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Communication is a key component in personalized learning environments because it provides opportunities for students to communicate, express, and advocate for their learning needs. With personalized learning, students will be given various opportunities to explore individualized learning pathways that encourage students to work at their own pace. As a result, it is vital and necessary for students to communicate to educators and stakeholders their own strengths, areas of growth, and necessary thoughts about their progress. This work supports and encourages self-advocacy because students are continuously "understanding their needs, knowing what kind of support might help, and communicating these needs to others" (Lee, 2022).
Teachers must create a positive learning environment that ensures students have a voice in the classroom to foster dynamic communication. There are many purposes for communication. The five major purposes of communication are as follows: to inform, to express feelings, to imagine, to influence, and to meet social expectations (Communication, 2016). In the classroom and in the digital world, students will need clear norms and expectations for communication with peers and teachers of their school. This will allow the space to be safe, inviting, and professional. It also allows communication to be productive and serves its purpose. To support this work, educators can model and facilitate productive conversations in the classroom. Effective communication focuses not only on the act of communicating, but also on active listening. As teachers, it is necessary to build in processes that ensures students can initiate and voice their opinions.
"Communicating effectively for personalized learning, requires the teacher to have a good understanding of each child within the classroom learning community." This quote shares the importance of relationship building to foster effective listening and speaking skills in the classroom. In order to students to thrive in a personalized learning environment, it is necessary to build a detailed understanding of their strengths and areas of growth. Students will then communicate and trust teachers to take risks in their learning. Teachers should model strategies that promote effective communication and share strategies that will allow students to engage verbally and nonverbally. Teachers should continually provide space for students to advocate and communicate.
Lastly, effective and meaningful communication provides transparency and visibility for students, parents, and teachers. Technology can be utilized to "communicate curricula to ensure resources are leveraged for best outcomes." Teachers and school leaders can provide synchronous and asynchronous methods to relay information, thoughts, and feedback to boost communication with all stakeholders. Dynamic communication empowers teachers and students to connect in a meaningful way that builds stronger relationships through listening and speaking.
Coaching Learners to Initiate Communication
in a personalized learning environment, effective communication is a cornerstone for success. Educators can support and coach students to initiate communication to ensure needs are met. Below are three examples of how I coach my students to initiate conversations with fellow students, teachers, and all stakeholders.
Email Communication
In a digital age, it is important for students to initiate conversations with peers, teachers, and other community members. To support students in drafting emails and communicating effectively, it is important to guide students through the purpose, process, and elements of an email. This is a Google Slides that I utilize in my classroom to show the elements and proper ways to send an email. This resource is on my Google Classroom for students to refer to throughout the year if needed. This form of communication allows students to communicate needs when they are not at school. This is a powerful skill that will support reading and writing, as well as be beneficial in life!
Conversation Starters
Teachers can use conversations starters or accountable talk stems to encourage students to initiate conversations and communication during collaborative work. In my classroom, students have access to laminated copies of the Accountable Talk Stems Chart. The chart is used to guide and support students in asking questions to clarify thoughts, paraphrase or restate their opinion, start a new opinion, and agree/disagree/add on to each others thoughts. This encourages students to advocate for their opinions and others.
Accountable Talk Stems
Letters to Ms. Nguyen
Another form of communication that I integrate into the classroom is providing a physical space for teacher to student communication. The photo shows a bin that allows students to informally place notes or letters. This is housed in a local area so that students can access throughout the day. Typically, this is for non-urgent forms of communication. This is perfect for students can share thoughts, opinions, questions, suggestions, and more. In the Google Forms to the right, students can request for a in-person meeting with me to chat about a topic. This is similar to co-planning, but students can also discuss any topics ranging from their friends, family, school work, or their own choices. This is a perfect way for students to advocate for themselves and build stronger relationships with their teacher.
Communicating Curricula
Teachers can communicate curricula to ensure resources are leveraged for best outcomes using appropriate tools and resources to achieve best student outcomes. Below are examples of how I communicate curricula to my students to support their learning in the classroom.
