Palmer, E. Teaching the Core Skills of Listening and Speaking

Teaching the Core Skills of Listening & Speaking
Palmer, Erik

Palmer offers a detailed analysis of speaking and listening standards with many examples, specific exercises, rubrics and tips culled from years of teaching. What follows is a collection of notes and examples from my reading of the book

Ch 1 Intro

Ch 2 core skills, core standards

Ch 3 Collaborating/Discussing

30  Collab requires people to agree on a goal, divide the task, delegate responsibilities and agree how to combine pieces to create the desired end product

collaboration brings people together to achieve something that could not be achieved individually

Standard 1--prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively."

high school students required to take more responsibility for discussion They don't just participate in teacher created discussions, they initiate them. They set the goals and the roles. Actively participate, not sit and listen to others. they bring others into the discussion and promote differing opinions.

Teachers guides not leaders, they ask questions..."What rules should we have for the discussion?" "How can we be sure we have heard all views?" When problems occur, "How can this be solved?  Is there new evidence or a new argument that we need?"

Collaboration--interacting with others in a group to accomplish a goal.
1 must have a specific purpose or point,
2 work towards a goal
3 be given freedom to use all tools at their disposal



40 Take action: Developing Collaborative Discussion Skills

Algebra--group members get questions with same process different problem--explain problem and answer to group members

English--comma usage different writing piece to edit, are there introductory phrases in the paper, are there items in a series--in groups discuss comma rules present in piece

Sci--give different labs, identify control, variables etc and explain to group

42 Require groups to collaborate to produce a single product

hand out difficult article to all members--all read discuss and write one summary per group they all agree summarizes all key points--can have person 1 write 1st sentence, 2nd person write 2nd sentence etc. If there is disagreement, they must collaborate to resolve the differences.

43 Collaborate then generate individual products

After showing a video, put in groups, each writes a paragraph with powerful topic sentence and three supporting points

44 Assign roles

writer/recorder,  timekeeper, summarizer, messenger, questioner, keyboarder, noise monitor, supervisor, reader, reporter

48 Take Action: Developing Civil Discussion Skills

collaboration cannot occur in a hostile environment--leads to shouting
discussion is not to make sure your idea dominates, but to increase understanding or come to a consensus

All discussions should have an announced and specific focus

50 Rules for Civil Discussion

1. Focus on the task at hand--clear desk, free hands in order to concentrate
2. Don't interrupt--cutting others off denies them their right to express themselves and shape the discussion
3. Build on what others say--shows you are paying attention to others and that you respect others' thinking ("I want to add to what Mary said..."
4. Control emotions--outbursts do not advance ideas--they shut them down.  Those too emotional may not understand others and may make others shut down
5. Control nonverbal signals--gestures and facial expressions can convey disrespect and shut down conversation
6. Don't jump to conclusions--don't assume you know where the speaker is going
7. Don't judge the messenger--separate people from actions--hate cleaning up the milk, not the person who spilled it.
8. Practice empathy--you may not know what someone or their family member has been through
9. Be patient--wait for others to finish speaking trying to interrupt shows you don't care about what others have to say
10. Ask questions--before stating your comment, ask one question of the previous speaker.  "You said ___________, but would you say the same if the situation were ___________."
11. Presume positive intentions--
12. Everyone's contributions are essential--don't let a class leader shut down conversation

52 Have evidence based discussions--require each speaker to cite a specific piece of evidence to support their comment

53 Traveling debate
Choose topic with yes/no answer
Choose one yes speaker objective is to convince no's to change their minds vice versa


54 model civil discussions--procon.org

Ch 4 Listening/Media Literacy
Standard 2  Grades 9-10
integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media (e.g., diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively and orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source

"Consider the article we read, the video we watched, the chapter in ____. All have different perspectives. Which one is the most credible to you?  Why?"

Julian Treasure TED Talk--"How to speak so people want to listen."  People spend 60% of their time listening, but retain 25 percent of what they hear.

