Oral Communication

"The biggest communication problem we have is we do not listen to understand, we listen to reply."

We speak hundreds or even thousands of words a day, yet the skill set of effective speaking has become quite challenging to find in people.  The vast majority of people will tell you the hate and even fear public speaking, but why is this?  Students are not encouraged enough and not given adequate opportunities within the classroom to speak and listen, though effective speaking is vital to student learning and development.  Students need to feel as though their words matter and their opinions matter.  Barack Obama addressed this idea in an inspiring 2008 speech where he states "Don't tell me words don't matter."

This speech holds essential ideals for students to hear and realize to boost confidence and boost speaking to hold the same educational value as reading and writing.  The biggest challenge teachers may face is motivating the introverts of the classroom to participate in classroom discussions.  With speaking and listening becoming a hot topic, many strategies have also surfaced.

Accountable Talk

In order for effective speak in the classroom to take place, teachers first need to address appropriate and inappropriate responses, especially when dealing with opinions.  Students can become very easily discouraged if they feel their opinion has been belittled.  Accountable talk strategies are an essential component to teach students not only how to effectively respond, but further how to effectively listen.  Anchor charts are a great tool to keep as a reminder for students on how to participate in discussion.

Students are encouraged to respond in respectful ways to reinforce a positive environment.  Students will ask questions such as.

"To challenge your point.."
"To clarify, what do you mean by ... "

Accountable talk addresses issues of equality, where all voices and opinions matter and are addressed in respectful ways.

Debates

Once accountable talk has been established in the classroom, effective talk becomes much easier to attain.  Debates are a great way to get students excited about public speaking.  When a student is put on the spot and asked a question in class, they might have a harder time articulating their thoughts because they have not had adequate time to think about their answer or look into it.  With debates, students get excited about their topic and their confidence in speaking increases as they have become experts in their topic in a sense.  Education world has a great article, titled Debates in the Classroom for teachers looking to add debates into their classroom.  The article outlines various lessons for incorporating debates and outlines the benefits of using debates in the classroom.  

Another great article that discusses the importance of debates is Debate: Where Speaking and Listening Come First.  The article highlights how forms of debates can be seen, but often lack substance and ultimately end up being just simple conversations.  However, debates offer much more than an argumentative debate and further, debates encompass various literacy skills such as listening, writing, and communication skills.  The article describes the benefits of utilizing debates in instruction and elaborates on how to effectively implement them in the classroom.

Math Talks

Reading and writing skills are practiced in every other subject, the skills are interchangeable, yet speaking again is often neglected.  Bringing talking strategies into all subjects is another tactic teachers should try to initiate.  

Math is maybe the most difficult to add speaking and listening strategies into the lesson.  However, one way to accomplish this is through daily math talks.  Get students to talk through their strategies they would use to solve the problem.  Its amazing to hear how unique some students are in how they interpret and digest equations.  Through math talks, students are encouraged to articulate their learning and thought process.  Other students can begin to see how their peers might solve problems differently.  This helps to boost student confidence as they begin to see there are multiple different ways to do something, and one way is not necessarily better than another. 

Edutopia also has numerous resources to help teachers effectively implement talking and listening strategies in the classroom.  Oracy in the Classroom: Strategies for Effective Talk,is an article posted by Edutopia that outlines how to achieve this and shows the effectiveness of such talk strategies within a real classroom.  The article is accompanied by a short video that highlights different techniques to use with students to promote equity and confidence for students to understand their voice matters. 

How to Re-Teach Writing

Technology has done wonders for our world, and our classrooms; transforming them into what they are today.  Technology has changed the educational world in many ways, but one way in particular is this thing we call communication evolution.  Students now communicate in various ways through devices, which also simultaneously changes their vocabulary and language.  Spell check edits your writing for you and short forms are the new norm.  This is why the writing strand of the curriculum has gained such importance to continually strengthen students' writing skills in the face of these communication changes.  

Gradually Release Responsibility

The way in which technology has taken over, has essentially taken responsibility from the user to be able to effectively edit and revise their own writing.  This is the skill set teachers need to now be re-instilling into their students in a sense.  It is becoming most evident when students are making that transition from grade 8 into grade 9, where the gradual release of responsibility is increased.  Grade 9 teachers are realizing that students have poor writing skills, and often are unable to construct a well written paragraph, and further unable to effectively edit their work.

