C56: Communication Skills (Specialist & Supporting)

​​Communication is a complex process, so how do we capture it in a specialist classroom or while receiving additional help with supporting teachers?  Just like a homeroom teacher, it requires continual practice in new ways, so students can have those aha moments.  This process will take years to develop, so it requires us to constantly chip away at it. 

When thinking of a specialist class, it’s about making the vocabulary come to life in your context through visuals and experiences.  What does it mean to have form in PE, Music, or Visual Arts?  This will look completely different, but exploring the variables that affect form over again will help to reinforce this concept.  

As a supporting teacher, it’s about getting students to use the language of learning at their level and slowly growing the learner’s capacity and access.  Your work is repetitive.  We appreciate this work, because it’s during the small group sessions with you that students are able to make connections in their communication development. 

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.  I chose a sub-skill that can be malleable to all specialists and supporting teachers. 

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

When we think of communication skills, we naturally consider how to use information and technology to help us better understand our world.  The IB outlines certain skills that learners need in order to leverage their ICT skills. 

The impact of media representations and modes of presentation

In your classes, students are eager to show what they know.  The academic rigor in your learning situations is the same, but the way it’s presented can be more accessible to learners.  How are we getting learners to access and understand media messages through your course lens or objective?  I think this would be fascinating. 

For some reason, I see a video in my mind of the effects on health and weight management.  It’s amazing how powerful an image or video can make to motivate and clarify misunderstandings of what is healthy.  Most kids think a bag of hot chips and donuts at lunch everyday is “healthy” as long as they eat their sandwich and fruit.  

When they are able to have these aha moments, do they get to present them to the group somehow?  In a science lab, if they learn the difference between a mixture and solution by doing media research and experiments, how can they show what they know to the rest of the class?  Are we allowing students to be co-presenters of the learning experience? 

Make informed choices about modes of communication

​Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and modalities

All teachers can use this as a vehicle for creating effective messages.  It’s all about showing a variety of communication strategies and tools that learners can transfer to a new situation.  This is always our goal.  It’s about being intentional that we use multimodal strategies on a daily basis to provide repeated exposure.  It’s that simple. 

You would think communication is so easy, but it’s been one of the most challenging ATLs for me to uncover so far.  I think it’s because communication is more than expressing one's ideas.  It’s about the audience, how your message is received, and how to respond. Then, we layer on media messages, it goes into a deep place with multiple possibilities.