The Greate Debate: Teaching Oral Communication

Ontario's curriculum for language emphasizes the importance of oral communication skills. Based on what we've learned in class and heard anecdotally from classmates, this strand can sometimes be too easy to take for granted and is not always given the attention it deserves and requires.

I, like many of my classmates, remember addressing this strand through speeches. I particularly remember delivering speeches about topics that were important to me at the time - the Toronto Blue Jays and my favourite baseball player, Ty Cobb.  I can see the logic behind using speeches to address this strand. Students spent time speaking and they spent time listening, both important oral communication skills, but at the same time it got old quickly. I'm not saying I don't enjoy a good speech, but many of students became tired of hearing about the same classmate's summer trip to Myrtle Beach every year.

The most motivational speech ever?

I never thought debate could be used as a tool for teaching oral communication skills. I had always thought of it more as an exhibition of oral communication skills, that is until I read Debate: Where Speaking and Listening Come First by Dee Burek and Carol Losos.

Debate as a Learning Tool

Burek and Losos make a great case for using debate as a multidimensional learning tool. For starters, it really does reflect the inquiry-based teaching method. It requires students to research both sides of an argument and prepare their own position as well as prepare for the position of their opponents. There are aspects of both independent work and individual contributions as well as collaboration. Even though the debate itself is a product of much hard work, becoming a skilled debater is as much a process as the debate is product. Effective debating occurs when students can not only make their case effectively, but listen and respond to the points of their opponents.  The careful listening as well as fluidity of thought processing and effective speaking make no two debates alike.  This unpredictability has made for some memorable moments in U.S. political debates.

One of the main benefits to debating, as told by the authors, is the development of critical thinking skills that the student can take out of the classroom with them. They can learn to become effective questioners of information, effective researches, effectively structure and communicate their points of view and most importantly, develop effective listening skills.

Fear of Public Speaking

Going back to speeches in school for a moment, they were at best entertaining or informative, while at worst they exposed students' deadly fears of public speaking.  Fear of public speaking is a severely limiting factor to being an effective debater since most organized debates don't happen behind closed doors. Here and here are a couple resources to help students with any fear of public speaking they may have.

A former middle school debate champion? Clearly no fear of public speaking here...

Wrap Up

The benefits of using debate as a learning tool for the oral communication strand offer students the opportunity to develop a lifelong skill they can benefit from well beyond their classroom years.  Burek and Losos effectively tie in debate with inquiry-based learning and the development of critical thinking skills, linking them with the fundamental learning skills and work habits like collaboration, responsibility and initiative to reflect the content and performance standards of Ontario's language curriculum. 

So, when it comes to teaching the oral communication strand, whatchya gonna do?

The Practice of Effective Writing

The writing strand is described on page 12 and 13 of the Ontario Curriculum.  Described in the curriculum is the need for students to keep in mind the purpose for which they are writing and the audience they are writing for.  An overall expectation of the curriculum specifically requires students to "generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose".  The video resource below, courtesy of watchnknowlearn.org and youtube can be an effective tool for introducing students to the 5 main purposes that authors write for. In a catchy and straightforward way, this resource identifies and describes writing to entertain, describe, narrate, inform and persuade (EDNIP...no this is not a brand of catnip).

Entertain

Likely, students will be most able to relate to this purpose for writing through fiction.  Either as a result of their own initiative or by having someone read to them, students will encounter various examples of fiction in their short lives. The most obvious example is in the form of reading a novel.  A less obvious example might include the writing of scripts behind their favourite television shows or movies. In teaching writing for entertainment purposes, it is critical that students become familiar with the elements that make what makes an effectively entertaining written piece.  The following links can assist with identifying elements that make up an effective entertainment piece.  Once students have a firm grasp on these elements, how they are combined to produce an entertainment piece to use is free for the students to decide.

http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/writing/purpose-entertainment.html

https://anoveledit.com/writingtoentertain.html


Describe

Writing to describe has the objective of creating a clear picture of something in the mind of the reader.  The author uses detailed adjectives and adverbs as well as specific nouns and verbs to bring to life a character or scene for the reader. The idea is to appeal to the reader's senses so that what is being described becomes real to them.  This article from the New York Times published in 2012 entitled Your Brain on Fiction provides empirical evidence from the field of neuroscience about what goes on in the human brain as it reads descriptive writing.

Narrate

Narrative writing is the art of telling a story.  It combines the elements of character, setting, plot and conflict into a sequence in order to tell the story.  This type of writing is evident in written forms (novels, articles and biographies), spoken forms (speeches or songs) and visual forms (movies and television shows).   The video below provides a few quick tips to help anything you write or say that will help strengthen its narrative. 

