Language & Literacy
Hey everyone!
We’re on to our final language strand
in our Language and literacy course- oral communication! Like the other
strands, oral communication is part of everything that we od, and it’s so
important to help students develop these skills. Especially now in a world of
technology, a lot of children and young adults have difficulty communication in
person. Most communication now these days is done through a screen. We are losing
the people skills needed in life. Like it states in the curriculum, “oral
communication skills are fundamental to the development of literacy and
essential for thinking and learning. Through talk, students not only
communicate information but also explore and come to understand ideas and
concepts; identify and solve problems; organize their experience and knowledge;
and express and clarify their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.” (MOE, 2006,
pp. 9) We talk every single day, and these skills do take practise.
We’ve looked at a lot of
resources surrounding oral communication, and there are so many ways to get
students comfortable with speaking in front of a crowd, or even having the
confidence to speak your mind in a group setting. It’s important to start
small, and make sure students are comfortable with discussing their thoughts
and feelings with others. Even participating in class can cause anxiety for
some students. A lot of videos we’ve watched in our class have given me the
idea to have students create their own video about whatever topic were doing in
class. Websites like, The Kids Should See
This has a ton of resources on a variety of topics that can serve as
inspiration for student’s own film making. Take a video like this for example,
Creating a video like this would take a lot
of research, and the best part is- students get to practise their oral communication
skills, without actually having to stand in front of the class. This gives
students with anxiety the opportunity to participate and be properly assessed. Let’s
take the grade 7 curriculum for example. One of the overall expectations is
that students will “use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes" (MOE, 2006, pp. 124). Having students create a media piece where they have to speak clearly and effectively, while great for practising their oral communication skills, also incorporates other language strands, like media, so even better!
I
remember when I was a student, I hated doing public speaking speeches. We
started in grade 4, and I was so shy, I cried every night for a week leading up
to my presentation. I even remember my topic- this history of Winnie the Pooh.
I was in grade 4! But miraculously, I did my speech, the class clapped for me,
and I survived. The next year, I was a little less nervous, and by the 7th
grade, I looked forward to writing my speech every year and presenting in front
of the class, and even the whole school. Fast forward to high school, in my
grade 9 academic French class. Speeches were optional, and guess who
volunteered to go represent our school at the board wide competition? That’s right-
me! Students just need the opportunity to grow their oral communication skills,
and build the confidence needed to do public speaking. Sometimes they need a
little push, but its important to start working on these skills at a young age
to be able to build on them throughout the years. It’s our job to make sure
that students can speak their minds clearly and effectively, not just through a
screen.
References
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2006). The Ontario Curriculum Grade 1-8 Language (Revised). Toronto: Queen's Printer.
https://thekidsshouldseethis.come/post/five-big-sharks-that-help-keep-our-oceans-healthy-natgeowild
By: Erika Figueroa. November 18, 2019
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2006). The Ontario Curriculum Grade 1-8 Language (Revised). Toronto: Queen's Printer.
https://thekidsshouldseethis.come/post/five-big-sharks-that-help-keep-our-oceans-healthy-natgeowild
By: Erika Figueroa. November 18, 2019
We've reached our next strand of literacy- writing. Writing is all around us, and encompasses everything we do. A grocery list, writing a text, journaling- all different forms of writing, and each equally important. As teachers, it's important to be able to not only teach our students how to write, but how to write effectively, and in a variety of different forms. I've never been a creative writer, but my entire university career consisted of writing research papers, so I'd like to think I got pretty good at it. I didn't get there on my own, however, but rather through years of practise, hard work, and of course the help of the constructive feedback from my teachers.
We read an interesting article last week, Guide on the Side: Collaboratively Writing and Revising with Students, that discussed the need for students to wrote along side their students, to be able to show how the writing process can be messy. The skills needed to review, edit and revise their work are skills that will be transferable throughout their lives. It is not simply enough to be able to spell, writing is a process, and should be constantly evolving.
Thinking about my grade 5 placement classroom, I can see how they struggle with reading over their work, and correcting their own mistakes, which is a critical aspect of writing. On Halloween, we did an activity where the students were given a paragraph filled with mistakes. It read, "on saturday i will see witch in blak dress. i will see blak cat and pumpkin. we will go to house and say 'trick or treat' in exchange for candy. saturday is halloween." While all the students know that sentences must start with a capital letter, that's one of the things they missed. It's something they've been working on all year, yet have difficultly picking up on that error. The other thing that I noticed among multiple students is that they would add a capital 's' to the first Saturday, but not the second. Most students were able to identify taht 'black' was spelled incorrectly, but had to be reminded several times that all underlined words are to be changed into their plural form.
via GIPHY Retrieved from: https://giphy.com/gifs/halloween-scary-ivo-QmMmDY5F0FOn4KMaFo/embed
This activity to me showed that proofreading and editing writing is still something they need to work on. According to the curriculum, the grade 4 overall expectation for writing states that students will be able to "use editing, proofreading and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively." (MOE, 2006, pp. 86) It was clear that many students in my grade 5 classroom were still working on these skills. Some students are able to write their own work with little to no mistakes, but not all writing is that simple. As the works become more complex, they require multiple drafts. While it is very easy for the teacher to simply point out every mistake, the students must be able to edit their work independently. Writing is a process, and it won't always be perfect.
