One of the ways that listening can be taught comes by using no words at all. Listening does not necessarily need to relate to your physical ability to hear. Watching for nonverbal clues is also a big part of listening to others and effectively communicating. Play a mime game or charades to allow students to watch a person's body language and facial expressions. This helps students gain understanding about other aspects of listening aside from audible hearing.
Do activities that require students to listen to specific instructions and act on them. For example, you can explain an object in detail to the students, who then draw the item you describe. After you have finished the description, allow the students to hold up their pictures and show what they have drawn.
Play Operator. This is a simple listening game that requires at least three or four people to play, but the more students involved, the better the game is. The game starts when the students get in a straight line. The person at the beginning of the line will whisper a sentence into the ear of the student behind him. This student will subsequently whisper what he heard to the student behind him. This continues until the last student is reached. At this point, she will repeat what she believes the sentence to be. The first student should then say what the sentence was when it was started. There will almost always be a difference -- and sometimes a stark one. The students will listen intently to try to get the sentence right.
Ask students to describe what they did and how they felt when doing something with their family, playing a sport or watching a movie. Emphasize that they should not tell -- but show their story. Encourage them to act out parts of their story and use vivid verbs and concrete nouns to describe what happened. As other students get used to hearing these descriptions, they will learn to watch for nonverbal communication and listen for descriptive language to gain an understanding of what is being said.
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