What do we do while we listen? In most situations, we respond actively to what we hear. Having students respond while they listen, by taking notes, keeping lists of key objects or sounds, and tracking phrases or noises that are repeated, are ways to engage them while they listen. It can also be a good idea sometimes to stop the tape and to let students assess what they have heard at key intervals.

1. Predicting/Adjusting Students can be asked both to predict at certain points-to forecast what might happen next-and to look back or to adjust their judgments at other points, weighing how their expectations have changed, how they have been surprised, what certain clues have turned out to mean.

2. Evaluating Language Characters in radio plays talk to one another and to themselves, using language in many different stylistic ways. Speech characteristics reveal much about them and their situations. Students can be asked to listen for and to evaluate different kinds of speech: formal vs. informal, colloquial, dialectal. They can be asked to identify different kinds of speech occasions: interviewing, chatting, lecturing, gossiping, arguing.

3. Imaging/Imagining Just as with reading, when listening our minds conjure images of how people and scenes look. In connection with these plays, students can make image lists, fill in gaps, imagine how characters look, or even "cast" actors for certain roles. Supplying visual dimensions actively involves students as creators and participants in the plays.