Blog Post 4: Oral Communication

Hello Everyone!

Katic, K, 2015©. Gourmet Food and Wine Expo, Toronto.

I cannot believe it is almost the end of the semester, it feels like just last week that we all began our journey at Brock, and here we are, the holidays are coming quickly! There are plenty of assignments and lesson plans that need to be addressed, however, for me, I have much to look forward to this holiday season; amazing memories created with my family, wholesome food, and yes, great wine. I was fortunate enough to take a study break today to visit my cousin, Jesse Parent, play at the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo in Toronto. Be sure to check out his music if you are into soulful, feel good country-blues! Needless to say that good family time with great food and wine helps to inspire everyone to get through the cold Canadian winters!

For the final blog post this semester, I will be discussing the importance of Oral Communication, and how all 4 strands of the Language Curriculum are so important and interconnected to one another.

Treasure, Julian (2015). Ted Talks. 

The first resource that I discovered that is truly amazing is a Ted Talks, 5 Ways to Listen Better, by Julian Treasure. He is a huge advocate for teaching people how to truly listen better, if you have the time I highly recommend it, it's really worth the watch. He provides an incredible amount of information within the 8 minute video. So where am I going with this? Well, I believe that to be a more effective oral communicator, one has to be a very effective listener, after all, if we cannot listen and internalize information, we cannot be expected to communicate effectively. My grandfather once a very old proverb by Epictetus, a Greek Philosopher who lived 55 to 135AD, "We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak". This, in essence, is what Treasure is trying to convey to the audience as well as therapeutic techniques for how to listen better. We have so much ambient noise around us on a daily basis, and it is important to learn how to listen to information and the world not harder, but smarter.

As such, now that I have stated my opinion on how important it is to be an effective listener, let me disclose by saying that personally, I am not a huge fan of debates, and while they are a very effective way to demonstrate student's oral communication skills, I find them to be highly stressful and quite honestly stress inducing. However, they are truly a fantastic way to evaluate your students, even if they are not consistently participating orally. However, debates are crucial for students to reap the benefits that come along with being great debaters, as naturally extroverted students become better listeners, naturally introverted students become more confident, ELL students become exposed to new vocabulary, students who are bored with the Curriculum become more engaged, and fundamentally every student at every stage can benefit in some way, shape or form from debates in the classroom. It is important to remember that even though some students truly hate the idea of debates (such as myself when I am in my student role), it is really up to the teacher to create a positive classroom environment and then selecting interesting topics for their students.

CBS, 2015. The Photo Ark

Keeping with the theme of oral communication in the Ontario Curriculum, I discovered this amazing resource, titled The Photo Ark: Preserving Species Before They Disappear, and within this video, it discusses a multitude of important issues we need to discuss with our students. This video addresses a project conducted by National Geographic Photographer Joel Satore, and he is essentially creating a visual database of (critically) endangered species. He is thus embarking on a mission to engage young students with his project, as he believes that engaging these young minds with such an important aspect of our lives will help change the future.

The reason I adore this resource is because it can be used in a multitude of ways in the classroom, and it can easily address the Oral Communication component from the Curriculum. In my Professional Learning Conversation in Language Class, I discuss a variety of ways that this resource can be referenced cross-curricularly with geography, science and the arts. It is important to be able to discuss important and relevant issues with our students to make them aware, informed and critically analytical citizens.

Thank you to everyone who has read my blog posts so far, it has been a really interesting experience reflecting on the four strands of the Ontario Language Curriculum: Media Literacy, Written, Reading, and Oral Communication. I am very much looking forward to embarking on my new journey as a new teacher, and guaranteed I will utilize all of the resources I have learned about in this course. Stay warm during this holiday season!

References
BrainyQuote (2015). Epictetus Quote. We have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak. Retrieved http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/epictetus106298.html
CBS News (November 15 2015). ThePhoto Ark: Preserving Species Before They Disappear. CBS News Sunday Morning. Retrieved http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-photo-ark-preserving-species-before-they-disappear/ 
Gourmet Food and Wine Expo (2015). Gourmet Food and Wine Expo. Retrieved http://www.foodandwineexpo.ca/sitepages/ 
Jesse Parent (2015). Jesse Parent Music. Retrieved http://www.jesseparentmusic.com/ 
The Ontario Language Curriculum (2006). The Government of Ontario. https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf
Treasure, Julian (2015). 5 Ways to Listen Better. Ted Talks. Retrieved https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better?language=en

Blog Post 3: Reading Literacy

Hi Everyone,

Katic, K. (C) (2014). My sister and I at my cousin's wedding.

I have currently been engaged with a discussion regarding Reading Literacy within our Ontario school system. You can check out the Ontario Curriculum here.

As I am writing this blog post, I am in the depths of Chapters, surrounded by books. For me, books are so important for not only gaining more information, but it is critical for expanding my creativity and life experiences. Reading is such an important skill that is required within our society, and it needs to continuously be practiced throughout life. My favourite memories consist of my sister, my dad and I going to the library every week to pick out books to read at bedtime, and as we got older we were able to go to Chapters to spend our Christmas and birthday money on books we so desperately wanted to read, we still can't get enough of reading! Blue Spruce, Silver Birch and Red Maple were book clubs my sister and I actively participated in throughout our Elementary School career; reading is a critical element to my fondest memories, and it is a skill I practice daily.

Asher, Jay (2011). Thirteen Reasons Why.

While I didn't know it back then, learning to read fluently from such a young age completely benefitted me throughout my education, and I can now recognize that I was meeting the reading requirements within the Ontario Curriculum without even realizing it! Within the Curriculum, there are four overall expectations expanding to all grade levels: Students need to demonstrate an understanding of a variety of texts, recognize a variety of text forms and demonstrate how they help communicate meaning, use the knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently, and reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement and the strategies they found most helpful before, during and after reading. I cannot emphasize enough how important these strategies are.

Reading is indisputably a complex process that involves applying so many strategies before, during and after reading. It is so important to know that the specific expectations for each grade focuses on a variety of strategies, and teachers need to use their professional judgements in deciding which strategies to model and teach, based on the needs of their students.

Anderson, Laurie Halse (2001). Speak.

There have been a few key books that I have identified to use within the novel study unit for my grade 8 students. As shown in my previous blog post, Borderline by Allan Stratton is one such book I wish to use, however after consultation with my advisor and mentor, we agreed that Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson are critical books for our students to read during this unit. They address such important issues prevalent in society today, and the experience of reading, extracting information and lessons to last a lifetime is all part of the process. I am a strong advocate for reading that demonstrates insight and thoughtful reflection, especially for my grade 8 students. I believe it is extremely important to choose insightful books, especially for a novel study unit, however I will give my fellow student teachers a word of caution: when dealing with books that have mature subject matter, it is important to pre-teach about appropriateness and having a mature attitude and perspective when reading these books. Quite obviously students are exposed to mature adult topics from what feels like an early age, so it is critical to have an open discussion regarding such issues so the students feel comfortable enough to ask questions and consult the teacher if they feel unformforable about any subject matter.

I really hope that the topics I discussed above is helpful to my fellow pre and in-service teachers. Feel free to leave any comments or questions below. Keep warm this fall season, the cooler weather is quickly approaching!

References
Anderson, Laurie Halse. (2001). Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/439288.Speak?from_search=true&search_version=service
Asher, Jay. (2011). Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1217100.Thirteen_Reasons_Why
Stratton, Allan (2010). Borderline by Allan Stratton. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6618155-borderline 
The Ontario Language Curriculum (2006). The Government of Ontario. https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf