The Benefits of Oral Communication

Welcome, all educators to my language arts blog!

Thank you for reading to my fourth blog post on oral communication!

Today I will be educating you on the language arts strand of Oral Communication, specific to the benefits of oral communication. This strand is important, as it is something students will use and value throughout their lives. Moreover, it is important that students grow to know the benefits, and use oral communication, instead of being discouraged when it comes to expressing themselves. 

Tell Your Truth:

TED Talk Link

The link above is a TED Talk, that I have found to be very useful when teaching oral communication. Clint Smith, the individual doing the TED Talk, explains how educators can use oral communication to benefit student’s confidence and express the problems occurring within their lives. Read critically, write consciously speak clearly and tell your truth are Clint Smith's rules for this activity, and this entices students to communicate orally their silences to their classmates. He talks about how he gave up speaking, and this allowed him to realize the importance of your own voice. It teaches students the importance of using their voice and speaking up for what they believe in and the problems in their lives. Not only does it teach this, but also, it teaches the importance of writing in different ways, such as poetry to express their stressors. Once their stressors are expressed, they communicate them to their class using oral communication and the importance of a voice. This connects to the grade 8 specific expectations in writing, students, in this case, are expected to express their stressors creatively in poems. in the grade 8 specific expectations, it states that "1.2 generate ideas about more challenging topics and identify those most appropriate to the purpose" (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 144). In this activity, these expectations are met, and the students are expressing their personal stressors to the audience of their classmates.

I could use Clint Smith’s idea within my placement to allow students an outlet for their stressors in life. If all students complete this activity it will allow me to see their problems, allow them to express them, but most importantly give them a voice. Expressing your stressors in life is extremely important, and this activity would greatly benefit the mental health of my students, as they are finally using their voices to express and get their problems off of their chest.

Communication Activity:

Pinterest Link

This resource has the possibility to address, both overall and specific expectations within the language arts strands of writing as well as oral communication, for a grade 4 classroom. It does so, as within the curriculum, in the writing overall expectations, it states “generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 86). As well, within the specific expectations, it states “generate ideas about a potential topic using a variety of strategies and resources (e.g., brainstorm; formulate and ask questions to identify personal experiences, prior knowledge, and information needs)” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 86). It could connect to this strand and expectations if students are expected to put their hands into the bag to feel what is in it, and then come up with a brainstorming web of what it feels like as well as what they think it could be. In addition, it can tie into the oral communication strand, through the students explaining at the end what they felt and what they believe the item is/was. This relates to the language arts curriculum overall expectations, as it states “listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 80). In addition, it relates to the specific expectations, as students are using inference in order to determine, what and why they believe what is in the bag, and how they have come to believe that (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 80). Moreover, this activity benefits oral communication, as it allows students to feel comfortable discussing and brainstorming with other students to try to determine what in fact is in the bag. Therefore, this benefits oral communication in providing a competitive and fun activity to promote communication. 

TED Talk Activity:

TED Talk Activity Link

This resource is a fantastic yearlong class activity that will allow students to want to use oral communication in their learning. This activity allows students over the entire year to formulate a TED Talk based on anything they find interesting in the language arts curriculum that they have been taught throughout the year thus far.  Moreover, as this is a fun activity, students don't realize that they are using oral communication skills, as it is in a form of digital media. In addition, this year-long activity that can be used over multiple grade levels. And benefits students in learning and using oral communication skills, as well as all other language arts skills gained throughout the year. 

Teaching Students How to Love Writing!

Welcome, all educators to my language arts blog! 

Thank you for reading to my third blog post on writing!

Today I will be talking to you and educating you on the language arts strand of writing. This strand is important, as it is something students will use and value throughout their lives. Moreover, it is important that students grow to love writing instead of being discouraged when it comes to expressing themselves and writing. Something I find numerous teachers use is fire writing as a tactic to teaching writing. This tactic I find discourages students from wanting to write because they aren’t learning by writing things down under pressure, yet through taking their time in their work and feeling proud of their writing.  

(Alber, 2016)

Edutopia Link (Click Here)

The resource found above on Edutopia, I found, could be used as more than one resource in itself. Therefore, below I have divided the article into important writing information that can be used by educators just like yourselves when it comes to engaging students in writing. 

Fire Writing Vs. Low-Pressure Writing:

            This link above explains how educators can make students want to learn how to write and explains ways to better the traditional fire writing tactic. It explains that students can use low-pressure writing where they take their time and are not pressured to write, as in fire/ speed writing does. In addition, educators can improve the typical tactic of fire writing. They can do so by calming students by playing relaxing music or taking them into nature to calm them down while they fire write. These improvements can calm students down and explain to them that they are just jotting their thoughts down on paper so it’s easier for them to write later on. Nature and other calming elements will allow students to be less stressed out in fire writing, improving their mental state and allowing them to want to fire write, rather than being discouraged to do so. 

