Have you ever tried to talk to a friend in a noisy place, such as the school cafeteria? You have to focus on your friend, move close, and tune out all the other conversations around you. It can be hard, but if you are motivated and interested in what your friend has to say, you can do it.
When a teacher is talking, there should not be side conversations taking place in the room. However, there still can be many distractions, including outside or mechanical noises and noises inside your own head. The voice inside your head can very quickly overpower your teacher's voice. You might be thinking about what you are going to wear tomorrow or the big game after school today. You have to control the voice in your head and listen actively to get the most from what your teacher says. Think about what your teacher is talking about. Ask yourself how you can relate what your teacher is saying to what you already know. Mentally review what your teacher has said. Think ahead to what your teacher might say next.
The following list explains strategies you can use to be a better active listener.
There are many active listening strategies you could have tried. Did you list any of these?
Student responses may vary. Acceptable answers include:
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While eating your breakfast in the morning, you may notice a word on the milk carton: pasteurized. This term comes from the name of a scientist, Louis Pasteur. Pasteur invented the process of heating milk and other foods to get rid of germs. This process is known as pasteurization. Louis Pasteur was born in France in 1822. In school he became interested in science, especially chemistry. He studied science in France at a university that specialized in training students for careers in science. It was there that Pasteur started his journey into scientific exploration. Probably his best discovery was finding out that diseases are caused by germs. Before this time, many doctors spread infections from sick to healthy patients. Pasteur spoke to doctors, urging them to wash their hands and clean their instruments before treating each patient. Doctors listened to Pasteur, and the number of infections fell. Pasteur is most famous for his work on rabies. When an animal that has rabies bites a person, the disease can be spread to the person. Pasteur developed a vaccine to treat the disease in animals. He was hesitant to try the vaccine on humans, but something happened that made him act more quickly. On July 6, 1886, a nine-year-old boy named Joseph Meister and his mother came to Pasteur. The boy had been bitten many times by a dog that had rabies. After meeting with several doctors, Pasteur decided to use the vaccine to treat the boy. Joseph recovered completely! News spread about Pasteur's vaccination, and people from all over the world came to him for treatment. Pasteur became a hero.