Listen Up! How to Teach Active Listening Skills in the Classroom
Active listening skills help students understand instructions, participate in conversations, collaborate with classmates, and make sense of what they hear. For elementary students, active listening means intentionally listening to understand and respond—not simply staying quiet while someone else speaks.
Teaching elementary active listening skills can be simple, fun, and part of your everyday classroom routine. From listening games to podcasts, here are practical ways to strengthen listening skills in the classroom.
Why Are Active Listening Skills Important for Elementary Students?
Listening and Literacy
Strong listening skills support the development of reading, writing, and oral language. Research highlighted by McGraw Hill points to oral language comprehension as an important foundation for literacy, while listening practice can be especially helpful for English Language Learners and students acquiring a new language.
Listening Can Increase Engagement and Creativity
For emerging readers, reading can sometimes be discouraging or exhausting. Luckily, reading isn’t the only way to experience a story! Audio gives students another way to engage with fiction and nonfiction while practicing listening and language skills. Different voices, inflections, sound effects, and dramatizations can help bring a story to life and demonstrate how spoken language communicates meaning.
Listening invokes creativity
Audio can also encourage students to actively imagine what they hear. Research has found that children can respond more creatively to audio stories than video stories, including generating more original questions, drawings, and ideas. Without visuals supplied for them, listeners have to create the world of the story in their own minds.
How to Teach Listening Skills in the Classroom
Wondering how to teach listening skills without asking students to simply “sit still and listen”? Active listening gets easier with practice. Try these strategies to help students build listening habits before, during, and after an audio activity.
1. Start With Active Listening Warm-Ups
Short listening games help students practice following directions, paying attention to details, and responding to what they hear—all while getting some wiggles out before a longer listening activity.
2. Create Classroom Listening Agreements
Before listening, talk with students about what active listening looks and sounds like in your classroom. Your agreements might include keeping voices quiet, raising a hand to speak, looking toward the speaker, taking notes or drawing, and asking questions when something is unclear.
3. Play the “Should I Do This When I Listen?” Game
Teach listening agreements with a silly game!
- Review your classroom’s active listening behaviors with students.
- Tell students that you will act out a series of behaviors. After each one, students should say “WOW! Good job!” if it demonstrates active listening or “No, that’s bonkerballs!” if it doesn’t.
- Act out both good and not-so-good listening behaviors—for example, taking notes, raising your hand, talking on the phone, doing push-ups, or pretending to sleep.
- Talk through students’ answers and clarify what active listening should look like during the lesson.
This gives elementary students concrete examples of active listening skills instead of relying on abstract instructions like “pay attention.”
4. Let Students Listen and Read at the Same Time
For some students, following a transcript while listening can support comprehension and help them connect spoken and written language. You can also pause periodically to discuss unfamiliar vocabulary, make predictions, or review important ideas.
TinkerClass includes a full transcript for each episode, making it easy for students to follow along while they listen.
5. WOW Wednesdays: Make Listening Part of Your Classroom Routine
Instead of treating listening as a one-time activity, choose a regular time each week to practice. You might even make it a “WOW Wednesday” and use a podcast episode as a science lesson opener, brain break, discussion starter, or quiet listening activity.
Consistent practice gives students more opportunities to build elementary active listening skills and learn what successful listening feels like.
6. Build a Classroom Listening Lab
A listening lab is a designated space for students to listen to podcasts individually or in small groups. Put down your tool belt and tape measure – minimum prep required!
It doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need:
- A small space in your classroom, preferably in a corner or against the wall
- Some chairs, bean bags, or a carpet
- Headphones and an iPad, laptop, or other podcast playing device
- (Optional) TinkerClass printable resources, paper, pencils, or drawing supplies
That’s all it takes to create your students’ new favorite spot in the classroom!
Students can use the space for independent listening, partner activities, or follow-up drawing and writing prompts.
Keep Building Listening Skills in the Classroom
Active listening is a skill students develop through practice. Giving them regular opportunities to listen, respond, ask questions, visualize, and discuss what they hear can make active listening a natural part of the school day.
Looking for an easy place to start? Explore Tinkerclass classroom resources to help students Listen, Wonder, Tinker, and Make!