Inform

Writing to inform involves providing the reader with objective facts.  This style of writing is intended to be impersonal and devoid of opinions. Preparing an informative piece of writing involves doing research.  The informational text can also be used as a source during the research process as well.  When writing to inform, it is essential that the facts are correct as incorrect facts can perpetuate false information.  Examples of writing to inform include encyclopedias, peer-reviewed research papers in academic journals and newspaper articles.

Licht, Mike. (2012). Britannica Bytes [Online Image].
Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/6995201897/

Persuade

When an author writes to persuade, they are trying to advance their point of view.  Different techniques can assist in this process, such as comparing and contrasting, hyperbole, using data to support their position, and many other styles.  The most foundational element of persuasive writing is for the author to determine their position and then begin to structure their discourse in an effective way to support it.

An example of effective persuasion

Putting It All Together

Ontario's curriculum goes on to state that "[students] need numerous opportunities to write...As they learn to select and organize their ideas, they must also keep in mind the purpose for which they are writing".  One way to effectively structure writing instruction is through the gradual release of responsibility.  This involves using the Inquiry Model Shared Collaborative Independent (IMSCI) model depicted and described below in a slightly varied form.  Instead of Collaborating, this visual uses Guiding as a heading and instead of Independent, they refer to Applying. Regardless of the title of the stage, what makes this visual effective is the description of what happens in each stage in relation to the student and teacher roles and degree of control.

Yisesliteracy. (20160. Gradual Release of Responsibility [Online Image].
Retrieved from https://yisesliteracy.wikispaces.com/Writing+to+Entertain

The IMSCI model is a great way to scaffold for writing instruction guiding students toward becoming independent and effective writers for any purpose.  Emphasis should be placed on providing students with many opportunities to write since this has been identified as an achilles heel of sorts in writing instruction.  Providing students with those opportunities affords them what all effective performers of any activities require in order to develop their craft and that is practice. Lots and lots of practice. Just ask Alan Iverson about the importance of practice.

Reading

Among the many goals of the reading strand beginning on page 10 in Ontario's language curriculum are to help students learn to read with understanding and to read critically.  Reciprocal teaching is an effective way to achieve these goals


What is Reciprocal Teaching?

Reciprocal teaching is a student-centered comprehension strategy that allows students to teach and learn from each other in small groups. The goal is for students to deepen their understanding of a particular text using four strategies:  questioning, clarifying, predicting and summarizing.  In addition to increasing comprehension, this strategy facilitates strong levels of student participation, communication and critical thinking.


 The Strategies

Summarizing:  Highlights key ideas in the section of the text being focused on.  If students were to read chapter one in a particular week, a summary of this chapter will highlight its key ideas or events. Students can enhance their ability to summarize by taking notes of the main events in the chapter as they read.

Questioning:  Asks questions about parts of the chapter that are unclear, confusing or can be connected to other areas of the novel or concepts previously learned.

Clarifying:  Attempts to answer questions asked in order to reduce confusion, clarify events and ideas in the text, and make connections between different areas of the text or concepts previously learned.

Predicting:  Make predictions about future events or information revealed in the text.


The Process


One way that reciprocal teaching can be implemented is by assigning roles to each student in the group.  One week a particular student will be the 'summarizer', another will take on the role of 'clarifier', another the 'questioner' and another the 'predictor'.  The student assigned to a respective role will be responsible for making those contributions. Students do not have to be limited to these roles, however.  Iif a student is a designated as clarifier for a particular week, he/she can still contribute predictions, ask questions or add key events to the summary. Each week or each time the group meets, students will rotate to a different role so that each student has the opportunity to experience and contribute from the perspective of a summarizer, questioner, clarifier and predictor.

Another way to implement the strategy of reciprocal teaching is to have one student be the 'teacher' in their group and assume all four roles as the summarizer, clarifier, questioner and predictor for that particular week.  The 'teacher' will first present their perspective on all four roles and then lead/facilitate discussion by soliciting contributions from the other students in the group.

In a slight variation on the second method, each student in the group can act as the 'teacher' every week and the group discussion can proceed by going around the circle with each student contributing their perspective on all four roles. As each 'teacher' presents, the other students may have their questions clarified, have ideas for new questions pop into their heads, enhance their understanding of the main events in the chapter and consider predictions that they had not previously thought about.  Once everyone has presented, discussion can proceed about ideas or information that still need to be clarified, new questions and predictions to be made.  In this method students will go into the group with their own ideas, develop new ideas while in the group and come out of it with new perspectives.


