The Listening Station!

I think just about every primary classroom has a Listening Station, but this is the first time I've ever made a video where I give instructions for how to use it to the boys and girls.  

There's a reason for this.  Good readers and viewers have a purpose for reading and watching.  Today I told the boys and girls that I was going to show them an instructional video about how to use the Listening Station and if they had any questions, they were to ask afterwards. It sounds so basic to you and I, but it's very important to articulate this to kids so they develop their critical thinking skills and consider their purpose for an activity. And what a great conversation we had after the video! There were excellent questions about some of the Listening Station procedures. 

There always has to be a purpose for our activities and this is what I want my student to know so that they are active listeners and thinkers. 

Our focus today in our "What do good readers do?" discussion was around asking good questions about what we're reading. In this case, the students were to watch a brief video and ask their follow-up questions. 

It's not about the Listening Station itself, but it was very rewarding to try this little experiment: to tell the kids they're watching a video about a new classroom routine and that the purpose was to watch, learn and think about their follow-up questions. 



Here's that video:   

The Listening Station