Literacy

Teaching Students to be Effective Listeners and Speakers

What do we look for in Oral Communication skills?

For two weeks, my class and I looked at the oral communication strand. At first, I thought the oral strand looked at presentations that students do in class. Surprisingly, there’s more to it than that!

The oral communication strand has three overall expectations that does not just focus on being effective speakers. Students:
“listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes;
use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes;
reflect on and identify their strengths as listeners and speakers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in oral communication situations” (Ontario Curriculum p. 9-10).

This trans focuses on developing a student’s skills and strategies for being an effective listener and speaker but it it also emphasizes their metacognitive thinking skills about their own learning. 

We watched a Ted Talk in class that was presented by Julian Treasure and he talks about “5 Ways to be a Better Listener.” He starts with the powerful line, “We are losing our reading.” There are ways to record these days, our world is loud and the art of conversation is, in his opinion, dangerously being replaced by personal broadcasting. As Treasure suggests, conscious listening always creates understanding so it is important that we maintain our effective listening skills. He offers 5 exercises that we can use to improve our own conscious listening:

1. Silence- 3 minutes of silence a day to reset your ears and to recalibrate so you can hear the quiet again.
2. “The Mixer”- even if you’re in a noisy environment, listen for individual channels of sounds. This improves the quality of your listening.
3. “Savoring” mundane sounds
4. Listening Positions- move your listening position to what’s appropriate to what you’re listening to. Some of these positions are active/passive, reductive, expansive, critical/empathetic.
5. R-Receive: pay attention to the person;
    A-Appreciate: making little noises like “hmm,” “oh,” “OK;”
    S-Summarize: the word “so”

    A-Ask: ask questions afterwards

R.A.S.A and the Language Curriculum

woodleywonderworks. (2008, October 24). Teaching with
emotions. [Online Image] Retrieved from 

After watching Treasure’s Ted Talk, his acronym RASA can be applied to many specific expectations in the Language curriculum. If we look at the grade 4 curriculum for example, 1.4 states that students should “demonstrate an understanding of the information and ideas in a variety of oral texts by summarizing important ideas and citing important details” which coincides with the S in the acronym. 1.2 discusses active listening strategies where students “demonstrate an understanding of appropriate listening behaviour by adapting active listening strategies to suit a variety of situations, including work in groups” (p. 80). A lot of these active listening strategies has to do with Receive, Appreciate and Ask parts of the acronym. Teachers are expected to teach their students how do be effective listeners, not just effective speakers.

Teaching Resources for Active Listening Skills

We looked at a number of resources in class to teach students active listening skills. One resource I found particularly interesting was from EduGains under the “listening” section which is a listening guide for teachers teaching listening skills. This article describes the importance of listening skills and some of the ways to teach listening to students. Some of the key messages in this resource is that there is a strong correlation between listening skills and literacy skills. There is an emphasis on how teachers can create a supportive environment for listening (i.e. using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model) and types of activities that engage students in opportunities for listening (i.e. read alouds, question prompts, role-play).

The article also gives a variety of assessment strategies that teachers can use to provide constructive feedback to students. I like the assessment strategy examples that they list in the article such as using a listening comprehension quiz (i.e. identify 4 main ideas after listening to a text). This would benefit students who have stronger oral skills than writing skills.

Alpert, Jessica. (2017, October 24). "The Owner of the Sun"
Circle Round 7. [Online Image] Retrieved from

Another resource we looked at in class were podcasts. Podcasts can pertain to the oral communication strand overall expectation #1 because students listen in order to understand and respond appropriately in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes. I especially liked exploring a podcast site called “Circle Round” which is a storytelling podcast for ages 3-10. I liked the cultural aspect that these podcasts use to tell stories. This can get students into thinking about diverse texts or podcasts. The podcast that spoke to me was called “The Owner of The Sun” which is about a Venezuelan folktale about an enterprising young girl and her quest to free the sun. Podcasts can be one way that students can enhance their listening skills and comprehension strategies to interpret an oral text.

