So How Do We Incorporate Oral Language into our Digital Day?
Cox Campus Lessons 7-8 (Elementary):
Given that there are many critical components of oral language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, social communication) that must be developed, it is essential to incorporate as many of those components as possible into one activity that can be used in daily lessons. Which of the following activities could you incorporate into your lessons that would be most effective and how would you go about doing so? (Prove It; This or That?; Notice & Wonder; and, Morning Meeting.)
(Middle School):
Given that there are many critical components of oral language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, social communication) that must be developed, it is essential to incorporate as many of those components as possible into one activity that can be used in daily lessons. This week’s Cox Academy provided the following activities that incorporate several components: Prove It; This or That?; Notice & Wonder; and, Morning Meeting. Which or what other activity (feel free to AI this one!) could you incorporate into your middle-school lessons that would be most effective and how would you go about doing so?
Morning Meeting has been a weekly activity in my classroom ever since I can remember! And it really is highly social and readily adaptable to many, many activities that develop oral language skills. The four components: Greeting; Sharing; Group Activity; and, Message reinforce norms in appropriate receptive and expressive language; as well as, “promote cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control”. However, I have worked so hard to digitize my “Monday Meeting” in the last couple of years, I now feel I need to take a step back and try to incorporate more of the discussion again, instead of utilizing the chat box! As per this week’s lessons, I also need to incorporate a read-aloud into the session and have started so this week, including Math.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I really like Prove It, This or That, AND Notice & Wonder. I think all of these could be easily put into practice through Curipod, and even rotated each week during my “Monday Meeting”! :)
You have done morning meeting for a long time, and I love it! I think it's such a great opportunity to build community and relationships in the class as well as establishing culture for the week. I think the chat box is good discussion tool. The students could also lead morning meeting later on in the year. I want to come to one of your morning meeting soon to get some good ideas!
DeleteI often use the notice and wonder activity in social studies and science. This is a great way to introduce a new topic. When we began our fossils unit this year, I showed them various fossil photographs. I asked them to share what they noticed about the pictures and what they were interested in learning about the fossils. Every student was eager to share their observations aloud. We looked at the pictures again at the end of the unit and this time the students were able to incorporate more of the vocabulary they had just learned. The challenge with this activity being virtual, would be to turn to a neighbor to discuss your observations. I believe a similar effect could be accomplished in a breakout room with smaller groups of children.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that the Notice and Wonder would be great for science and social studies, but had not thought of doing it again at the end of a unit. I love how your students were able to use the vocabulary they learned to show what they learned!
DeleteNotice and Wonder does seem like a great tool, especially for introducing a topic that they may know little about--like fossils. Then at the end of the unit, they have even more things to notice, and probably more to wonder as well! The thing I liked about these tools is that there is no pressure of being "right or wrong." It is all based on their observations, opinions, and how they can support their thinking!
DeleteI also like that there is no "Right or Wrong" answer while using these strategy! It is a great way to get students to participate without feeling like they are going to get the answer "Wrong". I like the idea of using the notice and wonder in social studies and science! That is a great activity when introducing new topics!
DeleteI think this is great!! With Notice and Wonder, you can get so many ideas and comments about things that you didn't even realize were in the photographs!! I have done that before, and I always say to myself when my students find things in pictures (Now, why didn't I see that)! I guess I have a one track brain! :-)
ReplyDeleteSame! The students will come up with so many things that I don't think of too!
DeleteI do Prove It on a daily basis, but never called it Prove It! :-) Each day, during Reading, my students get a Science or SS reading passage, based on what subject I'm teaching; and I pair them with another student by putting them in breakout rooms. Not only do they get to turn and talk, but they must read the passage and highlight the answer in the passage to prove that is the answer to the corresponding question. I feel that this is helping my students, because they have started to use the strategy when they complete their weekly cold reads each Friday.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of incorporating the talking, reading , and highlighting the answer all together in this activity. My students struggle with actually answering what the question is asking, so discussing it with a partner might prove to deepen their understanding of the question, as well as practice oral language skills.