The Curriculum Connection

The curriculum states "reading is a complex process that involves the application of many strategies before,during, and after reading".  Reciprocal teaching is one strategy that encompasses each of these three stages.  Before reading, the reader makes predictions about the text by activating their background knowledge.  During reading, the reader keeps track of key events and develops questions about the text based on the content.  After reading, readers get together and discuss the text, which will serve to clarify  confusing aspects of it.

Reciprocal teaching is a way touch on a number of comprehension strategies such as predicting, questioning, drawing inferences, identifying main ideas and summarizing.  These strategies, in turn, facilitate the development of skills in order to analyze, synthesize, making connections and evaluate that are critical to becoming a strong reader.

Resources

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oXskcnb4RA

http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19765/

http://www.interventioncentral.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/pdfs_interventions/recip_teaching_1.pdf 

Media Studies

According to the Ontario curriculum for language , media studies looks at the art and messaging of various forms of media texts.  The curriculum describes media texts as any work, object or event that communicates meaning to an audience. So why should we take media studies seriously?

In an increasingly digital, commercial and mass communication era we are all agents in one way or another and are bombarded with messages, subtly or not, that influence us. It is only to our benefit and the benefit of our students that we and they are educated about how to recognize, question and interpret those messages intelligently and responsibly.  

I think this blog post by Mark Phillips at Edutopia would be a resources to use for teaching students about media studies because it offers them opportunities to view, understand, critically interpret and create media texts in progressive stages and in line with their developing knowledge of media literacy.  As a result and with teacher guidance, students can develop an important base of media literacy skills as outlined in the curriculum. Here, in more depth, is how I might specifically go about it:

 The Plan

Magritte, Renee. (1929). Ceci n'est pas une pipe.  [Online Image].
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MagrittePipe.jpg

I think the presentation of and discussion about Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe"
would be a great introduction and lead-off discussion to have in order to wrap students' heads around the concept of media studies. With teacher guidance, the main idea of the discussion would be that what we see in the media, on TV, in movies, etc. is not reality but rather a representation of reality. I would ask them to think about and give examples of situations or products they've seen on TV or in movies that is inconsistent with their experience in real life. 

Next, I would show some video clips that we would deconstruct as a class drawing attention to any music used, narration or dialogue, images and associations.  We would identify the media texts used and discuss what students thought the intended message of the clip was, how it made students feel and what they thought those media texts added to the overall message. Any type of commercial where athletes or celebrities are endorsing a product would be great material.  Sportswear products (Nike, Underarmour, Adidas) would be good for this purpose, as they try to communicate a certain attitude about their product.  Often times their position is that using their brand of sportswear will make you a better athlete.

I'm specifically reminded of Nike's "It's Gotta be the Shoes" commercial that begins with Spike Lee asking Michael Jordan what makes him the greatest player in the universe before going on insisting that "it's gotta be the shoes" with the implied message being that to be a better basketball player or to be like Michael Jordan it's as simple as going out and buying the Nike Air Jordan's.

 

This commercial from Rogers uses the emotion of the disappointing end to the 2015 playoff run to illicit feelings of hope and possibility for the upcoming 2016 season.

This political campaign commercial for Justin Trudeau uses a multitude of imagery, associations, narration, music, upwards camera angles to sell him to voters.

And of course any Rocky training montage would be a good example to deconstruct and show the transformation of Rocky into a ready for battle warrior.




A good thing to make students aware of as well would be product placement.

Following this portion of the lesson I would have the students create a written reflection of how they think they are or are not influenced by advertising.

As a final project for this unit, I would have the students create their own media product in groups.  It could be a commercial for an already existing product (eg. Gatorade), a scene, news report, print advertisement or web page with the intent to communicate a specific message. They are to use any combination of the following media texts to create their piece and communicate their message:  imagery, music/sound, narration/dialogue. They would provide a written report of what message they were trying to communicate, media texts they used and how they thought those media texts would contribute to their message.  The media products would be presented to the class and the rest of the class would individually need to deconstruct the product of one group that was not their own.

The Learning Outcome

This strategy would introduce and educate students about media studies.  It would give them opportunities to view, question, interpret professional media products, create their own media products as well as interpret  products created by other students as per the curriculum.  There are both collaborative and individual opportunities in this strategy. On the whole, it would provide students with theoretical and applied media literacy skills in an engaging way.