BHS ELA Instructional Guide

SPEAKING AND LISTENING Structured Academic Discussion

Teachers will provide students with opportunities to discuss in order to express learning, gain knowledge, engage with text, demonstrate growth, and communicate with the world around them. Teachers will develop opportunities for all students ● to speak daily, ● for a range of purposes, ● Audiences, ● and lengths of time.

Structured Academic Discussion (link to resource in guide)

Structured Academic Discussion (cont’d)

Active Listening Explicitly teach and practice active listening skills. This can involve activities such as listening to podcasts, TED Talks, or audio recordings of speeches, and then discussing the main points, arguments, and techniques used by the speakers. Provide student strategies for active listening, such as making eye contact, nodding, summarizing key points, and asking relevant questions.

“Practices that Support Listening” by Katie Alford, excerpt from English Journal

Refective Listening, University of New South Wales, Sydney

Explicitly Teaching Listening in the ELA Curriculum: Why and How by Katie Alford, McKendree University

Authentic Communication

Provide opportunities for students to engage in authentic, real-world communication tasks both inside and outside the classroom. This could involve interacting with guest speakers, conducting interviews, participating in community service projects, or communicating with peers from different cultural backgrounds through pen-pal exchanges or virtual collaborations. These tasks help students apply their speaking and listening skills in meaningful contexts and develop intercultural competence. Incorporate performance tasks that assess students' ability to apply skills in authentic performance e contexts. Create varied assessment types that measure different aspects of student learning. This could include formative assessments such as quizzes, exit tickets, and writing prompts for ongoing feedback and adjustment of instruction. Summative assessments like essays, projects, and presentations allow students to demonstrate their understanding over longer periods and in more comprehensive ways.

Strategies for Supporting Students’ Speaking and Listening Skills by Lisa Schultz, Edutopia

The Profound Effects of Language in Both ELA and Math, Timothy Shanahan and Jeff Zwiers, UnboundED

Speaking of Speaking by John Larmer, ASCD

Assessment Authentic Assessment

Authentic Assessment: Where to Start by Joanna Dolgin, Kim Kelly, and Sarvenaz Zelkha, NCTE

Assessing Applied Skills by Joe DiMartino and Andrea Castaneda, ASCD

The Case for Refective Assessment by Lauryn H. Evans

Last Updated August 13, 2024

High School ELA, Page 6