Oral Communication is KEY!

Want to get your students to be more experienced and comfortable with listening and speaking skills? Do you want to see your students succeed in all aspect of their lives, academic, career and in life itself?

Oral Communication is KEY!

Oral communication is so much more than just a strand the educators need to make sure they cover and assess students on. This strand can teach students life skills that they can take away and use. There are many different approaches a teacher can take when they are trying to help students learn these skills so I have decided today to share a couple that I think are great!

The first one below is a debate and I have included the link to the resource in addition to a small description of why I think this resource would work great in a classroom to help students build confidence and improve their listening and speaking skills.

OH I WILL... and you will not regret agreeing with what I have to share

One resource that I found to be extremely helpful when trying to research for resources and strategies for introducing activities that can benefit oral communication in the classroom is the weekly reading we had. It was Debate: Where Speaking and Listening Come First. This resource goes through the benefits of a debate. It states that by having the students engage in a debate over a theme or topic of their interest and or classes’ choice created student- centred learning. Student entered learning is a great way to get students to be engaged and a part of their learning. This then leads to the “development of critical thinking”. Debates, in the end, teacher students how to be comfortable in front of people, public speaking and argumentation in their future. This activity done with the children do not benefit them only the number of times they do it but instead they walk away from that learning experience with improved listening and speaking skills, academic success, career success, and overall improved life skills. This reading stresses how much a simple debate can offer a student who may be an extrovert or introvert. A debate is an activity a teacher can use to benefit all the students involved and have them responsible and involved in their learning at the same time. Every teacher’s job is to ensure they can help a student succeed and I truly believe the resource when it says that a debate can lead to improved academies success and career success later in life. 

Try out a debate the proper way and watch your students strive and succeed in all other areas of their lives, both academic and social! Check out the article for yourself in the link below.

https://lms.brocku.ca/access/lessonbuilder/item/32686464/group/EDBE8P24D07FW2016LEC001/8P24:%20Academic%20Readings%202015-16/Debate%20-%20Oral%20Communications.pdf

NEXT STOP: CONVERSATION STATION

Once you're on the Oral Communication Train things can only get better!!

Next resource I explored was a common activity other educators have implemented into their classrooms for the younger crowd to initiate conversation and speaking skills. Three cheers for fun activities! This activity is called the "conversation station" and is created by the teacher but is run by the students! Students feel in charge and love sharing their responses to the different prompts. Students can sit with their group members, pick up a fun prompt question and ask each other for the answer! The questions can range from something as goofy that will leave room for children's imaginations and creativity in their responses or a question more neutral and age specific like the ones below. 

A fun activity that I hope to use in my placement this year and any classrooms I am apart of in the future! You can get to know kids with their responses all while they're having fun and improving their listening and speaking skills! 

Below is the link for this activity from Mrs. O'Brien's Blog!!

http://mrsobrienclassconnect.blogspot.ca/2012/02/conversation-station-anytime-oral.html

Although there are multiple resources and I really could go on and on, these two I feel would make the most positive difference in the classroom and promote a growth and improved oral communication skills. 

These are the Overall Expectations of Oral Communication:

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. 
   

I feel like in both activities and strategies to strengthen the students' oral communication skills shared above, these expectations can be reached and attained. In both the debate activity for the older students and the communication station for the younger and older students they will be able to listen and speak with purpose. They will be able to respond appropriately to other's opinions and to students responses in addition to reflect on what works for them and what doesn't. 

Two great resources and I hope you give them a look!

As entertaining as Mr. Bean has been through the years don't let your students leave with little to no oral communication skills!!!

Enjoy the clip!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cX6VaIy2yA

See you soon,

Emily

"Do you wanna be a writer?"

Teaching Students to Love Writing

So far, if you have been following my blog, you would have read about media studies within the classroom in addition to reading! Just as important as these two previous posts is the strand of Writing. Some people hate writing, I used to identify with those people, but now that I have been able to share my findings and experiences with you I am learning to enjoy it. Although writing on a blog differs from professional writing I had to learn how to write just as other students do - it is a requirement and will actually be used in their everyday lives (not like that math with x, y, a, b and q that your high school math teacher swore you would use again). 

