Pennington Publishing Blog

Six Steps to Active Listening

As a middle school teacher, I’m quite familiar with the research showing that only 30% of my audience is actually listening at any one given point of a class lecture. Many of us can relate to the actor, Ben Stein, trying to engage his high school class in this clip from the 1986 movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Most teachers would not perceive themselves as being that boring, but our students might at times disagree. Through experience, teachers learn a variety of cueing strategies, such as the teacher’s lights-off/lights-on cue, the clap-once, clap-twice response, or the “Eyes on me!” techniques to get their students to pay attention.

However, something more than cueing strategies is needed to help students become effective listeners. As is often the case with many of the key study skills that students need to be successful in school, active listening needs to be specifically taught, not incidentally caught.

Surprisingly, there is little educational research on how to teach listening skills.

Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman completed a meta-analysis of what good listeners actually do in their article in the Harvard Business Review. Based upon data describing the behavior of 3,492 participants in a development program designed to help managers become better coaches, the authors identified those who were perceived as being the most effective listeners (the top 5%).  Zenger and Folkman arrived at these conclusions: 1. Good listeners viewed listening as a “two-way” activity in which listeners ask questions that promote discovery and insight. 2. Good listening included interactions that build a person’s self-esteem. 3. Good listeners tended to be cooperative, not competitive with the speaker. 4. Good listeners made suggestions and provided feedback to the speaker.

Despite the lack of listening research, we do know from life experience that there certainly are different levels of listening engagement. Generally speaking, we tend to classify the levels as active and passive listening. The listening behaviors described by Zenger and Folkman would be classified as active listening. However, in much of our daily experience, we tend to be passive listeners. For example, we frequently turn on the television not to watch, but to provide noise just to keep us company. While in the car, we turn on the radio to reduce the noise of traffic. If we are honest, we also tune out in some of our conversations. The problem is not the fact that we are sometimes passive in our listening. The real problem is that we have become so habituated to listening without real engagement that when we need to listen carefully, we are out of practice. So how can we turn the switch back on and replace passive listening with active listening when we really need to listen? And how can we teach our students to do so?

First of all, recognize that active listening is not a one and done teaching lesson. Improving our students’ active listening skills takes practice and plenty of reinforcement. Learning new habits to replace old ones takes time and patience. However, students can improve listening skills by applying the Six Steps to Active Listening, summarized as ED IS PC. A helpful memory trick students will remember. Who knows? Maybe you even know someone named Ed, who really is politically correct. Or go with Ed, the virtual reality computer. Display the graphic and get ready to teach!

E

Eye contact with your conversation partner is essential. One of our famous poets once said, “The eyes are the windows to our souls.” When we “lock in” to the speaker’s eyes, we better focus on what is being said. We all remember a parent demanding, “Look at me, when I’m talking to you” or a teacher saying “Eyes on me!” to the class. Experience teaches the fact that eye contact improves attention to what is being said.

D

Distractions must be avoided at all costs. Anything or anyone that takes you away from active listening must be identified and eliminated to the extent that you can control. In a classroom or in a workplace, sitting next to your best friend or someone who is not actively engaged with the speaker will distract you from listening fully. Time to move! Avoid having toys within arm’s reach that will challenge your ability to pay close attention. Think of toys such as cell phones, pens, reading materials—any external stimuli that distract you from the 100% listening task.

I

Interact with the speaker. Get into the speaker’s mind and think like the speaker. A good speaker will have an organizational plan to any presentation. A lecture, interview, and meeting all have their own patterns of organization. Identify this pattern as soon as you can, and anticipate where the speaker is going next. Common organizational patterns include the following: cause and effect, reasons for, compare and contrast, chronological, issue and action step, main ideas or points and their key details/examples, problems and solutions, questions and answers, argument/opinion and justification.

Practice these interactive actions to increase your active listening:

• Ask questions to clarify speaker points.
• Maintain an internal dialogue with the speaker about each of the main points.
• If appropriate, make comments or answer questions.
• Connect to prior learning. How does what is being said now relate to what has recently been said?
• Focus on the main ideas and don’t get lost in the details. Recognize when your speaker gets off on a tangent or “bird walks.”
• Write down summary notes at the end of key speaker points—not in the middle of the point. Jot down questions or points to clarify for later.
• Hear the speaker out from beginning to end. Predict where the organizational pattern will take your speaker next and check your predictions as you listen.