Podcasts and Storytelling in the Classroom

German, Pedro. (2007, March 6).
podcast. [Online Image]
Retrieved from

Students can create podcasts in the classroom to promote creativity and boost active-listening, writing and collaborative skills. Students can interview other students and take on the role of the reporter to create a news show. Students could also create a weekly podcast to show to their fellow students which might include interviews, musical performances, comedy sketches and more!

Students can become effective speakers by participating in storytelling in the classroom. There is a drama and creative aspect to storytelling. Students can learn to use vocal skills and strategies to help make their story come to life. This includes identifying some vocal effects such as “tone, pace, pitch, volume, and a range of sound effects, and use them appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences to help communicate their meaning” (Ontario Language Curriculum, 2.5 p. 81). Telling stories allows students to becoming informed readers because they have had a part in making a story.

Mosman Library. (2011, July 15). At the foot of the storytellers
chair. [Online Image] Retrieved from

We read an article for class that talked about teaching through authentic voices. This resource acknowledges the importance of bringing in stories children can connect to because these stories can shape their future. Using an Indigenous lens, for example, gives students an opportunity to learn about it. This resource focuses on learning about various perspectives and points of view. By using more than one voice and story, students can understand history or different cultures through multiple points of view. It is important that teachers use authentic voices when telling stories in their classroom about particular cultures in particular.

Oral Texts and Authentic Voices

Using more diverse texts in the classroom to learn about history from different cultures and point of view is important. History tends to be told from a white, male point of view but I think we need to include more female and cultural voices to our lessons. In a multicultural school, students should learn from a multicultural point of view which promotes an inclusive classroom.

Sakoieta Wakathahionni.
[Photo provided by Jessica Taylor
Charland)

We had the pleasure of welcoming a quest speaker named Sakoieta Wakathahionni who is a Wolf clan Mohawk man. He also brought in his wife, Dawn, who is part of a Turtle clan. He used oral speaking skills to present a lot of information about a different point of view. Being non-Indigenous myself, I was able to listen to opinionated statements and learn something new using an open mind. I also learned a lot about Indigenous culture such as their care of the land, the way they honour and treat women in their society, how important their language in terms of their identity, and the importance of oral traditions of storytelling.

Residential schools is a topic I’ve addressed before in this blog and it became apparent that learning about it through an Indigenous voice makes it more authentic and you can understand the struggles faced by Indigenous peoples through this authentic voice.

As a teacher, we need to make sure that our intentions to be inclusive must be genuine, not just token. This would be similar for any voice we are trying to discuss in the classroom. If we are talking about women as doctors and we bring in a female doctor, we should not emphasize that she is a FEMALE doctor but rather that she is a female DOCTOR. It is important that we learn through authentic stories told straight from the mouth of an individual who’s experiences, skills set, and knowledge are different from my own.

Everyone has a story to tell and it is important that we acknowledge this in our classroom!

Engaging Students with Oral Activities

We did a lot of small oral activities in class that can be incorporated in the classroom. One of them I was familiar with which was “Mad-Lib Story Starters.” The object of the game is to produce something that sounds ridiculous. There is usually a fill-in-the-blank work sheet where you need to write the word in the blank. The catch? You need to use words that fit the descriptors they give you like noun, verb, adjective, part of the body, etc. Mad Libs fit the Ontario curriculum oral communication strand for 2.5 and 2.6 which describes speaking with expression and other good visual/verbal speaking cues. I partnered with Mark and we had a joint Mad Lib where I was the customer and he was the waiter. The end resulted in a funny script but it allowed us to express ourselves using verbal skills.

Galvez, Thomas. (2008, December 16). Students presenting
to Upper Elementary School students. [Online Image]
Retrieved from

Another fun exercise was a Triple Speak and Impromptu Narratives. This activity is an exercise in impromptu speaking using three topics (person, place and thing) which the speaker must link together in a cohesive speech. You can find the link to this resource using this link on page 16. This activity is great to target the specific expectation 2. 3 which is speaking with clarity, appropriate organization and sequence of ideas and 2.1- speaking for intended purpose and audience. This activity leads students in the direction of formal presentations.