Google Classroom
Google Classroom is an online platform that is designed for teachers and students communicate and collaborate, manage assignments paperlessly, and stay organized (Bell, 2022). One way to communicate curricula to students to ensure resources are leveraged for best outcomes is to use Google Classroom. This is the preferred method in my classroom because my county adopted Google Fundamentals for Education, along with other resources that support student learning. With this, each student has their own student account and can share, collaborate, and communicate with one another.
In my classroom, this allows me to communicate and share slides, documents, and links for students. This is an image of my current Google Classroom. I can share directions and instructions about learning activities. I can continuously update the platform to ensure students are getting up to date learning content and push out specific content to specific students.
Google Slides
Google Slides is a digital tool that allows me to create and format learning objectives, content, and activities with students to view and interact with. This ensures that instructional materials are designed to support student learning in the classroom. I use Google slides daily. In this example, students will be using the template to design their own podcast. This allows me to share instructions, links, directions, and templates for students.
Genially
According to Rhéaume, "Genially is a web-based tool, available in a free version, that allows you to create animated infographics, interactive presentations and even escape games. Use this tool to present content to your students in a fun way. Or offer it to your students as a visual aid during their oral presentations." Genially is a transformative digital tool that educators can use to design interactive learning materials. In this example, I communicated book club project ideas to students. The choice board is interactive, provides detailed instructions, and allows students navigate through the choices for the project.
Model and Nurture Effective Communication
Teachers can model and nurture effective communication in the classroom to build relationships with all stakeholders. Communication needs to be multidirectional to dynamically impact student success.
Student Council & Class Meetings
One approach that I implement in my classroom to nurture effective communication is to hold a student council with consistent, productive class meetings. Typically, at the end of the week, we spend time as a class sharing kudos, suggestions, questions, and concerns that would benefit the class as a whole. Student leaders share and represent any input or thoughts from the class. Conversations are respectful and collaborative. This structured time provides opportunities for students to practice delivering their communication and get feedback.
Active Listening
In addition to the class meetings, we consistently model and practice active listening. When actively listening, you are fully concentrating on what is being said and not thinking about what you will say next. It means listening with a genuine desire to understand the speaker’s feelings and perspective without placing judgment (Benner, 2021). This work is important to build healthy classroom relationships. To support active listening, we practice and role play different scenarios allow students to practice active listening. At the front of the room, I share a "Whole Body Listening" chart so that students can refer to it during collaborative discussions. I model this when students are speaking so that they can visually see the strategies at play. When students work in book clubs, I share a short video of am exemplary book club group meeting for students to analyze. This allows students to see effective communication, active listening, and gather tips to support their growth in this area.
Class Dojo
ClassDojo is a school communication platform that teachers, students, and families use every day to build close-knit communities by sharing what’s being learned in the classroom home through photos, videos, and messages (ClassDojo, 2022).
The images to the right share various messages that I share with my fourth grade families. ClassDojo allows me to update families with important information and images of our learning. This digital tool allows me to build strong relationships with families and communicate efficiently. This provides transparency and a snapshot into the classroom that allows parents to stay connected.
References
BYOT. (2022). Communication for personalized learning. https://byotnetwork.com/2016/06/28/communication-for-personalized-learning/
Ice, Curtis, Phillips, and Wells (2007). Using Asynchronous Audio Feedback to Enhance Teaching Presence and Students' Sense of Community. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ842694.pdf
Knutson, J. (2016, August 23). 6 tech tools that boost teacher parent communication. https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/6-tech-tools-that-boost-teacher-parent-communication
Lee, A. (2022). What is self-advocacy? https://www.understood.org/articles/en/the-importance-of-self-advocacy
Maryville University. (2022). How to be a better listener: Exploring 4 types of listening. https://online.maryville.edu/blog/types-of-listening/
The Sheridan Center. (2022). Classroom communication tips. https://www.brown.edu/sheridan/teaching-learning-resources/teaching-resources/classroom-practices/classroom-communication/tips
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