S

Signal words that identify main ideas must be identified. Pay attention to the key words that signal the introduction of a new idea. Each pattern of organization has its own signal words to transition between ideas. For example, the chronology pattern makes use of “first,” “next,” “then,” “finally” and many more. Listening to these cues will help you concentrate better.

P

Posture matters! Sit up straight with feet flat on the floor. Adjust your seat or desk so that you are looking directly at the speaker, not from an angle. Keep both hands on the table or desk to maintain this posture. A bit uncomfortable? Good. Perfect relaxation induces passive listening. A little stress promotes active listening. Try to sit as close as possible to the speaker—front and center gets the most speaker attention and your best position for interaction.

C

Concentrate on what is being said and don’t daydream. Listening is a full time job. Develop the mind-set that you must fully understand everything that is being said, how it is being said, and why it is being said. Practice the mind-set that you will have to remember each of the main ideas and be able to use or apply each of these soon. A good trick is to pretend that you will have to repeat the speaker’s presentation immediately following.

After using these active listening skills, help place this short-term learning into your long-term memory by completing a Quick Daily Review as the first part of your homework plan.

The author’s Essential Study Skills is the study skill curriculum that teaches what students need to know to succeed and thrive in school. Often, the reason why

Essential Study Skills

students fail to achieve their academic potential is not because of laziness or lack of effort, but because they have never learned the basic study skills necessary for success.

The 56 lessons in Essential Study Skills will teach your students to “work smarter, not harder.” Students who master these skills will spend less time, and accomplish more during homework and study time. Their test study will be more productive and they will get better grades. Reading comprehension and vocabulary will improve. Their writing will make more sense and essays will be easier to plan and complete. They will memorize better and forget less. Their schoolwork will seem easier and will be much more enjoyable. Lastly, students will feel better about themselves as learners and will be more motivated to succeed. Essential Study Skills is the ideal curriculum for study skill, life skill, Advocacy/Advisory, Opportunity Program classes. The easy-to-follow lesson format of 1. Personal Assessment 2. Study Skill Tips and 3. Reflection is ideal for self-guided learning and practice. Contact the publisher for affordable site licenses.

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Get Motivated to Achieve Goals

Following is a lesson that I teach at the beginning of the school year and reinforce time and time again. I also walk through these steps with parents at Back to School Night and in parent conferences.

I first learned about The Motivation Cycle in my freshman intro to psychology class at U.S.C. Go Trojans! It just made so much sense. To get motivated to achieve goals:

1. Start practicing with expert advice.

2. Effective practice leads to achievement.

3. Achievement makes people feel good about themselves and the cause of that feeling. In other words, people want to feel good about themselves and so this want transfers to practicing something else to achieve that same satisfaction. A true cycle!

As a teacher, years ago I learned that no matter how well-crafted was a unit or lesson plan, my behavioral objectives would not be met unless I included a motivation stratagem. It’s easy to get students motivated to do something they enjoy. The trick is to learn how to self-motivate to accomplish the things that involve practice that they don’t enjoy. Follow these Top Ten Tips to increase motivation and to set goals that are truly achievable for your students.

1.  Define your goal. You’ve got to clearly understand where you want to end up before you begin any journey. Set goals that are realistic and specific.

For parents: If your child got all D’s and F’s on his last report card, straight-A’s on the next one not not be realistic. A goal of “do better” or “improve” is not specific.

2. Don’t try to do everything at once. Limit your goals to follow a one-at-a-time model. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

For parents: Avoid tutoring in all subjects. Better to tutor in one to a certain level of achievement and then tackle the next subject.

3. Make your goals public. Tell those close to you what your goal is and that you want their feedback and support as you work toward your set goals. Ask them to ask about your progress.

For parents: For elementary students, post goals on the refrigerator and use stars or stickers to show progress. For middle school and high school students, host peer study groups and help your child and friends to state their goals.

4. Break down your goal into manageable mini-goals. Get expert help in how to organize your plan to achieve success.

For parents: You may be the expert, but children perceive their teachers as the real experts. Find out how your child’s teacher likes to communicate and become that teacher’s favorite parent. Get advice early and often. Buy Starbucks cards and write nice notes to the teacher and commend her to the principal. Teachers are human, after all.

5. Set personal rewards for achieving each of your mini-goals. Behavioralists are right—positive reinforcement stimulates sustained effort.

