1. Communicative Activities
Sajida Shahjahaan
May 2017

2. What Are You Talking About?
I am talking about talking.
Communicative activities promote the use of different situations and props to trigger communication.
These activities require and encourage a learner/student to communicate (talking and listening) with other learners/students in the group.
Such classrooms are not teacher centered. Students are encouraged to think individually, creatively, critically, and then discuss their thoughts with the group.

3. Kinds of classroom communication
Presentations, lectures
Group work
Interpersonal
Intercultural
Of course, we also communicate in written form, with class notes, assignments and tests, for example. Here I am focusing on oral comm.
The presentations can be by you or by the students. If you have students give presentations, suggest you get some tips from your speech/comm colleagues about how to prepare them. Don’t assume they already have the needed skills. We DO recommend speaking-across-the-curriculum! It is an excellent, participatory activity. Plus, as they say, we learn more by teaching than by being a learner. Make the students be the teacher on some topics! 3

4. Effective Strategies Maintain a pleasant tone of voice.
Vary your speed.
Choose your words carefully.
Use “I” messages rather than “you” messages.
Use a person’s name.
Use the appropriate nonverbal cues.
Ask meaningful questions.
Choose an appropriate time for communicating.

5. Interacting with Students
Treat all equally
Acknowledge
Positive feedback every day
Student first, not disability
Address student directly
Encouraging rather than correcting

6. Based on the corner you are in please answer the following questions.
CARDINAL DIRECTIONS
Based on the corner you are in please answer the following questions.
N What are some of What are some your WORRIES? NEEDS that you have? W E What are your Any SUGGESTIONS? EXPECTATIONS? S

7. Turn & Talk
Students take any task at hand, work on it independently and then turn and talk to a class mate to compare and contrast their understanding.
It can precede the independent work if students feel that the given task is very demanding, and they need to discuss before they can work on it.

8. Groups Leader - makes sure everyone is on task and focused.
Reporter - keeps track of discussions or decisions made by group.
Writer – writes down important points for sharing.
Consensus Builder - helps the group reach consensus and helps summarize discussion.
Wild Card – helps the leader.

9. JIG SAW
Jig Saw is used when students have to take in a large amount of information. With this activity each student gets a portion of the information to understand and they come back together in the group and share it with each other.
Teacher breaks assignment into equal portions for each group member.
Teacher assigns each member of the group a portion of the assignment.
Students get materials and pair with a person with same assignment.
Students will read assignment and agree on main points to share with the rest of the group.
Teacher checks pairs work to make sure the main ideas are present.
Individuals return to groups.
Members share the information with their teammates.
Teacher checks for understanding as groups present information.

10. GALLERY TOUR
Students are divided into groups and each student is numbered off, 1, 2, 3, 4.
All the 1’s will be in one group, all the 2’s in another group and so on.
In these new groups students will create a project based on teachers instructions.
Teacher will call time and all students will return to their home groups they started with. Each group will have 1, 2, 3, 4 each numbered member.
Each project/poster is placed on the wall around the room. Groups are sent to a poster each.
When the group is standing at the poster, the numbered member that is responsible for making the poster will explain the contents as the other members stand and listen.
Students will walk around the classroom like a gallery tour and each numbered member will get a chance to present to their team.

11. INSIDE-OUTSIDE CIRCLE
Students stand in two circles in equal numbers of people in both inner and outer circle.
Questions are give to either the inner or outer circle students.
Students with questions ask the question and the other circle students answer.
After each question one circle rotates and repeat the process.
Once the circle is complete, give another set of questions to the other circle and repeat the process.

12. PLACEMAT
This activity is great to get students started with a new concept or theme.
On a large sheet of paper create a circle in the center with four sections on the outside. (Like the picture above)
Place students in groups and give each group a topic or theme.
Students work independently on each section of the placemat until time is called.
Students take turns to discuss what they have written in their section. Anything that is repeated or deemed important is written into the center circle.
Students present the information (main ideas) that are written with in the circle to the rest of the class.

13. GRAFFITI
Place a question, problem, or theme on sheets of poster paper. Have a different item on each sheet.
Each group gets assigned to a different sheet of paper.
Each group member at the sheet write or draw what ever comes to their mind or is related to what is on the paper. No talking or sharing of ideas at this point.
After a minute or two the teacher calls time and asks group to rotate to the next table. Groups repeat until each group has visited each table.
Original group members present the poster to the class with ideas of whole class on paper.

14. Key Skills Attained Social Leadership Communication Fluency
Decision Making
Problem Solving
Conflict Resolution

15. Causes of Communication Breakdowns
External communication barriers
Internal communication barriers
Lack of interest or attention
Failure to listen
Failure to clarify comments
Childhood teachings
Failure to see a person as an individual
Interruptions
Lack of self-confidence

16. Challenges to Communicating Across Cultures
Communication is a combination of what is said, the way in which it is said and our body language.
Challenges can be categorized as:
speaking accent
topics of conversation
slang/jargon
Formal/informal language
Tone
Gestures/ Posture
Physical space and contact
Communication Style
Dress and appearance
Gender

17. References