Take a second and think about the first thing we did
as a baby, it wasn’t reading it wasn’t learning how to write or use social
media it was talking! Oral Communication goes way back…all the way to our first
words as a baby.
Oral communication is so important in more then just
the subject of language, it is a part of every subject, a part of a student’s
everyday life and their future endeavors in perusing their careers. We need to
make students confident in their communication skills so they become confident
reading out loud to their peers, speak in front of a group and communicate with
others on a daily basis. Like outlined in the OME, oral communication skills
are fundamental in the development of a student’s learning. Tied directly to
speaking is listening and being an active listener and respecting others and their
voice.
“Through
talk, students not only communicate information but also explore and come to
understand ideas and concepts; identify and solve problems organize their
experiences and knowledge and express and clarify their thoughts, feelings, and
opinions,”
When I reflect back on my experience in 8P24 with
Carol we built our communication and listening skills each class, we worked in
groups, shared our ideas through talk, expression and beliefs and without
subconsciously knowing we are working on improving this fundamental skill.
Collaborative group work is reliant on speaking and listening, presentations
work on a student’s confidence in front of a class and their speaking skills.
As educators we should continue to build on these
fundamental skills for our students, give them the opportunities throughout the
classroom working together to share ideas, work through word problems in math
and other subjects. Help build their public speaking skills first with small
groups and then progress them to bigger classroom discussions and
presentations.
As students work to become active listeners and
effective speakers it is imperative we ask them to reflect on their work and
performances, help them focus on their strengths and weaknesses and set goals
to improve themselves in this area of learning. This is outlined in the Ontario
Curriculum for us educators to include into our lesson planning and teaching
not just in language and other subjects but life skills as well.
“It also emphasizes the use of higher-order thinking
skills to stimulate student’s interest and engage them in their own learning.”
For my lesson
plan I decided to work with the Oral Communication strand because I enjoyed the
forum reading by Burek & Losos ‘Debate:
Where speaking & listening come first.’ When I first thought of oral communication I
thought of presentations, speeches and public speaking lesson plans. However
debates would also be a very fun and interactive lesson that would incorporate
a variety of skills students would be working towards improving such as:
- Speaking skills
- Becoming active listeners
- Developing ideas and delivering them orally
- Developing confidence to publicly speak in front of a group
- Working collaboratively with peers
- Learning to take initiative and build leadership skills
Debates are also a creative and effective way to
build lesson plans that can cross into other subject areas, for instance like
my lesson plan on the Parthenon Marbles and their whereabouts. Students will
research the Parthenon Marbles that have been a part of history for centuries (History)
that contribute to the learning of different art work and art pieces
(Art). I thoroughly enjoyed learning
about debates and their positive contribution to a student’s development of
oral communication skills.
To end something I really enjoyed from this past week
in literature was the video 13 Words, Lemony Snicket. It has definitely been
added to the resources toolkit for literature.
No comments:
Post a Comment