Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn

Children's listening habits and skills are a good predictor of oral language profi ciency, reading and writing skills, and later school success. Good listening skills do not simply develop naturally--they must be taught and practiced--yet many teachers do not get training on how to teach children to listen.

Using clear language and real-life examples, Mary Renck Jalongo explains why being an effective listener is a challenge--for adults as well as children--and provides research based suggestions for improving listening in the classroom and at home. Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn will help teachers to:

• - understand the components of listening
• - discover why children do or do not listen
• - actively listen to children and other adults
• - provide a rich oral language environment
• - help parents support their children's listening learning

Children, especially in the preschool years, are ready to learn about becoming good listeners. This book is a welcome resource for teachers who wish to help them to do so.

Mary Renck Jalongo is a teacher, writer, and editor. Her most recent book for NAEYC was a second edition of Young Children and Picture Books (2004). As a classroom teacher, she taught preschool, first grade, and second grade; worked with children from families of migrant farm workers; and taught in the laboratory preschool at the University of Toledo. Currently she is a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she is the coordinator of the doctoral program in Curriculum and Instruction. She has been the recipient of the university's Outstanding Professor Award, as well as numerous other teaching awards and three national awards for excellence in writing. For the past 13 years, she has been the editor-in-chief of the international publication Early Childhood Education Journal.

Mary Renck Jalongo has coauthored and edited more than 20 books, many of them textbooks, including Early Childhood Language Arts (4th ed., Allyn & Bacon), Creative Thinking and Arts-Based Learning (4th ed., Merrill/Prentice Hall), Exploring Your Role: An Introduction to Early Childhood Education (3d ed., Merrill/Prentice Hall), and Major Trends and Issues in Early Childhood Education: Challenges, Controversies, and Insights (2d ed., Teachers College Press). In addition, she is a contributor to the World Book Encyclopedia and the author of two Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) Position Papers. Recent publications include Planning for Learning: Collaborative Approaches to Lesson Design and Review (Teachers College Press, 2006) and The World's Children and Their Companion Animals: Developmental and Educational Significance of the Child/Pet Bond (ACEI, 2004).