Junior School Listening and Note-Taking Practice

Listen, select and check your notes

This original English activity practises listening for a message’s purpose and keeping the details needed to act on it. A teacher or partner reads the two fictional scripts in the separate reader section. No recording is supplied. For a listening attempt, use the learner sheet without looking at the scripts or completed notes.

You do not need to write every word. Notes can be short phrases, numbers or familiar abbreviations, but they must still mean something when you return to them. “10” alone is uncertain: it could be a time, a quantity or a room. “Start 10.00” identifies its job.

Before the first reading

Read the headings for Script A. Predict the kinds of information you need, without guessing the answers. In this activity, a display is an arrangement of work for others to view. A caption is a short piece of text explaining an item. Ask the reader to clarify these words before starting if necessary.

Listen once for the main purpose and put a few words in A1. Listen again for the details A2–A7. If a detail is missed, leave a space or a question mark instead of inventing it. After both readings, review your notes and write A8. Agree on extra repetitions with your teacher if they help you learn; this is not an official examination procedure.

Script A: guided note sheet

A8. After listening, write one sentence that would help an absent group member prepare. Include the group’s arrival time, room and two contributions. Use your notes; do not add supplies that were not requested.

A note-taking choice to discuss

N1. Compare these notes: (a) “Friday, visitors, cards, teacher, shelves”; (b) “Groups: Fri 9.40, room 4; bring model + caption; visitors 10.00.” Which is more usable, and why? The second note is an example to examine after Script A, not a substitute for the whole note sheet.

Both examples are short. Shortness alone does not make useful notes. Look for relationships: which person arrives when, what is required and what must happen next. An arrow may show sequence if you understand it, but a clearly written phrase is equally good.

Script B: independent listening

Now prepare your own notes for a short conversation about a classroom word collection. Create headings for purpose, starting choice, selected words, checking, layout and unfinished work. The reader will say each speaker’s name at the beginning of a turn so you can follow responsibilities.

B1. What is the collection intended to help learners do?

B2. How many words will each pair finally choose, and what was the earlier suggestion?

B3. What two things must appear beside each selected word?

B4. Who checks the meanings, and when should this happen?

B5. How will the finished word cards be arranged?

B6. What should happen to a card whose meaning is still uncertain?

B7. Write a two-sentence summary for a pair joining the activity. Preserve the final number of words and the condition for displaying a card.

Reflect after checking

Circle one detail you caught on the second reading. Say what helped: recognising the heading, noticing a correction, connecting a person to an action or separating two times. Then name one change for your next attempt. “Use separate time labels” is more useful than “listen better”. If listening is inaccessible, use the written scripts and complete a reading-and-note-making version. Record that adaptation so it is not confused with unaided listening.

Reader instructions

Keep this section away from the listener for the listening version. Preview each complete script. Read its words naturally and clearly without adding clues, changing quantities or specially emphasising only the answers. Read each script twice, with a brief note-making pause between readings. For Script B, say the speaker names. If you misread a detail, correct it and repeat the complete sentence; do not score a learner against information they did not hear.

Original Script A: preparing the model display

Here is the plan for our model display on Friday. We will use room four. Each group should arrive at nine forty, so we can prepare before the visitors arrive at ten o’clock. Please keep those times separate: nine forty is our preparation time, and ten is the visitors’ arrival time.

Bring your group’s model and one caption card. The caption should name the model and explain one change your group made while developing it. You do not need to bring a tablecloth; the room’s tables are already covered.

Before you place your work, compare your group’s name with the name on the table card. This will help us avoid putting two groups in one space. If your group has changed its display plan since yesterday, tell the teacher before you begin setting up. Do not move another group’s work to make room.

During the visit, take turns explaining the model, so each group member has a chance to contribute. Listen to the visitor’s question before beginning your answer. It is fine to say that your group did not test something if you do not have that information.

After the visitors leave, each group will take its own model back to the classroom shelf. Leave the table card in room four. We will collect the caption cards for a class discussion afterwards.

Completed guided notes and explanations

A1. Prepare for the class model display. This states the whole purpose rather than one instruction about a card.

A2. Friday; room 4. The opening supplies both. No calendar date is given.

A3. Groups 9.40; visitors 10.00. These are two different arrival times, not a correction from one time to another.

A4. Group model + one caption card. The tablecloth is explicitly unnecessary. A caption names the model and explains one design change, but the contributions question asks what to bring.

A5. Check the group’s name against the table card. “Check the model” is too vague and changes the specified check.

A6. Tell the teacher before setting up. The script does not tell the group to rearrange anyone else’s work.

A7. Each group returns its own model to the classroom shelf. The table card stays in room 4; caption cards will be collected separately.

A8. “Meet in room 4 at 9.40 on Friday with our model and one caption card.” This selects the requested details without adding a tablecloth or substituting the visitors’ time.

N1. Note (b) is more usable for preparation because it attaches times to the right people and identifies the required items. Note (a) lists keywords without their relationships. Neither note answers every heading; (b) is a useful partial note, not a complete record.

Original Script B: choosing words for the wall

Kendi: Our word collection should help us understand words we meet in our class reading. Shall each pair choose four unfamiliar words?

Omar: Four may be too many for this session. Let’s choose two words per pair and explain them carefully.

Kendi: Agreed, two words. Beside each word, we need a meaning in our own words and a new example sentence. We should not copy a whole dictionary entry.

Omar: Who will check whether our meanings fit the way the words are used in the reading?

Kendi: The teacher will check the meanings before we make our final cards. Bring the sentence from the reading too, so we can discuss the context.

Omar: After the check, shall we put the cards on the wall in the order they appear in the story?

Kendi: Let’s arrange them alphabetically instead, so a learner can find a word quickly. If we are still uncertain about a meaning, keep that card in the checking folder. It should not go on the wall yet.

Omar: Good. We will use the folder to keep unfinished work separate from the checked cards.

Independent-task answers

B1. Understand words met in class reading. The opening turn gives this purpose; no claim about examination scores is made.

B2. Two words per pair; the earlier suggestion was four. Kendi explicitly agrees to Omar’s revision.

B3. A meaning in the pair’s own words and a new example sentence. The sentence from the reading is also brought for checking, but it is not the requested new example.

B4. The teacher, before final cards are made. Do not assign that check to Omar simply because he asks about it.

B5. Alphabetically. Story order is proposed but replaced.

B6. Keep it in the checking folder and do not put it on the wall yet. The folder records unfinished work; it is not a disposal box.

B7. “Choose two unfamiliar words from the class reading and prepare a meaning and a new example for each. Ask the teacher to check the meanings before making final cards; display checked cards alphabetically and keep uncertain ones in the checking folder.” Accept other summaries that preserve these relationships.

Give feedback on accurate selection and organisation before spelling. Agree beforehand whether complete sentences are needed for the final summary; brief note fragments are valid in the grids. Repeat only the confusing turn during feedback and have learners explain the correction. These are practice criteria, not official marks or prescribed timing.

The British Council’s before, during and after listening framework provides background for purposeful listening and reflection. This activity’s scripts and answers are original. The Junior School resource hub offers broader collections with their own access conditions.