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Ball, D. L., & Forzani, F. M. (2011, Summer). Building a common core for learning to teach and connecting professional learning to practice. American Educator, 17-21, 38-39.

Beck, I., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Cook, B. G., Tankersely, M., & Harjusola-Webb, S. (2008). Evidence-based special education and professional wisdom: Putting it all together. Intervention in School and Clinic, 44(2), 105-111.

Lane, H. (2014). Evidence-based reading instruction for grades K-5 (Document No. IC-12). Retrieved from University of Florida, Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform Center .

McLeskey, J., & Brownell, M. (2015). High-leverage practices and teacher preparation in special education (Document No. PR-1). Retrieved from University of Florida, Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform Center .

Troia, G. (2014). Evidence-based practices for writing instruction (Document No. IC-5). Retrieved from University of Florida, Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform Center .

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High-Leverage and Evidence-Based Practices: A Promising Pair for All Learners

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High-leverage practices (HLPs) and evidence-based practices (EBPs) when used together can become powerful tools for improving outcomes for students with disabilities and those who struggle. This brief shows the promise of these practices in advancing educator preparation and practice.

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Skip to main content

What is the work of communicating with families?

Careful and sensitive communication between teachers and families supports student learning. Teachers communicate with families to learn more about children from the people who know them best. Teachers share information about children's activities, learning, and development. Teachers seek ways to partner with families. Communication may take place in person, in writing, or in phone calls. Every conversation with a family is a chance for the teacher to communicate a respectful, open attitude and create a space for a two-way conversation. Teachers must be attentive to considerations of language and culture, respectful and valuing of families, and oriented to working with families to support children.

How can communicating with families advance justice?

Without careful consideration, communications with families can reproduce patterns of injustice in home-school relationships. For example, scheduling meetings or events during school hours, communicating only in English, and making assumptions about "home support" can alienate many families. Instead, teachers can partner with families to access the specialized knowledge they have about their child including: a deep understanding of their strengths, what they care about, conditions for how they learn best, and expertise about home culture and family life. Communication offers opportunities for teachers to learn about a child's past experiences in school, how different family members have experienced school themselves, the goals families have for students, how families think they best support their child at home, and details of the home schedule. Talking with families opens doors for parents to see their child as a student, and for teachers to see their students as whole, multifaceted human beings.

How do we decompose the practice into learnable parts?

The diagram below breaks down work that teachers do when they are communicating with families. This breakdown, or decomposition, helps teacher educators to break down the practice into a set of parts that can be observed and practiced.
Download Decomposition

What does this practice look like in each content area?

Curriculum resources for this high-leverage practice are coming soon!

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Skip to main content Careful and sensitive communication between teachers and families supports student learning. Teachers communicate with families to learn more about children from the people who know them best. Teachers share information about children's activities, learning, and development. Teachers seek ways to partner with families.

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contributed by Nicholas Martino & TeachThought Staff

We are living in a digital age where students shuffle between learning apps and social and communication platforms constantly.

We can now communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime through the simple click of a button, and it is our job as educators to leverage these collaborative tools in the classroom. Many schools are finding creative ways to incorporate blended learning in their curriculums, and THINK Global School, where I teach, is no different.

Due to our focus on blended learning and travel, it is imperative that we remain as paperless as possible. Technology can often make or break our experiences as we study in different countries around the world, so we must hit the ground running during our seven-week intensive country visits. And depending on how they are integrated into our teaching toolkits, the tools used for our blended learning units can either help or hinder our student learning experiences.

Like you, we've tested our fair share of tools in trying to make the digital collaboration process with our students as seamless as possible. Some have worked incredibly while others not so much. But there are five that we've ended up going back to time after time-tools that just make student collaboration online (and thus blended learning) that much easier.
Student-To-Student & School-To-School Digital Collaboration: 30 Of The Best Digital Collaboration Tools For Students 1. Dig social bookmarks? You'll love Diigo
Remember the old days when a librarian came carting books into your classroom for an upcoming report?

Imagine Diigo as a digital version of that librarian and the entire internet as her cart. Items in this cart, however, can be retained for as long as you like without the fear of overdue book fees. Diigo, which stands for 'Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff,' is a great social-bookmarking tool that helps students or classes capture relevant research articles on a given topic.

By offering mobile versions via Android and iOS and add-ons downloadable for Firefox and Chrome, Diigo can be accessed anywhere, anytime-perfect for lessons in the classroom and those that extend out into the field.

See also 12 Of The Best Bookmarking Tools For Teachers
How We Use Diigo
This tool has become a crucial part of our school's approach to managing project-based learning resources. Since we are constantly on-the-move, a few books, let alone entire physical libraries, are impossible for us to reasonably transport. Diigo eliminates that concern, and helps our students curate and build an ever-growing library of bookmarks for our modules year after year.

Countries and specific place- and project-based modules have their own groups for students to contribute to and annotate resources. When a guest speaker visits, we can quickly create a research group to curate a list of resources so that our entire student body is informed and attentive before the speaker arrives.
2. Tap into your students' love of video with Flipgrid
FlipGrid is a video tool that is meant to encourage discussion and engagement. These short video-logs allow students to share ideas and opinions in a fun and hands-on way, as video submissions are often more enticing to students than a written response (this is especially true for teachers of ESL learners, who sometimes get anxiety about their written work.)

FlipGrid provides another approach for long-distance collaboration: The time limits are an added challenge to students who sometimes struggle with brevity. It's important to note that the free version offers limited features, while the paid version features offer full student collaboration and video conversation.
How We Use FlipGrid
In our Economics and eCommerce module, students use FlipGrid to summarize, discuss and review two different resources for the project-based learning module. In the module, students learn social entrepreneurship and e-commerce by developing a web store to support rural artisans.

Before their arrival in India, students researched the stories behind successful brands and shared them in a 'grid.' In the 'grid,' students use rhetorical devices to compete with their classmates to pitch the story of the brand they selected. This early application of rhetoric devices develops throughout the module before students present a business pitch to a panel of potential investors.
3. Collectively annotate YouTube videos with VideoAnt
As a former history and anthropology teacher, I was thrilled to stumble across VideoAnt. In the past, my students would laugh at the number of times I would pause a video to ask a question or interject a counterpoint. Now, instead of just showing a YouTube video, you can annotate YouTube videos to maximize efficiency and learning.

Students and teachers can add comments to video 'Ants,' adding all sorts of untapped academic potential. Students can point out bias, critique video style, and ask probing and clarifying questions, just to name a few uses.

Also, if any coaches are reading this, this makes for an excellent review tool when analyzing practice drills, pre-game scouting, and game film breakdowns.
How We Use VideoAnt
In our Zero to Infinity module, students carved up an hour-long documentary about mathematics titled "The Story of One." Educators annotate certain times with questions for reflection and short answers, while students annotate with different follow-up questions, and clarifying comments.

