Delving into Relationships: Listening Skills & Apple Pie!

This week in YESS our scholars began a new unit on relationships. We started our unit with a lesson on listening as many of our mentees are struggling to listen to the advice of their mentors. Our journal prompt asked the scholars to contemplate the following Turkish proverb:

"If speaking is silver, listening is gold."

We shared out our ideas about what this meant and how it pertains to our YESS classroom. Scholars pointed out that while speaking is valuable, one can learn much more by listening, which is the greater asset of the two. I then passed out the a listening quiz which each mentor and mentee pair did together. There were 28 questions which asked each individual to consider how they act when someone else is speaking to them. Once they were done, we went over the scores together as a group and discussed why we thought we earned the scores we did. One could score a total of 140 points on the quiz, and there were three different "levels" for listening skills. The majority of our students fell into the level 2 category, scoring between 81 and 111 points.

Many of our scholars struggle to listen when the speaker is controlling the conversation and/or they feel bored by the subject matter. Many also struggle to focus on the conversation at hand when they are either on the telephone or are surrounded by other people conversing. A very large number of our scholars admitted to daydreaming or fidgeting while trying to listen to someone else. Yet all agreed that healthy listening is imperative to the success of their mentor/mentee relationship.

The next day were able to put this information to work by creating skits in our mentor/mentee pairs. Each was asked to select a listening level to act out for the class while keeping that level a secret. It was great to see the scholars exhibiting these behaviors in our classroom so that we are able to comment as a class on what works well and what does not.

While I was away for my sister's wedding the scholars went over a lesson on "Apple Pie," a worksheet which details the necessity of forming equal relationships. Many of our mentors were looking forward to this lesson for quite some time as they really connect with the need to form healthy, balanced relationships. It was wonderful to see mentors remembering lessons and sharing the importance of those lessons with their mentees.

This week was also our spirit week as Shaw Heights and so many of our YESS scholars dressed up for the occasion. Pictured are outfits from the Hippie or Preppy day and the Night In or Night Out day.