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This blog has been set up to facilitate discussion among the participants in the March session of the Active Literacy Across the Curriculum in the Lakeville Area School District. Each blog is a discussion question for the group. Please respond with your reflections, as well as comments about others reflections.
8 comments:
How one "gives voice lessons" will vary somewhat with the subject. Science has numerous new terms making it similar to foreign languages. There are always going to be THREE WORDS that can help tie all of this together.
practice
Students need to have many chances to speak.
feedback
Students need to know what effect their words will have. Each student must know if others understand what he/she says. Further, each must know how he/she can improve their speaking and listening. Finally, the feedback needs to be useful and constructive. What worked for a student, and how can each student improve. Students learning to speak like those learning to gain other skills must not be afraid to fail. They may need to"fail" (not the grade - but in the sense of not being truly effective in sharing an idea.) many times before their skill improve.
repeat
If at first a student does not have the result that he/she desires, the student needs to try again. Anything, including sharing ideas must be practiced. Each one must be brave enough to continue to try and to improve.
I liked your 3 words. Mine were somewhat similar: Vocalize -- Evaluate/feedback -- Empower. I am still not quite sure how this system works with our minimally motivated (or low self-esteem) students. They tend to give up much too early in the process. for students who are motivated or can handle the "risk," this vocalizing can be a powerful tool.
Heather Leier: My three words were "opportunities," "assessment," and "confidence." I found this strategy to be difficult to digest. As an English teacher, obviously correct grammar is important to me, but I never thought about assessing the students' speech as part of the class. I'm not sure how that would look. I'm not sure how I would teach that and assess it. I need to do more thinking about this...
Elaine says:
Like Heather I never thought of teaching speech as part of other classes. It is yet another tool we must help students develop in order to excel in our fast-paced world.
While writing is emphasized in curriculum and assessment, a large percentage of everyday communication is still accomplished orally. We cannot expect our students to learn speaking/listening skills through unstructured experiences anymore than we would expect them to learn other subjects.
The three words that sum up this chapter for me are:
solo: speaking in an articulate, appropriate way for the audience; understanding social expectations & norms.
harmony: learning to be part of a discussion without dominating the exchange; being prepared to present an idea that may not be supported by others and defending it; learning to listen to what others have to say; challenging ideas when appropriate.
rehearsal: having the opportunity to practice these new skills many times in a place where making a mistake is a learning opportunity rather than a point of ridicule. (Easier said than done.)
This chapter reminded me of three words my choir director taught our church choir:
Practice Makes Permanent
How often do we allow improper grammar because it was spoken instead of written communication? Do we have accepted standards for oral communication? Do we give a higher grade to someone with excellent verbal communication skills? Outside of speech class, do we even grade the quality of oral communication, outside of its content? Have we just been beaten down by the low standard of English we hear on radio and TV that we do not set high enough standards for our students?
I like all of the words people have used...mine are integrate, integrate and integrate.
I am speaking from a secondary perspective...Students come from the elementary sites to our middle and high schools from basically an integrated setting. Elementary teachers use social studies and science reading (and other areas) to illustrate and teach reading and writing. Then students get to middles and they are supposed to be part of a team, but the teachers (not all, but a good majority) are separated into disciplines and teach most of their content in isolation. The high schools have large staff that ARE independent contractors. The silos might chat and plan with each other, but all and all each teacher does whatever they feel is right for their students.
The most significant concept from this book, in my mind, is that we all need to figure out how we can break the isolationism. Kids go from island to island, but are starving for teachers to pull their content together...someone needs to take that first step in our secondary sites to tackle this monster.
I still like my three words. They would work for almost any area of experise. That would include writing. Students need to be confident enough to work on improving.
My three words that are associated with voice would be listen, understand, and reflect. Math problems can be difficult, but to solve them you must first hear and understand the question, then come up with a plan to solve. This is usually where my students stop working. After you find an answer, you have to reflect on that answer and see if it even makes sense in the situation. After taking the seminar and reading this book during the winter I tried a few "voice lessons" with my class. Complicated words I had them repeat like a spanish teacher. We also tried singing a few songs to help us remember formulas. Forcing students to communicate really helped their understanding of the questions.
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