The ezine this month concluded with the reminder of what we “Listen For”:

• What the person wants
• Emotion
• Passion
• Options, possibilities, potential
• What is already working
• Reframes
  • Negative to Positive
  • Problem to Solution
  • Complaint to Commitment

Now, let’s put “listen for” together with paraphrasing which we learned in our first book. We learned three kinds of paraphrasing which are:

1. Acknowledging and Clarifying
2. Summarizing and Organizing
3. Shifting Conceptual Thinking

Automaticity is the goal we hear from you with greatest frequency and we know that comes from practice, so let’s do just that! Let’s begin with the first two kinds of paraphrase and save the third for the Nugget which will come later this month.

Listen For what these individuals want, the emotion or passion present, and the options or possibilities possible. There are many possibilities for responses. The only non-negotiable is presumption of positive intent.

Person Speaking	Acknowledge/Clarify or Summarize/Organize Paraphrase
“I’m working with Drew every day to improve his reading. His progress is so slow and I’m getting frustrated.”
“Who has enough time to meet in PLCs? We have so many things to accomplish and we aren’t accomplishing anything.”

Possible Responses

“I’m working with Drew every day to improve his reading. His progress is so slow and I’m getting frustrated.”

• “You want Drew to be a strong reader.”
• “You’re committed to Drew’s success as a reader.”
• “No matter what . . . you want Drew to be a good reader.”
• “You want your hard work to have a purpose and be of support to Drew.”

“Who has enough time to meet in PLCs? We have so many things to accomplish and we aren’t accomplishing anything.

• “It’s important to you that your PLC is productive and addresses the work to be accomplished.”
• “You want your PLC time to be of value to you and to your students.”
• “You are dedicated to your work as a teacher.”
• “You like to get things done and you are looking for a way to guide your PLC into being focused toward accomplishing the team’s goals.”
• “You want your team to ‘spin like a top,’ doing great things for kids every time you meet.”