C55: Communication Skills (1-6)

​In this episode, I am going against the norm and choosing a different ATL than the early years. It spoke more to me as an upper elementary teacher.  One of the things I struggled the most with my students was getting them to analyze and interpret information and connect to their own lives.  This is a difficult thing for most adults to do, so imagine being an eight year old trying to tackle it. 

When I think of communication skills, I naturally see learners trying to make meaning of what is being presented to them.  At this age, they are trying to determine if the message is clear and usually there are many misconceptions along the way. This is why learning how to communicate and deciphering the message of communication is so important.  

Just a reminder my friends that there are many things that a teacher can do to set the stage for communication to come alive in the classroom. Here are some tips: 

• Plan opportunities for students to practice and apply these skills in meaningful contexts.
• Provide time for students to plan and prepare communication activities.
• Encourage students to consider potential challenges and opportunities arising from shared ideas.
• Encourage physical cues.
• Encourage communication using different languages.
• Ask open-ended questions.
• Put thinking ahead of knowing.
• Have informal conversations.
• Encourage students to explore a variety of perspectives and modalities.

Now, let’s zoom into one of the communication sub-skills to see how we can immediately apply it to our practice. 

​Interpreting

What does it mean to interpret information?  How do we know if our interpretation is not correct?  These are questions we pose to our learners to get them to think deeper about the information they are processing.

Interpret visual, audio and oral communication

When you consider this task, it requires a lot of scaffolding on the part of the teacher to help their learners to understand the meaning and symbolism of a text and sounds.  It’s about presenting the same type of information over again, in a non rote memorization way, that will help students to grasp these concepts.

We usually think of beginning readers when we hear sound and symbol relationship and often focus on other areas such as fluency and comprehension.  I’ve often been fascinated why a child in third grade can’t read.  Could it be that they were close to understanding, but teachers deemed they were “old enough” to know how to read, so they stopped the support?  I don’t know.  What do you think? 

Understand the ways in which images and language convey ideas

I have always loved using images, audio, video, and personal experiences to convey a message to my students.  I guess it’s because this is how I learn best.  The beautiful thing about this process is the meaning can be different for individual students based on their life experiences and schema of the world.  I find this process fascinating.  

By presenting visual cues, we are able to help shape meaning of language for our students.  I love watching developing writers have aha moments and furiously seek the words to express what it means to them. This is how we shape our understanding of the world and recognize the importance of bias, power, and control. 

Recognize the meaning of kinesthetic communication

Body language is equally perplexing at times.  I can recognize the typical glazed over look in the eyes when the information is too much or over heads.  Crossed arms and heads down is equally recognizable.  What is more difficult is understanding what is going on deep in the mind while the body is calm and collected.  This is a tad bit harder.

I think learners can easily recognize when their teacher or peers are disgruntled or disconnected with tasks.  They struggle to understand the subtext of emotions through body language.  We need to expose them to different types of body language and what it may mean, so they don’t inadvertently offend or hurt others through their lack of understanding. ​

Be aware of cultural differences when communicating 

This is where open-mindedness comes to life.  When culture enters the picture, we need to be highly aware of our differences and similarities.  Culture shapes how we see the world.  Naturally, we need to teach our learners how to recognize these differences and to interpret the meaning.  Sometimes, we may not fully understand how others receive our message, so the only thing we can do is craft our message that reflects cultural sensitivity. 

This episode really stretched me, because these are hard to do.  As an adult, it can be difficult to read into the context of communication exchange.  We often misread the message, which leads to a lot of confusion and mess.  Imagine being a young child navigating this landscape. All we can do is consistently support this development and hope it sticks. I’m also a struggling PYP educator like everyone else trying to grasp it all.  If anyone has any suggestions, please post them on my Twitter @thinkchat2020 or LinkedIn @Lu Gerlach. I would love to expand and grow in this area too. ​