S, Read et al. (2014). Gradually Releasing Responsibility to Students

Writing Persuasive Text. [Online Image]. Retrieved

November, 13th, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2eSZijG

The article, Gradually Releasing Responsibility to Students Writing Persuasive Text, is a fantastic resource for teachers to read.  It provides a clear and simplified breakdown of how to instruct students in writing, which reinforces a gradual release of responsibility.

The article to the left shows the different steps and explains how each should be instructed.  During my own experiences I was able to observe this model used in the classroom during a writing lesson.

During the lesson, the class collaboratively agreed on a topic and brainstormed together using the smart board.  They created a mind map and all added their ideas, while the teacher prompted them and "bumped up" their writing by modelling ways in which they could add on to their ideas, making more complex sentences.  This provided students an opportunity to see good and bad writing samples, so when it became time to write their own independently, they were well equipped to do so.

C. Duffy. (2016). Mind Map. [phone image]

Retrieved November 13th, 2016 from my Iphone.

Next, students began the shared writing aspect of their writing lesson, wherein students were able to work in their table groups to come up with their own ideas and create their own mind maps.  In this portion of the writing lesson students were to come up with a new invention of their choosing.  In doing so, the students were able to have fun with the activity and be creative, while simultaneously working on their writing process.    

C. Duffy. (2016). OREO Writing Worksheet. [phone image]

Retrieved November 13th, 2016 from my Iphone.

Following this, the teacher went back to the classes shared idea and examples and using the samples given, further modeled how each point could then be constructed into a proper sentence.  This was leading students into their independent work, where they were given a sheet that outlined the writing process in the form of "OREOS."  This is another technique teachers can use that helps students visualize and remember the steps of the writing process.  

Tools for the Classroom

C. Duffy. (2016). Strength and Weakness Folder. [phone image]

Retrieved November 13th, 2016 from my Iphone.

The writing lesson above using the IMSCI model is great, but you can't use it all the time, for every writing lesson.  However, there are a couple of tools you can use all term in order to continually increase students writing abilities.  One that I have recently seen in the classroom is a strengths and weakness' folder.  Students are all given their own folders and as the weeks go by you can identify areas or words that you notice students struggling with.  Once identified, use sticky notes to place them in the folder on the weakness side.  Once students have worked on it, that particular area of struggle can be moved over to the strength section.

This can be great for the teacher and the student.  It is very important to identify and address areas of weakness in students for continued improvement, however it is equally important for students to be reminded of their strengths at the same time.  If they are continuously bombarded by their weakness' it can easily and quickly destroy self confidence, however as sticky notes add up on their strength side, it becomes a motivating factor for students to work harder.

For teachers, this is a great tool for assessment at report card time.  It becomes a tool for teachers to reflect and look back on where students were at the beginning of the term compared to the end.  In doing so, teachers can even give specific examples on report cards or in interviews with parents so parents can see their child's specific improvements.

Another great tool I have stumbled upon is literary Jenga.  As a big game lover myself, I found this resource and instantly was in awe of the idea.  Each block can include questions such as "choose a paragraph from the reading and describe the overall tone," or "write down three descriptive words that the passage made you feel."  To take this question even further, you can make it a requirement for students to choose synonyms to the regular expressive words i.e happy, sad, excited.  This will assist students in their vocabulary range and help them to sort out and express thoughts and feelings.  

To help students with the editing and revision aspect of the writing strand, teachers can provide students with writing pieces riddled with errors and have a block that requires students to revise a sentence.  Each block will have a certain colour on it, which will correspond to a set number of points depending on the complexity of the question.  This is a great tool to use in learning centres, where students can practice their writing skills, while having fun doing it and by adding a competitive side to it, students easily become engaged

Teachers Pay Teachers. (2016). Literary Jenga. [Online Image]

Retrieved November 13th, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2eT3pMw

Application to Curriculum

The IMSCI model worked brilliantly in the classroom.  When writing can be a very dry and tedious task for some students, the way in which you model and techniques you use can make the process more engaging for students, while still applying to the curriculum.  Through this students meet various curriculum expectations including

1. generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience;

2. draft and revise their writing, using a variety of informational, literary, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience;

3. use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively;   

Further, when using strength and weakness folders, students will also start self identifying areas of improvement, which coincides with the curriculum expectation to 4. reflect on and identify their strengths as writers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful at different stages in the writing process.

