This is a wonderful thread, dear Marion. I believe it is because of the fast way of living - we adults are the first ones who have to learn to listen to each other without interrupting, without already planning what to say next and how to contradict the argument. I remember, when I was in high school, they kept trying to get us to debate, to fight, to contradict, which does have its purposes, I know, but nobody ever taught us the other side of a conversation - listening and responding.So many wonderful ideas here - it �s a good thing Victor has just entered the subscription option, right?
Anyway, I sometimes use what Maryse mentioned and it �s miraculous - closing their eyes! Only I use it with music - I play some instrumental music for them and then ask them what they �saw � and felt while listening. It �s highly effective, because to get your students to trust you and each other and just close their eyes is a miracle. Once they do this, they �re interested. The key thing in listening, in my opinion, is to be interested - so if they �re interested in what they listen to, or who they listen to, then it works. Ambiental musci, musci from other cultures, movie musci (but not songs) - it relaxes the mind and puts it into this whole different frame.
It �s also good to have them listen in parts and to ask for their opinion in between - so why do you think he/she said this, what would you do, what �s going to happen next, etc. If you can get hold of some famous person talking about their childhood (not just their favourite pop-star, but perhaps someone from the art world, humanitarian, etc.)- this also helps.
I know this is not teaching them directly to listen to each other, but it gets you there.
It �s a great thing to have them interview each other with questions they prepare themselves. If they �re shy, you can provide them with roles - divide the class into interviewers and interviewees, eg, sb is Gandhi, sb is Oprah, sb is Bono Vox, sb is Einstein and nobody knows who is who, because you provide them with envelopes which they open by themselves, and each contains a biography of the person they �re supposed to pretend to be. The other group get the almost the same envelopes but they are supposed to write which questions they would ask this person. Then you tell them to find their interviewee and when all identities are revealed, the interviews can start.
There �s another type of interview you can do - have the students ask each other questions which they would love somebody to aks them - about life, their problems, their ambitions, their families, bullying, etc. This is a daring one, but if you are confident with a group, it works wonderful, because the questions and answers will help you get to know them better, and connect them in ways they never expected.
There is, of course, the old reward-penalty system that also functions, having debates/talks/presentations as competitions - if a group states their opinion, whoever butts in while listening earns their team a negative point, and whoever repeats the other groups argument and comments on it afterwards, gets a positive point.
I hope some of this may help. Thanks, Marion - this is a wonderful idea for a thread.
@Sophia - I looooooooooove the rainstorm!
