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.