61 Take Action: Developing Listening Skills
Ask students to define "good listening"
What does good listening look like? Sound like?


62Listen with purpose

Give students a recipe and read it for different purposes: find out if it includes ingredients found in their kitchen, to assess if it will be difficult to prepare, to evaluate if the recipe is healthy, etc.

Purposes of listening

• to remember or understand what happened in a story
• to remember or understand a procedure
• to learn important dates
• to find examples
• to find reasons supporting main ideas
• to solve a problem
• to find metaphors and similes
• to identify inflections int eh speech of the person talking
• to focus on how the speech was delivered
• to focus on the message only, ignoring the delivery
• to identify places where they have questions or need help understanding
• to indentify points they agree with or disagree with
• to find errors in verb tense, pronoun use, or word choice
• to find places where they might offer suggestions for improvement in an argument
• to identify how the speaker is feeling

**Watch short video multiple times and listen for something different each time.  LIsten to:

• determine th actions Kid President wants us to take
• to id different vocal styles he uses for emphasis
• notice how the scene changes/montage affect the message
• notice how the music in the video contributes to the mood

--listening is not the same thing as hearing

64 Teach about filters--
All messages are received through filters (beliefs, attitudes, experiences, expectations, etc)

"Making a lot of money is good"  Received differently by American and Buddhist monk

65 Ask students to paraphrase during discussion

Attention is key to effective listening, people spend too much time waiting to say their ideas and to little time listening

***require students to paraphrase what previous speaker said before adding their own comment

Sample phrases to use when paraphrasing:

• So you're suggesting
• You think that
• Your plan is to...
• What you are asking is...
• If I am hearing you right you believe...
• You feel that...
• You disagree with the statement...
• As I understand it, you want to...
• According to you, a good reason to _____________ is to ____________
• If you had your way, we would...

67 Teach Active listening


RASA--consists of verbs  listening is active

Receive--Pay Attention
Appreciate--give small acknowledgements ( um, hum"," oh year" Sure")
Summarize--repeat or paraphrase
Ask Questions get clarification or elaboration

67 Understand Media Literacy

No TV month
How many commercials per hour?  What persuasive techniques are used? What is the structure of a sitcom? What stories are on the local news and why were they chosen?

Teach a unit on internet literacy/ digital citizenship

"Getting information off the internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant"

Mitchell Kapor


70 Take Action:  Developing Media Literacy


Teach visual literacy
consistent message--message about success in some area should include pictures of you being successful, all pictures should match subject matter

National Archives and Register media analysis sheets

71 Taxonomy of internet domain names--what do they stand for and how reliable is the info found on these sites

.com
.org
.net
.gov
.edu
.info
.me
.us

Teach Wikipedia as tool and topic
--ease of editing, view history

1st source of info not last


Pacific Tree Octopus

U Conn researchers asked 25  7th graders to review website.  All found the website to be "very credible"

Have students peruse the website and then look for clues that it is a hoax

Teach students to find the source of online content

"about" or "About us" tabs--research people or group on the website

Truncate--shorten address to the domain suffix (.com, .net )


Google--before including info from a website research source of info

Find website owners

Teach internet reading

• web pages read in "F" pattern across top 2or 3 lines, then down a bit halfway across then down left edge
• 19-27 seconds per page
• browsing, scanning, keyword spotting, one-time reading & and non linear reading

Discuss

How internet changes reading habits

how and why to resist hyperlinks--focus on research question 

how web pages are structured and traps build into them

schmoop--award winning website, but includes ads, pop ups 

81 Require multiple sources--find youtube video, articles, blogs, etc about a topic and discuss which is most credible? most evidence? most persuasivee?which techniques worked to affect opinion?  Which one is best site?

81 Teach students to use internet evaluation forms see p 82 for form

Ch 5 Questioning and Reasoning

Standard 3

Evaluate a speaker's point of new, reasoning and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence. 

