![\"A](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/cow-gff53757f6_1920.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI\u2019m guessing you said, \u201ccow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
According to Douglas Rushkoff<\/a>, author of Team Human<\/a>,\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cWhen shown a picture of a cow in a pasture, most Westerners will see a picture of a cow. Most Easterners, on the other hand, will see a picture of a pasture.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rushkoff refers to this as \u201cfigure\u201d and \u201cground.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n When educators talk about transferable skills, we often focus on the figure – the student.\u00a0 We talk about assessment, measurement, and how students demonstrate these skills.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What if, instead, we focused on the ground – the conditions in which students develop these skills? What if we started by talking about the ways in which educators can foster, nurture, and grow these skills?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n This shift seems especially important given current conditions: students are struggling. Now is not the time for more assessment. Now is the time to nurture and grow students’ strengths.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n That is just what some teachers in the Two Rivers Supervisory Union are doing. TRSU uses the Essential Skills & Dispositions<\/a> framework as their transferable skills. Middle-level teachers there are doing a deep dive by reading more about each skill with two questions in mind:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Then they are committing to small steps to nurture that skill in their classroom.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Let\u2019s use communication as an example. With the questions above to guide them, the teachers read all about communication<\/a>. Then they surfaced their answers on a Padlet. After discussing their responses as a group, each teacher committed to one specific next step to foster communication with their students. And finally, they brought examples of teacher moves and student work back to examine together and discuss.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I reached out to educator and equity advocate Rhiannon Kim<\/a> to check our biases about our learners, and to glean some insight into what it means to foster communication. Here are some of her thoughts:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Communication has three main elements: expressive communication, receptive communication, and reflective communication. There is overlap, for sure, this is definitely a three-way Venn diagram situation! But let\u2019s look at each element one by one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n It involves many things including using appropriate body language, facial expressions, voice and tone. Communication skills show up when we engage in dialogue: asking questions, making comments, building on what others have said, and making connections. Communicating requires using appropriate vocabulary, evidence, and visuals to express our ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n One suggestion is to allow students to practice, play, or tinker with different modes of communication and then reflect on what worked best for them.\u00a0 For example, they could try expressing the same ideas using verbal and non-verbal signals or spoken and written formats. Other communication methods to try: quotes, metaphors, flow charts, graphic organizers, sketchnotes<\/a>, and non-linguistic representations<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Some teachers intentionally engage students in dialogue using structures like Harkness<\/a>, Socratic Seminar<\/a>, or Protocols<\/a>. Others are playing communication games with their learners:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Finally, many are building on the communication skills they are already practicing by having students consider their audience or using thoughtful prompts in advisory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n They include things like interpreting verbal and non-verbal signals, recognizing different perspectives, and drawing inferences. This is where meaning making happens, so learners have to grow their skills in listening to understand and maintaining engagement. They might also work on analyzing setting, context, and source in order to interpret messages.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Educators are always modeling communication skills in the classroom, and modeling receptive communication and thinking out loud about it is a great way to foster communication in the classroom. Other ways to practice listening skills include using podcasts<\/a> in the classroom or playing listening games:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Teachers are also thinking about analyzing communication skills used in picture books, class read alouds, current events, scientific articles, charts, and data with their students.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Learners demonstrate reflective communication skills when they consider how their communication choices impact others, when they monitor their communication and adapt it to better convey their message, or when they reflect on what is working well and what isn\u2019t when they communicate. Another critical reflective communication skill: using feedback to improve.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Some educators are being more intentional about how they engage the feedback cycle in order to foster communication skills. They are giving feedback for growth that is targeted, timely, and actionable and providing students with opportunities to reflect on the feedback. They are accepting and celebrating revisions. And they are soliciting feedback from students, reflecting on that feedback, and sharing their own growth with their classroom.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Other teachers are focused on building more opportunities for reflection. They are asking their students to consider:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n And students are reflecting out loud, on their PLPs, or with their peers to further strengthen their communication skills.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A teacher friend of mine says, \u201cYou can do anything, but you can\u2019t do everything.\u201d This is wise counsel at any given time, but especially in the midst of a pandemic. What is one small shift you might make to focus on the ground and nurture your learners\u2019 communication skills?<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What do you see when you look at this picture? (For real, I\u2019m not being sarcastic, what do you see?) I\u2019m guessing you said, \u201ccow.\u201d\u00a0 According to Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human,\u00a0 \u201cWhen shown a picture of a cow in a pasture, most Westerners will see a picture of a cow. Most Easterners, on … <\/p>\n\r\n
A shift in focus: from figure to ground<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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What does it look like to foster communication?\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
First, let’s check our assumptions<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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What we learned about teaching communication:<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nExpressive communication is often what we think of when we say communication: it is the talking, writing, expressing part of the skill.<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
So how might we foster expressive communication in the classroom?\u00a0<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Receptive communication skills are those that often get lumped together into \u201clistening.\u201d\u00a0<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What might it look like to foster receptive communication skills in the classroom?<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Reflective communication skills help us become better communicators and learners.<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In what ways might teachers grow the reflective communication skills of their students?<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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