Exploring Oral Communication strategies

Debate is a Logical Discussion 

Hi All,

Today I will be talking about the oral communication strand in the language arts curriculum.  The skills that students gain from the oral communication strand help students both academically and personally. The two main skills that this strand focuses on are: speaking and listening. It is in language arts classrooms where students are able to find and explore strategies that can help them develop their speaking and listening skills.

The past two weeks in class we have been exploring different strategies that students can use when communicating orally. One of the strategies that I found most intriguing was the Role Play Debate strategy. I decided to further research this particular strategy on the website Education World. For this strategy, students are given an issue or topic to debate, then the they are assigned different roles or points of view that they have to argue either for or against.

Connections to the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum p. 9-10:

Students will:

1. listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes;

2. use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes;

3. reflect on and identify their strengths as listeners and speakers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in oral communication situations.

The way that this activity is set-up allows for students to properly examine and reflect on the issue that is up for debate. This lesson starts off by giving the debate topic to the students then, using an index card, students identify the key stakeholders in the debate. This introduction to this activity is important because it allows the students to critically identify and evaluate both sides of an issue. Next, students are randomly given a side that they will have to debate—regardless of actual stance on the issue. I think this is crucial for students to do because it encourages them to be more open to different points of view when listening to or discussing a specific issue. The next step in this activity is having students from each side present their argument. At this time, the rest of the students listen and record questions that they may have.

After each side has presented their argument, students are allowed to challenge a particular argument or maybe ask to clarify a particular point. I think this is a very effective listening strategy because often times when debates occur each side is so focused on their own arguments, that they fail to actually listen during the debate. This type of mentality is common in situations outside of a debate, many people have a difficult time actually listening when someone else is talking because they are very anxious to share their own opinion. So, this type of strategy really encourages students to take the time to listen to another person and to practice the act of noting down potential questions. Finally, when both sides are done asking question, the class gathers together and decides which side presented the strongest case. I think this is a very effective reflective strategy for students because they reflect on the strengths and weaknesses that they observed and they discuss the actual process of creating and delivering an effective argument.

Overall, I think that this is a very useful strategy that I could use in the classroom. However, I would add two important steps in this strategy: choosing meaningful topics and co-creating debating rules and expectation. I think that choosing a topic that students are familiar with engages students’ attention and motivation to do an activity such as this. Also, I believe that co-creating debating rules or expectations is key to having the debate run smoothly. By co-creating expectations, students engage in a self-monitoring process whereby they are more conscious of their behavior during the debate.  

Write-On: Exploring Persuasive Writing

A Persuasive review

Hi Everyone, 

Today we will be talking about the third strand in the language curriculum: writing! Developing good writing skills plays a huge role in the self-development of students. Through writing, students can be able to convey thoughts, ideas and facts in a clear and concise manner. That is why it is so crucial that writing is taught in a way that encourages students to delve into their writing and find their own unique voice, tone, style and structure. During our professional  conversations about this strand of the curriculum, our class explored persuasive writing. After this conversation, I was truly convinced that persuasive writing was a style that should be introduced to students at a young age and that teachers should spend a good chunk of time throughout the year revising and practicing this style with students. So, for this blog post I was searching for an educational resource that specifically addressed persuasive writing. The resource that I found (through Pinterest) uses Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) thinking as a blueprint to introducing students and brainstorming with students on a persuasive review. 

*Click on the image below to access resource

Connections to the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum p.12 

Students will: 

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;

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. 

This activity begins by the teacher listing a number of generic writing strategies that contribute to a well written review. This sets the stage of what is to come which involves having the students identify elements of persuasive text and be able to explain what it means. After doing so, students go back and they expand on each point. For example, one of the writing strategies involves ‘hooking the reader’ which they explained could be done by making a strong statement or asking a question. The next writing strategy is describing what occurred which is then followed by the ‘State your opinion’ —divided into pros and cons. This pros and cons list aides students in formulating an opinion because through this list they are able to compare and contrast their ideas. This self-reflective strategy is crucial in a persuasive review, one has to be clear of where they stand because it makes finding evidence to support your opinion much simpler. Finally, this chart recommends that students give a star rating out of 3—this will allow students to complete their review. Although this is not mentioned in this resource, I would have students, during their writing process, use peer-editing. I think this is crucial because proof-reading is part of every writing style.This resource also includes a students’ review as an example of the writing process—this modelled writing approach allows both students and teacher to dissect a piece of text and see how they can use it or modify it to fit their own personal style. What I love about this resource is that it can be applied to other subject areas or units—this resource states that you could use persuasive writing to review restaurants, books, games, places etc. 

Dig into Reading: Reading Strategies

Post-Its Notes Reading Strategy

Hi All, 

Today I will be talking about reading strategies! Developing effective reading strategies is important for students because reading is a part of every day life, that is students are constantly being bombarded by all sort of mediums (text, film, radio, graphics etc). As such, they need to have the skills to be able to dissect what a particular medium is trying to tell them and then make an informed opinion on that resource. One of the reading strategies that we discussed in class was the idea of using post-it notes when reading. I remember that I used this strategy in high school, however I felt that it made me very disorganized—I attributed this to me not knowing how to use post-it notes properly. So, I decided to go on Pinterest to find different ways of using post-it notes in the reading process. I found the resource below which I think is a very organized and an effective way to use post-it notes;  the resource (click on picture) is a post-it note chart that students can refer to while they are reading. 

