Graduate:
Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement. |
Proficient:
Use effective verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student understanding, participation, engagement and achievement. |
Highly Accomplished:
Assist colleagues to select a wide range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support students’ understanding, engagement and achievement. |
Lead:
Demonstrate and lead by example inclusive verbal and non-verbal communication using collaborative strategies and contextual knowledge to support students’ understanding, engagement and achievement |
Effective communication is paramount for creating a positive learning environment. Throughout my professional practice, I have developed and utilised a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies.
Verbal Communication
During my teaching practice, I model verbal techniques to help engage my students and increase their understanding, these include:
- Varying the speed and tone in my voice to make it engaging and interesting to listen to.
- Projecting my voice to enable students to hear instructions and lowering the volume of my voice to a whisper to act as a cue for quiet time.
- Pausing to regain students' attention, allowing them time to process information and also allowing wait-time for student responses before intervening or asking additional questions.
Non-verbal Communication
Whilst verbal communication is important in the classroom, non-verbal communication is of equal value. Throughout my teaching practice, I demonstrate non-verbal communication to students through various techniques which are listed below:
- Maintaining eye contact with students
- Smiling to offer warmth and place value upon what you are saying or who you are addressing
- Moving around the classroom to maintain student engagement and positioning myself down to the students' level, rather than standing over them
- Clapping hands rhythmically in a call-and-response pattern with students to regain focus
- Blowing a whistle during outdoor activities to bring the students together
- Ringing a bell to quieten students
- Raising hand in the air or putting hand on head or lips, while pausing for students to imitate
- Using visuals such as posters, pictures, labels and diagrams to support student learning, organisation and understanding.
Below are some of the visuals I used throughout my teaching practice in a special options class, which my class responded very well to. The last photo shows my lanyard which includes a whistle and variety of visuals which were made by using a program called Boardmaker. The visuals on my lanyard are on-hand at all times throughout the day, which is a simple and reliable strategy for using visuals as a non-verbal form of communication.
Click images for a larger view
Click images for a larger view
Click here to view the Boardmaker visuals included on my lanyard.
|