Due to our students' geographic diversity, there can be large gaps in their understanding of mathematics. This tool helps educators gain more insight into the student math experience before starting the module.
4. Create & Collaborate Anywhere in the World with Padlet
Padlet allows for creative collaboration using a range of different mixed media sources.

In real-time or across time zones, students can contribute videos, images, comments on a virtual corkboard. Each student can comment or reply to the work of another student or add a new strand on the topic that is introduced.
How We Use Padlet
During our ongoing "Water and Sustainability" module, students are using Padlet to document their experiences with data collection and the use of statistics in their daily life. They are sharing passions, applications, and websites to help each other realize the everyday benefits of understandings statistics. These include a range of topics such as distance running, gardening, vegetarian nutrition, and sleep maintenance.

By learning about each other, they are in turn gaining a deeper understanding of the wide range of applications of statistics.
25 More Of The Best Digital Collaboration Tools For Students
5. Skype: Video chat, text chat, etc.

6. Zoom: Live stream video and video chat

7. Google Drive: Collaborate on multimedia projects, share files, collaborate on documents, etc.

8. WeTransfer: Transfer files of almost any size with WeTransfer. Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive (9) are decent alternatives.

10. Scribblar: Online collaborative whiteboarding. Also consider 'Explain Everything.'

11. Microsoft Translator: Translate languages via text, voice, or photograph to more easily communicate in other languages. Also, consider Google Translate (12)

12. Twitch: Stream games for game-based learning. Channels, chat, and more.

13. Pear Deck: According to the developer, Pear Desk is a tool for Google Slide presentations and templates that allows you to transform "presentations into classroom conversations with an array of interactive and formative assessment questions."

14. Kahoot: Game-based learning and content reinforcement through competition and collaboration

15. Drawp: According to the developer, Drawp is "a K-12 platform for creation, collaboration, content, and workflow management" Also consider (16) learning journal.

17. Minecraft for Education: Students can work together to explore ecosystems, solve problems through design, architecture, etc. See also teaching with Strategies To Teach Like Minecraft.

18. Voicethread: Content-based conversations about selected media through 'threads'

See also 10 tips for using Voicethread in your classroom.

19. Explain Everything: Similar in function to Voicethread but focused on students visually demonstrating knowledge rather than through voice.

See also Free Explain Everything lesson ideas.

20. GooseChaseEdu: Online scavenger hunts. for team-building and content reinforcement.

21. Microsoft Teams: A digital hub likely best-suited for project-based learning support. Also consider Slack (22) Redbooth (23) or Trello (24).

25. Spiral: A formative assessment tool with video, group and quiz exercises, completed in class or at home, collaborative review, etc.

26. Piazza: A free, K-12+ Q&A platform

Also consider Quora (27) or reddit (28).

29. Peergrade: According to the developer, Peergrade is a "free online platform to facilitate peer feedback sessions with students."

30. Playposit: According to the developer, Playposit is "an online learning environment to create and share interactive video lessons. Teachers begin with any online video (screencasts, Khan Academy, TED, etc.) and transform what is traditionally passive content into an active experience for students, with time-embedded activities."

Tip: Most tools are either for 'school' or 'not school.' That means tools like Seesaw and Explain Everything are made for school and tools like Quora and reddit aren't. Obviously, school-friendly tools have many benefits (e.g., data privacy) but drawbacks as well (e.g., lack of authentic content). When using 'not made expressly for school' tools, try to leverage its strengths while minimizing its pitfalls.

See Also A Guide To Finding Digital Books: 20+ Free Online Libraries
Conclusion
While the TGS Changemaker Curriculum is unique in its approach to blended and field learning, any institution can adapt these tools for their personal teaching methods. Portable, user-friendly and effective, these tools can and will help anyone, anywhere, as they make content more fun for students to digest.

Absences are a daily occurrence at any school, but these tools can ease the burden on both the teacher and the student by keeping them informed and engaged regarding the day's lesson plan. Teachers who flip their classrooms (here are 54 tools for a flipped classroom) can also use these tools to ensure students collaborate productively from home.

With the application of any new tech in the classroom, it is important to remember that web tools do not replace sound pedagogy. When adding these to your toolkit, treat them as learning supplements, not as a magic wand for better teaching.
Follow @maats_defenders for more on education 30 Of The Best Digital Collaboration Tools For Students

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30 Of The Best Digital Collaboration Tools For Students

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What are the best online student collaboration tools? That depends on the nature of the digital collaboration.

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Best Messaging Apps and Websites for Students, Teachers, and Parents | Common Sense Education

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Best Messaging Apps and Websites for Students, Teachers, and Parents is a list of 15 apps, games, and websites curated by Common Sense Education editors.

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Walking to school, 3-year-old Daniel and his mother shivered as an early fall breeze swept away the warmth of the sun. "Look," said Daniel, pointing to flowers bowing and swaying in the wind. "It's so cold, even the flowers are shivering."

Within three short years, Daniel had mastered nearly all of the complexities of communicating. Like children the world over, he began developing his communication skills as an infant. As adults responded to his babbles, coos, and cries, Daniel found he could communicate pleasure, comfort, or discomfort. By 2 years of age, Daniel could use one- or two-word sentences, such as "Danny help," to communicate his wants, ideas, and emotions. And at 3 years of age, Daniel was able to communicate using full, complete-sometimes even poetic-sentences.

What an accomplishment! With the ability to use language to express their needs, thoughts, and feelings, children are able to make friends and to enjoy playing and being with others. These are the children who, because they can communicate, will be able to understand and participate within the larger community. Because of their communication skills, children can listen and learn from others, discuss ideas, and gain ever more knowledge of the world in which they live.
Creating Language-Rich Environments
Learning to communicate effectively is not a simple task. To become competent communicators, children benefit from language-rich environments. The richness of the language environment in children's homes is linked to children's language and literacy skills. Likewise, the school environment can be a powerful force in helping children learn to communicate.

Good schools for young children help them learn to communicate by:

structuring a safe environment that lets children know that they, and their ideas and ways of communicating them, are valued and respected;

planning the physical environment in ways that promote communication;

fostering the conventions of communication, helping children learn to look, to take turns, and to negotiate verbal conflicts.

Providing Security
"I can't seem to reach Alberto," complains a teacher. "When I ask him a question, he won't even look at me. He acts like he hasn't heard me at all." Even though children all over the world learn to communicate naturally, learning to communicate effectively takes skill and practice. Many children, like Alberto, may not feel secure enough to express themselves freely. Children need to learn that what they say will be valued and clearly acknowledged.

Each of us needs someone we can really talk to. "I tell her things I can't tell anyone else. I know she won't laugh at me or criticize," said a teacher about her best friend. Everyone, especially children, must feel a measure of safety and security before they can express themselves freely and openly.

