6.+Communication

< Back //**6.**// **COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLE** //**:**// //The teacher candidate understands the key role played by language in teaching and learning. The teacher candidate uses knowledge of effective verbal, non-verbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.// //**6.1. Candidates understand the role of language in teaching and learning.**// In conventional classrooms, teachers stand up at the front of the room trying to verbally transport knowledge from their minds to the students. However, it is important for a teacher to realize that “…dialogue [is] at the heart of learning, and that teachers and students should participate in dialogic discourse if meaningful learning [is] to occur…In this model, students and teachers are partners in the learning process, rather than participating in hierarchical models of power” (p. 41). Larson and Marsh emphasize the importance of having a two-way conversion between teachers and students rather than simply a one-way conversation. In order for students to be able to learn and understand, teachers must work with the students, engaging them in thoughtful conversations that get them thinking critically about the information that has been presented to them (6.1.a). In EDU 486, I wrote about how this type of communication, "science talk" is so very important for students to learn so that they can explain themselves and learn how to reason and present their scientific ideas and opinions (6.1.a.a). In my teaching I believed I became very strong with my questioning skills, which my observers agreed with, as I was able to pose questions that got students thinking deeper into their procedures or ideas, strengthening their critical thinking skills and being able to articulate their ideas and support their thoughts with strong reasons or evidence. The students need to feel ownership of their own learning, so that they are given authority, which can then make what they are learning quite meaningful to them. It is important that teachers involve students in their learning, working with them in a partnered process to help them achieve.  Many would only consider a narrow set of practices, reading and writing, as a way to define literacy. However, literacy envelopes a wide array of practices and discourses. It is important to view “children as critical agents who bring to the classroom a wealth of critical insights on their world and who do not need to acquire a set of print-based literacy skills and knowledge before they can engage in critical literacy practices” (Larson and Marsh, 2005, p. 47). In a science classroom, literacy can involve the use of models, collaborative discussions, as well as reading passages and other literacy events. However, these practices are often excluded from the common definition of literacy. I consider literacy to be any means by which knowledge, or information, is exchanged and/or obtained (Gee, 1999; Street, 1995; and Rogoff, 2003), as cited in Larson and Marsh (2005). Because the knowledge required to participate in different contexts varies, there are multiple forms of literacy. For example, scientific literacy looks much different than video game literacy, because the skills, concepts, and basic knowledge needed to involve oneself in each practice are quite different. In other words, literacy is socially constructed and being literate varies depending on the context. With this definition of literacy, the possibilities for incorporating literacy into any subject area seem endless. In EDU 487, I wrote an annotated bibliography that presented summaries of articles that talked about how to use literacy in the chemistry classroom (6.1.b). Reading these articles gave me ideas of how to introduce students to scientific community, as well as discussing and exploring different concepts within a community of learners.  In order for learning to take place and for teachers to know that learning has taken place, there has to be effective communication by the teacher and student. It is important that teachers provide students with various opportunities to engage in different forms of literacy in order to enhance their understanding of different topics as well as convey that understanding. //**6.2. Candidates are familiar with and proficient in a wide variety of modes and vehicles for communication that can support learning and inquiry for all students.**//  In EDU 498, we learned how many different forms of literacy exist and how teachers can engage students in all different types of media and literacy. Students have different strengths and teachers therefore must communicate them in different ways to meet those preferences of all learners. All students are different in the ways that they learn, the accommodations that they need, or simply their preferences in instruction and assessment. In a final paper for this same class, a group of peers and I analyzed a video of a science lesson and did a critical analysis of the modes of literacy that the teacher used (6.2.a). We then did research to support those modes of literacy and convey how and why they did or did not provide a sufficient means for students to learn and understand science. Due to the multiple intelligences theory, students range in their preferences for different learning activities or experiences, and it is therefore up to the teacher to provide them with opportunities where they can engage in their preferred style of learning. Some students are auditory learners, other are kinesthetic, visual, and so forth. Knowing this, it is important that I was able to get to know all of my students so I could focus on which forms to implement in my instruction so that I was catering towards every student’s needs and providing them with effective instructional strategies. It is crucial for teachers to implement student-centered approaches to enable students to become more actively involved in their own learning. The use of scientific literacy allows for effective learning in science classrooms. Whether it is the creation of models, concept maps, discussion groups, forming hypotheses, testing their own ideas, reflective writing, or hands-on activities, students are given the opportunity to take part in their learning and evaluate the way they think. The approaches that