Listen Actively - Reflections on How Adults Use This EFF Skill

"Communication means listening openly and sending convincing messages. Being an adept communicator is the keystone of all social skills. Listening well is also crucial to competence in communicating. Listening skills-asking astute questions, being open-minded and understanding, not interrupting, seeking suggestions-account for about a third of people's evaluations of whether someone they work with is an effective communicator." 4
-Daniel Goleman

Insights From Field Research:
Using the Standard to Guide Teaching and Learning

Jane Knight
Knox County Adult Literacy Program, Knoxville, TN
ABE Level 1; Series of lessons with a student leadership group.
Teacher data from the second round of field review, conducted 1998-1999.
(Adapted from Equipped for the Future Content Standards, p. 30.)

How did the process of defining and collecting evidence work for you? How did it require new or different methods of thinking and observation from you and your learner(s)?
Defining evidence and collecting the evidence worked well. It helped me to know exactly what I would look for from each student in order to know that they were making progress. I used checklists in my observations instead of just writing notes. Defining the evidence helped tremendously with the lesson planning because as I planned each lesson I would scan the components. Then I checked the types of evidence to be sure that the evidence I intended to look for measured the component.

Did using the components of the Standard to plan and assess learning change the process of planning, teaching, and evaluation? How?
In the planning of the lesson I spent a lot more time thinking about how the student looked before the lesson than I have before. I liked the step-by-step approach. It made planning and teaching the lesson much easier. It is like having a roadmap that shows you how to get to your destination. I did not have to hunt for ways to assess the skill. Using the components made it easy to see how the student was performing the step. I found it helpful to take the Standard page and place it in my planning book in front of my lessons and use the Standard page as a check when I was teaching and planning. I don't feel that adult educators usually plan at this depth or level and the components are a good guide to helping teachers plan activities that address the skills that adults have identified.