You can build this security and safety by accepting the language children bring to school with them. Children do not learn language by being corrected or criticized. For example, Brooke runs to the classroom and excitedly tells the teacher, "Teacher, teacher, I seen a deer on the way to school." The teacher responds, "My name is not Teacher, call me by my name, Ms. Sally." Brooke begins again, with less enthusiasm, "Ms. Sally, I seen a deer. It was a real deer." The teacher says, "Say, 'I saw a deer,' not 'seen a deer.'" This time, with all the excitement gone, Brooke says, "Yes, I seen a deer." The teacher corrects Brooke again and again, telling her to say saw, not seen, until Brooke says nothing in reply. Brooke does not learn the difference between saw and seen, but she does learn that her way of talking is not accepted.

Children learn correct grammar by hearing it being used. To foster Brooke's willingness to communicate, as well as teach the correct use of saw and seen, the teacher could focus on Brooke's exciting news, saying, "Oh, you saw a deer! Tell me about it." Repeating what the child has said, even when you change some of the child's words, is reinforcing. Children who are reinforced for sharing their ideas will share them again.
When English Is a second Language
Learning to communicate involves learning to be a part of the group. Teachers can help children who are just learning English to feel secure, and accepted as members of the group, by doing the following:

Speak to them in a normal tone of voice. We tend to raise our voices when we talk to babies or others we think are not capable of completely understanding us. Talking in a normal tone of voice to children just learning English informs them that they are as competent as the others in the group.

Make them feel important. You can ask children who are just learning English to teach you and the other children how to pronounce words in their home language.

Pair children with more-outgoing children in the group to enhance their visibility within it. "Today, George and Alberto will choose the children to work with them on their project at the woodworking area."

Use children's "home name" to help them feel comfortable and free to talk.

Share assorted picture books that are written in the child's home language.

Spend time with the child, individually or within a small group, modeling conversation skills and techniques and teaching vocabulary.

Valuing Children's Ideas
Talking with children in ways that foster communication takes careful thought on the part of the teacher. Teachers who take a moment to stop what they are doing and listen to a child, and who think about how they will respond, including finding ways to expand on children's ideas, are those who are helping children gain the skills of effective communication.

It only takes a moment to stop and really listen to a child. Claire runs to her teacher with a newly finished painting that seems like a scribble of colors, saying, "Look, look! I made a pretty picture." The teacher stops, sits with Claire, and together they look at the painting. The teacher describes it to Claire. "Look, this pink line goes all through your painting. The yellow places are bright and sunny. You must have enjoyed painting this picture." "Yes," Claire proudly replies and, with confidence, she adds, "It's a painting about being happy."
Validating Emotions
Sometimes, valuing children's ideas can be challenging. Consider this scenario: Vanessa has been troubled by anger all day. After nap, her anger increases. Without provocation, Vanessa lashes out at Alberto, calling him a "stupidhead" for not getting out of her way. As Vanessa raises her hand to hit Alberto, the teacher steps in and, holding her hand, says, "I cannot let you hurt Alberto." After attending to Alberto, the teacher turns to Vanessa and says, "Let's find a quiet place for us to talk." Vanessa screams and hits the teacher, yelling, "You're the stupidhead. I hate you! I hate you!" The teacher calmly replies, "Understandably, you are very angry. You hate me now. But I can not let you hurt anyone, and I won't let anyone hurt you."

By recognizing Vanessa's anger, the teacher gives Vanessa a label for her feelings, sets limits on her behavior, and responds to her emotions. She acknowledges Vanessa's feelings without humiliating her. Vanessa learns that even when her behaviors are not acceptable, she is.

Adding another thought or idea to older children's sentences acknowledges children and fosters communication skills. "I couldn't find my mother at the mall last night," says a 5-year-old. The teacher, really listening to the child's fearful tone of voice, replies, "You must have been frightened. What did you do?" leading the child to give a description of her plight.

We all feel reinforced and comforted when another really listens to what we say. When someone recognizes our feelings, and shows they really care by expanding or extending what we say, just as with children, we feel acknowledged and valued.
Preparing the Physical Environment
Because communication takes place within the context of doing things together, it's helpful to have learning centers arranged in a way that promotes working together around a common theme. Within each of the centers, children can find materials that are carefully selected to promote communication. The art, music, and language areas should contain materials that motivate children to express their ideas.

In addition to centers of interest, this environment features raw materials. Cardboard and wooden boxes, wood planks and hollow blocks inspire children to work together, talk together, negotiate, and solve problems. Because no one tells children what to do with the materials, the children become the decision makers. To do so means they will have to communicate with one another.
Modeling Appropriate Behaviors
Social skills and communication skills go hand in hand. Children who look at the child they are talking with, who understand turn taking when communicating, and who know how to solve verbal conflicts are those who make and keep friends easily. They can enter or leave a group without disrupting the play, and they are at ease with adults and their peers.

Children who are ignored by others and have trouble communicating may not have learned that they need to look at the child who is doing the talking, or to look at the child they are talking to. You can model making eye contact by talking faceto-face with children, and by telling them what you are doing: "Sit with me so I can see you when I talk with you."

Shy children, or those who have been taught that making eye contact is disrespectful, can also be coached to look at others when they are communicating. Using puppets, one teacher coached a child to look at the puppet, just like they would look at the child who is talking. She asked another child to practice looking by talking to himself in a mirror.
Taking Turns
Communication requires taking turns. And to take turns, children must know how to use and understand the signals the speaker is giving. In the give-and-take of communication, timing is all-important. If you wait too long to respond to the speaker's pause, someone else will jump in and take over. But if you don't wait long enough, you'll cut off the person speaking and cause an argument. It is a difficult task for young children to judge when it's their turn to talk. They need to recognize nonverbal signals, facial changes, or changes in voice tone that signal when it's time for them to talk.

By 3 years of age, children learn that a question calls for them to respond, to take a turn. Often, however, 3-year-olds have nothing to say, so they answer with a "hmmm," an "OK," a shrug of the shoulders, or a laugh.

When in a group, young children can become overwhelmed with the task of taking turns. You can arrange places and spaces in which a child can talk with just one other child, practicing and gaining skills in turn taking. One teacher draped a blanket over a card table to give children a little hiding place in which to share ideas and secrets with one another.
Learning to Compromise
By 4 or 5 years of age, children skilled in communicating learn that if they keep on insisting, they'll lose the fight. Children learn that if they compromise ("I'll be the teacher first; then you can be the teacher"), they can keep the play moving along and still have their own way. Children who are able to verbally negotiate with others can do so because they know how to take into account what the other child says, wants, and needs.

Active teachers help children learn the skills of compromise and negotiation. They step into the play. A group of children is fighting over who will ride a new bike. The teacher asks them if they could take turns. One child says yes, picks up a clipboard and marker, and brings it to the group. "We could sign up," she says. The children, used to signing up for activities or events in their classroom, agree.