DeleteThe way you are doing "Prove It" in your class sounds awesome. It is definitely giving the students a great opportunity to communicate to develop their oral language skills. The tying in of the content areas I think would also help them build up their background knowledge.
DeleteI love this, too! Partners takes away some of the pressure, too!
DeleteI actually use the Notice/Wonder strategy when I introduce new topics and when I am trying to get my students to recall information we have previously learned. My favorite phrase is "how can we add to this" to help students expand their thinking. I also like the Prove It strategy. This would be easy to incorporate on the classroom stream as a discussion or in programs like Curipod where students can vote on the best response then discuss what made that response better. I think both strategies could be used for spiraling to keep old material fresh as we go through the year. Even if its not a daily thing. It would be easy to create and schedule the questioning to open class discussions.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of using this to spiral old concepts or topics! That would be very helpful for math as well!
DeleteI like the question "how can we add to this"!
DeleteI would love to incorporate Prove It by putting students in pairs or small groups and giving them several statements using their vocabulary words and asking them to justify or explain why they agree or disagree with the statement. This not only gives them more practice with using their vocabulary words in speech, but it also gives them time to talk with their peers. I also liked This or That and the fact that it promotes critical thinking and poses a question that has no right or wrong answers, which may help students not to be as hesitant when answering. I think this would be a great warm up or wrap up to a lesson. Since our students cannot physically move to one side of the room or other depending on their answer or choice to the question, they could answer a poll or type their answer in the chat box and then be put into a breakout room with a small group and given several minutes to discuss why they chose their answer. This again gives students the opportunity to talk with their classmates.
ReplyDeleteLesson 8 also talked about the importance of read-alouds and how they help grow students’ vocabulary, syntax and grammar understanding, and increase the understanding of social communication. It is no secret that I LOVE read-alouds and enjoy using my Reading Clubs as opportunities to do read-alouds, discuss vocabulary, and allow students to discuss what is being read and connections they make to other books or their lives. I also put students in pairs or in small groups and give them the opportunity to read to each other and then discuss what was read.
I am so glad that you offer the reading club to our students! Thanks for sharing your love of reading with Empower!
DeleteYou reading club is a great way to get our students reading and creates great discussion for the students of Empower! Reading aloud is so important and it is awesome that you have opened up this club to Empower!
DeleteI think the Notice and Wonder activity is great for building background knowledge and vocabulary. This would be great to build background knowledge of a new topic. For example, I have just begun talking about words with the word “port” in 5th grade. I might find a picture that has to do with shipping, exports, and imports. I might ask them what they notice about this picture. We could start an idea chart to list ideas. Then I might allow them to be in a break out room to ask what they wonder about and come back to share. This would promote discussion and communication between peers. Next, I might do this again and ask them to relate their thoughts to our vocabulary words -( export, import, portage, transport,) to see if they can create sentences that center around words with the root “port” . The first time , they will have had time to freely think without any parameters. However, the second time, the goal would be to think about how the vocabulary words relate to the pictures. This allows the conversation and dialogue to be differentiated. This activity might lead into a reading passage or social studies lesson on shipping goods and economics.
ReplyDeleteI agree the Notice and Wonder activity is great! I love the ideas that you came up with to use with the fifth graders and how you thought of ways to differentiate for all learners. I think the students would learn so much and have more ownership of what they learned through the activities you thought of for "port".
DeleteWhen reading a book to the students, I use Notice and Wonder a lot. It is great for them to share their thoughts and to hear what others are thinking. The students really enjoy it and it opens up a lot of dialogue between the students and myself. We also do a quick morning meeting but being virtual I have not found a great way for them to truly converse with each other like I have done in the past in a face to face classroom setting. I think This or That? Would be great to add in for some of our science and social studies lessons. After learning so much about oral language, I am looking for more ways to incorporate opportunities for the students to have more time to practice communicating.
ReplyDeleteI agree! Some of these strategies tend to be easier to incorporate in face-to-face classrooms. I also know we are innovative thinkers and we can work together and think outside the box to find answers!
