Oral Communication Strand

Santa On Trial: Christmas Debate for Public Speaking:

Distinguished English. Public Speaking Christmas Debate. [Online Image]

Sourced from: http://bit.ly/2gqGmLA

Tis' the season of  snow, celebration and.... debate? Oftentimes, public speaking can create a great deal of stress for many students. With this being said, I think that it is important to find light hearted and thoughtful debate topics. The following activity that I am about to introduce in this post is just that, light hearted and thoughtful, however, it also serves as a fun and engaging way to keep the holiday spirit alive in the classroom. Through this activity students will learn the art of public debate while laughing and thinking with their peers. I found this awesome activity at Teachers Pay Teachers as a free digital download. 

The Debate:

It's the holiday season, and one cannot walk down the street nor step into a shopping mall without seeing that jolly, round belly and hearing that familiar "ho, ho, ho."  Santa Claus is everywhere, there's no arguing that. However, the benefit of his mythical presence is widely debated among parents, educators, and other childcare providers. Some believe that he promotes good behavior and generosity. Others argue that Santa encourages greediness and materialism. But the real question is... What do you think?

Students will be divided into teams that will construct an argument for their assigned positions on the topic. The debate should be formatted as follows:

Affirmative Speaker 1: Introduce teammates and explain what each team member will be speaking about. (2 mins) 

Affirmative Speaker 2: Provide an overview of the debate topic, and explain at least two reasons for why Santa Claus is a good role model for children. (3 mins)

Negative Speaker 1: Accept or reject the overview of the debate topic and introduce teammates along with an explanation of what  they will be speaking about. (2 mins)

Negative Speaker 2: Rebut one of the affirmative team's arguments, and provide one reason for why Santa Claus is not a positive role model for children. (3 mins)

Affirmative Speaker 3: Restate the affirmative team's opinion, rebut one of the negative team's arguments, and provide one more reason for why Santa is a positive role model. (3 mins)

Negative Speaker 3: Restate the negative team's opinion, rebut one of the affirmative team's arguments and provide one more reason for why Santa is not a positive role model. (3 mins)

Affirmative Speaker 4: Rebut any remaining arguments from the negative team, and summarize the debate in favor of Santa Claus as a positive role model for children. (4 mins) 

Negative Speaker 4: Rebut any remaining arguments from the affirmative team, and summarize the debate in favor of Santa Claus as a negative role model for children. (4 mins) 

  

Vivagirlco. Santa Behind bars. Dec. 3, 2014. [Online Image]

Sourced from: http://bit.ly/2fcDkx4

This activity is best suited for grades 7 and 8 and is designed for the Oral Communication strand of the Language curriculum. I hope this holiday debate sparks thought and spirit into your classroom this holiday season!

Ashley 

References: 

Distinguished English. Public Speaking Christmas Debate with Assignment and Rubric. [Online Document].

Sourced from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Public-Speaking-Christmas-Debate-with-Assignment-Sheet-and-Rubric-1564644 

Writing Strand

The Best Part of Me Writing Activity 

The Best Part of Me. Molly Molloy. June 15,2013. [Online Image]

Sourced from: http://lessonswithlaughter.com/the-best-part-of-me/ 

While exploring teacher resources on Pinterest, I happened upon this fun and engaging writing activity that encourages students to think about themselves in a positive light. The teacher can start out reading poems with the class from a book entitled The Best Part of Me by Wendy Ewald. This book combines black and white illustrations with real children's words describing what they love most about their bodies. This is a fun and insightful way to introduce students to the actual activity at hand which is to talk and write about the best part of themselves.  

The objective of this activity is for students to identify a positive physical feature of themselves and then working in pairs, students take part in an online writer's workshop to create a descriptive poem about their favorite feature. 

I would start out with telling my class something that I love about myself, say my elbow! I would then begin a list on the board of all the reasons I love my elbow (ie. reading, writing, eating). After writing a couple of positive attributes, I would then ask my class for input as to why we love our elbows.

Next I would ask my students if there is anything about themselves that they love and why. Then I would bring students close together to read The Best Part of Me book to showcase photographs and highlight the simplistic style and tone that the authors use. 

Following the reading, I would ask the students to decide on what they think is the very best part of them for homework.  

The Best Part of Me. Molly Molloy. June 15,2013. [Online Image]

Sourced from: http://lessonswithlaughter.com/the-best-part-of-me/ 

Using the computers or computer lab at the school, students can work in groups of two or three to complete an online poetry writing workshop such as Writing with Writers: Poetry website. Once completed, students will write their own descriptive poem about the best part of them following he advice given during the poetry writing workshop. It is important to allow time for students to properly revise and edit their work. 

Students can publish their poems by neatly writing them on a piece of blank white paper, similar to the style found in The Best Part of Me book. A line guide may be helpful with this part of the assignment to keep writing neat and straight. I would then take a close-up photo of each child's self-described "best part" and have the pictures printed or developed. Finally, I would display their written work and photographs on a bulletin display board to share with the rest of their class. 

The Best Part of Me. Molly Molloy. June 15,2013. [Online Image]

Sourced from: http://lessonswithlaughter.com/the-best-part-of-me/ 

Not only is this a great writing activity, it is an excellent tool to help cultivate a positive classroom community. I love the body-positive component of this activity and I definitely look forward to introducing this to my students!

References

The Best Part of Me Lesson Plan. Scholastic. Genia Connell. 

Sourced from:  http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/best-part-me 

Cheers until next week!

