Blog 4: The Oral Communication Strand

Good Day Fellow Bloggers!

Introduction: 

Welcome to my fourth and final post in EDBE 8P24 for the Brock University Teacher's College Program! Today, the purpose of this blog post is to review The Oral Communication Strand in the Ontario Curriculum. Grades 1-8 Language [revised] 2006 and provide the reader with the expectations of students within the Oral Communication Strands between Grades 1 through 8. 

Oral Communication Strand: 

Oral communication skills are fundamental to the development of literacy and essential for students to apply their thinking and learning skills. Through speech, 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. Students can learn to utilize these skills in social interactions with others beyond in the school setting. To do so, it is important for students to develop these skills through discussion about a wide array of topics, whether it be personal or school related. Further, the language program should provide opportunities for students to engage in various oral activities in connection with expectations in all the strands, such as brainstorming to identify what they know about the topic of a new text they are about to read, discussing strategies for solving a problem in a writing assignment, presenting and defending ideas or debating issues, and offering critiques of work produced by their peers. All students can benefit from these opportunities, and as educators, it is important to incorporate different cultures and various interests into our propositions for oral communication within the classroom setting.

Speech

Overall Expectations: 

The Oral Communication Strand has three overall expectations, as follows: 

Students will: 

   1. listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes; 

   2. use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes;
   3. reflect on and identify their strengths as listeners and speakers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in oral communication situations. 

Student Opportunity: 

According to the Oral Communication Strand in the Ontario Language Curriculum Grades 1-8, this strand focuses on the identification and development of the skills and strategies effective listeners and speakers use to understand and interact with others; emphasizing the use of higher-order thinking skills to stimulate students’ interest and engage them in their own learning. Students should be able to communicate in a clear and concise manner; to inform their listener(s) about their interests, opinions, and thoughts about specific topics. The Oral Communication Strand enforces the need for collaboration between students, allowing for a flow of ideas in and out of the classroom setting. To improve on this strand allows for students to improve on their form of communication to other people, which is an essential skill to apply to real life applications. 

TED Talk For Students!

Developing Skills: 

For students to improve their oral communication skills, it is important for them to consider the topics they wish to expand on, topics that allow for personal interests to be included (or at the very least relatable to personal interests) and for students to develop creative and reflective thought to what they themselves listen to. This will allow for students to have a genuine interest in oral communication, and will further express the notion that oral communication is beneficial to students. As the development of these skills is reciprocal, students must engage their vocabulary skills, adapt structure within their conversations, and add their own original perspective and voice into what they are trying to communicate. 

That is the Conclusion for the Four Strands of Literacy at the 1 - 8 Grade level!
Thank You for Subscribing to My Blog!
- Mr. B. 

Blog 3: The Writing Strand

Good Day Fellow Bloggers!

Introduction: 

Welcome to my second post in EDBE 8P24 for the Brock University Teacher's College Program! Today, the purpose of this blog post is to review the Reading Strand in the Ontario Curriculum. Grades 1-8 Language [revised] 2006 and provide the reader with the expectations of students within the Writing Strand. This my my third of four blog posts dedicated to each strand of language: Media Studies, Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication.

Writing Strand: 

The intent of the Writing Strand in the Ontario Language Curriculum is to guide students to effective writing practices. According to Literacy for Learning, "writing ... provides students with powerful opportunities to learn about themselves and their connections to the world; to organize their thoughts, remember important information, solve problems, reflect on a widening range of perspectives, and learn how to communicate effectively for specific purposes and audiences." Students are expected to become disciplined thinkers to develop these communication skills by learning and applying standard written forms and language conventions. 

Engage Young Minds!

Student Opportunity: 

According to the Writing Strand in the Ontario Language Curriculum, "students should be given the kinds of assignments that provide opportunities to produce writing that is interesting and original and that reflects their capacity for independent critical thought." They should be able to write clearly and concisely, for the purpose of producing original writing results that are parallel to their interests. The product should also allow for students to independently critique their writing style and allow for critical thought on the very message they are trying to portray.

Using Technology to Help!

Developing Skills: 

For students to improve their writing, it is important for them to consider the writing activities presented in class to be relatable to outside curriculum and for them to develop creative themes for the texts in which they are writing. This will allow for students to have a genuine interest in writing, and will lead to them progressing at an increasingly enhanced level. The skill of writing is directly correlated to reading, and thus it is important for students to develop both their reading and writing skills as one cannot be without the support of the other. As the development of these skills is reciprocal, students must engage their vocabulary skills, adapt structure within their papers, and add their own original perspective and voice into the piece in which they are writing. As students practice both of these skill sets, they will use these skills interchangeably in language, and this is the hope that today's Ontario Curriculum has for students. 

Thats all for now! Until Next Week Bloggers!

Blog 2: The Reading Strand

Good Day Fellow Bloggers!

Introduction: 

Welcome to my second post in EDBE 8P24 for the Brock University Teacher's College Program! Today, the purpose of this blog post is to review the Reading Strand in the Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8 Language [revised] 2006 and provide the reader with the expectations of students within the Reading Strand. This my my second of four blog posts dedicated to each strand of language: Media Studies, Reading, Writing, Oral Communication.

