Adapted from: Communication, Number Three in a Series of K-12 Guides, (Part C, 7-9). David C. King and Cathryn J. Long, eds. Global Perspectives in Education, New York, NY, 1977. pp.1-3.

Grade Level: 7-9

Introduction

The concept of communication is particularly important to adolescents as they tend to be very self-oriented. Practice in communication can help them bolster their self-confidence and understand better what goes on in their interactions with others. At the same time, the concept is also a valuable tool in many subject areas of the existing curricula language arts, U.S. history, and culture or world studies. The concept of communication helps provide the link between school and life that makes learning more interesting and worthwhile. The contribution of the arts, which give life and human feeling to other subjects, is also important at this grade level. The approach here is from a personal and community viewpoint, with a branching out to include historical and cross-cultural matters. Young students still need to deal with the concrete and to see how they are involved personally in any given problem. Once they feel more secure in their immediate world, they will be better prepared to confront what seems like abstract global issues. By the end of high school, many connections between personal life and existence in a global age should become clear, and paths for decision-making and exercising influence more apparent.

Areas of Study

Student Objectives

• identify nonverbal "messages" from poses or gestures shown in photos of themselves;
• compare problems they have in communicating with three different groups: older people, younger children, and peers;
• identify feelings they have for personal places and for the classroom;
• develop goals for change in the classroom to improve the impression it gives.

Teaching Suggestions

1. A fun way to begin talking about the impression we give others is to list personal favorites in: colors, clothes, music, food, sports, books.

   Once everyone has a list, invite the class to speculate on what these often-exchanged bits of information may say about them to others. Ask: Do these give an adequate picture of what you are like? Is there part of you that isn't directly communicated to others? Does the "inner" you contradict the "outer" you? How might another person get to know you well? In this kind of discussion, you'll want to avoid putting anyone on the spot. If it gets too "heavy," switch to TV personalities or political figures and the impressions they make. Fan magazines provide good examples of superficial impression-making.




2. In their own private journals, students can record instances of good and poor communication they have with others. Ask them to pay special attention to the way they reach older people, younger, people, peers. In class, ask volunteers to talk about the different kinds of difficulties each of these groups presents for communicating. Combine this activity with reading and fiction or poetry writing on the subject. Often it's easier to talk about such matters in the more remote terms of fiction.
   
   
3. Students at this age will be especially fascinated by what nonverbal physical signals can communicate. You may want to use one of the popular books on the subject to spur interest. Many of these books are overdone and require a highly critical reading but students will enjoy uncovering the foolish statements and distinguishing a private code of personal gestures from those that make sense for most people.

Ask a couple of students to take candid photos of your class in session; in the school yard; at lunch. Use the pictures to talk about nonverbal messages. Ask: Are there instances when a look or posture outweighs what a person is saying? Are there nonverbal messages in these pictures that are misleading? Will you change any of your body language because of what you've seen of yourself here?




4. Ask students to think about their personal spaces--a room, a corner or windowsill, part of a yard that "belongs" to them--as places that help communicate something about them. They can use their journals to record the feelings these places have for them, and ways they might want to change the arrangements. You can use the classroom as a kind of laboratory for sensitivity to place and for experiments in change. As a class, identify the feeling your room seems to give. You might want to invite members of another class to visit and give their impressions. Next, ask the students to name some goals for change (What do you want the room to say about us? How can it fill our learning needs at the same time?), and the "outer" limits to change (How far may we change the physical plant? What legal limits are there to schoolroom change?). As you experiment with seating, lighting, equipment arrangement, decoration, etc. in the classroom, the students will become more sensitive to how spaces have meaning and how they may be changed in their own lives.