The communication skills children gain in the early childhood classroom are just the beginning. But those skills will form the foundation on which children can build ever more sophisticated methods of communication.
Click here to view and download the Developmental Chart Communication - Age by Age (PDF)

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Helping Children Communicate | Scholastic

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Walking to school, 3-year-old Daniel and his mother shivered as an early fall breeze swept away the warmth of the sun. "Look," said Daniel, pointing to flowers bowing and swaying in the wind. "It's so cold, even the flowers are shivering." Within three short years, Daniel had mastered nearly all of the complexities of communicating.

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A framework for exploring with students what good communication looks like and for helping them develop the necessary skills.

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In this artifact I demonstrated how to use different means of dynamic communication. This ranges from teaching learners how to use different modes of communication, such as screencasts, audio feedback, and video feedback, to staying communicated with all stakeholders of a learning community.

This increased the functionality of a personalized classroom in that it allows for communication to be dispersed in various ways. Screencasts can open the door for a Flipped Classroom approach and audio/video feedback allow for asynchronous communication with many different stakeholders. The Google Slides I made gives a very sparse outline of ways I have taught and use dynamic communication in my classroom and as an educator, whereas the video below gives a much more complete outline.

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In this artifact I demonstrated how to use different means of dynamic communication. This ranges from teaching learners how to use different modes of communication, such as screencasts, audio feedback, and video feedback, to staying communicated with all stakeholders of a learning community.

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​ In this artifact, I demonstrate my understanding of dynamic communication and how it can be used to engage students, families, and other stakeholders in education. I share some of the ways I have coached learners to communicate in the classroom, ways I communicate curricula and expectations, and ways I communicate with stakeholders.

This artifact demonstrates my mastery of using dynamic communication in a personalized learning classroom. It is important that I work hard to keep the lines of communication open with all parties involved in the learning process. Not only does communication need to come from me, but I need to have a way for others to communicate with me, as well. These lines of communication may vary by students and/or family depending on what is best for them. It is my duty to find out what will work best with each party in order to support every student to the fullest extent. By using dynamic communication in my classroom, I can support learning and build relationships with students, their families, and all others involved in the education process.

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​ In this artifact, I demonstrate my understanding of dynamic communication and how it can be used to engage students, families, and other stakeholders in education. I share some of the ways I have coached learners to communicate in the classroom, ways I communicate curricula and expectations, and ways I communicate with stakeholders.

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In this artifact I developed an example of strategies that all educators can use from P-12 and shape it to what it would look like in their classrooms. I also provided examples of how I shape the classroom environment that involves all stakeholders in communication and collaboration of the learner's personalized learning journey. Throughout the episode I explore how communication can be structured into the classroom and how to best set-up the classroom for success throughout the year. I also explore the delivery of content and information from all parties and examples of how educators can begin to shape their approach. The last part of the episode focused on feedback and how effective feedback leads to leveling up your communication and student's communication skills as they explain what their needs are and how to best meet those needs.

This artifact demonstrates my mastery of developing a platform for educators to learn together and create a personalized learning environment for their students all while beginning with the understanding the importance of dynamic communication nd providing strategies for educators to begin to promote key aspects of a personalized learning environment. ​

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In this artifact I developed an example of strategies that all educators can use from P-12 and shape it to what it would look like in their classrooms. I also provided examples of how I shape the classroom environment that involves all stakeholders in communication and collaboration of the learner's personalized learning journey.

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8 Methods for Effectively Improving Student Communication Skills

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8 Methods for Effectively Improving Student Communication Skills

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Teaching Your Students How to Have a Conversation

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Teaching Your Students How to Have a Conversation

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Maybe you have also observed how common it is nowadays for students to not know how to have a conversation. Perhaps this owes to a preponderance of talk shows in which people with different opinions rarely listen to each other, instead preferring to out-shout their opponent. Maybe it is due to changed dinner habits where more families are eating on the go rather than sitting down together and catching up on each other's day. It could be about how texting and tweeting now trump talking and listening as today's preferred forms of communication.

8 Tips for Speaking and Listening

While it is impossible to know all of the reasons, there is no doubt that learning to listen and talk is an extremely important way to broaden knowledge, enhance understanding and build community. Perhaps this is why the core standards in English-language arts include an important emphasis on developing speaking and listening, the basic tools for conversation. The eight tips below can be used regularly to help your kids learn good conversational skills.
1. Model a Good Conversation
Make a point of having one-to-two minute interactions, one-on-one, at least a few times each week with students who struggle conversationally. Share information about yourself as you might when meeting a friend or acquaintance, and show interest in the student by asking questions about his or her interests. Conversation enhancers include responses and prompts like:

If these students don't or won't share easily at first, don't give up.
2. Encourage Physical Cues
Identify procedures for having a conversation that includes appropriate non-verbal behavior. For example, you might teach a strategy like S.L.A.N.T. ( Sit up straight. Listen. Answer and ask questions. Nod to show interest. T rack the speaker.)
3. Challenge Put-Downs or Hurtful Comments
For example, if a student says, "I think what she did was really stupid," challenge with "How else can you say that without being hurtful?" If the student seems unaware, teach an alternative like, "I disagree with that." Ask the student to repeat what you said and then move on to:

"What happened to make you feel that way?"

"How would you have handled things differently?"

"Do you think there is only right answer, or could there be more?"

4. Ask Open-Ended Questions
These are questions without one correct answer, questions that stimulate discussion and can be a very powerful way to reinforce the idea that there are different views of an issue, or a set of beliefs that can be equally valid. For example: "So if Columbus came knocking on your door and told you that sailing to the New World would be an amazing adventure and there might be lots of riches there, but you might never arrive because the world was flat, would you go?"
5. Put Thinking Ahead of Knowing
When asked a question, don't accept "I don't know." Tell students that you don't require them to "know" but that you do expect them to "think." Teach them how to wonder aloud, speculate, guess or give the best answer they can. ("I'm not sure about that, but I think _____ .")
6. Have Informal Chats
Before class begins or in the hallway, ask students about their other classes, what they think about a current event, or how they feel about the outcome of a game. Share your thoughts as well. ("I thought it was more that the Jets lost the game than anything the Eagles did to win. How did you see it?")
7. Make Eye Contact
When a student is speaking in class and you are listening, give him or her your eye contact. However, gradually scan away from the speaker and direct your gaze and movement towards other students. This will often get the speaker to redirect his or her talk toward peers, and it invites peers to get and stay involved with what's being said.
8. Encourage Turn-Taking
Use an object, such as a talking stick, as a signal for turn-taking. Teach your students that when they have the object, it is their turn to talk or pass while others are expected to listen.

How do you help your students become better speakers and listeners? Please share your strategies in the comments section below.

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Teaching Your Students How to Have a Conversation

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I was recently in a third grade classroom and was struck by the presence of rules that were posted for how to have a conversation. Having visited many middle and high schools, I think these same rules could -- and probably should -- be posted there as well.

