Mindful Listening Practices
Learning to listen with your whole body
Teacher Experience
A contemplative invitation for educators to reflect on before teaching.Try listening to something you have heard before, an audio book, poem, or dharma teaching without distractions—in a quiet place when you have nothing else to attend to—and see how your mind relaxes and finds meaning in words. Contrast this with the experience of listening when your attention is divided, when you have pressing needs, or really wish to say something yourself. How can we give ourselves and each other this experience of reciprocal deep listening? How can we really show up for each other when someone who can really listen is the most necessary medicine?
Student Experience
A contemplative invitation for students to connect with this learning goal.Practice listening to a friend tell you about something special by using your eyes to watch them and keeping your body still and quiet, then notice how good it feels when someone listens to you this way.
Understanding
Students will understand...Developing listening skills helps create inner and outer harmony and is a gift to those who wish to be heard. Listening creates space for others to be heard and helps friends feel better.
Action
Students are able to...Demonstrate good listening by showing quiet body, watching eyes, and still hands during story time; use listening games with partners where one person talks and the other shows they are listening; and describe what it feels like when someone listens carefully to you.
Content Knowledge
Students will know...Listening is paying attention to someone with your whole body. Good listeners use their eyes to look, their ears to hear, and keep their bodies still and quiet. When someone listens to us, it makes us feel happy and safe. Buddhist teachers say that listening carefully is like giving a gift to someone – the gift of feeling heard and important.
Some things make listening hard, like loud noises, moving around too much, or thinking about other things. Good listeners show they care by looking at the person talking, staying quiet until it’s their turn, and remembering what they heard.
Guiding Questions
Implementation Possibilities
Demonstrate good listening during daily story time by practicing quiet bodies, watching eyes, and still hands while the teacher reads aloud. Use simple partner games where one child talks about their favorite toy while the other shows listening with their whole body. Practice listening to different sounds around the classroom and outside, then describe what they heard. Use stuffed animals or puppets to practice talking and listening before trying with friends. Complete listening memory games where the teacher says three things and the children repeat them back.
Assessment Ideas
Observe children during story time, maintaining quiet bodies and watching eyes without fidgeting or talking. Assess through simple questions about how it feels when someone listens well versus when they don’t listen. Evaluate listening games by noting whether children can stay still and quiet during their partner’s turn to talk. Assess listening memory through games where children repeat back simple sequences of words or instructions.
