After being assessed, 3/4 of my second grade students have listening comprehension scores at the pre-primer level.hmy: Other than reading stories and asking them questions does anyone have any other suggestions on how I could help them improve their listening comprehension skills?
My mom is an occupational therapist and does a therapy practice called sensory integration for those with low listening comprehension skills. Maybe if your school has a resource to that kind of professional you can ask them how it works.
Hmmm... I know about sensory integration but I have no idea how an OT will help with listening comprehension. I will have to ask the OT as soon as she starts up this year. Thanks for the suggestion.
They have a technique that uses special headphones and designed CDs that are meant to help people improve listening skills. It's a practice that not all OTs use. I'm not exactly sure how popular it is.
I tell my students to listen to my directions as they imagine themselves doing what I say. Then I ask 2-3 students to repeat what I said. I tell the students to repeat the directions in their head as they imagine themselves doing what the other students are saying as they repeat my directions. I also tell them I will try to trick them at some point during the day. I will say something incorrectly or change something like the order we line up in. If they catch my trick they get a point. If not, I get the point. No prize involved except then glory of beating the teacher!
I find bingo to be surprisingly effective. I am hardcore on my bingo rules. Everyone is absolutely silent and you only look at your own cards. Anyone who makes a peep or tells someone else when they have what I call loses their card immediately. At first I show them the card when I call it, then I play where I only say the cards and they have to listen. I also mention when we are close to the end that someone would have already own if they had listened to all of the cards. I think good modeling with your read alouds with turn and talk is probably the most effective. Read a few pages and stop and model the comprehension skill you are focusing on, repeat, then have them try it. I usually focus on a skill for a 3 days to a week and once we've covered them all show them how to use several at once and keep spiraling back to them. Use the skills with regular trade, book read alouds and big books that are on their general reading levels.
