Total Time: 60 minutes
0–2 min | Welcome & Access
Content: Introduce the focus on teaching listening as a pathway to student discourse.
Engagement: Share QR code linking to all resources and slides for easy access.
Process: Participants connect digitally at the start to reduce note-taking demands and increase interaction.
2–7 min | Experiencing Talk Without Listening
Content: Participants engage in an Elbow Partner prompt (“Why did you choose this session today?”) to experience unstructured conversation.
Engagement: Facilitator models RAIN–BOW Partners (roles: speaker/listener) and defines paraphrasing.
Process: Quick cycles of partner swaps demonstrate how role clarity changes the quality of talk.
7–12 min | Cognitive Attention & Listening Complexity
Content: Walk and Stop movement activity highlights how attention splits during multitasking.
Engagement: Physical simulation connects listening with cognitive load and focus.
Process: Volunteers respond to shifting cues; audience debriefs what made listening difficult.
12–27 min | Connecting to K–2 Standards
Content:
Examine Illinois (or Common Core) Speaking and Listening standards for K–2.
Identify how to explicitly teach turn-taking, questioning, and response building.
Engagement:
Reflect on “What makes a good listener?”
Practice TRIAD partner roles (A = respondent, B = questioner, C = summarizer).
Process: Participants move, form groups, and apply standards through live modeling and data-based observation (counting and classifying questions as inquiry vs. clarification).
27–36 min | Linking Ideas Through Dialogue
Content:
Explore grade 2 skill: linking comments to others’ remarks.
Model sentence stems for building on peer ideas.
Engagement:
Formative check: “Linking or Not Linking?” using visual cues.
Triad conversation: Participants apply linking stems in live talk.
Process: Fast partner switches, reflection, and peer modeling promote active learning.
36–44 min | Deepening Understanding of Listening
Content:
Deconstruct the Chinese symbol for “listening” to highlight its layered components (eyes, ears, heart, attention).
Show a short humorous video illustrating “fake listening.”
Engagement:
Group laughter and visual metaphor connect emotional awareness to academic behaviors.
Partner reflection: “Which elements are strongest in your class?”
Process: A/B partner exchanges reinforce the model of structured peer-to-peer dialogue.
44–52 min | Extending Beyond Primary Grades
Content:
Review upper elementary through high school speaking and listening standards to illustrate vertical alignment.
Identify “Conversation Crushers”—common ways student talk stalls—and strategies to repair dialogue using questioning.
Engagement:
Discussion of real classroom challenges and quick coaching protocols.
Process: Brief peer sharing and facilitator modeling with embedded reflection prompts.
52–60 min | Reflection and Closure
Content:
Reconnect to learning targets and implementation.
Reinforce that listening is both a skill and an equity practice.
Engagement: TRI-Cycle Protocol—three rounds of reflection: learnings, connections, and classroom application.
Process: Revisit original triads, embed movement, and close with QR code resources for continued learning.
After this session, participants will be able to:
Model and teach listening as an intentional skill that supports academic discourse.
Facilitate conversations where students build on ideas and respond with purpose.
Apply practical protocols and prompts that strengthen collaboration and comprehension through authentic talk.
Hamilton, Connie. Hacking Questions: 11 Answers That Create a Culture of Inquiry in Your Classroom. Times 10 Publications, 2019.
Hattie, John. Visible Learning. Routledge, 2009.
Alexander, Robin. Towards Dialogic Teaching: Rethinking Classroom Talk. Dialogos, 2020.
Mercer, Neil & Dawes, Lyn. The Development of Children’s Thinking and Understanding Through Talk. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 2008.
Cohen, Elizabeth G. & Lotan, Rachel A. Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom. Teachers College Press, 2014.
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