1. At the beginning of class, I checked with each of the three groups performing their readers theaters tomorrow. All groups seem slightly unsure of how good their play will be but say they’re ready to perform it. I’m looking forward, at least, to seeing them get out of their seats and show a little creativity / personality with the project.
2. We are at the end of our last sub-unit and before starting the next one talked today about listening and the fact that most people are so poor at actually “listening” rather than “hearing” – there is quite a difference.
3. We compared an author’s purpose in writing to a listener’s purpose for listening. An author, before writing, has to determine why they are writing and they then include specific things to make that purpose clear, such as giving directions for how to do something if their purpose is to inform. With listening, it is such a passive thing – we sit back and assume because we hear that we listen, but this is not always the case. To really clearly listen, we also have to make a decision about what our purpose for listening is and listen for indicators to clarify or keep us on track. For example, if you’re listening for entertainment, you need to listen for character descriptions or names and listen to the plot of the story being told in order to understand the end result. If we are listening to analyze something, we need to listen clearly for two or more things to be compared in order to come to a conclusion at the end. Listening takes focus and practice.
4. We “listened” to a couple youtube videos to make the point. Each were very different (one to entertain, to give instructions, to convince, etc) and it was very clear as we listened what their purpose for speaking was and along with that same purpose, our purpose for listening needs to be recognize in order to improve what we take in and what we retain.

Of particular interest was a video they listened to that gave instructions about how to charge an iPod using an onion and electrolytes from a Gatorade. The things you learn, hey?!
 

We also clarified, though our activities, how much of an advantage “viewing” while “listening” improves our ability to understand what we’re listening to and connect it to our prior knowledge. Without understanding how to connect new ideas to our old ones, we have no ability to understand, really. An example of viewing enhancing listening was from the video about Backtracking in a Britney Spears song. Viewing or reading on the screen what was written to help the audience “listen” for something specific helped the students realize what was actually (or supposedly in this case) being said. What do you think – do you think the hidden message played backwards in this song was intentional?