References
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2006). The Ontario Curriculum Grade 1-8 Language (Revised). Toronto: Queen’s Printer.
-Erika Figueroa
November 4, 2018
-Erika Figueroa
November 4, 2018
Welcome back!
We've done a lot in our literacy class the past couple weeks, this time focusing on reading. One of things we did was reading assessments on two students. I was shocked at how hard it can be to do reading assessments and all the different programs to do so. Assessing students one by one seems like a tedious and time consuming task. But it is so important to be able to see where your students are and how you can help them improve.
After doing the reading assessments it was interesting to see not only where they could improve, but how I can help them do so. The only challenging thing for me was using 'student friendly language' in order to really be able to help them. One of the students had difficulty with fluency for example. While I could recognize this, trying to explain to a student what that means may be the challenge. Some of the other students in the class were giving examples such as "read as if you're talking to a friend". This would help students by reading more "naturally" as opposed to robotically. One of the main things with fluency is confidence. This is something that will come overtime, and can be taught through practise, praise and encouragement. Reading is one of the core strains of the curriculum in each grade, and only becomes more and more important as you get older. If students are struggling with literacy at a young age, it is critical to get them caught up as quickly as possible, as it only gets harder and harder to catch up.One of the most important things that I took from our article that we read this week, Text Structures for Improving Expository Reading Comprehension, was the importance of guiding questions. I've noticed in my placement so far that sometimes I just give the students the answer, or maybe give them a little too much help. Asking guiding questions to help the students get to the right answer on their own, or even to further their understanding of a text is the best way for them to learn. It is also important to be regularly growing their vocabulary as they start to read more complex texts.
One way to do this is a word wall. My associate teacher puts 10 words on the board every week and they work as a class to figure out what they mean, add the definitions, is it a verb, noun, etc., and use it in a sentence. This activity is extremely useful as they will be seeing these words in their upcoming units in either science or social studies. As a young student, who is still growing their literacy skills, it is easy to get discouraged when they run into a word they don't know, or maybe get frustrated. By giving students the skills and strategies to self-correct and problem solve when it comes to reading, will not only help their reading levels, but also boost their confidence that they can overcome these challenges.
Retrieved from: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/492581277964183103/?lp=true
-Erika Figueroa,
October 22, 2018
References: Roehling, J.V., Hebert, M., Ron Nelson, J., & Bohaty, J.J. (2017). Text Structure Strategies for Improving Expository Reading Comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 71(1), 71–82.
Welcome everyone!
As you can see in this video, it becomes evident why Ontario
included a media literacy stand in their education curriculum. There are so
many ways media literacy is being implemented in the curriculum. For example,
specific expectations for grade 6 students include being able to identify the
intended purpose and audience as well as evaluating the effectiveness of the
post. (OME, 2006, p.117) It’s important that the government recognizes that the
fact that these are real skills that students will need to develop in order to
participate in a society that has an ever growing digital presence.
In my opinion, one of the most
important lessons to teach students about media literacy is the issue of “fake
news”. With an overwhelming amount of media available at all times, it can be
difficult to navigate what is coming from a reliable and credible source. It is
crucial for students to be able to learn what websites or news outlets are
giving accurate information. A popular activity among classrooms is for
students go on the internet looking for credible information about a particular
topic. Signs that a website may not be reliable include no author or credentials
listed, pop-up ads or redirections to other websites. Forums such as a Facebook
make it easier to ‘share’ videos and articles, but many users don’t know where
this information is coming from, or if it is even accurate. In a world where
there is so much social and political unrest, spreading false information, even
unknowingly, can have serious negative effects. Students need to learn from a
young age how to critically think about the information that they are being
given, and make an informed decision of whether it is reliable.
As a
teacher, there are thousands of resources that can be found online to help in
the classroom. What better way to help students learn about media and digital
literacy than online games? MediaSmarts has a whole section of games for
students to play that cover a wide variety of topics. These games a great way
to reinforce the ideas and information covered in the lesson. Games include
“How cyber-savy are you?” and “Allies and Aliens: A mission in Critical
Thinking”. Games have been proving to keep students engaged and interested in
their learning. The games provided on this site also range for different age
groups. Media and Digital Literacy are concepts that are constantly evolving as
technology progresses. A link has been provided below for MediaSmarts games. As
teachers, it is our responsibility to educate our students as best as possible,
and with the latest information.
References
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2006). The Ontario Curriculum Grade 1-8 Language (Revised). Toronto:
Queen’s Printer.
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