Oracy and Writing in the Classroom

When I first started the education program at UVic I thought English Language Arts was primarily about reading and writing. I am now aware that listening, speaking, viewing representing, reading, and writing are all key parts of language arts education in elementary schools.

Value of Integration (IRP)

• When students are taught language arts in an integrated fashion they learn to use strands interdependently to create meaning.
• When they are given lots of opportunities to participate in all the strands and reflect on them they become more confident communicators.
• Example: talk may lead to writing, and viewing may lead to reading. (irp)

ORACY

During this course my awareness of the importance of speaking in the classroom was heightened. Oral language development is the key to successful literacy learning and is important for the successful achievement of academic and social competence. (IRP) What I didn’t realize before this course was that speaking skills are something that should be taught. As a result when I think about my future classroom I picture activities in the classroom that teach students how to listen effectively, think and respond.

Things I learnt that teachers can do to help develop students oral language skills (IRP):

-       Build a personal relationship with students.

-       Create a safe climate (respectful listening)

-       Frequent opportunities to engage in speaking and listening

-       Challenge students through questioning

-       Support students and encourage questioning

-       Allow time for student to think (IRP)

*Clear desks, clear line of sight, short instructions, age appropriate vocabulary.

Strategies I have learnt for teaching oral language

-       Garden Party Strategy: Tell students to turn to the person beside them and share an idea/story/explanation and listen to the other person’s idea/story or explanation. After have students present their partners idea/story/explanation to the group.

-       Tea Party Strategy:  Make cards for students, with students, or by students. Have students’ practice reading and discussing in small groups.

-       Literacy Centres: Set up different literacy stations that give students opportunities to practice talking. Example: “show and tell station”, “sculpt and share”, and “read and share”. Allow for freedom and structure to co-exist. 

-       Tea for Two: One on one chat time with students during the first part of recess. Helps teacher develop a relationship with individual students outside of work focused setting. 

-       Podcasts- Have students record an idea or a story and post it online. They could also listen to a podcast and discuss it.

-       Coral talking or singing: Examples- Goldilocks rap and “Hello, Bonjour,”

WRITING

Although I was already aware that writing played a large role in English Language Art this course helped me understand what the teacher’s role is and some strategies he or she can use to help students learn through the act of writing.

• Teacher role: model writing, help establish criteria, give feedback during process, celebrate successes and help students set goals
• Writing Process- prewriting, (generating ideas), drafting, revising, editing, presenting and publishing (share)

Strategies

-       Shared Writing: Give each student a piece of paper folded into 4 parts. Have each student write an opening sentence with 2 characters doing something somewhere on the top section. Next have students fold the top part so no one can see it and pass it to another student. Then tell students to write a sentence starting “She Said”. Repeat the process with “He said” and “in the end”.

-       Think Books and Journals:  Casual books that allow for exploration of writing free form restrictions. Don’t only have to be a record of what you do outside of school. Consider- “math think books” or having children write in their journals after a school concert- what did they think about the experience? (text)

-       Writers Workshop: Children work with one another and their teachers to compose, draft, revise, edit and publish a piece of writing. Emphasize the process! (text_

-       Writing conference: Where a writer reads a piece of his or her writing while the teacher or peer listens and provides comments and questions. As a team the participants work towards coming up with suggestions to make the writing better.

-       Writers Notebook: Notebooks where students can jot down ideas for writing. For example a teacher could encourage students to include “writing territories”, personal memories) or give students time to brainstorm Tantalizing Titles, and crazy character names.