Argument is a series of statements that lead to a logical conclusion

question statements to examine argument

Take action: developing questioning skills
 Question starters

• Can you explain what you mean by
• do you disagree with
• is there evidence for
• have you considered
• why would the author/speaker/expert believe
• would you agree that
• how did you know
• would you try to convince us that
• what would someone on the other side think about...
• Why would he
• what do you thing she was feeling when
• why did the character decide to
• What would have happened if
• How did the speaker's style contribute to the feeling of 
• What do you think we are supposed to feel about
• Have you ever felt like...

95 "Platonic Seminars"

Discussion with small group in Socrates role.  Socrates is responsible for asking questions once a claim is made. They may not respond with anything other than a question. No "good point" or "yes"

Require note taking

• write each speaker's name in discussion
• after the name write at least one comment the speaker made
• if you think of a question based on what the speaker said, write it down

96 Give students process models for analyzing evidence

statistics

facts

examples/individual

expert opinions

98 Take Action: Developing Reasoning Skills

Logic

induction

deduction

syllogism

101 Reasoning errors 

• attacking the person instead of content
• circular reasoning I like ice cream because I like ice cream
• cause vs correlation correlation is not causation eating skittles before getting an "A" on the test does not mean skittles are the key to academic success
• derailing--purposefully changing the topic to come up with something easier to argue
• posing a fake argument-misstating the opposing view to make it look worse
• distracting with emotion- diverting attention by using an emotional appeal
• changing the burden of proof--forcing the other side to disprove your point
• generalizing--taking one example and making a general statement "I was in Paris last summer and the weather in France is awful"
• either/or--suggesting there are only two possible answers
• ignoring some facts--selecting only facts whhich support you point
• prejudice/stereotype--making claim based on personal bias

Teach persuasion techniques

104 Teach rhetorical devices

• allusion
• analogy
• hyperbole
• parallel structure
• alliteration

have students find others

Ch 6 Speaking Well

Standard 4

"Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance and style are appropriate to purpose, audience and task."

Almost all emphasis is on building the speech

standard mostly focuses on informational aspect of speeches--competent speakers must tell a great story

Building  the speech                            
information, evidence,: concisely, logically such that listeners cna follow the organization, development, substance

 Performing the speech
style appropriate to purpose

114 Take Action:  Developing message-building skills

use real language
be specific and concrete
use organizers  www.readwritethink.org
provide a thinking map
www.thinkingmaps.com

122 Multiple Trait Speaking--PVLEGS

P--poise appearing calm and confident
V-voice--making every word heard
L-Life--putting passion into the voice
E--Eye contact--engaging each listener
G-Gestures--matching motions to words
S-Speed--pacing for a powerful performance

Take Action--Developing Delivery Skills

expect more
use mini speeches to practice key skills
video "rough draft" of speech
students watch and give feedback

127 figure 6.3 graphic design presentation rubric


Ch 7 Incorporating Multimedia

Standard 5
Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning and evidence and to add interest

need interactive elements
135 Presentation literacy--having the skills and competencies to analyze, evauate an dcreate presentations using a variety of tools and methods

ask students to justify their use of technology or media

138  Presentation Design Principles
Simplicity--why that picture? for clarification? add to or take away from words? why that sound?

Focus--what is the first thing you notice?

Color-why choose color, why change color

Structure-visual organization

141 Take action: developing Presentation Literacy

Find multiple media sources on one topic--powerpoint, video, poster, audio description
Which did you prefer?  Why? what worked better in the powerpoint than video?

Life after death by powerpoint  by Don McMillan--4 min

Death by Powerpoint 20 min

142  Media Awareness Questions

• How did the images make you feel about...
• How did the music make you feel?
• Did the lighting contribute to the overall feeling of 
• Why were the shots constructed the way they were?
• What did the editing/montage do for the effect of
• Did the images used help convey the message?
• Did the interaction at the whiteboard add or detract from teh learning
• Did the slides seem to complex? too simple?
• Did the design of the visual aids work for you? Add or detract?

