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.