While these activities go on, the other students play the role of active listeners using active listening skills (1.2) and analyzing/evaluating the effectiveness of oral texts (1.7).

Both listening and speaking skills are used for a debate where listening and speaking coincide with one another. This was my favourite activity that we got to try in class. Our debate was called “Battle Bars” and the extended version of this activity can be found by clicking this link and scrolling down to page 10. We were split up into two teams and our topic was Smarties vs. Mars Bars. We needed to debate that one chocolate bar was better than the other. A lot of arguments were about facts, nutritional information, shareability, and a lot more. I was a part of the Mars Bar team and I think we rightfully won-no bias intended.

There are so many ways that students can enhance their listening and speaking skills. It’s also important to incorporate storytelling and authentic voices in the classroom. Podcasts can be a great resource for students to listen to oral texts and interpret their meaning. It can also be a great tool to bring in diverse texts in the classroom if you do not have the resource to bring in guest speakers! Oral skills are the key to being effective readers also. I also found it important that our assessment strategies can also implement oral features as well which can extend to any subject!

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Engaging Everyday Writers

Considering the Curriculum

For two weeks, my class and I looked at the writing strand in more detail.
The writing strand overall is the same throughout the Ontario Language Curriculum document. However, the expectations for students are higher as the grades are higher. For example, the first overall expectations in all grades is that students generate and organize ideas for a variety of purposes and audiences (Ontario Curriculum 1.1). This wording is virtually the same across every grade from grades 4-8, but the examples of texts that students are introduced to are different in each grade. In grade 5, students might look at a poem or formal letter, while in grade 8 students might look at newspaper reports on a current topic. Each year, the level of text they work on is more challenging.

Roenigk, Caleb. (2012, March 20). Writing? Yeah.
[Online Image] Retrieved from 

Another overall expectation is that students draft and revise work. The specific expectations in this section are also virtually the same. For example, in the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum document, 2.1 is the idea that students will “write complex texts of different lengths using a wide range of forms.” This wording does not change throughout the document for grades 4-8 but the examples they give for texts that students write get more challenging. In grade 4, students might write an original folk tale or an extension of an existing folklore, grade 5’s might do a research-based biographical sketch and grade 6’s might do an autobiography in the role of a historical person based on research. The texts that students write get more complicated as they progress into higher grades.

Teaching Resources for How to Teach Writing

1. To teach “form” in the classroom, you first need to introduce the author’s purpose of the text to your students. There are six main purposes: to ENTERTAIN, to INFORM, to PERSUADE, to INSTRUCT, to RECOUNT, and to EVALUATE. From here, students can do many activities to help them identify how form relates to the author’s purpose which relates to the first overall expectation in the Ontario Curriculum (1.1). 

Burity, Marina. (2007, January 26). Books
[Online Image]. Retrieved from

One activity they could do is a collage for sorting different kinds of texts into these categories. Using old scholastic flyers, students can cut out pictures of books and organize them into different sections. For lower grades, you could stick to three purposes (Entertain, Inform and Persuade) but for older grades you could do the same activity with all six.
           You could also do this same activity but with genres instead. Students can organize books from the library into these genres show their understanding of each genre (i.e. mystery, poetry, science fiction, biography). 

2. Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model, teachers can MODEL the writing process (Pre-writing, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Publishing), SHARE the responsibility where the teacher and students work together during the writing process and the teacher GUIDES the students when they do it, and then students APPLY their knowledge to do it themselves. This process may take some time but students learn how to write in sequential order using the GRR Model to model the writing process. 