teachers take in the classroom can ultimately determine whether or not students are understanding what they are exploring. By applying abstract concepts to concrete ideas and demonstrations, as well as helping students discover the relevance of science and develop and interest, teachers show they care about the students as learners. Another way to show we care as well as a way to get them engaged and involved in their own learning is to have an interactive classroom where the communication is dialogic (6.2.b). It is important for a teacher to take the time to listen to the students ideas and opinions and creating that two-way communication. Using a different communication approach such as being non-interactive and authoritative results in formal lecture where students are not enabled to have the constructive back and forth communication that forms their questions and understandings. In order to make ideas accessible to all students and foster inquiry, in many of my lesson plans I presented students with ideas in various forms of literacy. In some of my lesson plans I would use youtube videos to allow students to watch processes occur, such as Rutherford’s God Foil Experiment. Some students benefit from being able to see what happens rather than just hear it (6.2.c). Students also used predict, observe, explain charts when they watched demonstrations, like with the Van de Graaff generator or cathode ray tube and were asked questions about what they thought would happen and were encouraged to share (6.2.d). Other technologies that offer spaces for commnunities of learners are also a great addition to the classroom. These include blogging, which I took part in throughout the science methods courses, and we even developed a blog with our students in camp, where our team, the Charlotte Crusaders, were able to share their findings from each day (6.2.e). I also incorporated video conferencing into lessons in STARS allowing the students in different half teams to share their ideas and findings with one another (6.2.f). Providing these spaces for discussion and social constructivism, gave students the opportunity to delve into inquiry, and seeing different perspectives and critically analyzing different standpoints and information to form conclusions on their investigations of interest. I think scientific inquiry should become an everyday component of lessons in science classrooms, no matter the age of the students. So much research has been done that identifies the positive outcomes of student learning when these student-centered approaches are used. Therefore, it is important that teachers have the knowledge and training of how to incorporate inquiry and literacy into their classrooms so that the students can get the science education that they all deserve. It happens all too often that students are unmotivated to learn because they do not understand how concepts can apply to reality, when they do not even make any sense to them in the first place. Science is an extraordinary field and every student should be given the opportunity to explore fascinating topics, take part in critical thinking, and come up with their own ideas, experiments, and conclusions about the world around them. //**6.3. Candidates are able to use effectively a variety of modes of communication to make ideas accessible to all students and foster inquiry.**//  During camp, we encouraged the students to reflect on each day by sharing their experiences and growth with us through video interviews. This was able to give students time to reflect in ways that did not require writing, which helped them quickly organize and articulate their thoughts. On the first day of camp we also had the students initially explore the beach to with iFlips. The students narrated as they filmed different scenes, objects and evidence that supported their idea that the beach was polluted. The students were later able to revisit these videos together to compile what they had found, which later was used to develop their testable question. The testable question itself was something that was difficult to create with the students. After trying to pose questions to get them to formulate different testable questions, we were unsuccessful. Even simply analyzing and altering our own form of verbal communication was effective. As teachers, we realized that how we were trying to communicate ideas was not working, so we came up with another approach to get students breaking apart their ideas to adhere different thoughts together that when constructed, resulted with a well structured testable question.  During my lessons at East High School I had students who all learned in very different ways. I used the SmartBoard everyday where the students could practice problems or simply refer back to the agenda that was written down. The SmartBoard allowed us to visit different relevant websites as well as visit Youtube to provide students with visual representations of concepts such as Rutherford’s Gold Foil experiment and how covalent and ionic bonding work (6.3.a). Laboratories were also introduced to the class verbally, with directions being provided to the class in their own lab packets in text and pictures. Students would also have the opportunity to watch me or a classmate model parts of the lab. Modeling was another way we communicated ideas and representations of ideas. During camp, we helped the students survey the beach and create a model of the beach using GoogleEarth that would represent their areas of investigation that supported their testable question. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At School Without Walls, in one lesson on adaptation we had students look at pictures that conveyed information about specific animals at different table stations, and along with each picture (6.3.b). This gave students the opportunity to discuss with a peer, building off one another’s ideas, as well as refer to the written text of the question and compare it to the visual photograph that was provided at the station. Students were then given the opportunity in other lessons to share their ideas with the class through raps, drawings, skits, posters, comics, letters, etc (6.3.c). By incorporating a variety of different media and forms of communication into each lesson, students were able to use different perspectives to engage in inquiry and critical thought as they learned and explored different concepts. