Listening To Students

Listening is one of the most powerful teaching tools, as it helps us to understand how to communicate effectively with students and gives us powerful insights into students’ experiences. The valuable data we collect through listening informs our teaching and helps us meet students' needs. Try some open-ended questions like, “What do you want to try?”, “What might work?”, or “What do you know about this?” Try a Notice and Wonder routine where you show students an image, graph, or primary source and ask, “What do you notice? What do you wonder?” Create space to listen, and pause before speaking. You’ll be amazed at what you hear.

What did you learn about your students by asking open-ended questions and listening to their responses?

What open-ended questions might you ask to learn about students social emotional well-being?

What open-ended questions might you ask to learn about students’ conceptual understanding?

How might listening be a powerful assessment tool that informs your next steps as a teacher?

How has this language shift impacted your classroom community? At first? Over time?

Read the chapter on Listening from The Power of Our Words. Check out the examples of open ended questions for different classroom situations. Try to use open ended questions for various situations in your classroom. You can also begin a unit or project with open ended questions to elicit student prior knowledge. Test your understanding by trying to identify the open ended questions on the handout.