Blog Post #3; Speaking and Listening

I personally struggle with active listening in conversations and classroom settings that do not have a visual presentation to follow along with. I don’t think there would ever be a time in my classroom that I wouldn’t have some kind of visual aid for not only my students, but for myself as well to follow along with. Using visual or auditory aids, like the book says, “ students like to listen to stories, poetry, and radio dramas and theater. Listening to literature can also be a great pleasure”, would be a great way to not only help students with getting better at active listening, but also would enrich curriculum and diversify lessons. With 16.2 , “we need to realize that some of the listeners and speakers we are communicating with may face challenges in understanding the nuances of what we are saying”- being able to be a clear and concise speaker is not important just for me as a teacher, but as a student that will eventually move on from your classroom and into others, and that the ability to explain oneself so that everyone can understand is a skill that will be used throughout their whole life.  In 16.3, effective participation in group discussions is a HUGE aspect not only of a Secondary English Education classroom, but beyond as well. In order to participate effectively in any kind of discussion- personal, academic, political etc.- the basis of learning for these exact purposes starts in our classrooms and needs to be cultivated everyday in the classroom. It’s not just a grade, in the long run, discussion participation can shape the rest of a student’s life! 16.4 is a really important topic specifically for us as teachers because without effective presentations, students won’t respond, which results in not learning. Discussions are a great start and end to a lesson, but the presentation and actual visuals provided to aid in the understanding and truly HEARING what they are learning takes it the extra mile and makes it one cohesive lesson. Adding subtitles to any videos that are shown in class, slideshow presentations with the basic points of the conversation listed clearly on the slides, and non-confusing slides and videos help the hearing and listening aspect of what you as the teacher are saying and what the class is saying form a more cohesive and whole lesson.