144 figure 7.3 tool for creating video presentations

Tips for avoiding listener view fatigue

• eliminate unnecessary words, sounds or pictures
• highlight
• don't ask the audience to read words you are saying
• put key words right on  the image
• synchronize pictures and explanations

145 teach design principles and include them in assessments

teach selection bias

teach power of music and images

use 21st C tools

teach advanced media skills

Ch 8 Adapting for the Occasion

Standard 6

"Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate"

There is a culture of power--communicative strategies, presentation of self--ways of talking, writing, dressing and interacting

understand audience--to whom are you speaking?"Is this going to work with this audience at this time?

157 Take Action: Developing students ability to adjust for audience
Audience Analysis

1. Who is going to be in the audience?
2. What do they already know about the topic?
3. What do they need to know about the topic?
4. What mood are they in?
5. What  are they expecting?
6. How will they be experiencing the presentation?
7. What content adjustments need to be made to suit this audience?
8. How should visuals be constructed to meet the audience's needs?
9. What kind of language will match the language of the audience?

Use digital tech to provide practice addressing different audiences

skype google hangouts

Understand different types of speeches
informative-provides info
persuasive- convince listeners
entertaining
demonstrative

Take action:  developing students sense of task

Assign different speech situations
historical figure to provide eyewitness account


World's greatest expert activity--careful listening
two people sit in front of room
a student asks a question about topic
expert 1 begins answer

teacher claps

expert 2 continues sentence from where expert 1 left off

role play

Ch 9  Assessing Listening and Speaking


170 Take Action: evaluating listening

171-2 listening rubric

• Gives sufficient evidence of the ability to...
• includes specific references to places where...
• Adequately supports...

Evaluate questioning ability

after presenting info have students question rather than give answers
watch video and write questions

Why did director...

173 Evaluate reasoning

175 assess speech construction
rubric--equal weight for building and performing

evaluate everyday speaking

everyday verbal communications need to use pvlegs


choose a day to assess poise, when students speak
185
involve audience in scoring

fig 9.5 score sheet for student eval for speech

Barnes, Mark Role Reversal

Ch 1 Rebelling against traditional methods

p. 12 First day Introduce ROLE..Who loves homework? taking notes from textbook?tests? rules? ordered around?

17 menu unit

Ch 2 tapping into intrinsic motivation

20 intrinsic motivation must be taught

create student websites

22 year long projects

Reading All Year  RAY read 25 books, give book talks, reflections etc.  Set goals, celebrate success, state value of learning activity

Year long project #2--Diary project

Students pick a time period in history, create a fictional person who lives in that time,  research lives, living conditions, and anything else to round out their information. Write a diary from the perspective of the character

mini lessons  about standards of writing

ongoing feedback from students and teacher for editing, revising, developing--2-3 weeks of intense workshop

25 “empower students to take charge of their learning and measure their own success”

Ch 3 letting go of homework and worksheets

36 Worksheet test--

1. does it come from a book that has “workbook” or “lesson” in the title?

2. copied from a textbook

3. look like multiple choice

4. copy info from text to fill spaces

5. ever called activity “worksheet”

If answer to any q is yes then it’s a worksheet

First goal of ROLE create sense of autonomy

35 ROLE strategies--paired analysis, student directed concept checks, small group discussions

37 Mark forget  MAX teaching--collaboration and summarizing to improve learning.

Stephen Krashen wide exposure to books and intense individual reading dramatically increase literacy skills

Intense voluntary, independent reading eliminates need for worksheets and workbooks

Mini-lessons in ROLE--videos, podcasts, screencasts, social media, webtools to learn literary terms--begins with a list of words on classroom website

find definitions using any means they want to

apply what is learned to year-long projects--learning less compartmentalized

Ch 4 Teaching the ROLE way

 43  5 Strategies

1. year long project--subject related and can incorporate mini lessons throughout the year

44 celebrate projects

freedom of choice

coach intrinsic motivation

set long term goals and value production

goals relevant to student needs and desires

Diigo--webtool to show understanding

45 Year long Project guidelines

overview-- to supplement books read for 2500 book challenge,  read articles, blogs, which relate to topics, themes or characters in your books, share content

Your task--each book, find 1 relevant  article.  Annotate--give a brief summary--explain how article relates to the book.

