3 Tips for Teaching Speaking

and Listening Skills

Students need strong speaking and listening skills
to succeed in school and beyond.

By Amber Chandler

Students work together to
develop their speaking and
listening skills.
There is truth to the old adage
“what is tested, is taught,”
particularly in the past several
years of assessment mania. The
question we need to be asking
ourselves, though, is what “test”
are we preparing our students for?
Clearly, standardized
assessments have their place,
but some of the biggest tests our

32 ASSOCIATION FOR MIDDLE LEVEL EDUCATION amle.org

students will experience will
not come in the form of paper
and pencil; rather, students are
going to face an increasingly
connected and communicative
21st century, and those
without strong speaking and
listening skills are going to
be relegated to lower-paying
jobs with fewer opportunities.
We can already see this
happening, and as the speed
and ease of communicating
globally continues to
accelerate, the true capital will
be in the ability to synthesize
and collaborate.
What can we do to
prepare our students for this
eventuality? Here are three
strategies to incorporate
21st-century communication
instruction of speaking and
listening skills into your daily
teaching:
Overt Instruction
“I need a pencil,” the slouching
boy said quietly, as he looked
right past me. He stood,
seemingly agitated, shifting
from foot to foot.
“I can let you borrow one.
But, I want to tell you a better
way to get one. Right now I
feel like you are irritated at
me because you don’t have a
pencil. When you don’t look
at me, I feel like you are mad.
You seem like you want to run
away because you keep moving
around. Maybe you could ask a
question instead of just stating
your problem. Any ideas?”
I said, slowly and carefully
choosing my words. I wasn’t
trying to be condescending,
and I didn’t want teenage
angst to mistake my tone.
“Can I have one?” he asked,
glancing at me.
“Of course. Here you go,” I said,
opening my drawer. As I handed
it to him, I asked, “Can I show
you how this whole conversation
could make both of us feel capable
instead of awkward?”
“Whatever. Sure,” he said,
acquiescing, since he didn’t really
have any choice.
“Hi, Todd. I’m sorry to bother
you. I seem to have misplaced
my pencil. May I borrow one?”
I said, modeling for him what a
successful interaction would look
like in this situation. I smiled and
kept eye contact.
“So be nice. Is that what you’re
saying?” Todd asked, looking me
in the eye for the first time.
“Yes. But it is more than that.
It is the way you speak—with
confidence, but politely, and how
you listen—with your eyes and
ears. When you are trying to
communicate, you give off a vibe.
You want to make that vibe the
best you can.”
Todd nodded and turned
quickly away when the bell rang.
Did this quick interaction make
Todd a shoo-in for a Fortune 500
job? No, but it did pave the way for
appropriate social interactions that
involve speaking and listening.
At first glance this scenario
may not seem to be so much
academic as a question of
manners; however, a closer look
reveals that the Common Core
Standards require students to:
“Adapt speech to a variety of
contexts and tasks, demonstrating
command of formal English
when indicated or appropriate.”
The best part of addressing the
speaking and listening standards
is that it is a literacy issue that
can be advanced in any classroom
situation.
I’ll be the first to tell you
that the overt conversation
I am suggesting here is a bit
uncomfortable at the onset.
However, where else in the
curriculum can you have this kind
of immediate and useful impact?
As we project what our students
are going to need in the future, we
can be sure that communication is
crucial. This is a power standard
that will pay great dividends as
we shape students’ speaking
and listening skills to meet the
challenges of the 21st century.
One of the things I
love at this moment
in education is the
reevaluation of what
expertise is necessary
and which skills we’ve
been teaching out of
habit.
One of the things I love at
this moment in education is the
reevaluation of what expertise
is necessary and which skills
we’ve been teaching out of habit.
I vividly remember teaching my
students how to use MLA style,
explaining how to remember the
specific
parts of a EXTRA! Check out a video
with Amber Chandler at
Works Cited. www.youtube.com/amleorg.
That was
fewer than
10 years
ago, yet it seems like a horrible
waste of time to today’s students
because of advances in technology
and websites like Noodletools that
will generate your Works Cited
for you, as long as you plug in the
information.
As technology continues to
evolve, the need for memorized
and rote tasks will be replaced
by a surge in the 21st century
AMLE Magazine · MARCH 2016 33
 Four C’s described by the
Partnership for 21st-Century
Skills (a collaborative of both
business and education interests):
critical thinking, communicating,
collaborating, and creating.
Being able to adapt your
speech to a variety of scenarios
is not only useful, but expected.
Though these types of overt
conversations seem forced at first,
you’ll be surprised how quickly
students will pick up on the
correct social cues and adapt their
speaking and listening skills.
Push through your initial
doubts about this tactic, and
you will do your students a favor
that just might get them a job
interview, an internship, or simply
help them find what they need in
the library.
Active listening strategies keep students engaged and promote
an environment that values all voices.
Another simple
way to incorporate it reaches their place in the I was an adult and realized that
alphabet, say their own name out I always did the same thing. A
speaking and listening loud. If you were walking by at the friend of mine once jokingly said to
instruction in your beginning of my class you’d hear me, “When you answer the phone,
students stating their names in it’s like I’m talking to someone
classroom is through rapid succession. important.” I’d never thought
The result is two-fold. I’m of it that way, but I can attest
easy-to-implement
always looking for ways to tighten that there is perceived power
adjustments to the procedural and transitional in this simple gesture. Feeling
activities, and this method comfortable to assert yourself
learning environment. cuts the time required to take begins with self-assurance to
attendance by 25%. The second, speak up—both literally and
and more important reason to figuratively.
Student Voice have students take their own Another simple way for
Another simple way to incorporate attendance, is to have students students to gain confidence is
speaking and listening instruction confidently state their own name. through a management tool that
in your classroom is through This is the opportunity to talk to also promotes a collaborative
easy-to-implement adjustments students about how they present environment where students
to the learning environment. The themselves to the world. collectively establish meaning.
first one is going to sound a little I have to admit I got this When we are having a discussion
ridiculous initially: Instead of idea from my dad. Growing up, I in class, I call on the first student
taking attendance, have students noticed that he’d always answer and then tell students we are
“sound off” down the attendance the phone by saying his name: going to go into “rotating chair”
list. This means they will listen “Hello, this is Gene Crawford.” I mode. This means that the first
to each name recited, and when didn’t give it much thought until student will summarize what

