Oral Communication · Oral Communication: Listening, Speaking and Reflecting

Understanding Complex Oral Texts: Strategies Before, During and After Listening

1.3 1.4About 70 minutes

Learning goals

I can choose listening comprehension strategies to use before, during and after listening to a complex oral text.
I can take Cornell notes using abbreviations and symbols, and use them to test myself.
I can tell important information apart from interesting but minor details.
I can show my understanding of an oral text in different ways: a summary, a graphic organizer or a retelling.

Words to know

complex oral text
A spoken text that is long, abstract, fast, full of new vocabulary or written in older language, such as a lecture, documentary or Shakespeare scene.

prior knowledge
What you already know about a topic before you listen.

discourse marker
A word or phrase that shows how ideas connect: first, however, as a result, for example, in short.

Cornell notes
A note format with a notes column (during listening), a cue column for questions (after) and a summary at the bottom.

summary
A short restatement of only the main ideas, in your own words.

graphic organizer
A diagram (web, chain, timeline, chart) that shows how ideas in a text are connected.

Remember from Grade 9

In Grade 9 you used a before, during and after listening plan, listened for signal phrases, and took split-page notes (main ideas on the left, details on the right). In Grade 10 the oral texts get harder: longer lectures, documentaries, scenes from Shakespeare read aloud, podcasts on topics you know little about. This lesson adds stronger tools: predicting a text's structure, Cornell notes that you can study from, and different ways to show what you understood.

What makes an oral text complex?

A text is complex when one or more of these is true:

It is long (20 minutes or more) or fast.
It uses new vocabulary or older language, like Shakespeare.
Its ideas are abstract (justice, identity, causes of change) rather than concrete.
It has several speakers, like a panel or a documentary.
There is no visual support, like a radio program or podcast.

Unlike a written text, you can't reread a live talk. That's why you need strategies before you listen, not only during.

Before listening

Activate prior knowledge. Jot down what you already know. Even two facts give new information somewhere to attach.
Preview vocabulary. If you know the topic, list words you might hear and check meanings you're unsure of.
Predict the structure. A title like "Three causes of..." tells you to expect a list of causes. "The life of..." suggests chronological order.
Set questions. Turn the topic into two or three questions you want answered. They become your listening goal (Lesson 1).

During listening

Listen for discourse markers: first, however, as a result, for example, the most important. They show how ideas connect.
Notice emphasis and repetition. Speakers often repeat or slow down for their most important points.
Visualize. Picture processes, places and events.
Monitor. When you get lost, mark ? and keep going.
Take fast notes with abbreviations and symbols.

After listening

Review within a day. Fill gaps while you still remember.
Write cue questions and summarize (see Cornell notes below).
Compare notes with a classmate and ask clarifying questions about your ? marks.
Show your understanding in a form that fits the content.

Symbol or abbreviation	Meaning
→	leads to, causes
↑ / ↓	increases / decreases
b/c	because
w/ w/o	with / without
e.g.	for example
≈	about, approximately
*	important
?	I'm not sure; ask later

Make your own shorthand, but keep it consistent so you can read it a week later.

Cornell notes

Cornell notes divide the page into three parts:

Notes column (during listening): main ideas and key details, in short phrases.
Cue column (after): questions or key words that match each note. Later, cover the notes and use the cues to test yourself.
Summary (after): two or three sentences that capture the main ideas.

Here is a set of notes from a short talk a science teacher gave about maple syrup season:

"Every spring, sugar bushes across Ontario get busy. But why does sap only run for a few weeks? The key is temperature. Sap flows best when nights fall below freezing and days warm above it. When it freezes at night, the tree draws water up from its roots. When it warms during the day, pressure builds inside the trunk and pushes sap out through any opening, including a tap. Once the buds open, the sap turns bitter and the season is over. It takes about 40 litres of sap to make 1 litre of syrup, because sap is mostly water. Long before syrup was sold in stores, First Nations peoples in this region, including the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabe, were making maple sugar, and many communities still gather at the sugar bush each spring."

Notes are written during the talk; cues and the summary are added after. To study, cover the notes column and answer each cue out loud.

Important information or interesting detail?

Not everything you hear is equally important. To decide, ask: Would the talk still make sense without this?

Sap flows when nights freeze and days thaw is important: it's the main idea.
"Sugar bushes across Ontario get busy" is an interesting detail that sets the scene.

Speakers signal important information with discourse markers ("The key is..."), repetition, slower speech and, in a presentation, visuals.

Showing what you understood

Expectation 1.4 asks you to show understanding in a variety of ways. Choose the form that matches the shape of the content:

Summary: for any text; main ideas only, in your own words.
Cause-and-effect chain: for processes and explanations (like the maple talk).
Timeline: for events in order (a biography, a history lecture).
Comparison chart or Venn diagram: for talks that compare two things.
Concept web: for a main topic with several sub-topics.
Oral retelling: explaining it to someone else, in order, without notes.