DeleteI really liked the "prove it" activity for middle school math. A lot of times I will present an image, ask a question, and then also ask them to explain their answer which is a similar strategy. However, I do like the idea of posting an image of a table, graph, or some other mathematical representation and making a statement about the image as opposed to asking a question. I then could ask the students to prove why my statement is correct. I really like this idea because it takes some of the pressure off getting the "right answer." If they already have the right answer, they just need to give an explanation as to why that is correct.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of having students explain why an answer is correct instead of asking if it is correct.
DeleteYESSS!!
DeleteI could incorporate: "This or That?" and "Notice & Wonder" strategies. I feel "Notice and Wonder" is great strategy to use to use when I am introducing a new topic. This will also give me a better understanding of how much my class knows about the topic. I will be able to better gauge how much vocabulary and/or background knowledge they will need. I think using the strategy "This of That?" is a great way to demonstrate to students that it it ok to have different opinions. I will also be able to demonstrate how you can debate with someone in ways that are conducive to positive discussions. This is also a great place for students to practice using the newly acquired vocabulary words. I think the "This or That" strategy used in small groups, can help students that are shy or hesitant to share their thoughts with the whole class to gain confidence.
ReplyDeleteI have always used morning meeting time/calendar time to touch on all the aspects of oral language though with my second graders I find that I don't do that as much. I feel this can be an area that I can add back into my "bag of teaching tricks".
I often use notice and wonder in my skills class. Lately I have been using activities that align with the continent we are focusing on for the month to incorporate in the activities. We start many lessons looking at what we notice about the video, heading of the article, whatever it may be! The students get to share with each other what they notice or what they already know about the topic. When we finish the video we have a time to chat and ask what they wonder. This is also a time I ask what they still want to learn that they have questions about. This question always opens up even more conversation and building that background knowledge by collaboration of students!
ReplyDeleteI love the "Prove It" and the "Notice and Wonder" strategies the best. I've used "Notice and Wonder" on occasion as related especially to some of the images related to the history standards in 5th and 6th grades. This is a great activating strategy or summarizing strategy to help students clue into the details or recall and apply the information they've already learned. I've even used it in reference to a text as we spent time discussing, "What did you notice about the characters actions in the story?" and students give implicit details. Then to make connections with those characters in the story, "I wonder why the character did that?" in order to pull in some inferencing skills.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using it to review or recall things they have already learned. I think that's a great idea!
DeleteAll three of these strategies, "Prove It", "Notice and Wonder", and "This or That" are fabulous. They are simple and help students gain confidence with oral fluency. "Notice and Wonder" is one of my favorites because this can also help as a pre-writing tool. The conversation can help students make connections and generate thoughts, so that they don't draw a blank when writing. Another thing that I love about "Notice and Wonder" is that before long the role of the "teacher" diminishes and students become the "teacher". One thing that I want to try to do more of is to use "This or That" with vocabulary instruction as a way to compare the subtle shades of meaning with both new and previously taught words, specifically words that are synonyms.
ReplyDeleteI like all three, as well, and they can interact well together to address different learning needs.
DeleteI love that you mentioned how the role of the student shifts to becoming the “teacher”. When I am looking for students to explain their thinking or how they arrived at an answer, I will often say, “Your turn to be the teacher now and explain…”. I will also ask students, “How do you know?” instead of just agreeing with a correct answer that is given.
DeleteLisa, I love how you incorporated these strategies before a writing assignment before GaETC! It really opened the students up to conversation. It also was a great way to gage what they knew about our knew unit without a formal pretest.
DeleteI like what you stated about the role of the teacher transferring to students. This really does empower students!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteI really liked the This or That strategy. I've used it as an ice breaker with students at the beginning of the year with pictures. It always sparks conversation. I like the way the students in the video were using the vocabulary word to describe a person. It was a great way to incorporate critical thinking skills. I also like that the students shared their responses with peers. What a great opportunity to hear different view points.
ReplyDeleteThis or That lends itself to PE activities. We often play this or that games and students can perform an exercise or movement to indicate their answer. I will be on the lookout for this or that PE games that incorporate phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, or social communication.
ReplyDelete