Oral Communication: Promoting Effective Public Speaking

In today's digital age, there is a tendency to focus on electronic communication as we use platforms such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, text messaging, emails, and many other forms of electronic communication to share our information, thoughts, and ideas. While it is certainly important for our students to learn how to communicate effectively using a variety of communication technology, the critical skill of oral communication must not fall by the wayside.

As the Ontario Language Curriculum discusses, oral communication skills are "fundamental to the development of literacy and essential for thinking and learning" as they allow student to communicate information, understand concepts and ideas, and express and clarify their thoughts, feelings, and opinions (p. 9). Our students need to learn how to effectively communicate their information, thoughts, and ideas through speech. This blog will consider how we can help our students in the junior and intermediate grades to understand how to communicate effectively through public speaking with a particular focus on how they can use their voices and their bodies to convey meaning as they speak.


The Importance of Public Speaking 

In his article Why We Still Need Public Speaking, Jordan Catapano emphasizes how the development of public speaking skills still remains very relevant to the daily lives of our students. While not every student may pursue a job or a hobby that requires them to give a speech in front of a mass audience, every student will have opportunities where they will want to speak comfortably and confidently in front of others whether that be their friends and family members or their boss and co-workers. By understanding the different aspects of public speaking such as eye contact, tone, volume, speed, inflection, and gestures, "students will become more powerful communicators in all aspects of live communication."

Our Voices as Toolboxes

In his TED Talk entitled "How to speak so that people will want to listen", Julian Treasure describes our voices as a toolbox that is filled with different tools which we can use to capture the interest of our audience and to convey meaning. Four of the tools he discusses are prosody, pace, pitch, and volume. For example, we can slow down the pace of our speech and strategically insert silent pauses in order to emphasize certain points. With regards to volume, we can cause our audience to listen more carefully if we vary our volume and strategically use soft and loud speech to emphasize key points or convey our emotions.

TED. (2014, June 27) "How to speak so that people will want to listen."
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIho2S0ZahI

One way to help my students understand the strategies of prosody, pace, pitch, and volume in public speaking would be to model these strategies so that my students could see and experience the powerful effect that these speaking strategies have on an audience. I could recount a short story of an exciting event that recently happened at the school. The first time I told the story, I would speak in a monotone voice and would use the same pitch, pace, and volume throughout the story. Each successive time I told the story, I would vary one feature of my voice. The final time I told the story, all of the voice strategies would be incorporated. Afterwards, we could discuss as a group how much more meaningful and interesting the story was for the students when I used the different tools in my vocal toolkit.

Our Bodies as Instruments 

It is also important for students to understand how their bodies act as instruments in conveying messages when they engage in public speaking. In order to emphasize this point to my students, I could show them the infographic created by Rebekah Radice which offers ten body language tips for confident, effective, and meaningful communication.

In order to make this concept of body language more concrete for my students, I would develop stations where students could focus on practicing one or two of the body language tips in the infographic. For example, one station would focus on maintaining eye contact with the audience while another station would focus on using gestures to engage the audience and add emphasis to key points in the message.


Connections to the Ontario Curriculum 

These resources and activities which focus on how to use our voices and bodies when we communicate orally correspond well to the Ontario Language Curriculum. The second overall expectation of the Oral Communication strand is for students to "use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes" (p. 9). The body language and vocal strategies that students learn and practice will help students to understand how to keep their audience engaged and how to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and messages with confidence and clarity.

Writing: Promoting Effective Revising and Editing

Writing is a powerful process for students as it encourages them to clarify their thinking and to organize and express their thoughts and feelings. A key stage of effective writing is revising and editing in order to ensure that the text’s message is clear and polished. During my experiences as a volunteer in various elementary school classrooms, I have noticed that it is common for students to struggle with editing and revising their work. This blog post will consider different strategies and resources for helping students to become effective revisers and editors of their writing. While revising and editing are important skills for all students, the strategies in this blog post are particularly beneficial for students in Grades 4-8.


Understanding the Difference between Revising and Editing

Teachers Pay Teachers.

Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2f1s4zt.

In 4 Strategies for Teaching Students How to Revise, Rebecca Alber discusses the importance of “honouring the revision stage.” Teachers will often combine revising and editing which can confuse students and create a misconception that revising and editing are the same thing or that they only need to edit their work. As teachers, we need to help our students to understand that revising and editing are two different processes that are both critical in the effective writing process.

A helpful way for students to understand the difference between revising and editing is to use the short and catchy acronyms ARMS (for revising) and CUPS (for editing) as outlined in the anchor chart on the right from Teachers Pay Teachers. Students who look at the poster can see how revising involves making changes to the text in order to improve its meaning such as by expanding on an idea or substituting bland words for more rich and descriptive words. As the chart demonstrates, editing involves reviewing the text to correct any surface errors such as capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. This chart, therefore, would be helpful for my students as it provides them with a reference of what the different aspects of revising and editing are and what they need to look for when they are in these stages of the writing process.


