straight line. The person at the beginning of the line will whisper a sentence into the ear of the student behind him. This student will subsequently whisper what he heard to the student behind him. This continues until the last student is reached. At this point, she will repeat what she believes the sentence to be. The first student should then say what the sentence was when it was started. There will almost always be a difference -- and sometimes a stark one. The students will listen intently to try to get the sentence right. Listening for Key WordsAsk students to describe what they did and how they felt when doing something with their family, playing a sport or watching a movie. Emphasize that they should not tell -- but show their story. Encourage them to act out parts of their story and use vivid verbs and concrete nouns to describe what happened. As other students get used to hearing these descriptions, they will learn to watch for nonverbal communication and listen for descriptive language to gain an understanding of what is being said. Read more: Games & Activities That Build Purposeful Listening Skills | of active listening. The pupils divide into two groups and sit down in two concentric circles: the pairs sit facing each others and given a signal, those in the outer circle begin a talking on one of the topics below. Those in the inner circle just listen, they don't speak. Then using the same topic those in the inner circle speak and those in the outer circle just listen. The listeners should not interrupt, should not say ("And why did you..."), should not give advice "You could have" or "You should have"), and should not even men-tion their own experience ("So did I"). The topic of conversation may have a personal character: the pupils can talk about joyful or sad experience, about a friendship or a successfully completed task, etc. They speak in I-statements telling how they felt when such and such happened (2 topics at the most).Examples of conversation topicsThe most humorous event that has ever occurred to me My angriest moment Imagine you are a mighty queen/king What would you do for your school peers or people of your native town? What would be my favourite birthday present? Then everyone moves one place to the left, so they are now talking with a different partner. There are some new rules for the second topic. A partner should repeat what he/she has heard before telling us his/her story. It should be started with the sentence: "If I under-stood correctly you said . . ." In other words, the partner should paraphrase, i.e. repeat in his/her own words (the main facts and feelings) of what he/she has heard. First of all, it helps the listener to confirm whether his/her thoughts wandered off and helps the speaker to see his/her problem more clearly. ("If I understood correctly you said you had been kept out of their group, they didn't talk to you about their plans anymore and you felt angry and hurt?") After that the pair exchanges roles.Feedback discussion: Which was more enjoyable, to listen or to talk? How did you know your partner was listening to you? What was the most interesting subject to talk about? Were you satisfied with your partner's paraphrasing of your story?Blind walking. In the course of this game no one should talk. The students divide up into pairs. While one student keeps their eyes closed, the other leads him/her around the room so as not to bump into anybody, or to cause them to step on a mine field. The mine fields can be represented by pieces of the newspaper on the floor. It is important to switch roles at a given signal.Feedback discussion: How did you feel as the one being led around (blind walking)? How did you feel as the guide? Which was more difficult for you? Why? How did you communicate if you were not able to talk? How did you receive the messages sent by the one who was guiding you? Were you a good listener? Was it important to listen to the body language (touch) of the one who was leading you around? What does listening mean here? (Teacher's note: listening means to completely direct and focus oneself on another person.)Poor listeners. The pupils sit on the floor in a circle, and a volunteer leaves the room while the others agree on how they will behave as bad "listeners." They will, each as he/she chooses, clearly show their lack of interest in and inattentiveness to the "speaker": they will look in the other direction, scratch themselves, clean their nails, look at their watch, cough. The speaker after entering and sitting down in the middle of the circle, will pick the most interesting film he/she has seen recently and begin to talk about it. We interrupt the role playing after a short time; all the listeners thank the speaker by applauding him or her. Question for the listeners: How do you think he/she felt while talking, and you were not listening: If you had been the speaker, how would you have reacted? Question for the speaker: How did you feel? What did you feel like doing when no one listened to you? How could you tell that some-body was not listening? ................
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