Daniel, Danielle. (2017, July 15). "Sometimes
I Feel Like A Fox." [Online Image] Retrieved from 

3. You could teach writing using mentor texts which are texts meant to be studied and imitated. Mentor texts help students learn how to write in different ways. In class, we looked at one mentor texts and tried out this method. It was a lot of fun to see how this lesson would be played out in a class and how it applied to the Anishinaabe tradition of totem animals!
        We looked at the story “Sometimes I feel Like a Fox” by Danielle Daniel. In this story, children explain why they identify with different creatures such as a deer, beaver or moose. The illustrations show the children wearing masks representing the animal they chose, and the lines of text on teach page is a series of simple poems with a set structure. The connection to Aboriginal culture was really interesting and the author shows how these totem animals can also act as animal guides for young children seeking to understand themselves and others.
       With our teacher’s help, we looked at the pattern of the poems in the story. The first line presented a simile (ex: Sometimes I feel like a __________”), the second line described two features or traits of that animal, and the last two lines explained the actions of that animal. After showing us an example of a poem she did to describe herself (She picked an Elephant), we were able to break off into small groups and create our own animal poem using this format.
       We used a website which is helpful for explaining the meaning and representations of some animals. My group decided to do a Kangaroo. According to the website, a kangaroo represents these features: ”forward, balance, creative, stamina, leaping away from danger, nurturing, and generous.” Using PicCollage, we could type in our poem on a page and insert pictures onto the collage to show our understanding of our poem. This was a lot of fun because you were able to research about animals, use the mentor text to write a particular type of poem and use PicCollage to make it a creative media piece.

This exercise touched upon many aspects of the Ontario Curriculum. Relating to writing, it touched upon 1.2: Generating ideas about a potential topic, 1.3: Research: Gather information to support ideas for writing and 2.3: Word Choice: Using vivid or figurative language. With almost any language arts lesson, there is some overlap in the strands. Although the emphasis with this lesson was on writing, there were other elements of reading (identifying organizational patterns in a text) and media literacy (producing media texts). 

Engaging Students with Writing

We did a lot of small writing tasks while we learned about different things in class. One method we used during class was called a “Community Chalk Talk” where the teacher placed a question on the canvas on a wall and all students have space on the wall to write at once. Students put their thoughts and ideas connected to the main question(s) and students can read/add to their peers’ responses.

Krista (2016, February 13). Make a Writing
Jar. [Online Image] Retrieved from 

We discovered that a lot of writing resources for students can be found on social media using Pinterest or Twitter. I found a lot of other really great resources that could be used in the classroom using Pinterest. One that I found interesting was called “Make a Writing Jar” which is exactly what it sounds like. In this resource, the author provides 101 prompts that students could write about by picking one out of the jar. This makes it fun and also provides many opportunities for students to write on a daily basis about different topics. Students could write daily in a journal after picking out the topic from the jar.

A writing activity we did in class was inspired by Pinterest also. We wrote our own blackout poetry using articles about Remembrance Day. You could do this activity with any type of newspaper article or book, but you could also make the activity follow along the historical aspects of the year. Students read articles about what Remembrance Day represents and then do an activity that relates their understanding of Remembrance Day. Our teacher also introduced the Veterans Affairs Canada website for learning/teaching resources. There are a lot of ideas on this website that could be used in the classroom for teaching about Remembrance Day. One thing I thought of that teachers can introduce to students is to have them write letters to our soldiers thanking them for their selfless acts of sacrifice to fight for us.

These resources target a lot of areas of the writing strand such as developing ideas, organizing ideas and wiring for a purpose and audience. With any writing task, students need to draft/revise work and use proofreading, editing and publishing skills to present work effectively. Thus, all aspects of the writing strand are used using these resources.   

Kristina. (N.d.) Roll It and Write! Journal Activity
for Kids. [Online Image] Retrieved from

Personal Examples of Writing Exercises         

I used one resource for my PLC discussion that I found using Pinterest. It is called a “Roll it and Write” which is a die that students can roll for writing activities to engage them in their writing. I had my group roll the die and write what they did for the weekend. On each face of the cube there was a different writing activity:
                 
                    1. Draw it Out using a Comic
                    2. Write 3 Sentences
                    3. Write a Haiku
                    4. Use Rhyming Words
                    5. Make a List
                    6. Create a Hint and Guess Game.

My group had a lot of fun being able to roll the die to see how they had to write about their topic. Even though everyone had the same topic, there were at least 6 different ways you could show that topic.

