Embedded Files
A second Habit of Mind that my students continue to demonstrate on a daily basis is “thinking and communicating with clarity and precision.” Effective communication is a goal that I strive for my students to meet every day during ESOL instruction, for it also has a significant impact on how my students perform outside of my classroom. In fact, the Common Core Anchor Standard L1: “Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking” is included at the top of every lesson plan. You can observe this habit in my Lesson Plan Assessment when I focused on an activity about communicating characteristics of injustices with other students in order to devise a plan on how to overcome said injustices. This lesson built a great foundation to extend this habit into more opportunities for student-to-student discourse, more transparent rubrics on our writing assessments to strive for clear, tangible improvements in our writing, and through providing more opportunities for verbal presentations. Though these activities I have noticed that my students not only improve academically, but they have also been able to overcome barriers that challenge my students to communicate with each other, and non-ESOL students in social settings.
Explicit Instruction: Anchor Chart
Explicit Instruction: Anchor Chart
Here is my Communicating with Clarity and Precision anchor chart. I use student-friendly language to provide directions to my students about how to be better communicators. I am able to refer back to this chart throughout the school year to both teach and reinforce this essential habit for ESOL instruction.
Contextual Instruction: Lesson Plan
Contextual Instruction: Lesson Plan
Victoria Nauman ESOL PK - 8 (5).pdfAnnotatedLesson_vnauman.docxThe lesson plan shown here focuses on the Common Core Standard SL 1- "Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively." Student to student collaboration is an excellent way for students to help extend their thinking while building academic communicative skills. In this lesson, students use language frames as a formative assessment to create their own definition of injustice. By teaching my students this Habit early on, I hope that they will continue to only improve on their communication skills as they get older, and learn more about communication from their peers. For evidence, I attached two different versions of the same lesson plan. The first is the one I use during instruction that has a simple format for me to follow while teaching. The second is my annotated version of this lesson plan that demonstrates how I explicitly plan to incorporate opportunities for students to practice communicating with clarity and precision.
In order to help grow their communication skills, I use speaking rubrics (ones from this lesson are pictured below) and review them with each student after presenting. The assessment can be found in both lesson plans. These rubrics assist me with tracking how much progress my students are making with mastering this Habit of Mind.
Reinforcement: Group Work
Reinforcement: Group Work
Throughout the school year, I have opportunities for students to engage with each other to work with their peers to increase the clarity of their speech and writing. Whether it is on research, presentations, or classwork, using students as a tool to sharpen speaking and writing skills has been so valuable for my students' English language development. Below are a few examples of group work activities that I have done with my students.
Pictured here is a student group with their oral presentation poster.
The students above are writing a script for a play.
Students using laptops to work together to complete a research assignment.
Students sit at our main table, a group work station, which promotes daily collaboration on assignments and activities.
Reinforcement: Transparent Rubrics
Reinforcement: Transparent Rubrics
Similar to the speaking rubrics above, I also use writing rubrics to ensure that students are communicating clearly, and to track their overall growth in writing. I personally annotate each section of each rubric to conference with students about ways to increase their writing's clarity. Over time, I have noticed students growing in their ability to effectively communicate their ideas in writing through this method of assessment and reflection.
Reinforcement: Project Based Learning
Reinforcement: Project Based Learning
Project-based learning also gives me an opportunity for students to practice their skills in this area. Below is an example of a weather report that was completed by my fourth-grade students. They had to research weather patterns in a city of their choice and then design a script to present this report- as if they were a weatherperson. This activity allowed my students to practice their speaking skills with real-life applications. They then were able to watch back a video of their presentation to evaluate how they did!
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