For parents: Don’t give $10 for an A on the report card. That report card is month’s away. It’s not the money that is problematic; it’s that the goal is too long-term. Much better to provide rewards such as “I’ll do one of your chores if you do all of your homework for a week without me reminding you” or “I’ll make you and your friends a batch of chocolate chip cookies and let you do a sleepover if you get an A on the next math test. Make sure to state the reward in advance. Also, teach your children how to set their own rewards for achievement. Again, the short-term goal is the key. Sure, we’d all like to have our children focus on intrinsic rewards, but extrinsic rewards are a start and they get results. You may enjoy your job, but you probably wouldn’t do it without a paycheck.

6. Start small, but start.  Starting small can produce big results. Even the longest journey begins with a single step, but you have to take that step. Start by spending just ten minutes extra each day, working toward your set goals.

For parents: Try starting with a ten-minute Quick Daily Review to break the forgetting cycle. Check out this powerful small step in my article, “Learn How to Study.”

7. Practice correctly with accountability. More golf swings do not improve a golf game. Expert advice and coaching makes a difference.

For parents: Again, consult your child’s teacher(s). I do favor task-oriented study and homework more so than time-oriented homework. For example, much better to assign your child 18 pages to read in a novel with a follow-up parent-child discussion, rather than read on your own for 30 minutes.

8. Practice consistently but don’t over-do.  Limit practice to avoid burn-out. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. So keep moving to accomplish your set goals.

For parents: Parents are the chief reason why students fail to achieve their goals. Brutal, but true. Don’t make promises you won’t keep. If your serious about helping your children improve motivation and achievement by effective goal-setting you have to be there, each and every day. As a teacher, I never let parents say, “School is my child’s job, not mine. It’s up to my child to succeed.” My go-to response? “How’s that working for you?”

9. Avoid procrastination. An object at rest tends to stay at rest. Make consistent effort a habitual practice. However, if you miss practice, forgive yourself and then start again.

For parents: Your best tool for elementary, middle, and high school? Your child’s daily planner. If your school doesn’t provide one, buy one. Require your child to write down something for each subject or class to complete or study every day, as well as upcoming tests, project due-dates and announcements. Check the agenda daily and ask to see work completed.

10. Evaluate your progress toward your set goals and be flexible. What is working and what needs adjustment? Do the set goals or practice need refinement? 

For parents: Each child is motivated in different ways. Experiment to find what works and change things up if things aren’t working. Quickly. Don’t wait until your child’s grade takes a nosedive before making adjustments.

The author’s Essential Study Skills is the study skill curriculum that teaches what students need to know to succeed and thrive in school. Often, the reason why

Essential Study Skills

students fail to achieve their academic potential is not because of laziness or lack of effort, but because they have never learned the basic study skills necessary for success.

The 56 lessons in Essential Study Skills will teach your students to “work smarter, not harder.” Students who master these skills will spend less time, and accomplish more during homework and study time. Their test study will be more productive and they will get better grades. Reading comprehension and vocabulary will improve. Their writing will make more sense and essays will be easier to plan and complete. They will memorize better and forget less. Their schoolwork will seem easier and will be much more enjoyable. Lastly, students will feel better about themselves as learners and will be more motivated to succeed. Essential Study Skills is the ideal curriculum for study skill, life skill, Advocacy/Advisory, Opportunity Program classes. The easy-to-follow lesson format of 1. Personal Assessment 2. Study Skill Tips and 3. Reflection is ideal for self-guided learning and practice. Contact the publisher for affordable site licenses.

For parents: My three boys completed each of these lessons during summer vacation over a period of years. I let my sons choose: 4 hours of summer school daily for 10 weeks or 30 minute of study skills, 30 minutes worth of reading (by page numbers) and discussion with me, 30 minutes writing, and 30 minutes of other stuff: Boy Scouts achievement work, church Sunday School lessons, chemistry set work, art, etc. for the 10 weeks (time off for vacation). They never chose summer school!

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Procrastination Prevention Plan

To avoid procrastination, learn how to develop a Procrastination Prevention Plan. 

Remember what your father used to say? Don’t put off until tomorrow what you could be doing today.

He was right. But did he give you the tools to develop a plan that will help replace bad habits with good ones? Following is a workable plan with the tools to help you learn how to avoid procrastination. That’s right; it’s a skill that has to be learned and practiced. It’s not common sense or a matter of maturity. Plenty of adults struggle with procrastination as well. It’s also not simply a problem of organization.

According to De Paul University Professor of Psychology, Joseph Ferrari,

It really has nothing to do with time-management,” he says. “As I tell people, to tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up (https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/why-wait-the-science-behind-procrastination).

