Learning to Listen

I am currently student teaching after a year of taking courses.  I feel an intense pressure to apply the theory I've steeped my head in for the last 12 months, and frustratingly, the personal principles I drawn from all that pedagogy often feel at odds with the "realities" of the classroom.

I am not making excuses, though.  This post will be an attempt to connect theory to the real concerns voiced by my supervising teacher, my cooperating teacher, and other staff at the middle school where I'm observing and teaching.

At the most recent staff meeting for 7th grade teachers and administrators, nearly everyone voiced the necessity of developing listening skills among the students.  This fits well with my personal goals of learning how to develop community in the classroom.  I believe that in order for students to truly learn, knowledge must be constructed in the classroom, achieved through the participation and contributions of every student (as apposed to what Paulo Fiere would describe as the "banking" system, where teachers "deposit" or transfer their knowledge to the students, only requiring students to be able to recall that information, making it available for "withdrawal" at the time of the test.)  

For a student to build on the ideas of their classmates, they must be able to truly hear them.  They must develop their ability to listen.  

When I am teaching reading skills, I first determine that the individual student can decode the words.  Students cannot be asked to consider thematic content of their independent reading, when they are still developing their phonemic awareness, their ability to recognize the specific sounds dictated by the grouping of letters.  Additionally, from my experience with the practice of visual culture, I understand that interpreting images depends upon an individual's ability to read images closely.

I believe that if we expect our students to listen to others, and respond with interpretations, we must help them to develop their ability to hear.  I first discovered the notion of listening exercises from Jon Mueller, through his work with the Haggerty Museum of Art.  On his blog, he writes: "Oftentimes, when people hear something they are unfamiliar with, a natural tendency is to disassociate oneself from it."  Here, he is discussing how people typically react to experimental music, especially when the sounds are harsh and abrasive.  However, I think it's easy to see the connection to dialogue, and our potential to disengage when we disagree with the ideas of a speaker, or don't understand, or don't believe we can actually participate in the conversation.  

My goals in developing lessons on listening:

1. Identify recordings that will challenge modern listeners (experimental compositions, field recordings, radio shows, etc.), while still offering students some point of access (probably won't start out with Merzbow)
2. Identify a measurable skill set
3. Identify connections between the listening skill set and the skills expected of students in Humanities curricula