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//**6.4. Candidates construct curriculum activities that incorporate oral, written, visual, and electronic texts as tools for interaction and communication across multiple contexts, and that facilitate all students’ critical analysis of such texts.**// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> During STARS, our team developed lesson plans that gave students the opportunity to video chat with their half team of girls that was at another school. In doing so, they had to work together as a small group to process and organize their ideas and findings before presenting it to another group through the internet. Students were able to share their ideas verbally as well as through data charts, graphs and materials that helped support their explanations to the other half team (6.4.a). During STARS, some lessons also incorporated students reading news articles and comparing it to maps to decipher and explain with each other where the most pollution was occurring in the country (6.4.b). Students also verbally explained their ideas and opinions through video interviews at the end of the after school program which were then used for clips in a movie. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In STARS and at SWW, students also were required to take an online quiz at ecofoot.org where they had to read through the website and answer questions about their daily behaviors to determine their daily impact on the Earth. Students also represented their behaviors not through words or text, but through small stickers that they posted to a large concept map on the way that represented the “Blue Team’s Daily Footprint” on the environment (6.4.c). Through the uses of these electronic and concrete written and visual materials, students were able to take different views of text and analyze them with peers to deconstruct their meaning and generate their own questions and thoughts. Students were also asked to analyze different types of graphs, create their own graph of choice that was best able to reflect their data, and then verbally present it to the class. For some students, the daily packets that guided them through deciding on a testable question, what materials they would need, and a procedure, were difficult to read. In order to help with this, text font was enlarged and broken up into different sections/paragraphs to make the sections of text smaller and less intimidating, allowing students to focus on parts individually. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> My innovative unit at East High also required students to work together to read through general lab procedures on acid rain affecting immitation lakes that they constructed, create their own supplemental procedures, and then be able to gather data on their own. The data that was gathered required them to be able to know how to work and interpret the language and numbers on Vernier LabQuests. After gathering data, they then had to communicate their information and findings through graphs and be able to explain it to the class (6.4.d). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Additionally, during camp the students were constantly reviewing their own data and coming up with ideas and conclusions that they wanted to be able to share publicly. To do so, we helped the students begin their own blog that kept people up-to-date on the Charlotte Crusader’s beach investigation. At the end of camp, students also took part in a lesson that focused on created a poster board and powerpoint from which to share their findings. Using these different effective methods for communication, students were able to constantly use language in different ways to learn and critically analyze information to help support their own ideas and opinions, as well as use those forms to share their own ideas with others in different representations. || Rutherford's Gold foil youtube (lesson plan) || [|DSC00412_2.JPG] || Van de Graaff POE ||
 * Evidence # || Embedded or Linked Object || Description ||
 * 6.1.a || [[file:20090910-EDU498CritCom1-MSaunders.doc]] || EDU 498 Importance of Language and Communication in education ||
 * 6.1.a.a || [[file:20090720-EDU486CritCommentary4-MSaunders.doc]] || EDU 486 "Science Talk" Critical Commentary ||
 * 6.1.b || [[file:20090625-AnnotatedBibliography-MSaunders.doc]] || EDU 487 Annotated Bibliography ||
 * 6.2.a || [[file:20091127-EDU498FinalPaper-MSaunders.doc]] || EDU 498 Final paper ||
 * 6.2.b || [[file:448talkcommunication.pdf]] || EDU 448 Talk the Talk ||
 * 6.2.c || <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px;">[]
 * 6.2.d || [[file:20100319-EastHighObs2.ActivityPacket-MSaunders (3).doc]]
 * 6.2.e || [] || My blog ||
 * 6.2.f || [|DSC07459.JPG] || STARS Video Conferencing ||
 * 6.3.a || [] || Rutherford's Gold foil youtube (lesson plan) ||
 * 6.3.b || [|DSC00568.JPG] || SWW Adaptations ||
 * 6.3.c || media type="file" key="MOV07552.MPG" width="300" height="300" || Student choice assessment- rap ||
 * 6.4.a || [|DSC07459.JPG] || STARS Video Conferencing ||
 * 6.4.b || [[file:stars news article and maps.doc]] || STARS News Article and Maps ||
 * 6.4.c || [|DSC07434.JPG] || Blue Team's Daily Footprint ||
 * 6.4.d || [|DSC00568.JPG] || East high Acid Rain presentations ||

References

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 11px;">Gee, J. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York: Routledge.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 11px;">Larson, J. & Marsh, J. (2005). Making literacy real: Theories and practices for learning and teaching. Sage: London.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 11px;">Street, B. (1995). // Social literacies //. London: Longman.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Rogoff, B. (1994). Developing understanding of the idea of communities of learners. //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Mind, Culture, and Activity //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">, //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1 //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">(4), 209-229.

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