On Pinterest I found a fun activity that younger students could use for story writing. This activity uses a lot of the overall expectations for writing such as writing for a purpose and audience (1.1), developing ideas and organizing them (1.2, 1.5), students draft and revise their work using the specific form of writing First, Then, Next and Finally (2.1), and looking over their proofreading their work (3.6). A student in grade 2 named Niko wrote his own short story using the word prompts I gave him. The main emphasis in this lesson is learning how to write a story in sequential order (First, Then, Next and Finally). He was able to write a short sentence and draw a picture to show his sentence. 

Milhomens, Britney. (2017, September 26).
Niko-Grade 2 story writing. [Personal Photo]

If writing can be used in a variety of fun and creative ways, students can be engaged in what they’re doing. There are also many opportunities for writing on a daily basis that do not need to be formally assessed. Encouraging daily writing using a journal can help students become better writers. No student should ever say “I’m just not a good writer.” To help inspire students to write, there are many ways that teachers can teach writing that is relevant to student lives. This resource entitled “30 Ideas for Teaching Writing” will help teachers help students by allowing them to practice their writing.

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Reading for Meaning Makers

For two weeks my language class looked at the reading strand which involves reading a variety of different texts for different purposes, students gain the skills of becoming effective readers,  This includes being able to:
     -apply texts they read to new concepts

     -applying strategies for before, during and after reading

     -enhance comprehension strategies (ex: predicting, visualizing, questioning, drawing inferences). 

More information on the reading strand can be found in the Ontario Language arts curriculum document. 

Woodson, Jaqueline. "The Other Side."
[Online Image] Retrieved from

In class we had many read aloud activities and even looked into the benefits of reading aloud to students. One book that stood out to me was called "The Other Side" by Jacqueline Woodson. This short story is about Clover, a young African-American girl who lives beside a fence which segregates her town. Her mother instructs her often never to climb over to the other side of the fence. Then one summer, she notices a white girl, Annie, on the other side of the fence. Both girls are not allowed to cross the fence, so they simply decide to sit on the fence together. First, Clover's friends will not let Annie, the girl from the other side, play with them but then all of the girls realize that the fence (a symbol for segregation) should not be there. 

With this short story, we were able to use the Ontario Language Curriculum Document to create a lesson (or series of lessons) that could be taught using that resource. Some groups chose lower grades while others chose higher grades. 

One example of a grade 3 activity could be to make interferences or interpret the text as said in the Curriculum document, using a class discussion. Students could use prior knowledge and look at the text to make predictions. After reading, students would answer the question why they think the two girls could not be friends (without having to bring up issues of race). By looking at the symbol of a fence as simply an obstacle, students could write a personal journal about a "fence" they had in their life that was hard for them to overcome. Students could also visualize this conflict.

This book could easily be adapted to a grade 7 or 8 class by looking at the features of the text, its voice and perspective and historical context. From this, students can make inferences and understand literary devices such as symbolism. 

Presidio of Monterey. (2012, March 1). Marines, Kids and books:
Oh My! [Online Image]. Retrieved from

Reading aloud to students has many benefits. A great article we looked at in class can be found here. This article lists many reasons for why reading aloud to older students. Some of these reasons to name a few are: 

-reading aloud is an opportunity for teachers to stop and explain rhetorical and literary devices they wouldn’t get on their own.

-students are exposed to different kinds of texts and different styles of writing

-motivation and engagement levels tend to go up if students are read to

My class discovered this article by doing an activity in class that required us to identify the main idea and its supporting details. We used a traditional web map to place the main idea in the middle and its webs on the outside to place the supporting details. This exercise itself was an example of an activity that students can do to demonstrate their understanding. For example, by the end of 6th grade, students "demonstrate understanding of increasingly complex texts by summarizing and explaining important ideas and citing relevant supporting details" (Ontario Curriculum, page 111). Students can use venn diagrams or other categorical resources to demonstrate their understanding of a text.

