Standard 1: Speaking and Listening

Students will speak and listen effectively in a variety of situations including, but not limited to, responses to reading and writing.                                                               

READING: Students will develop and apply effective communication skills through speaking and active listening.

4.1.R.1 Students will actively listen and speak clearly using appropriate discussion rules.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will actively listen by using appropriate body language.

• Students will use and interpret verbal and nonverbal cues effectively.

• Students will take turns when speaking.

• Students will clearly share thoughts and ideas.

• Students will complete sentence stems and starters to summarize what was said by others in order to convey understanding.

• Students will be encouraged to write down their questions and comments in order to ease anxiety.

• Teachers model and provide opportunities to practice what it looks like to actively listen to a speaker.

• Teachers can use the Principles of Active Listening

• Focus on what is being said and give the speaker your undivided attention. *This looks different according to student’s  varying learning styles. Many people need their hands to be busy in order to listen and process.

• Don’t Assume that you already know what the speaker is going to say

• Repeat what you just heard.

• Ask questions

• Pay attention to verbal/non-verbal cues

• Teachers model and provide opportunities to use and interpret verbal and/or nonverbal cues.

• Teachers model how to and provide students with opportunities to take turns when speaking with a partner, a small group, and the whole class.

• Strategies to provide students with structure for taking turns while speaking:

• Turn and Talks

• Talking Tickets

• Think Pair Share

• Teachers model how to and provide students with opportunities organize and share thoughts and ideas.

• Give students a predetermined amount of tickets at the start of the activity, when students answer or ask a question they hand in their tickets. Each student must spend all their tickets. This activity encourages those who need to process longer to join the conversation, as well as student’s who tend to dominate the conversation to listen more.

• Teach strategies for jotting down key words or questions to help students remember what they want to say as they wait for their turn. Sticky notes can be great tools for marking important spots in a book or writing down keywords.

• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback.

• checklist or rubric

• one on one conference

• verbal or written praise

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

• Active listening is the pursuit of what another person says and feels to improve mutual understanding. Active listening involves hearing content, listening for tone, observing body language, paraphrasing, summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and reflecting.
• It is important to remember that students demonstrate active listening in different ways, students should be taught respectful listening skills within their boundaries and culture.
• Body language, and particularly eye contact, differs in cultures.  For example, some cultures may view prolonged eye contact as aggression.
• Some students may need their hands to be busy in order to pay attention.
• Student’s proficiency in speaking will range from expressing basic needs, asking and answering simple everyday questions to giving opinions and justifying.
• Sentence frames and question stems give students guidance in appropriate conversational structure and provide a basis to express and give reasons for their thoughts and ideas.  

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.