There are so many things we need to check in classroom instruction. For example, listening. Every teacher expects 100% attention from every student in his/her class. All the students in the class hear to the teacher, but only few pupils listen. There is a huge difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is a physical activity while listening is a skill. Someone who is physical impaired can be a great listener if he or she pays attention to the information someone conveys to them regardless of how it is conveyed to them. Likewise someone with very sharp hearing may be a poor listener.
Pupils these days are unable to focus in the class. My niece, studying in eighth standard, very smart and active in studies but zero in Mathematics. She said, "I pretend to listen to the teacher, it's really tough to focus and follow his instruction". Reason - friends disturb her, or she will be in her replay of daily soaps. Pupils of all ages are backward in listening to the teacher's instruction. Need of the hour is to help the pupils to improve their listening skills by any means.
Few activities to improve listening skills in pupils -
- Play games like 'Simon-says'
- Play listening games to identify animal and environmental sounds
- Play news and other programmes in radio
- Engage your child in conversation
- Narrate stories (instead of playing CD or YouTube videos).
Happy listening!
http://careerplanning.about.com/cs/miscskills/a/listening_skill.htm
http://www.neverendingstories.co.za/educational-resources
Related links:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog-five-listening-strategies-rebecca-alber
