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ACTIVITY: "Listening Faces"

FOCUS: Listen; ALSO: Respect Self & Others, Communicate Better

• Post large pieces of newsprint with a large circle (blank face) around the room, half marked "Good Listener" and half marked "Bad Listener" with a large marking pen or crayon at each poster.
• Invite students to go to each poster, perhaps two students for each poster to encourage cooperation, and draw the appropriate face on each poster—i.e., what does the face of a good listener look like and what does the face of a bad listener look like.

• Have each student or pair of students explain briefly why they drew their face the way they did. Add your own comments at the end.

• Give younger students a piece of paper and ask them to draw themselves as a "good listener."
• For older students, you might have them write out at least one way they could become a better listener, or a short essay on what keeps them from being a good listener and how they plan to overcome these obstacles.

• Younger students might post their drawings or put them together as a collage of good listeners.
• OPTION: You might create a "We Will Be Good Listeners Wheel" on a large piece of newsprint or poster board, with a drawing of an ear or a good listener in the middle, and give each student a strip of colored paper on which to write one way each plans to be a better listener. Have them individually read their strip and tape it as a spoke on the "wheel."

• Large pieces of newsprint with blank faces
• Marking pens or crayons
• A "We Will Be Good Listeners Wheel"

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