Enokson. (2011, May 13). The More You Read The More You Know. [Online Image]. Retrieved from

In relation to using categorical resources, however, there is a debate on whether to use more traditional methods for student comprehension (ex: venn diagrams, sticky notes) or if technology is a better tool to show this. An article we looked at in class advocates for technology as a better and more effective comprehension strategy. This article can be found here. The authors discuss the importance of active meaning making, they support a blended learning environment and they give examples of many resources that teachers can use to blend online work with in-class interactions where lessons begin in class and extend online. Overall, their study concluded that with the help of online resources, students were able to read and create deeper meanings.

We were able to explore some online resources for reading comprehension in class. One that I really liked was the choice of creating a comic strip to show a significant scene from a text OR creating a fake text message thread between characters. These activities could be suited for older grades and relates to interpreting texts, evaluating texts, and identifying point of view. I chose to do the text message thread using this website. 

This is a scene from the novel "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. This is a conversation between Ralph and Piggy after the events of Chapter 9- A View to a Death where Simon has been killed by the other boys on the island unbeknownst to them at first. My example using this resource can be found here. 

We looked at many other resources such as comic generators. One that is really easy to use can be found here.  Students can pick a background, a character and write in speech bubbles to show a conversation between characters. Students can keep in mind a text's setting, conflict, plot, theme and character appearance when making their comic. Here is an example of a comic I made for Lord of the Flies to introduce some of the characters:

One of the things I like doing with students is poetry. I recently asked students in different grades to read a poem to me and one way I tested their reading comprehension was by asking them to draw a picture of what they think the poem or stanza met. Here are an example of two students I did this activity with:

Milhomens, Britney. (2017, September 26).

Vinujah- Grade 6 Poem art. [Personal Photo]

Milhomens, Britney. (2017, September 26).

Nandita- Grade 1 poem art. [Personal Photo]

Both girls did the same exercise but Vinujah's was more to her grade level because it was a longer poem that needed to be read multiple times in order to draw pictures that connected to each stanza. Both girls said they do not do that much poetry in school but they found it exciting that they could draw pictures to show their understanding of the poem.

I liked this activity because it connected to a lot of different specific expectations under the reading strand. Students read a variety of texts, in this case poetry, students demonstrated their knowledge by drawing pictures and interpreted the text at the same time. Since the poems were based on their prior knowledge, the students were also able to use their prior knowledge to help them understand the poems (ex: Knowing about the Four Seasons and the differences between them allowed Vinujah to look for key words that represented each season). Students also practiced reading fluently and sounding out unknown words (being code breakers). All of these skills were directly referenced from the Ontario Curriculum for Language.

Students have overall and specific expectations for reading. This also means that teachers have expectations for teaching reading to students. Some of these expectations are to:

1. Provide opportunities for student creativity to communicate meaning

2. Provide a range of texts to read

3. Help build analytical skills for students to become critical thinkers

4. Model and teach comprehension strategies

5. Model and teach about identifying various elements of style that communicate the meaning of a text

Part of these expectations is to be creative in how students think. Many students have different learning styles and require different activities to engage them. One area we haven't explored was how we can incorporate games with language arts. One really great games website that can be found here.  There are many games available for different areas of language arts for every grade between Kindergarten to grade 7. One game I especially liked was called "Poem Analysis" and this game in particular is fun for learning new poems and for reading comprehension. Students read and analyze a poem. This activity helps kids identify and analyze poetic conventions, figurative language, and other aspects of poetry.

Ribeiro, Lucélia. (2008, June 30). Children at school.
[Online Image]. Retrieved from

Pre-service and in-service teachers need to realize that in order to have effective students overall, teachers need to differentiate their instruction. A lot of this has to do with the multiple learning styles that students bring into the classroom and different cultures. There is a great importance to interweave 21st century technology with literacy. Not only that, other subjects can be implemented into literacy too such as visual arts, music and drama. There are so many resources that can be found using social media, on educational blogs, or apps. If teachers continue to engage students using many resources, students can reach their full potential. 

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Media and Technology in the Classroom

One area of the language arts curriculum is media literacy which involves studying various forms of media texts. These texts can be found in print or electronic forms, and can be oral or visual. Part of studying media is knowing that things are made for a particular audience and students focus on the construction of meaning through several media “languages.” More information on media literacy can be found in the Ontario Language Arts curriculum document here.

