Listening

Listening is a very important language arts skill. As future teachers, we must model active listening to our students. As stated in our textbook, Language Arts: Patterns of Practice, Gail Tompkins (2009) provides strategies for teachers to help all students benefit from listening. One idea that I really liked was reading aloud and then pausing to “ask students to identify the idea[s] being presented” (Tompkins, 2009, 225). While students are responding, “teachers list […] responses on the chalkboard,” which helps visual learners too (Tompkins, 2009, 225). I believe so much can be conveyed or understood through listening. For instance, listening to Dr. Duncan read Sahara Special in class is so much fun to me. I love to hear the inflection in her voice as she reads the different characters. When a student reads the same book to herself, who is to say that the same context will be conveyed?

Propaganda is a huge topic. I love those days when my kids decide to turn the television off and listen to the silence. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, I am amazed at how much fun we all have. Turning off the TV and the radio means there are no commercials or advertisements being thrown at my family. I understand that these ads help pay for the music we hear or the shows we watch, but I feel it is crazy by how these ads can influence most people. For instance, my nine-year-old son, Kieran, can watch something on TV and he would call me to come see a specific commercial. He would say “Hey mommy. We need to get that OxyClean or the Wonder Putty!” The amount of commercials Kieran saw seemed to increase over time, and I figured that I needed to break the news to him: we cannot always believe what we see on TV. Kieran even had to purchase the infamous Floam and the Blendi-Pens, with his own birthday money, only to later find out this stuff was useless.