34 ASSOCIATION FOR MIDDLE LEVEL EDUCATION amle.org

I said, then add his or her own
comment or opinion. That student
then calls on the next student,
who does the same thing.
It might sound like this: “Mrs.
Chandler said that fate was
really important to the story.
Jill agreed but also stated that
family relationships were really
highlighted by the author. I didn’t
think of it that way. I thought
the author was trying to explain
human greed.”
After several students have
contributed in this fashion, I jump
in and ask a clarifying question or
broach a new topic.
Students exercise their
listening skills because they have
to summarize the comments
of those prior to them in the
conversation; they hone their
speaking skills by adding to the
conversation. This, of course,
supports students as they
“Engage effectively in a range of
collaborative discussions (one-on-
one, in groups, and teacher-led)
with diverse partners on grade 8
topics, texts, and issues, building
on others' ideas and expressing
their own clearly.”
This strategy is great for
discussions because it prevents
students from waving their hands
wildly in the air, only to say the
exact same thing as the person
before them because they were
not listening, just thinking of what
they were going to say. The result
is great discourse and another
opportunity for students to
become more self-assured through
speaking and listening.
Project-based Learning
Project-based learning is an
inquiry-based unit of study that
begins with a burning question
that students will answer through
research, collaboration, and
creative expression.
Students eventually will
need to present their findings
to an authentic audience of both
their peers and members of the
community—whether that be the
school community of parents and
administrators or local community
members. Their final presentation
is an opportunity to synthesize the
information they have found and
share it in a meaningful way.
Students eventually
will need to present
their findings to an
authentic audience
of both their peers
and members of the
community.
The Common Core Standards
are explicit in their expectations
of research, technology use, and
students’ need for a polished
exhibition of ideas: “Present claims
and findings, emphasizing salient
points in a focused, coherent
manner with relevant evidence,
sound valid reasoning, and well-
chosen details; use appropriate
eye contact, adequate volume,
and clear pronunciation” and
“Integrate multimedia and visual
displays into presentations to
clarify information, strengthen
claims and evidence, and add
interest.”
In addition to addressing the
speaking and listening standards,
project-based learning builds
community while addressing
all four of the 21st-century C’s:
critical thinking, communicating,
collaborating, and creating.
This is an important note for
those teachers who may feel
that projects, presentations, and
collaboration don’t fit into the
prescribed curriculum. So many
times, teachers are laser-focused
on the standards that are tested;
yet, the speaking and listening
standards encompass the skills
that are in all likelihood going to
get your students in the proverbial
door. Not only is it beneficial to
students’ futures, but a focus
on speaking and listening skills
creates a climate of respect.
Positive SLANT
In my class we use SLANT,
an acronym from Teach Like a
Champion by Doug Lemov. The
“S” stands for sitting up straight,
the “L” is for lean forward and
listen, “A” is for answer, “N” is
for nod your head, and “T” is for
track the speaker. These are active
listening strategies that keep
students engaged and promote
a classroom environment that
values all voices, perhaps the most
important 21st-century lesson of
them all.
Amber Chandler is an ELA
teacher and the ELA department
chair at Frontier Middle School in
Hamburg, New York.
amberrainchandler@gmail.com
@msamberchandler
www.amberrainchandler.com
AMLE Magazine · MARCH 2016 35
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