Overall, in utilizing tools such as these in the classroom, teachers can combat the pervasiveness of auto correct and re-teach editing and revising skills in meaningful and engaging ways.

Literature Circles

Literature Circles. (2016). [Online Image]. Retrieved
October 29, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2f50dzm

Literature Circles

Motivating students to love reading can be a challenge, especially for students who struggle with reading.  This is why there is an urge for teachers to implement new strategies that engage students in the world of reading and get them to realize reading is fun!  One way to do this is through literature circles in the classroom.

What Are Literature Circles?

Literature circles are essentially based around the idea of book clubs, wherein students form groups and will all discuss a particular piece of text.  The group will have a discussion facilitator that will prompt students with questions to engage critical thinking.  Other students will then play different roles in the discussion such as, someone who finds connections, someone who finds interesting vocabulary and someone who finds interesting passages.  Literature circles are such a great strategy for the classroom since they combine collaborative thinking with student based inquiry.  By taking the focus off the teacher, students have to take control of their own learning, which arises questions and thinking they may not have had in a teacher led discussion.  This is because often when teachers lead discussion, students sit there, listen, retain information and maybe place it into their memory bank, but what fails to initiate is critical thinking.  Students are then led to take the text from a surface level to a more in depth level and deepen their understanding.

Literature Circle jobs. (2016). [Online Image]. Retrieved October 29, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2f4iCfG

Why use Literature Circles?

As literature circles have become quite prominent in the classroom, so has discussion based around the concept.  Various articles, blogs and videos have surfaced for teachers to effectively implement literature circles, one in particular was posted by Education World at http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr259.shtml.  In this blog, two experts delve into what literature circles and what makes them so important.  The blog discusses how literature circles build excitement for books and reading and provides various resources and insight for teachers who want to implement literature circles.  One of the most important reasons to use literature circles however is for this reason that they build excitement for the love of reading again! 

Introducing Literature Circles Anchor Chart.

[Online Image]. Retrieved October 29, 2016

from http://bit.ly/2fmJ3Rs

In another blog The Power of Literature Circles in the Classroom, the author also discusses why we should use literature circles.  In her discussion she illustrates how her son never cared for reading, but once became apart of a literature circle, he loved it!  In his first literature circle he reads the infamous Green Eggs and Ham, and as the connector, goes to class ready to discuss the ethics of eating animals.  This perfectly illustrates how literature circles can take reading to the next level of learning by prompting debates surrounding real life situations.

Literature circles are great for the differentiated classroom because groups do not have to be based around reading level.  This is a debatable concept, as some teachers prefer groups to be based off of similar reading levels, however, on the flip side, some teachers find that placing students in a group with varying reading levels can increase the comprehension process even if they are having difficulties with certain words.  This is based on the collaboration process, as students collaborate, students who may have struggled gain powerful insights they may not have had prior.  This further motivates students to work on their reading strategies to improve their reading level.  

Teachers can also play a role and place questions they want students to focus on while reading.  Students will then go home, or read at school independently, but at their own pace.  This is why students are various reading levels can be placed together, because as one student may take several hours to finish a chapter, another may have only taken 40 minutes, but students will nonetheless, come into class ready for discussion.  This allows students to read at a pace that best fits their learning style.  

Relating to the Curriculum 

The Ontario Language Curriculum. (2016). [Online Image]. Retrieved October 29, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2fmEXZv

Literature circles also apply to multiple areas of the language and literacy curriculum.  Through the form of literature circles, students can collaborate and practice their oral communication skills.  Through this students deepen their understanding by hearing different perspectives from their peers.  These different perspectives can also promote diverse points of view and encourage cultural inclusiveness.  Literature circles also give the flexibility to explore a variety of texts.  With this students can explore plays, short stories, novels, newspapers etc.  This is a perfect opportunity to implement current events into a lesson instead of having students do individual presentations.  Lastly, the collaboration aspect of literature circles motivates students to want to read more!  Students gain a desire for further reading after sharing their opinions and thoughts.