The same maple talk as a cause-and-effect chain. A process is easier to remember as a chain than as a list.

Worked example

Let's summarize a Shakespeare speech heard aloud

Your class listens to a recording of Mark Antony's funeral speech from Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2). You hear lines like these:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. ... He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? ... I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Use before, during and after strategies to show your understanding.

Before (prior knowledge): Caesar has just been killed by a group including Brutus, who claimed Caesar was too ambitious (power-hungry). Brutus has already spoken to the crowd. Antony, Caesar's friend, is allowed to speak at the funeral.
Before (vocabulary): thrice = three times; ambitious = wanting too much power; honourable = respected, trustworthy.
During: notice repetition. Brutus is an honourable man and ambitious keep coming back. Mark that with . Notice the questions: was this ambition?*
After (important vs detail): The main idea is not the lines about bringing captives home; it is what Antony does with them (coffers are treasure chests: the ransoms filled Rome's treasury, not Caesar's own pocket): he gives examples that disprove the claim that Caesar was ambitious.
After (summary in your own words): Antony says he is only there to bury Caesar, but he keeps giving examples of Caesar's good deeds and asking whether they sound ambitious. Each time he calls Brutus "honourable," it sounds less true, so the crowd starts to doubt Brutus.

A strong summary names the main idea (Antony seems to praise Brutus while actually turning the crowd against him) and leaves out minor details. Repetition was the clue to what mattered.

Review within 24 hours

Notes from a talk fade fast. Spend five minutes the same day adding cue questions and a summary. You'll remember far more, and you'll find your ? marks while you can still ask about them.

Hands-on activity

Newscast in Cornell notes

You need: paper, a ruler, a pen, and a 5- to 10-minute radio or TV newscast (for example from CBC Radio or a local station; ask a parent which to use).

Draw a Cornell page: a cue column about 5 cm wide on the left, a notes column on the right, and a summary box at the bottom.
Before: write what you already know about one story in the news this week.
During: take notes in the right column using at least four symbols or abbreviations.
After: write a cue question for each main note, and a 25-word summary of the most important story.
Cover your notes. Can you answer your cues aloud? Tell a family member the top story in under a minute.

Just for fun

Shakespeare wrote thrice where we'd say three times.

Which means if you're asked to review your notes thrice, you can't claim you didn't understand the instructions.

Your turn

List two things that make an oral text complex.

A podcast is titled "Three Ways Cities Are Preparing for Heat Waves." Predict its structure and explain how that helps you.

Write notes for this sentence using symbols: "Because the lake froze early, ice fishing increased and tourism went up."

What goes in the cue column of Cornell notes, and when do you write it?

In the maple talk, is "sugar bushes across Ontario get busy" important information or an interesting detail? Explain.

Which way of showing understanding fits a talk about the life of a famous scientist? Why?

What should you do when you get lost during a lecture?

More practice: warm-up

Name one before-listening strategy.

What does the symbol → usually mean in notes?

What are the three parts of a Cornell page?

True or false: a summary should include every detail you heard.

Name a discourse marker that signals an example.

More practice: on your own

Write a one-sentence summary of the maple talk.

Explain why repetition in a speech is a clue to important information. Use Antony's speech as an example.

A documentary compares life in a fly-in northern community with life in a large city. Which graphic organizer would you use, and why?

A friend's notes for a 30-minute lecture are four full pages of almost every word. What advice would you give?

Turn these notes into two cue questions: "day thaw → pressure in trunk → sap out"; "≈ 40 L sap → 1 L syrup".

Challenge

Plan a complete before-during-after approach for listening to a 45-minute online lecture about the history of your town, with no slides.

Antony says I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him, but then praises Caesar throughout. Explain why noticing this contradiction is part of understanding the speech, not just a detail.

Show the maple talk in a different form from the two in this lesson (for example, a concept web or a 30-second oral retelling script).

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which is a before-listening strategy?

In Cornell notes, the cue column is used to:

A speaker says, "The key reason is..." This phrase is a:

Which graphic organizer best fits a talk explaining how a process works step by step?

In Antony's speech, which line shows the main persuasive pattern?

A good summary of an oral text:

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Expectations 1.3 and 1.4 ask students to choose listening comprehension strategies before, during and after listening, and to show their understanding of important ideas in a variety of ways (for example, summarizing a Shakespeare scene heard aloud or using a graphic organizer).

How to help at home:

Before a documentary or newscast, ask your teen what they already know and what they expect to hear.
Afterward, ask for a one-minute retelling or a one-sentence summary.
Encourage reviewing notes the same day, not the night before a test.

Common difficulties:

Writing everything down and understanding little. Encourage phrases and symbols.
Summaries that are too long or that mix in minor details. Ask: "Would it still make sense without that?"
Shakespeare's language. Knowing the plot context first makes listening much easier. A plain-language plot summary of the scene before listening is a good scaffold, not cheating.