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.