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The Student- Centered Classroom: Communicating What Matters

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The Student- Centered Classroom: Communicating What Matters

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The Student-Centered Classroom: Communicating What Matters

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Students’ ownership of the classroom and learning begins when you communicate that you’re listening, that you respect them, and that they can trust you.

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What Parents Want in School Communication

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What Parents Want in School Communication

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The survey was quite informative as to how, and what, school districts should communicate with communities (many of NSPRA's members are district communications officials). But I think one of the most valuable uses for this survey will be in helping teachers and principals develop individual communications strategies for reaching out to parents.

How Parents Want School News

Consider, for example, that the survey asked parents their preferred delivery method for school news. Internet communications clearly won. The top five answers:

E-mail from the district/school

Online parent portal

District/school e-newsletters

District/school website

Telephone/voice messaging system

As NSPRA President Ron Koehler points out, "Consumer needs are changing. The backpack folder is no longer the primary source of information for parents. They want and prefer instant electronic information. ... [T]he data demonstrates parents and non-parents alike turn to the web when they need information, and they want it now."

There is a twist, though: Social media (Facebook, Twitter and blogs) ranged near the bottom of communication preferences, below newspapers, television and attending school board meetings. More on this later.

What News They Want

A great feature of this survey is that it divided parental responses into "elementary" and "secondary" categories, acknowledging the differences between those schools and students, which are often lumped together. But it turns out that when you are talking about what information parents want from teachers, most communications priorities are the same:

Updates on their child's progress or insight on how they improve

Timely notice when performance is slipping

Information on what their child is expected to learn during this year

Homework and grading policies

Rounding out the top five for elementary students was information on behavior (including how their child gets along with others), while for secondary students it was how to best communicate with the teacher.

Parents also want much the same information from both elementary and secondary schools:

Curriculum descriptions and information on instructional programs

A calendar of events and meetings

Information on student safety (and quality of teaching, at the elementary level)

Educational program changes and updates (elementary level)/curriculum updates and changes in instructional programs (secondary level).

Rounding out the top five for elementary schools was information comparing their school's performance to others; for secondary, information on graduation and course requirements.

When They Want It

Many parents (47 percent) and most non-parents (59 percent) would like district updates as often as decisions are made. While the survey didn't further break down the frequency of communications to find a preference for school or teacher-level communications, I think that could be a guide for those entities as well. In addition to the 47 percent of parents wanting district updates as often as decisions are made, 36 percent of parents would like monthly updates and 13 percent would like quarterly. Less than 1 percent prefer less than quarterly (3 percent responded with "other").

What Does This Mean?

As NSPRA Executive Director Rich Bagin notes, while we know what the survey says, "each school district must complete its own research to see what its parents and other constituents prefer when it comes to communication."

I would expand that research to include the strengths and passions of those working in the district as well. And keeping that in mind, I think it is important to revisit the survey's finding on social media.

For all the attention that we in the education community have been putting on social media lately, I did think it was interesting how little parents (and other community members) as a group looked to it for school news. NSPRA leaders hypothesized that "social media may be seen as 'too social', lacking in credibility for official school information," or that "it is just too soon to make an impact for today's parents."

Yet just a couple weeks ago, I heard a very impassioned principal talk about the ways that he has effectively used social media including in communicating with both the school and greater community, which has responded well to his efforts. But the message he spread using those tools seemed to be the one that this survey found that parents want -- information on instructional programs, events and so on. My guess: He gets feedback through these tools on what parents (and others) want, and uses it to shape his message.

The example speaks to a broader point: Develop a communications strategy that meets the needs of your community. In doing so, make sure you take the time to learn what parents want to know. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time giving it to them. (Download the complete survey here).

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What Parents Want in School Communication

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The survey was quite informative as to how, and what, school districts should communicate with communities (many of NSPRA's members are district communications officials). But I think one of the most valuable uses for this survey will be in helping teachers and principals develop individual communications strategies for reaching out to parents.

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Communications Planning for  Innovation in Education

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Communications Planning for  Innovation in Education

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How to 'Read' Students During Remote Learning

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How to 'Read' Students During Remote Learning

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Engaging students who are remote (both literally and figuratively) is never easy, but it becomes easier when you shine a light on the qualitative data we do have from remote learning.

By "data," I don't mean what you are probably thinking-grades, test scores, and attendance, all of which are useful in telling us what a problem is. In the context of hearing and seeing students when teaching online, I mean data that sheds light on students' experience and empowers their voices. This qualitative data allows us to uncover learning in what students say, write, share, and do.

Qualitative data points tell us why a problem exists-and it is the why that helps us ask questions, stay curious, and build our awareness as educators of what our students need to thrive. By engaging our students and creating space to listen to them, we are not only building our own awareness, which is essential to equity, but creating a learning environment that is student centered.

Here are some ways to gather the data that answers our why questions during distance and when we return to the classroom.

Student Conversations and Interviews

Whether on Zoom, through a phone call home, or even a chat or text message, pausing to listen can go a long way because it builds our awareness as educators of the student experience, and it shows students that we value their voices and experiences.

When educators make listening to students routine, they begin to hold themselves accountable to keeping their assumptions in check and their students' experience and expertise of their own learning at the center, which is essential to equity.

To get started having a student conversation or interview about learning, invite the student by sharing the purpose of the conversation. This can sound like the following: "I am working on improving my teaching [or school] and want to be the best teacher [or leader] for you. Would you mind helping me understand your experience better?"

After sharing the purpose of your conversation with a student, you might ask some questions like these:

Tell me about a time when you ____ (activity related to a goal). What made that easy/challenging for you? Why?

What usually happens for you during ____ (activity related to goal)?

What do we do in class that best helps you with ____ (activity related to goal)?

What would success feel like for you with ____ (activity related to goal)?

What would it sound like-and look like-for you as a student to feel successful?

I recommend framing these conversations as partnerships. When you invite students to engage as a partner vested in the success of their own learning, not only does it allow you-teachers and leaders-to better understand the learning experience, but you build stronger relationships with students when they see themselves playing a role in designing their learning experience.

Audio or Video Recording of a Class Activity

There is so much to learn from watching an experience. If your school, district, and students allow and consent to it, record a Zoom class or breakout room and then take an observational approach. Look for the data-the facial expressions, the enthusiasm, and the interactions that demonstrate how students engage with you, each other, and the content.

Alternatively, ask your students to submit their work as a video using educational software like Loom, Flipgrid, or Screencastify. Can they explain to you their process of solving a math problem, writing an essay, or performing an experiment? When watching these videos, consider taking on a perspective of someone else. Perspective taking is an equity strategy that builds empathy for diverse experiences and builds our awareness of our own blind spots and biases.

