One of our favorite parts of coaching is when teachers reach out with their honest questions and challenges. Brainstorming and problem-solving with other educators always sparks great thinking and conversation! With so many changes in education this year, we are left with many opportunities to work together to try new things, refine our practices, and reimagine what education could look like to meet the needs of all students.
To honor the power of collaboration, we are kicking off our Question & Answer series. What questions or challenges are coming up for you this year that you are looking for support with? We will answer some each week on our blog. Make sure to follow us on social media to see what teachers across the nation are asking, it might be the same question you have!
Supporting Active Listening During Directions
This week’s question comes from a virtual teacher who asks, “I’m struggling with needing to repeat directions constantly during online learning. How can I help my students to be active listeners during live sessions?”
Before we get into specific strategies to try, remember that your students are children, during a pandemic, learning in their home. So retention of any information is going to be more difficult than if they were in your classroom with fewer distractions. Noticing that this is a struggle for your students, and being willing to take the time to teach the skills, highlights your commitment to how academic and social-emotional learning support one another. By taking time now to teach students active listening skills, you are creating good habits for them to use throughout the year (online and in person) as well as all throughout their lives! Here are a few ideas you might try or add in to your instruction to support active listening:
What other instructional practices do you use to teach and support active listening? We’d love to hear from you with additional ideas or success stories from implementing one of these ideas!
