5 Practices to Improve Listening Skills in the Classroom

Teaching your students to listen can be challenging at best.  School is a very social place and children want to be with their friends in a very interactive way which in turn leads to conversations and sometimes just chit chat; even when you are teaching.  Here are some tips to minimize distractions and improve listening.

Listening is one of the big 5 in literacy!  The other four being reading, writing, thinking and speaking.  You can incorporate many activities that involve listening in an enjoyable way. Many educational games require listening and most times, most kids will want to do well in a game with their peers.  The famous "I Have, Who Has?"  can be used in many grade levels while reinforcing many skills in literacy, math, science and social studies.  

I Have, Whoooo Has? Improve Listening

Listening to large numbers and recording them is a great listening activity for those students who are learning about place value.  When students start to understand and make large numbers; they need practice.  Students listen to the number you say and