Project Steps

1. find articles related to your book.  Read entire article

2. after find article--copy web address, paste into class forum,

3. read, bookmark and annotate at least 1 article for each book

46 discuss structure

    read all class novel, discuss structure

menu unit for students to show what they know

48 Year long project Menu

Character and setting

• create post it wall using wellwisher where at least 9 characters interact--dialogue connects characters
• use glogster, automatoon for poster with 9 characters use drawing or graphic + sentences describing role
• create character activity

Conflict and theme

• create 1 or more videos/movies using youtube, animoto, xtranormal to clearly show conflicts and resolution + key lessons in 3 books videos information should be combo of pictures, video, text
• series of 3 or more podcasts to show conflicts, resolution, key lessons--podcasts can be character interviews, additional chapters, or some other important thing
• review book--tell about conflicts, resolution, key life lessons

You and your books

• Using fav. web tool, musical instrument, poster etc. create something not related to book structure but connects to any book you have read or are reading this qtr. Why is the book important, why will you remember it forever.  be creative
• song  ujam or other mixing tool
• add achapter
• poem
• 1 act play
• monologue from characters pt of view
• interview an author
• own idea

All year long projects perfect for sub teacher

49 Strategy 2--Talk Less

50 common core state standards mastered during year long project

Pink, Daniel To Sell is Human

Pink D. H. To Sell is human

Websites

123  rejection generator project

149  beth kantor org/content-curation-101

82 pecha-kucha.org 20 slides 20 seconds each

120  www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

Authors/Books

145 Pantalon, Michael Instant Influence

118  Barbara Fredrickson  positivityratio.com/  Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3 to 1 Ratio that will change your life

120 SEligman, Martin, Learned Optimism: How to change your mind and your life

151

195 Fischer, Roger  Getting to Yes--influential book about negotiation

204

concepts

118  3 to 1

117 "Can I build it?"

132 problem ID

147-8  Irrational questions

Note

Part One Rebirth of a Salesman

Ch 1 We're All in sales Now

Ch2 Entrepreneurship, Elasticity and Ed-Med

26 Pixar pitch  short summary of point trying to make in narrative structure of pixar movie--once upon  a time...

32 Atlassian  Seth Godin or Pink Drive connection--everyone is a sales person

Ch 3 From Caveat Emptor to Caveat Venditor

Part Two: How to Be

Ch 4 Attunement

68  A,B,C Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity

69 E test  with dominant hand draw  capital e on your forehead.  If you draw it  so that you can read it vs so the other person can read it--tells how we perceive a situation when we first encounter it. Do we step outside of our selves or do we only see things from our perspective?

71 increase power by reducing it 2 groups 1 group did series of exercies that  increased feelings of power other did exercises to emphasize their lack of pwer. high power drew self oriented E than other E

73 Empathsizers struck many more deals than powerful group perspective takers did even better  76% made a deal that worked well for both sides

74  Taking the perspective of the opponent produced greatest gains

75  Influence  waiters  "having eyes" or "reading a table"allows a server to quickly figure out group dynamics--"social cartography" -- size up a situation and draw a map as to how people are related.

76 Mimic strategically--subtly mimic body language do not make it obvious so the other person notices what you are doing also don't concentrate on it to the point where you lose track of what the other person is saying

87  Where are you from?  conversation starter

88 Practice strategic mimicry--Seth godin new book canary Icarus Deception--Watch, wait, mimic, wane

91  Conversation with a time traveler--talk to people and ask them to think of items that people from 300 years ago would not recognize. Split into pairs 1 person is a person from the 1700s other person is current and has to explain the item, and its use.

94 Mirror, Mirror

    partners--stand face to face for 30 seconds, turn around so you are back to back

     When turn back around, one person changes one thing

      turn back around and see if you or partner can tell what changed

     repeat 2x with same person.

