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Active Listening - Recounts

by Kerrie Mead
(Penrith, NSW)

My hearing support class (K-1) use this strategy for re-telling their news and actively listening to their friends....

You need a set of 5 or 6 building blocks that click together (no brands mentioned!), each a different colour. They represent the information you should be recalling (or listening for) : basically who? / what? / where? / when? / why? / how?. Choose one person to be the recorder and as their friend recounts their news, the news tower can be built, one block for each piece of information.

Initially this strategy is practiced as a group and needs lots of modelling, but the children become confident in the language expectation and active listening is developed. It is also useful to discuss why some information is not included in a recount and gives the children an opportunity to ask pertinent questions to get more information.

In a "show -and-tell" activity, we have a one row abacus and every time the speaker uses a descriptive item e.g. It's made of..., I use it to...., The parts are...., etc a bead is pushed along the row. This is another way to develop active listening and purposeful description.