Before we dive in on the Procrastination Prevention Plan, it will be helpful to take a moment and explore why we procrastinate. The psychologists are right. Knowing the underlying causes can give input into the solutions. People usually procrastinate for one of these reasons:

1. “I don’t want to do it.” The goal may be difficult and take significant effort or time. Or you might be just plain rebellious or lazy.
2. “It’s not worth it.” The pay-off for achieving the goal may not be considered worth the effort.
3. “It just doesn’t feel right.” You might think that it isn’t the right time or set of circumstances to begin. You might be waiting for the magic fairy to make you want to get started.
4. “I might fail or succeed.” You might be reminded of a past failure or even a past success at which there is a high level you are expected to achieve.
5. “It’s someone else’s responsibility or fault.” Playing the blame game can certainly prevent you from taking personal responsibility and action.

Step outside of yourself and honestly respond to your own reasons as to why you are procrastinating. Now, practice some tough self-talk. Tell yourself that “Excuses are unacceptable and must be ignored to achieve results.”

The Procrastination Prevention Plan 

1. To avoid procrastination, first set a well-defined goal that is realistic. Begin practice by starting small. Limit your goal to one task that is achievable. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes time to implement any plan and achieve success. For example, if you were earning a “D” grade after nine weeks in a math class, if would probably not be realistic to expect that grade to rise to an “A” within the next two weeks, no matter the extent of your efforts. A much more realistic goal would be to raise that grade to a “C” within that time period. It takes a while to dig yourself out of a ditch that you’ve taken nine weeks to dig.
2. Next, make your goal specific and measurable. Write down your goal. General goals rarely effect change. Instead of “My goal is to do better in math,” try “My goal is to get a “B” or better on my math test in two weeks.”
3. Share your goal with people that will pester you about your progress toward achieving that goal. Ask for their support. For example, tell your math teacher, your best friend, and your parents about the “B” you plan to achieve.
4. The next step is to find the expert help to develop a strategy for achieving your realistic and specific goal. The expert help might be your math teacher in the above example, or a tutor, or a parent, or a friend. Show your written goal to the expert and ask for specific help about what to do first, next, and thereafter. Arrange a time to check-in with the expert soon after you start your plan to evaluate your progress and to ensure that your plan makes sense.
5. After getting expert advice as to how to achieve your goal, set rewards before you begin to practice. Everyone works better toward a goal when rewards have been clearly defined. For example, set aside money to purchase a new video game once you have earned that “B.” Also establish mini-rewards to motivate practice in achieving that goal. For example, set aside a favorite snack to munch on after you have completed the daily practice toward your goal.
6. Get started. The longest journey begins with a single step, but you have to take that step. An object at rest, tends to stay at rest. However, an object in motion, tends to stay in motion. You will start today.
7.  Be flexible and willing to adjust your goal or how you are practicing to achieve that goal. Talk to your expert again, if you do not see the progress that you had planned. Sometimes a small tweak in a plan can make all the difference. Thomas Edison failed a thousand times before he was successful the one time that he invented the incandescent light bulb.
8. Evaluate once your goal has been reached or not. Celebrate and take your reward, if you achieved your goal. If you did not achieve your goal, go back to your expert and brainstorm what went wrong. Set a new goal and begin immediately.

Essential Study Skills

The author’s Essential Study Skills is the study skill curriculum that teaches what students need to know to succeed and thrive in school. Often, the reason why students fail to achieve their academic potential is not because of laziness or lack of effort, but because they have never learned the basic study skills necessary for success. The 56 lessons in Essential Study Skills will teach your students to “work smarter, not harder.” Students who master these skills will spend less time, and accomplish more during homework and study time. Their test study will be more productive and they will get better grades. Reading comprehension and vocabulary will improve. Their writing will make more sense and essays will be easier to plan and complete. They will memorize better and forget less. Their schoolwork will seem easier and will be much more enjoyable. Lastly, students will feel better about themselves as learners and will be more motivated to succeed.

Essential Study Skills is the ideal curriculum for study skill, life skill, Advocacy/Advisory, and Opportunity Program classes. The easy-to-follow lesson format of 1. Personal Assessment 2. Study Skill Tips and 3. Reflection is ideal for self-guided learning and practice. Contact the publisher for affordable site licenses.

Study Skills Essential Study Skills, goals, habits, Mark Pennington, motivation, procrastination, study, study skills, teaching strategies

Characteristics of High School Students

High school learners are qualitatively different than younger learners. You certainly can “teach an old dog new tricks” by understanding the cognitive and social characteristics of high school learners. Using the right instructional strategies to maximize the learning advantages and address the learning challenges of high school learners can make all the difference in their success.