If you are one of those people who HATE writing stick around for the rest of this post and you will learn to love it. If you already love it stay until the end and I will provide you with resources and fun ways you can share your love for writing with others! Let's start loving writing together!

Last week I was lucky enough to explore an article that was called "Gradually Releasing Responsibility to Students Writing Persuasive Text". Don't get scared by the title, it was by far one of the most interesting resources I have been able to read in relation to teaching writing to students yet! It will not disappoint and I do suggest you give it a look (link below). Before diving into it I will give you the gist of what it had to offer. This resource shed light on an IMSCI model and what it had to offer students in relation to their writing. Although this resource concentrated on the benefits of this model in connection to persuasive writing in a grade 4 classroom it can be implemented and used by educators when teaching any style of writing with any grade level. This model and this way of teaching writing will be impactful for both teachers and students and will help students to grow confident with their writing. I feel that this is a great resource to turn to when and if I feel frustrated with trying to teach students how to write. Teaching to read is one thing but to write has proven to be more difficult for teachers and educators. I cannot wait to implement this model of teaching and be able to spend designated time to the important components of writing. My students - I hope - will be successful and masters at writing. 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy.library.brocku.ca/doi/10.1002/trtr.1239/abstract

Now onto some fun and successful activities, in addition to the above, that can be used within a classroom to teach students to love writing and to help them achieve their writing potentials. This picture below shows another method to show students how to approach persuasive text and includes an Oreo! Win Win situation. 

This poster would be a great reminder to post in the classroom to remind students, after reviewing and breaking down what the parts of a persuasive paper are. This visual poster provides a visual breakdown and layout of what persuasive writing should look like when completed! Now that you are craving Oreos grab a handful, a glass of milk and continue reading the post! 

In one of my previous weeks of studying how to teach language and literacy to my students our classroom came across the "Writing Prompt Jar". 

http://werefarfromnormal.com/2016/02/make-a-writing-jar-plus-101-prompts-to-fill-it.html

Above is the link to an awesome approach at helping kids who find writing difficult. A lot of students struggle more with starting out their writing than actually writing itself and because of this they cancel out writing entirely. Would it not be great if we could provide a way for students to pick from a jar what to write about and then send them on their ways? Enter Writing Jar! In addition to just picking prompts given by the teacher from the jar a task that can be given to the students is to provide any task (approved by you of course!!) and contribute to the jar each week. Students can draw their fellow classmates prompt and or their own and get started with loving to write!

Reminder....

Teachers, parents, classroom leaders, etc, remember to be patient when students are learning to write. Not everyone will have the skills right away to write a level 4 paper but they all do have the ability of one day reach that level with your help. Students will need the guidance that we all received when learning to write but even more to ensure they love writing. You never know who's life you will touch and who will be writing an article or piece on you one day. Be patient, ask questions, reflect with them, provide them with feedback and continue to learn new and engaging ways to help your students achieve their greatest writing potential.

Teach students to love writing as I hope this post has helped you in seeing all the good that can come out of writing and all the engaging ways you can share that with your students. Let your students explore with writing and help them along the way and I am sure you will be amazed. 

What about the Curriculum? 

The curriculum can be touched upon in all the above and below activities in connection to the writing strand of language. The Writing Strand has 4 specific and overall expectations that students must reach with the assistance and guidance of the teacher and I believe that the resources in this post touch upon all but specifically:

1) Generate, gather, organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience (Ontario Language Curriculum, 12). This expectation can be reached through the writing jar prompt and the Oreo chart. Students will generate their ideas and organize them to how they should be depending on what style of writing they are working on. 

