Listen Hear!: 25 Effective Listening Comprehension Strategies

Have you ever asked your students "Are you listening?" and felt uneasy that their response didn't distinguish listening from hearing? We expect children to spend fifty percent or more of their school day engaged in listening-comprehension activities, yet despite today's emphasis on skills-building in the language arts, most literacy curricula ignore the teaching of this crucial skill. Thanks to Listen Hear!, that's about to change.

Michael Opitz and Matthew Zbaracki recognize that teachers have their hands full with reading and writing standards; that's why they've designed Listen Hear! as a handy, friendly resource full of fresh teaching strategies that help you fold multidimensional listening comprehension instruction snugly into your existing reading and read-aloud lessons-without sacrificing room in your crowded curriculum.

Listen Hear! gives you everything you need to start teaching listening tomorrow:

• the research and rationale for teaching it
• reproducible forms
• charts that show you at a glance which skills each strategy enhances
• ists of contemporary children's literature to use in conjunction with the strategies
• and practical tips for assessment.

Thanks to Opitz and Zbaracki, you'll be at the forefront as listening comprehension takes its place in the language arts curriculum, confident that when you ask a student "Are you listening?" the answer will be a definitive "Yes."

A former elementary school teacher and reading specialist, Michael Opitz (@MichaelOpitz4) is professor emeritus education of reading at the University of Northern Colorado where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses and supervised doctoral dissertations. He is now a literacy consultant and author well known to individual teachers, instructional leaders, and researchers as the author of numerous professional and curricular resources and through his extensive work in schools nationwide.

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL BOOKS

Titles with Heinemann

• Accessible Assessment: How 9 Sensible Techniques Can Power Data-Driven Reading Instruction (2011)
• Classroom Catalysts: 15 Efficient Practices That Accelerate Readers’ Learning (2014)
• Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies That Cross Proficiency Levels (2009)
• Do-able Differentiation: Varying Texts, Supports and Groups to Reach Readers (2008)
• Good-bye Round Robin (1998/2008)
• Books and Beyond: New Ways to Reach Readers (2006)
• Listen Hear! 25 Ways to Enhance Listening Comprehension (2005)
• Reaching Readers: Flexible and Innovative Strategies for Guided Reading (2001)
• Rhymes and Reasons: Literature and Language Play for Phonological Awareness (2000)

• Reading Diagnosis and Improvement: Assessment and Instruction, 6th ed. (Allyn & Bacon, 2011)
• Literacy Lessons to Help Kids Get Fit and Healthy (Scholastic, 2010)
• Don’t Speed. Read! 12 Steps for Smart and Sensible Fluency Instruction (Scholastic, 2007)
• Flexible Grouping in Reading (Scholastic, 1998)
• Literacy Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (IRA, 1998)
• Getting the Most from Predictable Books (Scholastic, 1995)
• Learning Centers: Getting Them Started, Keeping Them Going (Scholastic, 1994)

CORE, SUPPLEMENTAL, AND RTI PROGRAMS

• Pair-It Extreme (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), a supplemental reading program aimed at engaging boys with reading
• Literacy by Design (Rigby, 2008), a supplemental literacy and RtI program
• Intervention by Design (Rigby, 2009), an intervention program tailored to children who need additional help with reading
• Summer Success Reading (Great Source, 2007), a reading program designed to help children who need additional help with reading
• Afterschool Achiever’s Reading Club (Great Source, 2003)
• Daybooks, Grades 3–5 (Great Source, 2008, contributing author)

ARTICLES
Mike is the author of more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as:

• The Reading Teacher
• Literacy Research and Instruction
• Reading Horizons

AWARDS AND HONORS
Mike has received more than 15 awards for his teaching, scholarship, and service to professional organizations, including the Fannie Stabenow Award from the Colorado Council of the International Reading Association.

LEADERSHIP ROLES

• Editorial Boards of The Reading Teacher and Reading Horizons
• Former Chair of IRA’s Teacher Educator Award Committee
• Numerous committees in CCIRA

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Michael Opitz provides on- and off-site professional development through Heinemann Professional Development.

Matthew D. Zbaracki was previously on the faculty of the University of Northern Colorado and now teaches at Rhode Island College. Zbaracki’s love for children’s literature began when he taught grades four through six and culminated in his Ph.D. in children’s literature from The Ohio State University. He coauthored Listen Hear!