Media and Pop Culture Resources

Over the past two weeks, my class looked into many resources that involved looking at the impact and influence of mass media and pop culture by examining different kinds of texts. In class we explored a lot of different texts when we researched into the affects of residential schools. One resource that I thought was interesting was from the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada) website found here. This resource contains first person accounts of residential school survivors’ experiences. This can be used in the classroom to help teach about Canada’s history, regardless of its bleak past.

Aboriginal children at Fort Simpson Indian Residential School in 1922. (J.F. MORAN / LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE) Retrieved here

This TRC online resource was only one of the many resources we looked at in class. We also looked at magazines, newspapers, photographs and children’s books. All of these resources could be used as an example of a gallery walk in which students learn at their own pace. In this case, students can develop an understanding of residential schools; an area often overlooked in the school curriculum.

Using Media in the Classroom 

Jenkins, Jason. (2012, May 13). Kids and tv.
[Online Image]. Retrieved here. 

After exploring educational blogs, I discovered a number of interesting activities that could be implemented in the classroom for any grade. One lesson that could be easily adapted into the classroom is looking at television with regards to media techniques. This resource can be found here.

Frank Baker, the author of this resource, suggested that an idea for a Grade 7 classroom lesson is to compare and contrast a written story or poem to its audio, filmed or staged version. Students would be able to analyze the effects of techniques that are unique in each medium such as colour, lighting, camera angles, sound, etc). This resource emphasized that students could be active rather than passive viewers. Instead of simply watching the show, they could analyze a show and become critical thinkers about the media messages surrounding them on a daily basis.

I might use this resource as a basis for a unit review. Students can apply their knowledge and demonstrate their understanding by picking a television show (or other medium) of their choosing and discussing the implications of various media techniques that either hinder or enhance its meaning and/or impact. In class we also did an exercise or trying to create an activity by using the overall and specific expectations of the Ontario curriculum. My group made a lesson that involved using advertisements and making inferences. This is a simple yet effective lesson that connects identifying media texts and making inferences like a student would do when they read any other text (i.e. novel or short story).

Media and Self-Reflection

Milhomens, Britney. (2017 September 26). 
Grade 7 Omair collage. [Personal photo].

One activity I did recently was for my Genius Hour research. I decided to focus on how I can implement art with different activities. Last week I incorporated art with language arts. One grade 7 project I decided to do was an “All About Me Collage” where students were given a series of magazines to look through. Students had to find words, phrases or pictures that represented themselves. Students are often bombarded by media in a negative way; I attempted to shed light and use this media meant for persuasion in a positive way. Students were able to connect to the media around them and not feel uncomfortable or negatively influenced by it. Students had the opportunity to view, analyze and relate these resources to their own experience. Here is a personal photo of a student that completed his All About Me Collage:

This type of media is but one example of how something that has some negatives could be implemented in the classroom. A lot of resources that my fellow colleagues looked at was about using technology in the classroom. This is an issue that is still widely debated today. As a student teacher in a tech school, I can see many positives of using technology in the classroom- but also some negatives. It all depends on HOW you use technology, not WHAT technology you’re using.


Technology in the Classroom

One resource we looked at in class talks about this very debate. In the article, “More Verbs, Fewer Nouns” by Julie Evans (found here), Evans emphasizes that teachers who use mobile learning in the classroom should not just focus on the different things they use, but capitalize on what these things can do for students in their learning environment. With mobile learning, students will no longer be passive consumers but an active developer of knowledge instead. Teachers should differentiate the technological tools being used in class instead of using the same one.

Flickinger, Brad. (2010 September 15).
student iPad 014. [Online Image]. Retrieved here

Technology can be used for increased engagement in classrooms. I’ve started opening up to the benefits of technology in a classroom. Technology is teaching students to work collaboratively, be creative and develop critical-thinking skills by applying concepts to real-world problems. Through technology, pre-service and in-service teachers can create personalized learning and create more engaging and interactive lessons that are relevant today. For english, this means using different types of technology that fits with the task at hand.