Teacher: What else could you show? (nods head) "I agree." (shakes head) "I don’t agree." What else can we show to show that we are really listening?
Hannah: You can respond back. Like, if Sophie says something that I didn’t understand, some people are like, "Ok, I’ll get it later." But sometimes if you respond back then they know, “Oh, they know what I’m saying!!”
Teacher: So what would you say then?
Hannah: Well if she said--
Teacher: --what is something you can say when someone’s talking to you to show you’re listening?
Hannah: Well, "I disagree" or you could say I have a question for that person.
Teacher: So "I disagree" could be one thing you could say to show that you were listening. Or asking a question.
Kaniel: Continuing on from what another person said.
Sophia: Add on.
Kaniel: Yeah.
Teacher: Eli
Eli: You’d be listening and you’d say "I doubt that" because you have to be listening to know what they were saying.
Teacher: Yeah, I think that "I doubt that" is another way of saying "I disagree." Good. So we’re coming up with other ways to show that we’re listening.
Hallie: That’s kind of a meaner way to say it.
Eli: Well, not really…
Teacher: Well, it depends on your tone, right? “I doubt that because I’m thinking that in the book or in the text…”
Hannah: But you also can’t just say, "I disagree. You’re wrong."
Teacher: And if that one feels uncomfortable to you then you won’t use that one. You’ll say the “I disagree.”
Hallie: No, but whenever I’ve heard someone say it I’ve heard it in a tone.
Teacher: Maybe it’s in a tone, yeah. And you almost don’t even want to listen when you hear the tone. It puts you off guard.
Hannah: You also have to give a reason. You can’t just say "I disagree: and that’s it. You have to give like a reason.
(Students talk to each other)
Teacher: What is the difference between listening and hearing?
Alan: Listening is when you’re actually looking towards the speaker. And hearing is you might just hear but you might not pay attention.
Teacher: "Like, I heard you saying something just then but I have no idea what you talked about nor do I have an opinion about it." Right?
Alan: Yes.
Eli: Or you might not understand.
Teacher: You might not really understand it. Jacob, do you want to add onto that?
Jacob: When you’re listening like Alan said, you’re looking and listening to what they say. But let’s say I’m day dreaming at the balloons over there and thinking about their colors. And let’s say we were having a discussion and I’m like, “Pretty colors.” And we’re having a discussion about something important that we’re going to learn about like whales or something. Then I’d be like, “What were we talking about again?”
Teacher: You knew that you heard in the background something but you weren’t really listening. Great. We have so many good ideas about this. Kaniel, do you have something you want to say?
Kaniel: Sometimes you can like fall asleep but you can keep your eyes open and then you hear somebody say something and you’re like, "Oh."
Teacher: So what can we add to our active listening chart here that we should add that we don’t have yet to make it clear that this is active listening? Show me active listening.
Eli: Understanding!
Hannah: It could also be like if you hear someone talking, then you hear them and you walk right past them. But if you’re active listening then you might be there and you might actually then look at them and hear what they are saying.
Teacher: Ok so what should we add to this?
Hannah: Um…
Teacher: Anybody have an idea?
Hannah: Active listening is listen for the whole thing.
Sam: Listening for the whole conversation.