Interacting With Students
Encouraging Participation
Indicator 46 - Practices Communication Skills UETS 2e., 3f., 6d., 7d.
Effective teachers teach reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills for effective communication, and promote communication to further the understanding of content. Effective teachers help students practice communication skills by designing educational activities that require students to listen and understand their classmates. Activities allow students to become more flexible and interactive as they learn to understand the perspectives and ideas of others and to express their own ideas and feelings clearly. Communication must involve the disseminating and receiving of information to achieve understanding.
IDEAS/SUGGESTIONS:
- Have students practice communication skills by:
- Identifying and stating others' needs
- Restating the main points of an idea expressed by another student
- Role playing
- Listing various ways to describe something, using similes or comparisons
- Show and tell, Very Important Person, relating personal experiences
- Pantomimes
- Engaging in negotiating processes
- Maintaining eye contact while they speak and respond to each other
- Telling the class an answer using a complete sentence
- Preparing and discussing notes for oral presentations
- Using and interpreting body language
- Making introductions of each other to the class
- Encourage students to use communication strategies when:
- Responding to another student's comment or idea during discussions
- Letting a teacher know about a misunderstanding or problem
- Working with a partner or in cooperative learning groups
- Make your classroom a place where communication skills are necessary. Students will listen to each other more readily if they know their teacher listens to them. They will also respect other students' points of view if they are aware that they will receive similar courtesy from their teacher.