"To listen fully means to pay
close attention to what is being said beneath the words. You listen not only to
the 'music,' but to the essence of the person speaking. You listen not only for
what someone knows, but for what he or she is. Ears operate at the speed of
sound, which is far slower than the speed of light the eyes take in. Generative
listening is the art of developing deeper silences in yourself, so you can slow
our mind’s hearing to your ears’ natural speed, and hear beneath the words to
their meaning." —Peter Senge
On Monday evening, I spent time with
some colleagues and we were discussing the role “listening” plays in
discourse. Listening intrigues me. In fact, in Conferring: The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop, I mention listening well over 50 times. Listening is something I constantly work on
and to be honest, I have to practice it--a lot! Don’t we all?
Robert Frost once said, “Education is the ability to listen
to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
Listening is a complex cognitive process. “Listening is the language modality that is
used most frequently. It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their
communication time listening, and students may receive as much as 90% of their
in-school information through listening to instructors and to one another.”
(NCLRC) If this is true, it behooves us
to talk to our students about the role listening plays in their learning… and
to provide explicit and authentic situations in which “listening” plays an
essential role!
My 4th graders and I decided to tackle the essence
of discourse this year. In October, we
began our investigation. We compared the
idea of “discourse” with a concept my students deemed “missed course.” One of my students said, “Part of having
meaningful discourse is making sure that your conversations stay ‘on course’
otherwise we might as well call it ‘missed course.” (Clever children, eh?).
We looked at the origin of the word “discourse,” from the
Latin “discursis” meaning to move
about, to and fro. Having discourse is
not about sitting still, it’s about movement,
interaction, flexibility, and creativity
in thinking (words students suggested).
We realized that if we were going to take our learning to new depths,
we’d have to spend time communicating with words, talk, and communication. It was then that we began our early
conversations of speaking and listening… with in the context of “trust,
respect, and tone” (see Conferring, p. 42-50).
And our conversations have continued throughout the year… I’ve
noticed my students are able to handle “talk” about learning with each other
and with me. They understand the role “talk” plays in our journey as learners.
They know conversations in reader’s workshop about thinking strategies
and what wise readers do lead to deeper understanding. They know that conversations in writer’s
workshop lead to more successful and productive writing lives. They know that conversations in
mathematician’s workshop lead to more commitment to number sense and its
application. They know that
conversations in other content areas add another dimension to their growth as
learners. They know that talk… and
listening… provides the opportunity to hash out ideas, think critically, and
make wise decisions.
During our chat this morning, one of my students suggested to us,
“Sometimes I notice that in the books I’m reading, the problem is caused
because someone is not listening… there’s no discourse happening and so a
conflict occurs.”
“Really?” I pondered.
“Yes… like in How
to Steal a Dog (B. O’Connor), there’s a conflict between Georgina and her
mom. Georgina wants to talk to her mom,
but her mom doesn’t have time to listen.
Georgina is just as worried as her mom is, but neither of them has the
time to talk and solve their problems.
So Georgina’s mom is struggling and it causes Georgina to plan ways to
make money. They are both worried.”
And my students chimed in with the following titles and the
difficulties that might have been resolved with more discourse within the
context of the story
- Waiting for the Magic
by P. MacLachlan – the void between the parents and children
- Pendragon
by D. J. MacHale – the problems between Bobby and Frizzell
- James and the Giant Peach
by R. Dahl – the distance between Aunt Sponge/Aunt Spiker and James
- The Tiger Rising
by K. DiCamillo – the lack of listening between Robert and Sistine
- The Bronze Pen
by Z. Snyder – the lack of trust between Audrey and her mother
- Rules
by C. Lord – the dealings of Catherine and her mother because of her brother’s
autism
- Word After Word After Word
– by P. MacLachlan – the lack of time to talk for May regarding the new baby
- A Nest for Celeste
by H. Cole – the relationship Celeste and Trixe
- Max the Magnificent
by T. Wiebe – the wedge between the mother and father
- The Tale of Despereaux by K. DiCamillo – the conflicts between
Roscuro and King Phillip
- Matilda
by R. Dahl – the hatred between Matilda and Mr. Wormwood
- Fish
by G. Mone – the anger between Scab and Fish
- How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a
Life (and a Dog) by A. Corriveau – the struggle
between Nicky and the bully
- The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester
by B. O’Connor – the angst between Viola and Owen (or Owen and Tooley for that
matter)
As we discussed the role of listening in each of the texts and
how “talk” and “listening” might have resolved the conflicts in them, we
started a conversation of “What does listening mean?” It was Brooklyn who summed it up better than
I ever could, “Mr. Allen, we always talking about being becoming a readER instead
of just reading, so shouldn’t we really be talking about being a listenER
instead of listenING? There’s a
difference between listening and being a listener!” These are the statements that came about as a
result of talking about being a listenER today (student initials follow each
statement)…
Being a listener means:
- You have the ability to discuss or
argue C.T.
- You develop an interest or a sense
of urgency C.K.
- It takes TIME, there’s a bit of
slowness and ‘good manners’ D.P.
- There’s a sense of understanding –
it’s about knowing not just hearing A.L.
- Independence – there’s a connection
between listening and independence B.L.
- You get an invitation into someone
else’s mind – you hop into a conversation and it gives you permission to share
thinking between you and me, me and you
N.W. (I talked about ‘reciprocol’ listening after this
- Silence is a part of listening –
like the three seconds of air space S.S.
- You can ‘piggyback’ with a sense of
synthesis… you get a sense of ‘extension’ between your thoughts Z.G.
- You give or get feed back that makes
a connection L.P.
- You see body language reactions
between you J.F.
- There is a ‘clearness’ in your
mind—you clearly hear, not like Charlie Brown’s teacher—that makes you
understand more J.M.
So, if we want classrooms in which the power of discourse
grows and thrives, we have to talk to our students… and become
listenERs! We don’t have to hold up a hand signal that says “Okay, everyone, active listening…” If we want to develop effective listenERs with
a habit of mind of listening, we have to provide authentic situations for students to
talk about the very foundation of effective communication.
That's what I was thinking about today after school as I sit here at the table in my classroom. I’ll close with two quotes:
"Listening
is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us
are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us
unfold and expand." — Karl Menninger
"No man
ever listened himself out of a job."
— Calvin Coolidge