95 Robert Cialdini  connection to Influence--people most likely to be persuaded by people whom we like and are like us

Ch 5 Buoyancy

101 "can we fix it?" most effective self talk is asking questions--1st Interrogative elicits answers--2 nd people more likely to act when motivation comes from intrinsic rather than extrinsic

104 Positivity--people who hear positive inflected pitch were twice as likely to accept the deal as those who heard a neg

106  Neg emotions help us see trees pos help us see forests

       You have to believe in the product you are selling--believing leader to deeper understanding allow you to have better match with what others need

        Inserting mild profanity like "damn" into speech increases persuasiveness and increases listeners perception of speaker's intensity.  

107  3 to 1 positive comments to negative

     Positive emotions--amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, gratitude, hope, interest, joy, love, pride, and sexual desire.

     Negative emotions--anger, contempt, disgust, embarrassment, fear, guilt, sadness, and shame

109  Martin Seligman  positive psychology

117  Pose question  can I do it?  list 5 reasons why the answer is yes. Reasons will remind of strategies you'll need to be effective on the task. Q 2

118  Barbara Fredrickson  positivityratio.com/  

119  Bad events happen--Q1 Is this permanent?  Q2 Is this pervasive?  Q3  Is this personal?

122 Send yourself a rejection letter

Ch6 Clarity

129 Discovery and creation of problems sets creative person apart

      Sort through vast amounts of info from multiple disciplines experiment with different approaches and be willing to switch directions in the course of a project

130 problem solving--buying a new vacuum problem

132 superintendents ranked problem finding #1 employers ranked it #8  

      Curating data--sorting through massive amounts of data and presenting most relevant parts to others

      Asking questions--uncovering possibilities finding unexpected problems

134  Cialdini the contrast principle--we understand something better when we see it compared with something rather than in isolation--Most essential question--compared to what?

   146   Q1   On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 meaning low 10 meaning high how ready are you to...

      Q2   Why didn't you pick a lower number?  cialdini commitment and consistency

147  Curator--Curate media

• seek list sources of info & set aside time to scan sources 15 minutes daily
• sense  create meaning from what you have  put together--make annotated list of web links, blog
• share--collect, organize in meaningful way, share

149 Make Just 1 change ask better questions

150 5 Whys to find out what kind of problem someone has, ask why. In response to the answer ask a why question again and again until 5 questions are asked--forces people to really look at reasons for behavior and attitudes

152  1%  it is the essence of what you are exploring--Understand the 1% and be able to explain it to others is the hallmark of strong minds " Ask yourself, 'What is the one percent?' If you can answer and explain it to others they are likely to be moved."

Part Three  What to Do

Chapter 7  Pitch

158  people pitching idea made those catching idea think it was their idea--purpose of the pitch isn't to move others to adopt your idea it is to offer something so compelling that is begins a conversation

159  typical American hears or reads more than 100,000 words/day

160 one word pitch-- when anybody thinks of you they say that word  Obama's 2012 campaign slogan  "Forward"

161 Question pitch --questions can outperform statements in persuading others when underlying arguments are strong

164 rhyming pitch --if it doesn't fit you must acquit

165 Email subject line pitch--1. useful 2. curious

168 twitter pitch--sell in 140 characters

177 Practice pitches

 

183  three words that come to mind in response to What am/is ____________about?  

191  Listen to others--wait to respond--offers come in all kinds of sizes--shut up and listen for them to arrive

"good improvisers seem telepathic:everything looks prearranged. This is because they accept all offers made,"

193  Instead of "yes, but"  say "yes, and"  

195  win-win

197 Controversial topic--"I'm Curious" 2 people

      each person chooses a side and try to convince the other person of your point of view. The other person must respond, but only with questions. No yes/no questions. If your partner violates rule, ring a bell to announce violation to the class

216 purposeful  We assume human beings motivated by self interest--research shows people do things for "self-transcending" reasons. We should be accessing others innate desire to serve. ---example poor people voting republican

218  5 minutes of reading stories of people inspired--  doubled production--