Help Your Students to Listen---Connie Clark

Good practical article in RTJ from Connie Clark . She shares a few tips for helping middle schoolers to listen. In the article, she states that she realized she was the one doing most of the talking in the classroom. While that is expected, as people mature, they need a say. So: 1. Opinion polls ---begin the year with an opinion poll 2. Let them talk ----build noise time into each lesson 3. And let them be silent 4. Be aware of your own voice-- teenagers tune out quickly (think of the classroom scenes in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) Listening Skill Game: Help them build a Catholic vocabulary with an old favorite---Password. Write vocabulary words on index cards and have students give one word clues to help others guess the "password."