2) 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 (Ontario Language Curriculum, 12). This expectation can be reached through students reflecting on how the strategies above assisted them in their writing and where they feel they need to go to take it to the next level.

http://www.schooltimesnippets.com/2015/08/roll-it-write-it-journal-activity-reluctant-writers.html

Before you leave but only after you've finished the Oreos, try out the activity above and let me know if it helps either you or your students with writing!! I have done it and hope to use it in my classroom in my upcoming teaching block. It can be great to introduce simple writing tasks and styles for students.  Cheers!


Take care and I hope to catch you here again, 

Emily 

Everybody Loves Reading

Week 7: Reading 

Reading can be fun again!!...

Not that it ever stopped being fun for me but for those students who feel like reading is unnecessary and a bore will be proved wrong when they check out these amazing resources shared by the IRC Pinterest Site! So many different activities that are targeted to making reading fun and easy for the students - there is no way reading will not be a success in your class. Check this one out! One of my favourites for sure..

This reading game is called Spin- a -Word. The only thing you need for this game is some card stock, a printout of the spin a word printable and all else shown in the picture. You can have the students work in partners and after spinning the stencil they can read out the word that they created and their partner can ask Real or Silly? Then they go forward and circle which one of their word creations make sense. Not only does this game have the students read out orally the words they made but they also can work together to figure out if the word makes sense or not. Cool concept, cool game and will be a great game for the kiddies!

FLIP CHART - "Flip into reading"

This next one I think would be very beneficial to integrate and bring into the classroom. This is a Phonetic Flip Chart and can be used as an early literacy tool. This would be great for the primary years and can help them learn their letters, words and sound - just like the author of this one tool article stated her child could by using it! This flip chart can be of assistance to all the early learning students and be great seat work in a reading corner! The idea of flipping them back and forth and sounding out the letters and words won't only keep the young students busy and engaged but will also help to develop their reading skills! Winning!

Reading is such an important skill for students to master early on. Reading does not only exist in classrooms or when looking at a newspaper - reading is EVERYWHERE. You are reading this blog right now, you read a street sign labelled as "STOP" this morning, you read a message come across your news channel this morning. Reading is in everyone's and everyday life. When learning to master reading and learning different tools when approaching to learn reading it will only benefit you.

If you are a parent, teacher or any other educator who is reading this blog right now you know what I am talking about when I stress how important reading is, especially when you are teaching the students to read. Seeing their faces light up when they get a sound right or a word right is rewarding in itself especially when it is accompanied with knowing you helped them or gave them the necessary tools they needed to achieve the expectations or above. 

"The Reading strand has four overall expectations, as follows:

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. use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently;
4. reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading. "(ONTARIO CURRICULUM - Language)

**Above is the four expectations that the Ontario Language Curriculum has pertaining to the Reading strand for students. 

The first two expectations can and will be addressed through the games provided in this blog! The last two expectations can be targeted if the educator chose to make the games at a more intermediate level! 

Another idea that I know for sure works to keep students engaged and reading is using a bookworm. This summer I was fortunate enough to volunteer at a Women's Shelter and my friend and I ran a bookclub for the children of the families that were staying there. Every week, once a student read a book or did the weekly reading task we rewarded them with a colourful slip of construction paper. On this paper they got to decorate it and include their name and the title of the book that they completed. By the end of the summer we had a VERY LONG bookworm with all the papers attached. Not only did this help create a visual for the difference I hope to have made for those kids and to see how many books were read in the summer but we also left knowing that the students were engaged in reading all summer! I would definitely suggest using this in a classroom with the primary/ junior students. Regardless of the level of reading they are reaching they are able to start, finish and have something to show everyone!

Unfortunately I cannot share the photo of the caterpillar completed because I do not have permission of the families but just imagine one VERY LONG bookworm!! 

Anyways.. I will let you get back to reading your books..

Below attached is the link to IRC Pinterest Page that has various boards on educational goodies! I also attached the Language and Literacy Board's separate link and the links with the above games attached!! Have fun :)

https://www.pinterest.com/ircbrock/

https://www.pinterest.com/ircbrock/makerspace-language-activities/

http://www.themeasuredmom.com/10-diy-reading-games-for-kids/

Happy reading! See you soon:)

Take care, 

Emily

Media Studies Blog Post - Media Galore!