Too often, when asked, "How did class go?" we respond with sweeping statements such as "It was bad," "It was all right," or "At least we have tomorrow." But by watching a recording as data, alone or with a colleague and coach, we can move beyond generalizations and zero in on details that can tell us so much about student learning. For example, in a recent debrief with a teacher about her Zoom class, she first told me that everything had gone wrong. However, in watching just five minutes of the recording together, taking on the perspective of an observer, she noticed expressions of her students' learning: They were appreciating each other in the chat, they answered her questions using Zoom emojis, and one student who the previous week had not participated not only wrote in the chat but clarified another student's misunderstanding.

Questions to consider:

What student strengths are you noticing? What can you see and hear students doing?

What are you seeing that is surprising? What questions does this raise for you?

What would you like to see students do that they are not doing yet? Why is this important to you?

As you reflect, what are your next steps as an educator based on this evidence of student learning?

Students' Written Reflections and Surveys

Student reflections on their learning experiences are powerful, especially when your students know you will read them and take their feedback seriously. Consider sharing their reflections with their classmates and being intentional and explicit with students about how they shift your practice to support student engagement in their learning.

Most important, make sure the reflections provide opportunities for students to share their stories and engage authentically because stories are evidence of student learning, too, and should not be dismissed regardless of the student.

Remember, a commitment to equity is a commitment to keeping all diverse student voices and experiences at the center. Also, questions with scales (1-5) are great for illustrating larger trends and patterns and can be answered quickly, but they don't get at the why, which is essential to really hear our students. Here are some questions to consider asking your students:

I wish my teacher knew...

Describe a success you have had during distance learning.

Describe a ____ (activity related to goal) that was challenging or frustrating.

Describe why ____ (activity related to goal) worked or didn't work for you.

If you had a magic wand, what is something you would change/do related to learning/school?

It is easy to push ahead with our lessons and objectives, especially in this unique time when the pressure is on and we feel isolated from students. We have to look for and read signals that are in addition to-and often entirely different from-those we're accustomed to in a classroom, as well as create new ways to hear from and engage with students. Nonetheless, it is our job to find ways to listen and pay close attention to potentially new forms of qualitative data in our practice. If equity is about raising awareness, then asking yourself how you listen to your students is core to equity.

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How to 'Read' Students During Remote Learning

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Engaging students who are remote (both literally and figuratively) is never easy, but it becomes easier when you shine a light on the qualitative data we do have from remote learning. By "data," I don't mean what you are probably thinking-grades, test scores, and attendance, all of which are useful in telling us what a problem is.

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Effective Communication in the Classroom: Skills for Teachers

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Effective Communication in the Classroom: Skills for Teachers

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Communication is key in the classroom: successful teaching is generally considered to require only 50% knowledge to 50% communication skills. As a result, a teacher should be proficient in all four modes of communication - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - and should know how to utilise this proficiency effectively in a school environment. Being able to do this has been proven to impact the success students achieve in their academic lives, as well as the teacher's own career success.

In this article, we will outline the reasons why classroom communication has such importance. You will also learn some of the strategies you can use to help you and your students attain your best outcomes.

Why is it Important for Teachers to Have Effective Communication Skills?

Teachers benefit from good communication skills in three different areas: when communicating with students, with parents, and with colleagues.

Communicating with Students

Communication skills are most vital for interactions with students, because the act of teaching itself requires them. In your role, you are responsible for comprehending and breaking down complex information, conveying this information clearly to your students (both verbally and in written resources), presenting in a manner that sustains their attention, and listening to and resolving their questions or problems.

You are also required to adapt content for different learning styles, motivate students to learn, build supportive relationships using encouragement and empathy, manage the classroom, and give feedback - making your classroom a safe and supportive learning environment. All of these things require good communication skills.

The better your communication skills, the more effectively you can perform these tasks. In turn, your students will make more academic progress. Studies have found that the success of students is directly related to interactive, engaging teaching environments formed by able teachers (see Mashburn et al., 2008). Additionally, the way that you communicate with your students can positively affect their perceptions of school, their role in the classroom, themselves and their abilities, and their motivation to succeed (see Dobbs & Arnold, 2009).

However, this works both ways: poor communication skills - and thus poor methods of teaching - causes students' comprehension levels to drop, and may affect their academic progress negatively. It could also lead to students lacking motivation, disliking school, and believing themselves to be unable to achieve. This could have consequences for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, effective communication between teachers and students is extremely important. It allows you to perform your job well, with positive results for your pupils. An added benefit is that your class can use you as a model for improving their own communication skills, which are critical for their development and future learning.

Effective coaching and mentoring can help boost your communication with students as you focus on three key areas: foundations, principles and practice.

Explore how to coach with consistency and plan for an effective mentoring session with our Coaching and Mentoring course which has been designed to give you the practical skills needed to get started with your successful teaching career.

Communicating with Parents

As a teacher, you will also need to communicate effectively with parents. This could take place through a variety of mediums, including phone calls, emails, and in-person meetings, so you must be skilled with both verbal and written language.

This is particularly important because you will often have to discuss sensitive subjects - such as behaviour issues, learning problems, and the student's strengths and weaknesses - without making the parent feel confused or defensive. It is vital that you are clear, but tactful, at all times. Failing to communicate well with parents could lead to doubts on their part about your ability to teach, and possible complaints, as well as a lack of understanding of their child's performance and educational needs.

Communicating with Colleagues

Teaching does not always involve independent work - it also requires collaboration. Whether you are planning lessons together, updating your colleagues on certain students' progress, or sharing tips about how to handle issues in the classroom, good communication skills will be of use to you.

You might also utilise these skills in staff meetings and training sessions - being able to lead meetings, present in front of varied audiences, and give feedback to other staff could illustrate to your colleagues and superiors that you are a good candidate for promotion.

As we have demonstrated, there are many reasons why effective communication skills are imperative in a teaching career. In the next section, we will give you some strategies to improve your communication in the classroom.

Strategies for Effective Communication in the Classroom

What we classify as 'good' or 'effective' communication depends on the context. When you are presenting in front of the class, you will use different strategies than when you are facilitating a group discussion, or speaking to a student one-to-one.

Here, we will suggest eight strategies that are applicable to each of the contexts that you may encounter.

1. Create a safe learning environment with supportive relationships

It has been proven that supportive relationships between students and teachers have a positive impact on class engagement, participation, and the students' achievements. It has even been suggested that these supportive relationships may negate the tendency for low-income students to have poorer school outcomes (see O'Connor & McCartney, 2007).

This is because, when students feel supported, they are more comfortable expressing their own thoughts and ideas in class discussions, attempting challenges, and asking when they need help. Higher levels of engagement and participation then lead to better developed knowledge and greater achievement.

A supportive learning environment is built using communication: you should get to know your students well, and show them that they are safe from judgement or humiliation in your classroom. It is a good idea to learn students' names early in the year, and use them often. Have an open-door policy for students to come and talk to you about any issues, and be empathic and caring when you interact with them at all times: don't tell them off for not understanding and don't ridicule their thoughts and ideas.