I began my teaching career as a high school history and social studies teacher. After a number of years teaching the rich content of world and U.S. history, I grew increasingly interested in students who were not able to access that content independently by reading their textbooks.

I enrolled in the M.A. Reading Specialist program at our state university. In class after class, I was the only secondary teacher in the program. A year into the program, my principal approach me about teaching a remedial freshman and sophomore course “to get these kids to master the reading portion of the high school proficiency exam.” The district was now requiring this proficiency to earn a diploma.

I said, “Yes” and the next fall faced my first group of thirty-some-odd struggling readers. After quickly weeding out a few students who self-admittedly “blew off” the proficiency exam the preceding year, I settled in to apply what I was learning in my master’s program. Big mistake!

The assessments, lessons, accompanying readings, and activities did not translate from primary students to high school students. Yes, several of the high school kids did not have all their phonemic awareness skills. Yes, a few more needed to learn the alphabet. Still more had significant phonics gaps. All had reading fluency issues. However, the “big head” cartoonish and juvenile resources and books that taught these skills were just not going to work on the high schoolers. In fact, whenever I passed out such a resource, the high school kids either completely shut down or began to act out.

It took me six years to finish that masters degree, but during that time I learned a bit about teaching secondary reading intervention.

The RtI (Response to Intervention) Action Network cites the following research-based conclusions regarding reading intervention for older students:

1. the explicit instruction of reading and writing strategies (See my “Twelve Tips to Teach the Reading-Writing Connection“)
2. a focus on using reading and writing to support motivation and engagement
3. a focus on developing student knowledge and understanding of essential content information (Torgesen et al., 2007)
4. ongoing formative and summative assessment of students (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006) (See my FREE ELA/Reading Assessments)
5. a comprehensive and coordinated literacy program (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006) http://www.rtinetwork.org/essential/assessment/screening/screening-for-reading-problems-in-grades-4-through-12.

High School Cognitive Development

Most high school students have achieved the formal operational stage, as described by Piaget. These students can think abstractly and need fewer concrete examples to understand complex thought patterns. Generally speaking, most students share the following characteristics:

1. Need to understand the purpose and relevance of instructional activities
2. Are both internally and externally motivated
3. Have self-imposed cognitive barriers due to years of academic failure and lack self-confidence
4. May have “shut down” in certain cognitive areas and will need to learn how to learn and overcome these barriers to learning
5. Want to establish immediate and long-term personal goals
6. Want to assume individual responsibility for learning and progress toward goals

High School Social Development

High school students are experimenting with adult-like relationships. Generally speaking, most students share the following characteristics:

1. Interested in co-educational activities
2. Desire adult leadership roles and autonomy in planning
3. Want adults to assume a chiefly support role in their education
4. Developing a community consciousness
5. Need opportunities for self-expression

High School Instructional Strategies

High school students are still concerned about the labeling that takes place, when one is identified as a remedial reader. Labels and stereotypes are both externally imposed (by other students and, sometimes their parents), but are primarily internally imposed (by the students themselves). Years of academic failure, due to lack of reading proficiency, have damaged students’ self-esteem. Many students have lost confidence in their ability to learn. Students have developed coping mechanisms, such as reading survival skills e.g., audio books or peer/parent readers, or behavioral problems, or the “Whatever… I don’t care attitudes” to avoid the tough work of learning how to read well. High school teachers need to be extremely mindful of student self-perceptions. A few talking points with remedial high school students may prove helpful:

“Unfortunately, some of your past reading instruction was poor; it’s not your fault that you have some skills to work on.” a.k.a. “blame someone else”

“You can learn in this class. If you come to class willing to try everyday, you will significantly improve your reading, I promise.”

“I know you have tried before, but this time is different.”

“You will be able to chart your own progress and see what you are learning in this class.”

“Some of my past students were like some of you. For example, ___________ and he passed the high school exit exam after finishing this class. For example, ___________ got caught up to grade level reading and is college right now.” Personal anecdotes provide role models and hope for high school remedial readers. Any former students who have been successful will provide “street credibility” to the teacher and the class.

“You aren’t in this class forever. As soon as you master your missing skills, you are out.”

*****

Check out the two writing programs high school students need to succeed: Teaching Grammar and Mechanics and TEACHING ESSAYS BUNDLE. Both programs include printables and digital options including Google Slides.

High School Program

TEACHING ESSAYS BUNDLE

Grammar/Mechanics, Reading, Writing differentiating, high school, learner characteristics, study skills, Teaching Reading Strategies, teaching strategies