Why Developing Critical Listening Skills Matters

As a Facing History-trained teacher, I strive to consistently integrate authentic voices in the classroom through survivor testimony. My students have heard my mantra many times: The greatest gift you can give another person is to listen to their story.

However, the art of listening itself is rarely taught and is sometimes even forgotten. The need to teach students how to really listen empathetically and skillfully has never been greater than now. Today, Facing History and many teachers recognize that listening is a skill that can be developed and improved with practice.

In a visual world where videos are circulating everywhere, listening—just listening—might seem archaic to our students. Becoming a good listener takes structured opportunities for practice and patience.

This is where the online teacher tool Listenwise comes in. Founded by a former NPR journalist, Listenwise helps teachers bring current radio news stories into the classroom. These stories are archived according to subject and genre, providing easy access for teachers. Listenwise also includes lesson plans and class activities that help connect today’s news to the themes and subjects teachers might cover in the classroom. The stories give students the opportunity to hear the natural voices of the reporter and the interviewees, to listen to the exchange of ideas and perspectives, and to practice skills of evaluating information presented by diverse media.

As the school year was winding down, I used Listenwise in my ELL (English Language Learners) U.S. History classroom. My students are multi-level English language learners, so they all had different entry points to the story. Using a lesson I had created, students listened to the story first to identify the main idea and theme. During the second listen, students used a graphic organizer to listen for each speaker’s voice and point of view. After this second listen, we quickly went over a few key vocabulary words and then a lively debate ensued. Using prior knowledge, students related the story to the Second Amendment. More significantly, students began to speak about guns in their own lives.

The radio piece provided a jumping off point for these young adults to tell their own stories. It helped them realize that they had a story to tell, and knowledge about a subject. It helped provide them with an example of how we can use our voices in different ways to tell our own stories. Even more importantly, our classroom practice of recognizing the importance of listening as a skill, gave the students a chance to really hear each other's stories.

A Facing History classroom often involves debates and discussions about ethics and morality. These discussions are enhanced when students are skilled in the art of listening. I invite you to look at a Facing History teaching strategy, Save the Last Word for Me, which promotes active listening.