How to Teach Listening Skills With Memory Games for the Classroom
Listening and memorization skills are essential for becoming a good student. Some children are inherently good listeners. They pay attention when you are speaking, take notes, or memorize what's important. You can observe these skills by their ability to answer questions about what they have learned, either orally or on a test. Other students need help learning how to listen and comprehend. You can help your class improve these skills with classroom games that teach memorization techniques they can apply to any subject in school.
Instructions
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How To Use Classroom Games to Teach Listening and Memorization
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Use cooperative learning games to teach the importance of listening to others. Divide the class into groups of four students and give each team a card that has a scenario written on it that they have to act out without directly stating what they are doing. The other groups have to listen to the skit, but cannot watch it. They have to determine what is happening by what they hear. For example, you give a card to a team that contains the phrase "camping trip." The team members talk to each other about camping-related events like setting up a tent, building a fire, and roasting hot dogs. After five minutes, stop the dialogue and call on the other teams to state their guesses. This game builds listening and inference skills. The scenarios should increase in complexity depending on the grade level you teach.
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Reinforce knowledge in other subjects by playing math and reading games. Beginning readers can play sight word concentration with flash cards. Teach students memorization techniques to learn multiplication facts. Students can write original rhymes to correspond with the math fact like, "Two times four is eight; school starts then so don't be late." These activities are fun and reinforce basic knowledge they have to master to progress in school.
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Join in the games to model effective listening and memorization skills. Many children are visual learners. If you participate in the fun, you can teach through example. Listen to a story on CD or a short news broadcast on the Internet. Then set a timer for five minutes and write a summary of what you heard. After the timer sounds, display what you wrote. Tell the class how you remembered keywords or used word association to remember important details. After this discussion, repeat this activity with the whole class.
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