Hello and welcome to my Language and Literacy Blog!

I am very excited to get started and to share with you posts about Media Studies, Reading, Writing and Oral Communication.

Today I wanted to share with you all the different ways that you, as an Educator or Classroom Leader, can incorporate when teaching Language and Literacy. Although these resources and ideas I will share can be used in other subjects within the classroom today I will share the different ways social media specifically can be brought into a classroom and the ways that they will enhance, engage and target curriculum for the students.

I came across a very informational article by Vicki Davis on "CoolCatTeacher" database and I would strongly suggest this article for educators who are looking for a new but educational twist in the classroom!

Although majority of teachers in schools today have started to incorporate media into the classrooms I feel as if some are still nervous about bringing in Social Media because of all the different implications that could arise from it if children are not staying on task.

Vicki states that "Social Media doesn't have to be a distraction and kids can be safe" (Davis). Introducing teacher monitored social media into the classrooms will be the start of something great for the students and teachers alike! There are a variety of different media outlets that teachers can incorporate slowly into their classrooms and can target curriculum while doing so but for sake of this blog I will share a couple with you. :)

#TweetTweet

Davis introduced, by using another teacher's account, that having a twitter account with the class is a great way to show everyone what the students are up to. May it be their parents, other students, other teachers or their grandparents who live too far to hear stories of their school activities. Pictures, links, successes, challenges and hashtags can all be shared with the world or with selected followers in a private account.

Not only does using a twitter account like this, or even a blog site to share with the world what the students are doing during the school hours keep the students engaged it also helps them to understand the importance behind their activities and to see their growth at the end of the year. 

My suggestion is the teachers could create cool hashtags for every subject that the students will share with the world and then students can view the tweets and pictures accompanied to the subjects. 

Will you be my Facebook friend?

Another media outlet offered by Davis to introduce into the classroom is a Facebook account for the teacher. Each week the teacher can provide a challenging and fun question for the students to answer. This will engage the students not only because they all love social media but because they have competition outside of school hours with their peers. 

Although I only shared two here there are so many more that Vicki Davis offers and I will include the link so you can take a look on your own! 

http://www.coolcatteacher.com/10-amazing-ways-teachers-have-used-social-media-to-enhance-learning/#more-11957

I always loved Teeter-Totters!

I did however want to share with you a very interesting tool that an educator I know uses in her classroom. This app incorporates media into the classroom and is an amazing tool for any educator or classroom leader to keep track or the students, their work and for assessing them. 

This APP is called Seesaw. This app allows teachers to communicate with parents and their students. Students can or teachers can upload pictures of their work or documents that are due or that are completed and they will be saved under their student name. The teacher then can go and click on "Adam Smith" and under Adam's name will have all his work with additional commentary that the teacher may have added for assessment purposes! I was blown away at how advanced technology has gotten and how great this app would be as a media tool in the classroom!

Take a look!!

http://web.seesaw.me

Below I attached a link to the Ontario English Curriculum for grades 1 up to and including grade 8. Throughout the pages you will be able to see all the different overall expectations and specific expectations where the media types I have shared above, and many other additional ones of your own and others, can target the grade levels curriculum. Not only can media literacy help with Oral Communication, Reading and Writing the students through these various Media studies resources and more can learn and stay engaged!

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf

Media more now than ever is critical in classrooms. It creates and intensifies engagement which in the end leads to students understanding the language and literacy work they are completing which leads to success!

Media + Language and Literacy Class = Success

...Who doesn't want success? No one!

Hope you enjoyed this blog and that you will check back soon to see what else I have been up to while learning how to teach Language and Literacy! Check out the links I shared, you will not regret it!

Take care, 

Emily De Melo


http://edemelobrock8p24.blogspot.ca