Strategies for Revising

Revision Stations 
In their blog post 5 Peer Conferencing Strategies That Actually Work, We Are Teachers discuss the idea of revising stations where each station focuses on a different aspect of the revising process. For example, I could set up five revision stations in my class: Word Choice, Ideas and Content, Organization, Sentence Fluency, and Voice. Each station would have a card that offered the students prompts to guide them as they revised their work. For example, a prompt at the Sentence Fluency station might be: Did you use transition words to start your sentences? This focus on one aspect of revising at each station helps students to feel less overwhelmed and encourages them to practice methodically and thoroughly revising their text.

We Are Teachers.

Image retrieved from http://bit.ly/2ei3JpN.

Neon Revision 
Another strategy that We Are Teachers suggests to make revising more meaningful and engaging for students is neon revision. In neon revision, students use different coloured highlighters to focus on different aspects of the text. For example, my students could use blue to highlight all the verbs in their text to see whether they have used active, precise verbs. They could then use pink to highlight all the adjectives in their text to see whether they have used rich, descriptive adjectives.


Strategies for Editing

Checklists
In order to help my students become effective editors, I can provide them with a checklist to guide them as they edit their text. Checklists can make the process of editing seem less overwhelming for students as they break down the overall process of editing into more specific categories and manageable steps. The child is able to work through the editing process in a systematic way as they cross off each aspect of the editing process.

The Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer-Editing from ReadWriteThink is particularly helpful for students in two ways. First, it ensures that the student also has a peer edit their work. This peer might catch mistakes that the author did not notice during their self-edit and can provide the author with helpful comments and constructive feedback. Second, by personalizing the editing statements for the self-edit section, it encourages students to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility for their work.


Connections to the Ontario Curriculum

Helping students to become effective revisers and editors corresponds well to the Ontario Language Curriculum as revising and editing are two stages in the recursive writing process outlined in the curriculum. The second overall expectation of the Writing strand is to “draft and revise their writing, using a variety of informational, literary, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience.” The third overall expectation is to “use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively.” By teaching my students how to revise and edit their work, I can empower them to become effective writers who purposefully and meaningfully communicate their thoughts.

Reading: Enhancing Fluency and Encouraging Critical Thinking through Shared Reading

As an educator, one of my key goals in language and literacy is to help my students develop the knowledge and skills to become effective readers. What is an effective reader? As the Ontario Language Curriculum discusses, an effective reader is one who is “able to think clearly, creatively, and critically” about the information and ideas presented in a text and “to recognize their relevance in other contexts” (p. 10). In this blog, I will focus on how shared reading is a valuable instructional strategy that helps students to develop their fluency and critical thinking skills.

What is Shared Reading?

Wisconsin Watch. (2009, September). Online [Photo].
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2e6FD2D. 

As the Ministry of Education’s A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction outlines, shared reading is when the teacher instructs students in the use of a reading strategy as they read and work through the text together. The teacher typically presents an enlarged copy of the text to students, for example, in big-book format or through the use of an overhead projector. 

While the teacher is the primary reader, the students assume some responsibility of the text as they actively participate by reading portions of the text and working together to discuss and analyse the text. For example, the students might join in to read the repetitive phrases in the text or they may read the lines of a certain character in the books. Throughout the reading, the teacher pauses at strategic points to ask various questions that promote reading comprehension and critical thinking. While it is typically used in the primary and junior grades, the strategy of shared reading is a valuable tool for any grade level as it encourages students to develop and practice the skills necessary for independent reading. For example, a high school class could use shared reading to analyse a scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays.

Key differences between reading aloud and shared reading.
Abrams Learning Trends. Online [Image]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2ekFcPF.

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What Reading Skills Can Be Developed through Shared Reading?

Education.com, Inc. (2014, May). Online [Image]

Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1SJYICf

Fluency

When I read aloud in shared reading, I am able to model for my students how to read a text fluently and with expression. My students then have the opportunity to practice this skill as a group when they read their portion of the text.

In his book Reasons to Teach Children to Read Aloud, Keith Polette emphasizes the importance of oral reading in improving reading fluency as it provides students with the opportunity to practice using cues to recognize words and reading with a high percentage of accuracy. As the student reads aloud with their peers, they are able to monitor their own voice to hear whether what they are reading makes sense and sounds fluent. This development of fluency corresponds well to the curriculum as the third expectation of the Reading strand is that students will be able to use their knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently.

Critical Thinking

During shared reading, I can use prompts to encourage my students to develop their critical thinking skills. It is important that my students learn how to analyse what message is being presented and how it is constructed. As we work through the text, I would pause periodically to ask my students various questions that encourage them to make predictions and draw inferences.

For example, I could ask my students to make a prediction about the book based on its title page and to explain what clues they used to make that prediction. As we read the text, I might ask students why a certain illustration was used and what meaning it is meant to convey. I might also ask students to consider how the author’s choice of vocabulary or imagery contributes to the meaning of the story. This promotion of critical thinking corresponds well to the curriculum as the second expectation of the Reading strand is that students will be able to recognize various text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and understand how they are used by the author to communicate meaning.  

How Can We Integrate Technology in Shared Reading?

