What is it?
GLORB // Listening Mission is an
explicit-teaching interactive lesson. Students help
Glorb work out what active listening can look, sound
and feel like, connect listening behaviours to the
body, and then use those ideas in a conversation
with Pip.
What it is for
It makes an often-unwritten social skill more concrete
by breaking active listening into
observable actions that can be taught,
practised and discussed.
Learning focus
Students practise noticing listening behaviours,
waiting while another person speaks, showing
attention in different ways and choosing a response
that connects to what has been said.
Teaching aid, not a real-life test
Completion shows supported performance inside this
lesson. It does not prove that a student will use the
same listening skills independently across different
people, settings or real conversations.
Learning sequence
LEARN → SORT → MAP → APPLY
Learn
Students work through 12 active-listening
examples. Each behaviour is named,
illustrated and accompanied by an explanation of what
it means and why it may help during a conversation.
Sort
Students organise listening examples into
LOOKS LIKE,
SOUNDS LIKE and
FEELS LIKE to make the skill more
concrete.
Map
Students connect listening strategies to the
head, eyes, ears, mouth, body, hands and
feet.
Apply
Students help Glorb choose several listening actions
in a conversation with Pip, then choose a response
that stays connected to Pip's topic.
Students practise
Recognising active listening, showing attention,
managing their conversational turn, waiting for
another person to finish, asking relevant questions
and responding to what the speaker has said.
Australian Curriculum v9.0
Personal and Social Capability
Primary link:
Social Management → Communication
Years 5–6 connection
The strongest Level 4 connection is:
“apply skills to address factors that influence
verbal and non-verbal communication”
What this lesson practises
Using verbal and non-verbal communication skills when
listening and responding to another person.
The lesson also has a supporting connection to
Relational Awareness because
listening is presented as part of reciprocal
interaction.
Curriculum source
Australian Curriculum v9.0 — Personal and Social
Capability
Important
This is an educational practice activity. It is not
a clinical, medical or psychological assessment.
Use with in-person teaching
Pair the mission with discussion, adult modelling,
role-play and real conversations outside the screen.
Listening can look different
The behaviours in the mission are
teaching examples, not a checklist every
person must perform in exactly the same way.
Eye contact, body orientation, movement and other
visible signs of attention can vary between people.
Support is individual
Focus on whether the learner is able to attend,
understand and respond rather than requiring one fixed
listening posture.
How to support a student
Let the student try first. Then ask:
What showed you that Glorb was listening?
What did Glorb do differently? How did his reply
connect to what Pip said? Could someone show they are
listening in another way?
Interpret completion carefully
The research base supports the teaching and design
rationale used here. It does not show that completing
this lesson proves real-world listening ability or
that GLORB itself has been independently proven
effective.