(Muehl, 2018)

Peer Reviewing & Choice:

            Another important topic from this article is peer reviewing, as well as giving students choice. As writing is important, I feel as if most students learn the most through peer reviewing other classmate’s work. This process allows them to test and use what they know about writing on others work, as well as to see what they need to fix in their work. In addition, giving students a choice of what to write about is beneficial. If students are able to choose which topic they are most passionate about, more often than not, their writing will reflect this passion. As opposed to being stuck with a topic that they dislike, and they are just writing to write, not because they want to write. This can both cause children to dislike writing, or allow them to love the writing process, all based on providing them with the option of choice. 

            

Curriculum Connection:

            The above resource connects to the Ontario curriculum, as in grade 6, students are required in the overall expectations, of the writing strand, to “draft and revise their writing, using a variety of informational, literary, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 114).  As well, within the overall expectations, they are required to “use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 114).  

Twitter Technology Link (Click Here)

(TeachThought PD, 2018)

Teaching Writing With Technology:

This resource above is not only beneficial for teachers teaching literacy, but any subject. Yet, I believe it can truly benefit teachers in teaching writing or language arts to students. For instance, this can tie into the specific expectations of writing for grade 8 students as they are expected to “identify the topic, purpose, and audience for more complex writing forms (e.g., a personal memoir about the school experience to share with classmates, family, and friends at graduation; a report on a topic of current interest in the style of a newspaper article, including headlines, for a school or community newspaper; a campaign flyer or brochure to promote a candidate for school government)” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006, P. 144). Therefore, with all activities in this specific expectation for students, teachers can educate them using technology such as asking students to use a specific website on the given topic, then asking them to watch a video of how to do the activity online, followed by providing exemplars of creative examples on sites such as Pinterest, then asking each student to post their final copy of the assignment in a collaborative Google classroom where each student in the class has access and is able to comment and give feedback to one another.  Not only does this method use technology to better teach writing, but also it engages students. It does so, through using different mediums to perform the task they are asked to do, keeping them constantly engaged. 

Writing Bino Link

Activity to Make Writing Fun:

Allowing students to enjoy writing using a game like setting, is a brilliant idea. This link above, explains how teachers can use the game of bingo, which every child loves to play, in order to engage them in writing. With each square students cover, they are required to complete a writing prompt. As a future educator, this is a fun writing lesson that can be manipulated for multiple grade levels, and that I personally would use in my classroom. 

Teaching Students How to Read and Love Reading!

Welcome, all educators to my language arts blog! 

Thank you for reading my second blog post! 

This week, I will be focusing on the Reading strand of language arts. This is a crucial strand within language arts, as a lot of children despise reading, fall behind in reading and some don't learn how to do it correctly as everyone learns in different ways. Therefore today I will be teaching you, educators, how to teach different types of reading to your students. One of the most important pieces that I hope you take and possibly explore further from my post today is the article, Text Structure Strategies for Improving Expository Reading Comprehension. This article will help you as an educator in more ways than I explain in this post (KEEP IT HANDY - for future reference). Secondly, I will teach you a couple of ways/ activities I have found to engage your students and make them want to read. 

The Article You Want To Know About: 

 In my opinion, the key messages in the article entitled Text Structure Strategies for Improving Expository Reading Comprehension are to provide educator’s research as well as strategies for teaching the expository text. I cannot attach the article due to copyright issues, but with the title and authors provided you are able to search to find the resource.

This reading using multiple exemplars throughout the article, these will aid teachers as they can use these exemplars as a guide for teaching the concept. For instance, when teaching expository work there are different categories, such as; technical vocabulary, high density of facts, unfamiliar content, as well as cognitively demanding concepts. All of which teachers/ educators should know how to best teach their students, whether it be through extracting texts from expository texts or re-writing these texts so students are able to decipher them. They can also use other strategies such as signal words, summarizing and graphic organizers, all of which this article explains further how to do. Therefore, with these exemplars and research, educators should use assessments to determine the best way for their student’s grade levels to learn expository texts. 

This feature article connects to the Ontario Curriculum, through multiple grade levels; in specific to the junior intermediate grade levels it connects to grade 5 using exemplars. Within the article, authors Roehling, Hebert, Nelson and Bohaty state, “ Of course, teachers can make the assessment more challenging for older students. As another example, Bohaty (2015) assessed fourth and fifth graders’ identification skills with a 15-item measure. Each item consisted of a short passage followed by five multiple-choice options: simple description, compare and contrast, sequence, cause and effect, and problem and solution. Students first read the passage and then decided which of the five text structures it best represented” (Pg. 77).  In the Ontario Curriculum, at the grade 5 level, within the Overall expectations, students are expected to use a range of strategies to create meaning, as well as use informational texts (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 97). All of which this great article explains how to do! In addition, within the specific expectations, students are expected to know how to; use a variety of informational texts, identify the purpose of reading, make connections within the text comparing it to experiences, summarize ideas, make inferences, as well as connecting the work to other works (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 97). This article explains can be assessed by teachers and increases in difficulty as the grade level increases to test their knowledge. 