  

Media Studies

Media Literacy

To be literate in the 21st century, is to encompass media literacy

Media Literacy. [Online Image]. (2012). Retrieved
October 15, 2016 from 

Teaching in the 21st century is vastly different than previous generations because we are now living in the digital age.  Technology is ubiquitous, you can't escape it regardless of where you go and this applies to the classroom.  Because of students continuous engagement with technology in their day to day lives, educators have found ways to implement it into curricula to help children understand media.

Why Teach Media Literacy?

Instead of resisting the growth of media, educators now help students to understand, analyze, evaluate and create media through the media literacy section of the curriculum.  Just as students are expected to asses and critically analyze various forms of texts, students are expect to reflect and critically evaluate different media forms, formulating meaning and discovering various ways to utilize media, making students competent media users.  But what makes a competent media user?  That's where digital citizenship comes into play.  Teachers look to instill proper digital citizenship within their classrooms by showing students what is appropriate and responsible usage when dealing with technology.  Just as society has its rules and norms, so does the web and these rules need to be instilled in students to create a safe and harmonious environment.

What is Digital Citizenship?

Digital Citizenship [Online Image]. (2016). Retrieved
October 15, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2duStao

Digital citizenship encompasses a variety of norms that should be followed including cyber bullying, knowing your digital footprint, recognizing harmful sites, digital etiquette (often refered to as netiquette), digital law etc.  The list is expansive, but most importantly it teaches children how to be safe on the internet.  Students need to become familiar with the openness and availability of the internet, which does not exclude personal information.  Therefore, teaching students about privacy and their digital footprint becomes imperative among the youth.  Further, teaching students how and when to recognize bias', racial comments, and cyber bullying.  Teachers often use the acronym THINK before you speak and have now expanded it to express the digital world and urges to students think before you share- be kind, don't share passwords and avoid scams.

The following link on Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/article/digital-citizenship-resources provides an abundance of resources to assist teachers in media studies instruction.  One resource I found of particular interest is titled Are we Addicted to Technology?

Think Before You Post. [Online Image]. (2016)
Retrieved October 15, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2dZTN63

This resource highlights how saturated the world actually is with media and technology, stating "According to Pew Research Internet Project, over 90 percent of American adults own a cellphone, and 73 percent of American adults online use a social networking site of some kind." Integrating technology into the classroom is a must, but I also find it important to teach this side of technology to our students. Yes, it is useful and Yes, we need to gain media literacy in order to communicate in our current society, but knowing the line of what is too much technology is also imperative. The article titled "Are we Addicted to Technology?" also formulates a list of short videos to show how addiction of media and technology are encapsulating the world. All giving great insights into the dangers of too much technological use and posing critical thinking questions for students to ponder over.

Balancing Technology    

Knowing how to balance technology in the classroom is also imperative for teachers. Gaining insight on how to balance technology in the classroom can be found in another great article on Education World, Library tech educator provides tips conquering tech phobia. In this article, Owen highlights how to balance technological usage in the classroom with traditional teaching routines.  This balance is also important to maintain a blended classroom environment.  While research has shown great strides for technological efficiency, face to face interaction and collaboration is still futile for a great education.

In a blended classroom, students are given the lesson or work online, this way students can work through it at their own pace.  Then in the classroom is when collaboration and activities on the lesson take place.  With the blended classroom the balance between technology and face to face interaction is key to its success.  It reminds us that media studies and integration of technology in the classroom is not about the technology itself, but rather how we utilize it to maximize student success.

Implementing technology in the classroom can be difficult, but effective nonetheless.  Students are highly responsive to forms of media because there worlds are highly saturated with different media forms.  If the answer to student engagement is technology and media than it is our duty as educators to find a way to effectively integrate these aspects into our teaching.

The question of should we integrate technology is gone, and we are now asking ourselves how do we effectively implement technology.  We all must take the stride toward this new learning order in order to provide our best form of education.

Communication Studies [Online Image]. (2015).  Retrieved October 16, 2016 from