Listening Skills: Classroom Management, RTI, ESL, and more!

Listening skills are so important!  Before you can effectively teach procedures and academic skills, your students need to listen and attend to what you are saying. 

Last year, I wrote a blog post with a listening activity to show what I did at the beginning of the year.  Teachers emailed me asking for more of these listen and draw activities.  I now have a series of Listen and Draw activities that you can use throughout the year.  Plus a FREEBIE for you try.

DIFFERENTIATION
I recommend doing this as a teacher directed activity in the beginning.  You may want to introduce this in a small group setting if your class has a wide range of abilities.  You can give different groups different expectations for the writing assignment portion of the activity.  There is an extra writing page included for your students who are ready to write a paragraph or story about the picture.

TECHNOLOGY CONNECTION
Once your students are comfortable with the format, you can record the directions or ask a parent volunteer to do it for you.  Or ask the drama department at your local middle school or high school if there is a student who is interested in doing this for you.  Students are often looking for community service opportunities.

After each step, either pause to give students time to do the work or use some type of noise maker like a bell or xylophone.  Tell your students to push the “stop” button when he/she hears the sound.  Push the “go” button after he/she follows the directions and is ready for the next step.  

MANY USES:
This can be used many different ways.  
WRITING CENTER: Record the directions and set it up as a center.
EMERGENCY SUB PLANS:  Great activity for your sub.
R.T.I. DOCUMENTATION:  Great way to show proof of listening skills growth over time for R.T.I.
INSIDE RECESS – FRIDAY FUN DAY:  Students will love the art part of these activities.  You will love the fact that your students are quiet so they can listen to the directions.
E.S.L. / E.L.L.:   E.S.L. / E.L.L. teachers have left some very nice feedback.  They said it worked great with their students.  

Go over the directions and then hang the sign in the graphic above as a reminder.  This is an easy prep activity. The only supplies your students will need are the assignment, crayons, and a pencil.

Each Listen & Draw packets includes 
12 Listen and Draw activities with a different theme.  For each activity there is:
-Teacher direction page
-Blackline student page

-Colorful page showing what the art portion of the listening activity could look like.  Art work answers may vary.

This lesson is from the first packet that I made.  It can be used at any time of the year.  Many of the topics are school related so they are perfect for Back to School time.  Or add these lessons to your sub plans or do them at your next inside recess.

You can also add these listening skills lessons to your students’ portfolios.  They are great documentation and useful at parent-teacher conferences.

Spring theme

Click HERE to check this out.

Summer theme

Click HERE to check it out.

Bundle: includes all except for the Christmas packet. 

Click HERE to check out the bundle.

 I plan to make holiday themed packets this year and will make a bundle of them at the end of the year.

How do you teach listening skills?

Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE.
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