Additionally, you should recognise that some students don't feel comfortable talking in front of the class. If you do ask them to participate, you could use scaffolding (such as sentence starters) to make them feel safer doing so. However, forced participation is usually unnecessary: it is likely that quieter students have excellent listening skills, and are learning just as much, despite not sharing their own thoughts.

2. More teamwork

Teamwork and group discussions contribute to making the classroom a more comfortable environment. By working in small groups, students are able to share their ideas more easily, and improve their own communication skills. These activities also give them a good opportunity to ask you questions and get feedback on their work, leading to effective communication between you, better understanding of the lesson, and academic benefits.

You could also try to improve your communication skills through teamwork with your colleagues. Planning more lessons together, sharing ideas, and problem-solving together will develop the way that you interact.

3. Body language

Communication is not only verbal, but also non-verbal: you should ensure that the signals you are giving out through your body language are positive, confident, and engaging.

For example, making eye contact with students when you are talking to them shows that you are being supportive and attentive. Making eye contact is also important when you are presenting to the whole class - it motivates everyone to pay attention, which helps them to learn, as well as making them feel involved. In order to make more eye contact, you may have to learn your lesson content more thoroughly in advance, so that you don't have to look away to read your notes.

As you teach, you should use gestures to emphasise your words. This increases the interactivity of the lesson, making it more visually interesting and hence, more memorable. Keep your arms open - do not fold them - and use smiles, nods, and thumbs up to encourage students when they participate. Moving around the classroom while you teach can help to remove the barrier between you and your students, and gives them less opportunity to zone out or get distracted.

Body language is also important when dealing with negative behaviour. To avoid being confrontational, ensure that you don't stand directly above or in front of a student, point, or invade their personal space. It may be effective to get down to their level and talk quietly about their behaviour, or speak to them outside the classroom, to avoid drawing too much attention. Remember that students' behaviour is also a form of communication, and think about what it is telling you.

You can find out more about dealing with challenging behaviour from our dedicated article: ' How to Deal with Challenging Behaviour in the Classroom '.

4. Active listening

The 'listening' component of communication should not be overlooked - over 60% of all misunderstandings result from poor listening (Caruso, Colombi, & Tebbit, 2017).

Practising good listening in the classroom can benefit you in two ways. Firstly, you will be a model for your students, who will improve their own listening skills, and thus retain lessons better. Secondly, by using active listening, you can correct misunderstandings and extend learning, resulting in a better education for your students.

Active listening involves listening carefully to what your students say, checking that you have understood them correctly (for example, repeating back to them what you think they have said), building on their ideas, and challenging or questioning them. It is the best approach to use to foster understanding in the classroom, and is an excellent example of effective communication.

5. Feedback

Feedback is also an important component of communication in the classroom. There have been many studies focusing on feedback in recent years. It has been shown that positive feedback (i.e. praise) builds students' confidence - making them more likely to believe that they can succeed - and helps to create a supportive environment and increase academic success.

You can also use positive feedback to modify students' behaviour: for example, praising a student for having their hand up is likely to cause the students around them to stop 'shouting out' and copy this behaviour, in order to be praised themselves (Howell, Caldarella, Korth, & Young, 2014).

However, positive feedback can be detrimental to learning if it is used without being deserved, or too frequently (Cannella, 1986). Phrases such as 'good job' or 'beautiful' may not motivate students, because they do not understand what they are specifically being praised for, while over-praising can cause children to lack interest in situations where they are not being praised (e.g. Howell et al., 2014). As a result, you should give specific, deserved positive feedback - use the student's name, explicitly state what they are doing right, and thank them enthusiastically.

Negative feedback is used more often in the classroom than positive feedback, and many researchers have argued that this should not be the case. While negative feedback can help students to improve - for example, by changing their behaviour, or trying harder at a task (Conroy et al., 2014) - it does also contribute to conflictual relationships with students (e.g. Allen et al., 2013). It has also been suggested that it can cause lower levels of academic success (e.g. Wu et al., 2010).

These disadvantages are compounded by the fact that the negative feedback is not always successful - students tend to continue the behaviour despite negative feedback around 20% of the time - and it tends to decrease students' motivation and interest in a task (e.g. Spilt et al., 2016). Other consequences include decreased self-worth, which impacts children's academic success (e.g. Harter, 2012).

As such, you should ensure that you use negative feedback only sparingly; for general classroom management, using positive feedback to illustrate the behaviour that you want to see is much more effective. In situations where you do have to use negative feedback, you should explicitly address the behaviour you want to stop, give an explanation why (e.g. 'don't do that. I don't think it is safe'), allow the student to think about morality (e.g. 'are you doing the right thing?'), or use a simple form of 'no' (e.g. 'no', 'mm mm'). These techniques increase the effectiveness of negative feedback, and decrease any detrimental impact that it might have.

Finally, you should give students the opportunity to give you feedback on your lessons or teaching styles. This shows that you value their opinion, increases communication between you, and helps you to improve your teaching and their learning.

6. Sense of humour

The use of humour in the classroom has been found to increase learning, self-motivation, and positive relationships between students and teachers (see Segrist & Hupp, 2015). It allows you to establish a rapport with your class, and keep them interested in the lesson.

For example, you might tell jokes or funny anecdotes, give light-hearted personal examples, or laugh at students' own jokes. However, you should ensure that you don't use negative humour - where you demean or embarrass students - or humour that is either irrelevant to the lesson, disturbing, violent, sexual, or forced. Only continue to use humour that has received a positive response from the class (such as laughing).

7. Technical skills

Using up-to-date teaching aids such as computers, videos, and online resources is another way to keep students engaged and reinforce their understanding. It can also increase the effectiveness of your communication with students with different learning styles, who may benefit more from online resources than more old-fashioned ones. Try to work some of these aids into your lessons on a regular basis.

8. Be clear

Good communication - and good teaching - is about understanding and being understood. For this reason, you should always be clear and unambiguous, and adapt your words to your audience. Think about this while writing lesson plans (ensure that you break complex ideas down into simple, logical parts for your audience to understand), but also while you interact with the children after presenting the lesson. For example, you may wish to check that your teaching was clear by asking your students questions, or requesting summaries of the lesson in their own words.

When you ask your students questions, use appropriate scaffolding to ensure that they understand exactly what you are asking. If you teach in a primary school, your students' language abilities won't yet be fully developed. Closed questions (eliciting yes/no responses), forced alternatives (such as 'is he angry or happy?'), and sentence starters (e.g. 'a noun is...') are most effective for communicating with younger children. For older children, open-ended questions (such as 'how do you think...' or 'tell me about...') allow them to extend their thinking and develop their problem-solving skills.
The importance of effective communication in the classroom should not be underestimated - it can have an impact on your students' academic progress, feelings of self-worth, perceptions of school, and your own career. Using communication strategies like the ones we have detailed above could allow you to become a more successful teacher who better meets your students' needs.
Further Resources:

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Effective Communication in the Classroom: Skills for Teachers

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Communication is key in the classroom: successful teaching is generally considered to require only 50% knowledge to 50% communication skills. As a result, a teacher should be proficient in all four modes of communication - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - and should know how to utilise this proficiency effectively in a school environment.