                                         ELA Teacher. (2013). Readers make note of. Retrieved October 23, 2015.

Connections to the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum p.10-12:

Students will:

1. read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational

texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;

2. recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate

understanding of how they help communicate meaning;

3. reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the

strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading

The way that this resource is set-up allows for a teacher to manipulate the resource whichever way they prefer. So, I can use it in a way where students can go through each reading process: pre-reading, during reading and after reading. 

Pre-reading: The student begins to question the reason why they are reading the material for example: What is the issue? By doing this the students can draw upon prior knowledge.

During Reading: Students identify the main characters, the setting, actions of characters or unknown words. Also, students can use this chart to make predictions on how they think the story will end. Finally, the chart allows the students to note down question that they might have about a particular reading resource—this is helpful because it gets students thinking actively while they read and also increases students reading comprehension of the resource. 

After-Reading: This chart helps students reflect on what they just read by asking the student to identify and analyze the various issues that were discussed in the reading. Next, it asks the student to give an opinion of the reading for example: I liked how the author…, I think…, In my opinion…; this is important because it develops the students critical thinking skills and allows them to have a deeper connection with the text. Also, the chart has a post-it for making connections: text to text connections, text to life connections and text to world connection. This is very important because it allows for students to really expand their thinking beyond the text. Finally, the chart has a post-it note for learnings which allow for students to reflect on what they learned from the text which could be a particular word, concept or idea. 

I think that this resource can be used for any grade level— of course it would have to be tweaked in accordance with the various expectations at each level. Also, this type of resource can be used by traditional learners or digital learners. That is, traditional learners can simply make their own post-it chart using real post-its whereas digital learners can use a digital post-its to do the same thing. I have created my own digital post-it chart on a social justice book I read earlier this term: Gandhi’s Glasses. I used the online tool Linoit (http://linoit.com). I created this chart in the point of view of the student. Below is my own post-it chart:

I found this to be a very meaningful process because it allowed me to reflect on the book and its message. 

Re-photography in Media Literacy

           

Re-photography

Re-photography is a before and after photo that explores the world through visual change.

Levene, D. (2015). The American civil war then and now. Retrieved October 4, 2015

This before and after photo technique uses old photographs or images of historic places to tell its story. A lesson in this type of media study can begin by exploring the resource below. This resource documents (below) the various sites from the American Civil War; it is through text, image, and audio that we can see how society was then and how it has changed now. This type of image is very meaningful because we can track the development of history through these images. After viewing this resource, students are then divided into groups and are given another resource to explore.

Photography then and now. (2015). Retrieved October 4, 2015

Students are asked to pick one of the photographs and engage more deeply with the image  by sharing: Why did they choose this site or event? Who did it affect? How did it happen? Why was it significant? Then they will examine the most current image and research: what does the image demonstrates? How has society changed? How has it evolved? After spending around 25 minutes on this resource each group will share their findings. This type of activity is important because it allows for students to evaluate the media source by determining what the purpose of the image is, the message of the photographer and determine if the photographer’s intended message is effective. 

By doing so, students are able to enhance their research as well as their critical thinking skills. The next part of this activity is for students to create their own re-photograph image. The students (in groups) can choose an issue, historical event or place; they then, upon choosing their topic, search for a past or before image and a present image (Google image search). Then they will first paste the present image on Google Drawings, then on top of the present image they will paste the before image. However, the positioning of the before picture is entirely up to the students’ discretion. After completing, they then will share with the rest of the class why they chose that event, why it is significant, where they chose to position the before image, and they must explain to the class how society has changed from the before image to the present image. Do they think society has changed for the better or worse? This type of activity will enable students to think critically of media content and allow them to create their own. I have created my own image (below): 

Hileman, T. (2015, March 2). Grinnell Glacier 1938. Retrieved October 5, 2015

Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park (US) in 2005. (2013, December 3). Retrieved October 5, 2015

The image that I have chosen is the Grinnell Mountain in Mount Gould, Montana in the United States. The black and white image was taken in 1938; we can see that the Grinnell Mountain is covered with glaciers. And the image with color is a 2005 image of the very same mountain, however as we can see the glaciers have significantly melted. I have chosen to place the 1938 picture in the middle of the 2005 image so that we can clearly see the glaciers have melted. Between 1938 and 2005 (67 years), there has been increased technological and industrial change in our world. This image shows how the increasing level of carbon dioxide, which is a result of a high level of emissions from humans, is causing the rise of global temperatures. One of the consequences of increased global temperature is the continual melting of glaciers and an increase in sea levels. This image depicts that we should be taking more steps towards acknowledging that global warming exists and take action to change our ways; if we do not, we may not know what this image will look like in the next 67 years (or what environmental damages we may cause).