Focus Point Two - Effective Use of Communication, Discussion, and Questioning as Instructional Strategies

Competency 007 - The teacher understands and applies principles and strategies for communicating effectively in varied teaching and learning contexts.

Interpretation - The early childhood teacher utilizes her knowledge and communication skills to instruct a variety of lessons and concepts in a clear and concise manner using vocabulary and communication strategies which are developmentally appropriate for the students in her classroom.

Process - “Resource Centre:  Effective Communication” © Ministry of Education, Ellington, New Zealand   (Online: http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/effective_communication.html)

Summary - This is an article I found concerning the importance of oral language in the classroom.  I found it interesting and important due to its insistence that oral language is the key to effective communication skills being developed by students.  The article gave valuable instruction in the importance of not only “learning to speak” but “speaking to learn” as well.  The article gave numerous ideas in the promotion of oral language in the school curriculum and its values as well.

Rationale/Reflection - This article appealed to my interest while researching and debating on the best process evidence for this competency.  I liked it because it does encourage discussions in the classroom between individual students, student groups, and the classroom as a whole.  I like the concept of the students learning through processes different from reading, writing, verbal lectures, and hands-on activities.  I feel students need to learn communication skills that will bring them from their first classroom experience onward into their futures as effective communicating members in our society.

Product - “Brother Bear” media lesson (Social Studies - Mrs. McCormack)

     Summary - This is a lesson using the Disney animated movie “Brother Bear” to teach students about how families supply basic and emotional needs to one another.  The various aspects of engagement, exploring, explaining, elaboration, and evaluating done through out this lesson through facilitation questions are extensively communication centered.

     Rationale/Reflection - I chose this lesson as I think using media in the classroom is a great way to engage the students’ attention. I feel the facilitation questioning process after each scene emphasizes the lesson’s objectives through classroom discussion.  The students are also exposed to a different way of learning which can be brought home with them when they watch the movie with siblings and parents.  I think using media in the classroom curriculum when carefully selected and applied to specific learning objectives allows teachers the opportunity to bring school, the home environment, and entertainment into an integrated learning experience.  Students are engaged in watching movies and television for so many hours I feel it should be teaching them, in a positive manner, different aspects of the school curriculum and social skills necessary to interact successfully with their world around them.

Performance - “Orange Drink and Vitamin C Experiment”  Listening/speaking lesson (Mrs. Davis’ 2^nd grade class)

Summary - This lesson was a science lesson involving an experiment determining Vitamin C in different orange drinks.  The lesson required teacher explanations, student predictions, classroom discussions, and summarizations by the students of the students’ experiments results.