Educators may use the following questions to prompt students to reflect on their actions in the Communicate component (Watt & Colyer, 2014):
- What worked well? What didn’t?
- What would you change the next time you share your conclusions?
- How can this new learning make a difference to other people?
- How well does your creation address your audience and purpose?
- What parts can you consider keeping or deleting from your sharing out?
- How can you improve how you share your information and evidence?
- What strategies did you use to get and maintain your audience’s attention that you can use again?
- What did you learn from the other presentations?
- Which of the following presentation forms works best for you?
- Inquiry Journal Entries
- Inside-Outside Circle Sharing Strategy
- Prompts and Questions to Encourage and Extend Student Thinking and Dialogue
- Tracking Sheet/Assessment for Learning
- Scoring Rubric for Presentation
Assessing When Students are Communicating
By using inquiry journals or student-educator conferencing, educators can assess a variety of topics including, but not limited to:
- whether students understand the inquiry vocabulary,
- their reasons for sharing their learning in a particular way,
- how they plan to engage and address a particular audience,
- what went well with their sharing, and
- areas to improve on the next time all within the context of the Health and Physical Education curriculum expectations.
Educators can also document conversations during small-group collaborative work or whole-class discussions to assess communication skills and Health and Physical Education curriculum knowledge. The opportunity also exists within Health and Physical Education to assess the actual sharing of conclusions and new understandings by the student, and the means chosen to do so.
Success Criteria When Students are Communicating
Educators develop the success criteria with students so that a common understanding is developed. The co-constructed descriptions may be different in each class, but below is a list of possible success criteria for communicating. Each of the following success criteria should be expanded to be linked to what students are specifically learning within Health and Physical Education curriculum.
- I can consolidate my conclusion, decision, and goals into an oral, visual, multimedia, or written presentation or performance.
- I can choose an appropriate method to communicate my observations, decisions, goals, choices, or strategies.
- I can explain why I chose to present my understandings in a particular format.
- I can address different types of audiences effectively.
- I can engage my audience using different strategies.
- I can communicate clearly and concisely.
- I can self-assess what I do well and what I need to improve when sharing my observations, decisions, goals, choices or strategies.
References
Watt, J.G., & Colyer, J. (2014). IQ: A practical guide to inquiry-based learning. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.
