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CHAPTER 7
LISTENING
Objectives
After studying the material in Chapter Seven of Looking Out/Looking In, you should understand:
2. The difference between hearing and listening.
4. Five elements involved in the process of listening.
6. The reasons why skilled listening can be challenging.
8. The factors involved in choosing the best listening response.
Specifically, you should be able to:
2. Identify the circumstances in which you listen ineffectively, and the poor listening habits you use
in these circumstances.
Notes on Class and Student Activities
A. Listening Breakdowns (Pause and Reflect, text, p. 223)
Objective
To help students overcome common listening myths and understand the separate elements involved in
the listening process.
Discussion Questions
1. Which instances were more frequently representative of you? Less? Explain.
B. Speaking and Listening with a “Talking Stick” (Pause and Reflect, text, p. 228)
Objective
To focus the student’s attention on the benefits of talking less and listening more.
1. Conduct a discussion of classroom listening and responding styles.
2. Have students suggest questions they might ask during a lecture (have some of your “favorites”
Objective
To give students practice with paraphrasing.
Instructions
Have students do the activity in pairs or small groups. Or, try the fishbowl formation where two
Discussion Questions
See questions in the text or use 7.3 in the Student Activities Manual as a stimulus.
E. Listen to the Little Children
Objective
To give students practice with paraphrasing.
1. Assign students to visit with a child under the age of ten (a sibling or other relative, or perhaps a
neighbor or volunteer at a nursery school).
2. Tell them to ask questions about what the child is doing, interested in, or planning. Tell them to
Discussion Questions
1. How easy or difficult was it to use the skill of paraphrasing in this situation?
F. What Would You Say? (Pause and Reflect, text, p. 241)
Objectives
To give students practice with a variety of listening responses.
Option
Discussion Questions
1. In your opinion, which types of responses would lead to productive and unproductive outcomes?
G. One-Way and Two-Way Communication
Objective
To demonstrate the advantages of checking back with the sender of a message (i.e., one-way vs. two-
way communication).
Instructions
1. Copy the following notes and chart onto a chalkboard so that everyone can see them:
ONE-WAY
TWO-WAY
TIME:
TIME:
NUMBER CORRECT
NUMBER CORRECT
ESTIMATE
ACTUAL
ESTIMATE
ACTUAL
2. Select one member of the group to act as a sender. The sender’s job will be to describe two
simple drawings to the rest of the group.
Note 1. Alert the observers to watch for certain behaviors: level of frustration, perceived confidence, and
4. Supply the group members with sheets of unlined 8½-by-11-inch paper.
5. Make sure everyone hears and understands the following directions: “In a minute, the sender will
6. The sender now stands or sits so that he or she can be heard but not seen by the group. The
instructor then gives the sender a copy of the first drawing found here. (Actually, any simple
7. The sender should describe this drawing to the group as quickly and as accurately as possible.
8. After the sender has finished, note the time that his or her description took and place it on the
9. Now the sender should move so that he or she can see and be seen by the group. The instructor
will give the sender the drawing he or she is to describe. This time, however, the group members
10. Remember, the goal is to have all group members reproduce the drawing perfectly, so everyone
should feel free to ask plenty of questions.
12. Now show the drawings one at a time to the group members so they can see how accurate their
reactions are. The instructor should then record the accuracy of the group’s drawings. For a figure
Discussion Questions
1. After looking it over, what assumptions might you make about one-way and two-way
communication? Which takes longer? Which is more accurate?
2. Which is more frustrating for the sender? For the receiver?
Options
Instead of having students re-create a drawing, have them re-create a description of a detailed scene in
a photograph or advertisement. Ask for 5 volunteers to leave the room and return one by one. The
first volunteer looks closely at the picture while he describes it in as much detail as possible to the
1. Managers tend to identify themselves as effective listeners. Has this been your experience in the
workplace?
2. What are the challenges associated with listening in the workplace?
I. Technology and Listening Effectiveness
Objectives
J. What Did You Say?
2. Ask 5 students to volunteer. They will simply have to hear a description of the picture from one
3. Have four of the volunteers leave the classroom and give the picture to the first volunteer. Show
4. Bring volunteers back into the classroom one by one. The first volunteer describes everything she
can possibly see in the picture (while looking at it) in great detail. The second volunteer must
5. In the end, have the fifth volunteer tell the class what he heard described to him. Then show the
class and all volunteers the picture.
1. What happened? Where did information get distorted along the way?
2. What details got left out and what details came all the way through to the last person?
Options
Do the activity a second time with a different picture. However, this time, allow the volunteers to
