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.