Abysmal Listening Skills!

Listenwise was recently featured on EdTalk Radio with special guest Sally Dodge, a middle school science teacher in Eastland Middle school in Roseville Michigan.

EdTalk Radio host Larry Jacobs asked Sally to describe her students’ listening skills. Her answer? In one word, abysmal. Listen to the the full exchange.

This year Michigan introduced a new state assessment called the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP. It replaced the 44-year old MEAP test. It was the first time the state moved to online testing. And for the first time headphones were a required part of the test. Why? Because it assessed students listening skills. One session in the ELA section focused on listening because it is such an important skill.

Teacher Sally Dodge says she shared Listenwise with ELA teachers because the state test had such a big listening component “so working on those listening skills is a huge deal.” Listen to Sally’s take on the listening assessment.

Sally uses Listenwise in her 7th and 8th grade science classes to bring real world relevance to her science curriculum. She used the story and lesson plan called Cells Role in Cancer.

“We are just learning about cells in 7th grade but it really kind of gave them a reason why we want to learn this stuff. What does it have to do with the world at large and those kinds of connections are great,” said Sally Dodge.