Fostering Communication Skills to Deepen Learning
When fostering classroom culture, there are so many areas to zero in on. We want to develop a sense of community where collaboration flourishes so that learners are supported as responsible risk-takers who feel empowered. Communication skills are essential to deepening connections and learning. At the start of each school-year, I spent a great deal of time practicing the art of conversation with learners.
Why We Need to Be Intentional About Fostering Communication Between Learners
Without a solid understanding of the art of conversation, learners may struggle to communicate effectively. It’s a skill that is often taken for granted. We may make the assumption that our learners know how to communicate, particularly if they have been in school for some time. However, all ages benefit from intentional practice. Effective communication deepens our through processes, encourages reflection, metacognition, and our ability to provide meaningful feedback, particularly when incorporated within high interest or relevant topics. It also helps us to articulate our ideas with clarity. As learners develop communication skills, their peers are better able to grasp and value diverse perspectives. As a result, confidence tends to increase, encouraging thoughtful risk-taking.
How We Can Develop Communication Skills
Accountable Talk
In our classroom, we used accountable talk integrated with ‘talk moves.’ To support learners, I always provided an anchor chart with sentence stems that was accessible to all from most anywhere in the classroom. Additionally, each learner had access to their own reference sheet if sitting in alternative locations around the room and it was included as a resource within Google Classroom as well. I made sure that no matter where learners were, they had access to the resources that supported their success. Accountable talk visuals are best when broken into sections so that learners can easily decipher which to refer to when seeking how to frame a response or question.
In my opinion, it’s not enough to just provide visuals as a reference (even if posted in multiple locations). Learners benefit from intentional practice, so that’s exactly what we did. Taking one of our first day activities which entailed us to discuss the creation of a shared classroom vision, I infused accountable talk to get us started. Depending on the age of your learners, you may want to only focus on one or possibly two sections (sections shown below) at a time. I highly recommend scaffolding sentence stems using the anchor chart to avoid overwhelming learners.
We began by exploring what accountable talk looks and sounds like.
Accountable Talk Looks Like:
Facing each other
Talking one at a time
Showing interest
Listening Attentively
Giving the speaker positive feedback
Waiting patiently for a turn
Accountable Talk Sounds Like:
Disagreeing Respectfully while valuing diverse perspectives
Utilizing question stems
Building on the ideas of others or growing ideas/learning through conversation
Asking Clarifying questions
Rephrasing to confirm understanding or validate your partner
Meanwhile, we integrated ‘talk moves’ as well. I’ve never been a fan of hand raising to share out since ‘high hands’ block the view of others. Plus, if I pose a question as the teacher, the talk move symbols allow me to see where each child is at in their thinking. What I like about talk moves is that it holds all learners accountable as we engage in a class discussion and allows me to gain a better understanding of their thinking. Discussions deepen as learners grasp that they can add on to their peers’ thinking as we engage in conversations. Also, it shifts the traditional model of the teacher posing a question with just one learner responding. Instead, a natural sense of flow seems to develop as they share their thinking or wonderings.
The beauty of talk moves is that it also fosters a culture of risk-taking. Confident learners are likely to give a thumbs up to contribute something new (a response, a thought, new idea, opinion, etc.), even if unsure they’re correct. Others who are gaining confidence have the option to add on, agree, or show that they are still thinking. I also like that talk moves provide learners with the opportunity to ‘piggy-back’ off of others and build the conversation, thus deepening learning. Eventually, if used consistently enough, there is a gradual release of both talk moves and reliance on the accountable talk visuals. It’s really awesome when learners begin to utilize sentence stems as part of natural conversations, adding on more, or taking greater risks by sharing their ideas and thought processes in classroom discussions.
Incorporating Effective Class Discussion Strategies
There are also so many useful structures that we can utilize in the classroom to engage learners in not only conversations, but collaboration as well. Jennifer Gonzalez has developed a great resource titled: The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies. Although whole class discussions may be beneficial for certain purposes, we want to engage learners in conversations with small groups, on-on-one, or within Socratic Seminars using a fishbowl structure. Each provides a different opportunity to learn the diverse perspectives of others and deepen understanding, as well as learning.
Additionally, we would incorporate team building activities with practicing communication skills. Team building activities can be used to further develop and even test communication skills as learners pause to reflect on tone, word choice, and even how we may make others feel by the way we provide feedback or direction during activities. If the team building activity has constraints such as time, the pressure is on! However, it provides a great opportunity for learners to practice effective communication even when they feel a bit of pressure, causing low or manageable levels of stress. Debriefing with small groups or the entire class, contributes to the development of effective and respectful communication- a lifelong skill. Interested in a little more about team building and how we can amplify student voice while also fostering a growth mindset? Check out this article I wrote for Edutopia: Empowering Student Voice through Classroom Culture or this one shared on my website: The Why Behind Community Building.
There’s No Time Like the Present
No matter where you are in the calendar of the school year, it’s never too late to foster communication skills to deepen learning. It’s these very skills that transfer into all areas of life as our learners grow and develop. I think we can all agree that learning and leveraging effective communication skills is essential. Our world continues to throw complicated topics and issues our way and we benefit from knowing how to convey our thoughts or opinions while honoring others’. These very skills are necessary to best share ideas and be able to listen with understanding, while grasping how to disagree respectfully. Let’s ensure we’re supporting the development of our learners in all ways to flourish!
