Literacy in its most narrow sense, the ability to read, is no longer enough. Now our students need to be able to interpret and use multimodal representations of meaning. That seems pretty straightforward. Most young people are pretty good at watching videos (consumers of knowledge), playing video games, and engaging with simulations (interacting with knowledge). They create tiktok videos, memes, caption photos, and other animations (knowledge producers). 

Some of these skills come naturally through trial and error, or simple exploration. For example, most children do not have to be taught to watch videos! But other skills need to be explicitly taught. The teacher might be a friend or a how-to video. When they are motivated, children comfortably access multimodal resources to learn.

One skill that needs to be explicitly taught is active listening. In Monica Brady-Myerov's white paper, she writes: "Sounds are processed in different regions of the brain as information ascends all the way to the auditory cortex where higher order processing is thought to occur. People use their idiosyncratic mental resources to construct meaning. When engaging a visual system to understand language, a person does so creatively and constructively (Bergen 2012). Hearing something many times not only causes the brain to respond synchronously but also rewires the synapse in the auditory system to improve the efficiency of responding to those specific traits (Horowitz, p. 107). In other words, neural learning is taking place, which means that people can be taught to be better listeners. Neurons will grow new processes so they can change their wiring pattern (Horowitz, p. 107)."

Research shows that listening skills can be improved through practice and instruction. 

Podcasts, then, become wonderful teaching tools. Short podcasts or audio stories tell stories and the best ones are highly produced. I had trouble embedding this audio story, but here is a link to a story about the ubiquitous (in this course, anyway) volcano: https://listenwise.com/students/events/1164-why-live-near-a-volcano

Podcasts are one tool to improve listening. Short podcasts or clips from longer ones are most effective in the physical or virtual classroom. Students can also practice active listening. One method of active listening is a technique I learned from the organization Facing History and Ourselves called Save the Last Word for Me which I included in the resources at the end of this post. This activity teaches students to listen to each other and respond not with judgment or criticism, but instead with acknowledgement that the person speaking has been heard. Students learn to listen, first by being quiet and not interrupting and secondly by offering verbal acknowledgement of the speaker's words. I would also post that listening can be silent. Many tactile learning strategies can also be used as effective methods of listening. Students might create a tableau vivant and other students are asked what they heard when they saw the tableau. This demonstrates the interconnectivity of the modalities - when we listen, we see, we hear, we feel and yes, we even taste. 

Teach listening. It's fun!

Resources:

Listening activity: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/save-last-word-me

Podcasts:

http://www.sporkful.com/

https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-25/hiking-once-saved-cambodian-refugees-life-and-now-its-his-therapy

https://s3.amazonaws.com/listenwise-documents/Listenwise+Understanding+Auditory+Learning.pdf