As a teacher in the digital age, I want to embrace technology in education and use it to enhance my students' learning experience. For shared reading, therefore, I would choose to display the text using a LCD projector or a Smart Board as this would allow students to easily interact with the text by creating digital annotations.

In his article "Do Your Students Read Critically?", Ben Johnson discusses how actions such as highlighting words, underlining phrases, and writing notes in the text’s margin are helpful steps for students as they critically analyze a text. Technology allows students to digitally annotate the text and to share this critical thinking with their classmates in a more visible way as everyone can see the text on a large screen. During shared reading, therefore, I would encourage my students to use the digital tools available to underline repetitive words or phrases, highlight rich vocabulary, or draw arrows to certain features or stylistic elements of the text that they think are important for communicating meaning.

Scholastic Inc. (2012, April). Online [Photo].
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2dVVIc5.

Media Literacy: Teaching Critical Thinking with Campaign Commercials

MiddleWeb. (2016, July). Online [Image].
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2ecmHfU.

In this digital age, media has become an integral part of our lives. Surveys in 2014 and 2015 reveal that 98% of Canadian households own at least one TV, that over 25 million Canadians watch videos online each month, and that 19.7 million Canadians own smart phones.[1] Given the fact that media consumption is so prevalent in their everyday lives, it is essential that students develop an ability to understand, create, and critically interpret media texts. As a teacher, I want to ensure that my students are active, analytical learners and creators of media rather than passive consumers. In this blog post, I will explore how campaign commercials serve as rich media texts that offer students a tremendous opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills as they analyze how campaign commercials are constructed and why they are produced.

Why Study Campaign Commercials? 

During an election season, students will likely hear or see campaign commercials frequently while listening to the radio or watching television.In her blog post entitled Social Media Literacy: The Five Key Concepts, Stacey Goodman discusses how all media messages are constructed with embedded values and points of view and have the potential to shape our perception of reality. It is important, therefore, for students to understand the danger of passively accepting information presented in campaign commercials as truth. My students are future voters and my hope is that, by analyzing campaign commercials, they will learn that being a critical-thinking, informed voter is an important aspect of responsible citizenship.

Analyzing Political Advertisements

In his blog post on MiddleWeb entitled Campaign Ads: Helping Students Find the Truth, Frank Weber emphasizes the educational value of dissecting campaign commercials as students develop their critical thinking skills by analyzing not only the message being presented to viewers but also the tools and techniques used to present this message. He highlights six key elements of campaign advertisements that students should consider when viewing this media text: the type of advertisement, the targeted audience, the key images, the sounds, the themes, and the words. 

In order to incorporate Weber’s idea of analyzing campaign advertisements into the classroom, I would choose two campaign commercials, one from each of the leading political parties, to show the students. If I were teaching this lesson this year, I might choose two advertisements from the current U.S. elections, or I could choose the following two advertisements from Canada's federal election last year in order to place the lesson in a Canadian context. 

CPCPCC. (2015, May 25). The Interview.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c86-9HitWg0

Liberal Video. (2015, Oct. 9). Real Change Now!
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD5FAzvltpI

Given the fact that there are six different elements to analyze when viewing political advertisements, I would use the jigsaw method to encourage collaboration and discussion. Students would be divided into groups of six and each group member would be assigned one element to analyze when viewing the advertisements. For example, students who were assigned the words would consider how the use of language, word choice, and tone of voice used in the advertisement convey a certain message while students who were assigned the key images would consider how visual images such as clothing and prominent colours contribute to the overall message of the advertisement. Students would then share and discuss their analysis of their respective element with their group members in order to piece together a larger understanding of how and why a certain message was presented in each of the commercials. 

Once the students have finished discussing the campaign commercials in their groups of six, I would facilitate a large class discussion where students could share and compare their thoughts and perceptions with their fellow peers. During this large group session, I would also ask the students which commercial they found more effective or convincing and why. After this discussion, I would give each group the task of creating their own thirty-second campaign commercial in order to apply what they learned in their analysis of the advertisements.

Connections to the Ontario Curriculum

This activity of dissecting and analyzing campaign commercials fits well with the expectations outlined in the Media Literacy section of the Ontario Language Curriculum. The curriculum discusses how students should be able to understand and critically evaluate media texts, analyze how images, sound, and words are used to create meaning, and explore the use and significance of particular conventions and techniques.[2] As students watch and dissect the campaign commercials, their task is to critically interpret the media text in order to see how the message is constructed. Students consider who the creator and intended audience of the advertisement are and how this influences the message. They also consider how the clothing, music, and words of the commercials convey a certain message and how the use of conventions and techniques such as camera angles and lighting are intended to influence the audience. The students then apply the knowledge and skills gained through this analysis when they create their own campaign commercials. Thus, campaign commercials are a rich resource as students are able to develop the skill of critically interpreting what the message of the media text is and how it is conveyed.

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[1] Canadian Media Sales. Canadian Media Statistics. Retrieved from http://canmediasales.com/canada-101/canadian-media-stats/. 

[2] Ministry of Education. Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8: Language. 2006.