Ashley 

Reading Strand

Turn A Story Into a Movie Assignment for Any Reading. Teachers Pay Teachers. [Online Image]

Sourced from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/NOVEL-SHORT-STORY-MOVIE-PROJECT-1238945

As a teacher, it is important for me to implement and teach curriculum that focuses on development of the knowledge and skills that my students will need to become effective readers. An effective reader is defined as one who not only grasps the ideas communicated in a text, but who is also able to apply them in new contexts. It is important to provide learning activities that encourage students to think clearly, creatively, and critically about ideas and information that they read in a text. This will encourage them to understand, analyze and absorb the information and to recognize the texts relevance in other contexts.

I have explored an interesting activity offered by Teachers Pay Teachers called Novel Short Story Movie Project. It is designed to meet curriculum expectation for English Language Arts for grades 7, 8, 9, and 10. For three dollars, his resource provides teachers with activities to use, assessment tools and printables for the class.

I personally love this resource because it is a fun and creative way to encourage students to turn their reading of any short story or novel into a movie. This resource includes eight different assignments that can be used individually, or combined as a major final project. Below I will list and briefly explain each assignment:

To The Movie Producer:
Students write a letter to a movie producer to persuade them to make their novel or short story into a movie. This activity encourages students to practice proper letter writing format as well as demonstrate their understanding of character, plots, and conflicts.

Casting Calls:
This is an activity that allows students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of characterization by having them consider which actors or actresses to cast in their film adaptation of their reading and providing reasoning.

On Set:
This assignment asks students to analyze and have a thorough understanding of the text's setting descriptions while also encouraging them to determine how that setting will be translated in the film.

Red Carpet Interview:
This is a fun and creative activity that allows students to transform themselves into the leading character of the text  or "star of the show". The student can demonstrate their understanding of the main character's personality traits, as well as the theme of the story by answering interview questions from the perspective of the main character.

Movie Poster:
Students are asked to create a movie poster to attract an audience to the theater to watch the film adaptation of the reading.

Storyboard:
Like filmmakers, students will create a storyboard of a specific scene from their text. The students will have to consider how they want to the story to be told with every shot or camera angle.

Costume Designer:
In this activity, students are asked to draw and briefly explain costume choices for two characters in their reading.

Composition and Score:
Students are asked to make choices about the score of their film adaptation of their reading by choosing three songs that directly connect with the content of their text.

SkyPaxPictures. Popcorn and Movie. Oct. 19, 2006 [Online Image]

Sourced from:  http://bit.ly/2f9QfeF 

I believe that this resource does an excellent job of connecting to the Ontario curriculum's overall expectations for the grade seven and eight level. This resource encourages students to read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning. This activity also  encourages students to recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements to demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning in the text. Most importantly these activities help the student to reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.

References:

Ontario. (2006) The Ontario Curriculum, grades 1-8. Toronto; Ontario, Ministry of Education

Teachers Pay Teachers. Novel Short Story Project.
Sourced from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/NOVEL-SHORT-STORY-MOVIE-PROJECT-1238945


Thank you for reading!

Ashley

Media Literacy

Alisonjane08. Media_Literacy_Brain. Novemeber 19,2008 [Online Image] 

Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2dmSrOL

What makes media literacy important? Why should our children know about it and why should teachers be teaching about it in school? To put it simply, media literacy connects the curriculum of the classroom to the curriculum of home. Through frameworks and structures developed by teachers at school, children can learn to excitedly discover the world and engage in open-ended inquiry in all of their environments.

There are several benefits of media literacy that I will discuss. Firstly, in this day and age technology has become an essential part of our daily functions. Incorporating media literacy curriculum in the classroom allows for students or digital learners to become wise consumers of the media. Students learn to manage their personal information appropriately while also learning to responsibly produce and project their ideas using the Internet or global media. Giving that we exist in a media-saturated world, it is also important for students to build their processing skills, rather than just content knowledge. All media are constructions and they do not simply reflect reality. Processing skills allows for students to analyze and understand any message in the media, ultimately providing students with important analytical skills for life.

Andre Hernandez. Media Literacy [Online Image]

Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2eeClcW  

Media literacy also creates an enriched environment for learning by helping students to connect what they are learning with real life. It also functions as a common approach for critical thinking that once learned, can be kept and applied for life. In terms of language and literacy development, media literacy would help enable my students to increase their ability and proficiency when communicating their thoughts. It also creates more platforms for students to communicate their own ideas and to share their thoughts and ideas in several different ways. 

As a teacher candidate I can understand how incorporating media literacy in my classroom provides an opportunity to integrate all subject areas, which ultimately helps students with cross-disciplinary learning and comprehension. Also I can recognize how media literacy allows for me to produce fresh and contemporary media content, which ultimately engages the students and creates a fun and enriching educational environment. It also transforms teaching dynamics by allowing the teacher to step aside and guide the students as they explore and discover, allowing students to transform and personalize their own learning experience.

Jason Rhode. Social Media Tools. December 08, 2009 [Online Image]

Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2dLKi7x 

I also recognize the need for media literacy to be a mandatory component in curriculum development. Media literacy needs to be seen as a priority and not an option. It can be sustainable over time if there are consistent frameworks that can be applied from grade to grade and teacher to teacher. Through this reinforcement and repetition, students would then be able to really internalize and apply the skills they require to successfully navigate the global media culture in which they are currently living. This is also important because it would ensure that all students, regardless of school, teacher or grade, would gain the same vital knowledge.

By teaching media literacy we are not only benefiting our students, we are benefiting all of society. Teachers need to encourage students to be respectful digital citizens so that they can successfully participate and contribute to online public discussions and debate. Without media literacy students become, "... drown[ed] in information but starved for knowledge." (John Naisbitt). 

As a teacher candidate I recognize that my students of today are the future and hope of tomorrow and I will do my part in ensuring that they have the knowledge and skills to succeed in a rich and diverse world. 

Resources 

Center for Media Literacy: 10 Benefits of Media Literacy Education

 Retrieved form: http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/10-benefits-media-literacy-education