« + Lampeter 4 Communication Skills for Teaching @ 163 around, but several other students are gathering, and you think they may enconrage the two stodents to fight. Situation E, As you begin class, you observe Daphne eating a ‘Twinkie, in violation of the rule prohibiting food in the room. When she sees that you notice her, she stuffs the Twinkie into her mouth and gets another one out of the package. Situation F During your current events discussion, Susan and Kris trade notes and laugh noisily. You sense that other students’ attention is being captured by the duo’ antics, and you begin to be annoyed by having to compete for the class's attention. Situation G. When you were absent yesterday, your fourth-grade class gave the substitute teacher a difficult time; according to the note she left for you (with a copy sent to the principal!), many students refused to work at all, four or five students left for the bathroom and didn’t return until lunchtime, and a paper and spitwad fight raged most of the afternoon. As the morning bell rings, you enter the room to greet your class. ACTIVITY *: RECOGNIZING LISTENING RESPONSES Each of the following dialogues depicts a statement and a variety of teacher re~ sponses. In each case, decide which one is closest to a listening responses that is, invites further discussion or best reflects the idea or feeling. Check your accuracy against the key in the Appendix, 1. Student: Schoo! stinks. 2. Stadent; 1 can’t understand. fractions. Why do we have to learn this stuff? 3. Student: (don’t want to sit near those boys any more. oP o ve nase ae . Don’t use thar type of language. . You seem upset about school. Come on, things aren’t that bad. . That attitade will get you nowhere. . You'll need it to get into college. Just keep at it. Ivll make sense after a while. . Something isn't making sense to ou? . Would you like to come in for extra help after school? . Sorry, but seats have been assigned. . If they're bothering you, I can move you. _ Can you handle this on your own? |. What is the situation?CHAPTER 8 4. Parent: My child is very upset and a. Please go on. I’d like to hear more needs more help or she won’t be about this. able to pass. She says she doesn’t b. She needs to pay closer attention understand anything. in class. c. She's very anxious, but actually she’ll do just fine. She only needs to review more before tests. d. Most students find my explana- tions to be quite clear. Perhaps she isn’t listening. 5. Teacher next door: My class is going a. Have you ever considered being to drive me up a wall. They have more assertive with them? been impossible lately! b. I know, everyone in this wing can 7 hear them. c. They are really a handful! d. You think they’re bad, you should have my group. ACTIVITY | : PRODUCING EMPATHIC RESPONSES You will have to work with a colleague during this activity. Take turns role playing the student and the teacher. The person role playing the teacher should practice empathic responding skills, and the student should try to behave as naturally as possible. It is assumed that the dialogue is occurring at a time and place that per- mit this type of interchange and that the teacher is interested in allowing the stu- dent to describe the problem. These assumptions will not always be true, of course—you could not deal with these issues in the middle of reading groups, for example, nor will you always have the time to deal in this way with every student problem. In this exercise, you should avoid giving solutions for the student’s prob- lem; instead, concentrate on using listening and processing skills to encourage the student to talk about the situation and think through the problem. @ Situation A. Monica is an average student with poor writing skills. With tears in her eyes, she approaches you after class with an assignment you have given an unsatisfactory grade. “I thought that I did okay on this.” Situation B. David, a bright student, offers you some advice: “This class would be a lot more interesting if we didn’t have to do all these worksheets. Couldn’t we choose our own work sometime?” © Situation C. While the rest of the class is at work on an assignment, Barry closes his book, throws away his assignment sheet, and slides down in his seat disgustedly.Communication Skills for’Feaching W 165 @ Situation D. For the second time this week, SueAnn has not turned in an assignment. Last week, she “forgot” to bring her homework twice. Later, . you remind SueAnn that assignments are important. “I don’t care,” she responds. @ Situation E. Armand, a new student, bas been having trouble making friends. Lately he has been getting into arguments with some of the more popular boys, and he has been teasing a few girls, apparently to gain attention. However, he has not succeeded in breaking into the social scene. After class one day he says to you, “I wish I could go back to my old school.”