Reading Strand: 

The intent of the Reading Strand in the Ontario Language Curriculum is to guide students to effective reading practices. According to The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8, Language [revised] 2006, "An effective reader is one who not only grasps the ideas communicated in a text but is able to apply them in new contexts by thinking clearly, creatively, and critically about the ideas and information encountered in texts in order to understand, analyze, and absorb them and to recognize their relevance in other contexts." Students are thus expected to apply these practices through reading a multitude of texts in order to widen their range of reading comprehension strategies. Proficient student reading strategies also include reading texts that illustrate the many uses of writing, such as scripts, short stories, etc. Beyond the aspect that with practicing these reading methods that students will know an advanced level of vocabulary, they will also be able to discover what interests them the most, thus allowing students to pursue their own interests.
 

Critical Thinking:

Critical thinking is crucial to the Reading Strand. According to The Ontario Curriculum, "This strand helps students learn to read with understanding, to read critically, to become familiar with various text forms and their characteristic elements, and to recognize the function and effects of various text features and stylistic devices...helping students understand that reading is a process of constructing meaning and equips them with the strategies that good readers use to understand and appreciate what they read." As a future educator, I believe that thinking critically within the classroom has a huge importance, as it is a life skill that allows for reflection and positive thinking. This in turn, I believe, will help students even beyond the reading capacity, but as a reader that students will be appreciative of this skill as they are constructing meaning and ideas in topics that are correlated to their interests.

Developing Skills: 

The Ontario curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge and skills that will enable students to become effective readers. To develop these skills, it is essential for students to have as many opportunities as possible to read. The Ontario Curriculum states that "a well-balanced reading program will provide students with opportunities to read for the pleasure of discovering interesting information as well as for the pleasure of self-discovery, for self-enrichment, and for the sheer fun of it. Reading stimulates ideas, allows students to discover new worlds and creative thinking, and can do so with the student truly loving what they are learning because it is about their various interests. On idea that I saw when reviewing the Reading Strand was the tool Google Earth and Google Lit Trips, (outlined by the picture below), where you can take virtually take your students to these different locations! I though that in the 21st century, this could be a great tool to utilize a more fulfilling reading compression for the students. For students to read about their various interests is one of the best ways to guarantee the developmental skills needed to both grasp communicated ideas within the text, but also to apply them in new contexts.  

Overall Expectations: 

According to The Ontario Curriculum, the Reading Strand has four overall expectations.

Students will:

   1. read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
   2. recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
   3. use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently;
   4. reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.

Connecting to Virtual Applications as a Creative Tool 

 To Engage Reading in the 21st Century!

Concluding Thoughts: 

While specific expectations can be made about the reading strand in, students do not have to be limited by the conventions of grade specified expectations. Rather, teachers should adapt their education methods to the needs of their students; enticing student interests and present day ideas for them to help stimulate the reading strand in the classroom setting. 

Blog 1 - Media Literacy Strand

Good Day Fellow Bloggers!

As this is my first blog with our literacy class, I will introduce myself!
My name is Jacob, and I am a Year One J/I Teaching Candidate at Brock University!

For our literacy task, we were tasked with developing a total of 4 blog posts for each strand of language: Media Studies, Reading, Writing, Oral Communication. The purpose of this portion of the blog is to provide the reader with insight into teaching the Media Studies strand.

Media Strand

In 1987, Ontario was the First Canadian Province to mandate media education.
According to The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8, Language [revised] 2006, “Media literacy is the result of study of the art and messaging of various forms of media texts."  They can be formed into any aspect that communicates meaning to students, using utilities such as words, graphs, images etc. In the past, traditional literacy has focused on the context of written words. Media literacy aims to focus on the construction of meaning through expression beyond the context of words; through images, sounds, graphics, as well as word content. Media literacy engages students to explore mass media that is popular today, as students can identify with these lessons better because their interest is peaked.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is crucial to Media Studies. Being able to apply media formats and how they are constructed allows students to think critically and think intellectually. According to the Ontario Curriculum, students must be able to differentiate between fact and opinion; evaluate the credibility of sources; recognize bias; be attuned to discriminatory portrayals of individuals and groups, including women and minorities; and question depictions of violence and crime. I believe this is important, as in a real life perspective, students should be able to understand what is fiction and what is fact, and be able to understand the significance and be able to critically analyze what is being communicated to them through various media outlets.

Developing Skills

Developing skills to decipher enhanced media tech tools such as Internet and TV are especially important as these tools are a huge aspect of media representation in life today, and this can only be done through critical thinking. Further, communication with a range of information sources can enable students with more opportunities in learning, finding additional untapped markets of advantage and learning opportunity. To develop these skill, The Ontario Curriculum states that "students should have opportunities to view, analyze, and discuss a wide variety of media texts and relate them to their own experience." In order to do this, students should have the option of technology they use, and ideally with the financial resources available to school boards, this may be implemented. Teachers should provide their own guidance to develop media skills through using media tools in connection to various traditional curriculum assignments in order to facilitate to the learning needs of all students, and caution them on the dangers of not thinking critically when analyzing a media learning source.

Overall Expectations

According to The Ontario Curriculum, the Media Literacy strand has four overall expectations: Students will:
1. demonstrate an understanding of a variety of media texts;
2. identify some media forms and explain how the conventions and techniques associated with them are used to create meaning;
3. create a variety of media texts for different purposes and audiences, using appropriate forms, conventions, and techniques;
4. reflect on and identify their strengths, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in understanding and creating media texts. This strand focuses on helping students develop the skills required to understand, create, and critically interpret media texts.

Concluding Thoughts

While specific expectations can be formed in media literacy, students do not have to be limited by these conventions of grade specified expectations. Rather, teachers should adapt (as always), and their teaching method should reflect the learning needs of their students.

Social Media is all about connection

Image Source

Until Next Time Fellow Education Bloggers!

Jacob B.