Be sure to check this source out as it contains some great examples!

Engaging Students in Reading: 

Speed Dating Books: 

Speed Dating Books Link

Within this site, I found a great idea that engages students to read, and sometimes read outside of their comfort zone, because we all have one of those when it comes to reading. This activity is called Speed Dating Books. I found it to be great, as you select books and wrap them all in a wrapping paper, and then write something about the book on it (TVO Teach Ontario, 2016). 

(TVO Teach Ontario, 2016)

That way, students are solely selecting the book based on that small tidbit of information that has engaged them, it is fun and engaging for students to see the surprise of what they receive (TVO Teach Ontario, 2016).

Learning Vocabulary Through Play: 

Learning Vocabulary Through Play Link

This is another source I found to be very engaging for students and informative for teachers. Students and people in general learn most from conversations with others (Peterson, 2016, p. 1-3). Therefore, this method of learning and introducing words to students and having them play and solve problems using these words will teach you what they know through observing them (Peterson, 2016, p. 1-3). As well, it will teach them more about the topics being taught to them, as they will learn from one another. 

The Importance of Teaching Students About Media Studies & Being Online

Welcome, all educators to my language arts blog!

This week, I will be focusing on media studies, which is a very important strand, as the Internet has changed media studies dramatically. With the prominent use of the Internet nowadays, it is especially important to teach children how to be good digital citizens when on the internet, to know how to detect fake news, as well as how to search effectively. In my opinion, all three of these are most important for students in a classroom to learn, especially before gaining privileges to use the Internet in the classroom. 

Digital citizenship is very important, because, just as we teach our students to be respectful and empathetic citizens or students in our classroom, we should also be teaching them how to be good citizens online. This ties into digital and media literacy, as that, entails using tools such as newspapers, radios, television and the Internet for literacy purposes, for instance, Twitter or connecting text to facts occurring in the newspaper today. While, Media smarts, is how to be safe and know what and what not to do on media today. All tie into digital citizenship explaining the importance of being a good citizen when online and thinking before you click sites or sign up for things online. This video attached below is an example that I would show a grade 6-8 class teacher, on how to inform students on being a good digital citizen, teaching them about the risks of being unsafe online, and modeling this to them.

Digital Citizenship Link (Click Here)

(Common Sense Education, n.d.)

This video is a good tool for teachers of a junior intermediate division, as it teaches them how to engage students in a digital world, and model the ways in which they can be ethical/ good digital citizens in the process of teaching them digitally. 

Detecting fake news is very important for all students to learn how to do. As it builds on being a good digital citizen, students should also know how to decipher what to believe and what not to believe when searching the web for information. The source attached below is a great tool for grades 6-8 students to use when searching the Internet, as it provides them with guidelines to consider when online and searching for reliable information.

Detecting Fake News (Click Here)

 (Edutopia, 2017)

I would recommend going over this webpage with students and explaining the guidelines of 5 important questions to ask themselves when questioning whether or not this information should be used or not. 

In addition, this connects to the grade 7 curriculum for instance, as by the end of grade 7, students are expected to understand a variety of media texts, explain the techniques used within them, create their own media texts, as well as be able to reflect on the strengths and areas with room for improvement of media texts (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 133). All of which follow the guidelines students should follow in order to determine fake news on the Internet, a form of media. 

How to search effectively, is my last point for the topic of media studies, I believe this is very important, much like knowing how to detect fake news, students should know how to effectively search for the key points they are looking for. 

How To Search Effectively (Click Here)

 (Brock University, 2014)

This is important for students in grade 7 and 8, as they will be using databases very commonly throughout high school, this video above is something I would show students to explain how they can better search scholarly databases. This teaches students how to extract important content (key concepts) from the question they are asking, in order to find relatable data.  

Finally, attached below is a link to a site that teaches literacy and media in correlation to the Emmy’s. This, in my opinion, is a fantastic way of tying in shows and movies that students in the intermediate level relate to, and using them in course content. This method of pretending the class is on the Emmy’s, and investigating shows and taking polls while using course content is a great engaging method. In addition, it ties into course curriculum for grade 7, as it is required that students propose and audience, make inferences and interpret messages, respond to and evaluate texts, respond to audiences, see the point of view, production perspectives, as well as conventions and techniques (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 133-134). All of which can be done through using examples of shows and movies either shown in class or being watched at home by students either as comparisons to coursework or be used within the class to decipher different works, points of view, character traits, etc. 

Emmys Lesson (Click Here)

 (Baker, 2018)