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Five Ways to Establish Effective Communication in the Classroom

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Five Ways to Establish Effective Communication in the Classroom

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The importance of establishing good communication at a young age is critical in a child's development and future learning. The communication skills that students learn at school are fully transferable and essential across all aspects of life. Furthermore, it has been proven that supportive teacher-student relationships have a positive impact on class participation, engagement, and ultimately a student's achievements.

Communication can be described as the process where people exchange thoughts or ideas with one another. The benefits of fostering such relationships enable students to freely discuss thoughts and ideas and create an open environment in which questions can be asked without the risk of being judged or humiliated.

Poor communication is the main reason why students lack motivation, perform badly, and consequently drop out of school. According to many studies, the success of students is directly related to the effective communication of their teachers. Nurturing this kind of interactive and engaging teaching environment demands regular and effective communication. We have compiled our top techniques to create a positive dialogue between students and teachers.

So let's see what you can do.

1. Create a safe environment

2. Encourage teamwork

3. Don't stand at the front of the classroom

4. Use some active listening exercises

5. Be sure to give positive feedback

1. Create a safe environment

Create a safe, inclusive and supportive environment where students feel comfortable to open up and express their thoughts and ideas. An atmosphere that allows students to ask if they need help is crucial to their academic success. It is important that at all stages of the teaching process you nurture this kind of non-judgemental environment.

Having an open door policy and allowing students to pop in and talk about anything that may occur is a great way to promote good communication. Giving students extra support, tuition, or explanations before and after class helps shy students that don't feel comfortable in class to ask questions to learn. Check out our inclusive teaching course to go in depth.

2. More teamwork

Doing more team activities, and group work is a great way to take the focus off competing with one another and concentrate more on working together to get the best results. It can encourage communication, cooperation, and collaboration and help students talk more and effectively express themselves with their peers.

Teamwork and collaboration are skills that are transferable across all aspects of life and will be particularly important in their future working lives. Consider incorporating some games and even some quizzes into your lesson plan. Split students into pairs or small groups and tell them that they need to work together to play or have a chance at doing well. Pair and group work will also have the added benefit of encouraging students that may not hang out together regularly to interact more; to ask questions, talk about themselves, and listen to others.

We have plenty of classroom games and quizzes you can easily arrange that are sure to get students communicating with you and one another.

3. Positive feedback

Often teachers forget to mention when a student has performed well and instead focus on the negative aspects such as bad behavior. This can have significant effects and demoralize students. Although negative feedback can create positive outcomes by helping students to improve, giving positive feedback is a necessary part of promoting effective communication in the classroom.

It has been shown that students that receive praise are more likely to believe that they can accomplish tasks and be successful. Other benefits are that it can help to build a student's confidence, create a good rapport and supportive environment. Why stop giving feedback to students yourself? Why not teach students how they can provide positive feedback to one another, the importance of showing gratitude, recognition, and appreciation.

Conversely, it can be beneficial to encourage your students to give you feedback. Allowing them to share their feedback on lessons or teaching styles shows that you appreciate and value their opinion as well as helping to improve learning.

If you are looking for an easy way to get started with a lesson on feedback then we have put together a template on that very topic that you can download and use with just a click or two. Here everyone can submit anonymous feedback and give some well-deserved praise to their classmates.

4. Don't stand at the front of the classroom

Moving around the classroom, and getting involved with the students will create less of a student-teacher feel. Moving away from the front of the classroom and joining them either at their desks to discuss ideas and getting involved in small discussions will help them feel more comfortable and more likely to open up.

Moving around the room also has the added effect of changing students' points of focus. By moving towards students who usually don't speak up you can encourage them to participate by simply being in closer proximity. Some may not want to raise their voice around their classmates and simply being close means they can contribute without the added pressure that speaking aloud may bring.

5. Active listening

Listen to hear your students, not just to respond and give an immediate answer. Sometimes just lending an ear can be extremely useful in promoting a supportive and caring environment. Other times, students have a question about homework or need some clarification about a topic that has been discussed where an answer is needed.

Listening to your students enables you to provide better assistance and consequently a better education. Likewise, helping to teach your students both the value and the skills of active listening will both help to improve their ability to understand instructions and lessons as well as their ability to connect with their peers. These are skills that will be invaluable throughout their time in education and throughout their lives.

Improve your classroom communication with Mentimeter

Another important aspect of improving communication in any setting, but especially in the classroom, is to make students feel safe and comfortable contributing. We mentioned earlier about the importance of creating a safe and supportive environment, students will naturally develop communication skills but some will do so more gradually than others as they may have a fear of speaking in front of a group or lack confidence in what they have to say. A tool like Mentimeter can help to alleviate and remove these fears and blockers.

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5 Ways to Establish Effective Communication in the Classroom

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Creating dialogue with your students is a fundamental part of teaching. Effective communication can help to build and foster a safe learning environment where students can thrive.

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How to Breakdown Communication Barriers Between Parents and Teachers

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How to Breakdown Communication Barriers Between Parents and Teachers

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Keep in mind that what may seem like reluctance doesn't always mean families don't wantto be engaged in their child's education. Many families would like to be more involved. But some families may face significant barriers like unpredictable work schedules or immigration concerns. For other families, their past experiences may make them feel that the school itself is creating barriers.

Reaching all familiesbegins with meeting them where they are emotionally. They may have varied feelings about family-school partnerships or have other priorities (like health issues) in their lives. Emotionally meeting families where they are requires empathy, asking questions, and sharing that you have a common interest in their child's education.

Here are some common barriers you can break down to better engage with families-and how to start doing it.

Barrier 1: Unspoken Expectations About Family Engagement

Some families may not see it as their place to be highly involved in their child's education. They may think it's their responsibility to get their child to school, and it's the teacher's job to teach skills and knowledge. In many cases, that doesn't mean a family is trying to avoid responsibility. It could be a cultural difference. Or it could be a sign of respect and trust in you as the teacher.

Research shows that parents who are explicitly invited and encouraged to take part in their child's education are more willing to do so, and they feel more confident that their participation can have an impact. That involvement could take the form of supporting their child at home or being a part of school activities.

Let families know you want to work with them toward your shared goal of helping their child thrive. Be explicit in letting them know that they play a critical role in meeting that goal.

Begin your relationship by introducing yourself and asking to learn more about their family and their student. During that time, ask them how they prefer to keep in contact.

Ask families how they'd like to be involved and what information they need to support their child's learning.

Barrier 2: Inflexible Work Schedules

According to one literature review, parents and caregivers who have more flexibility, stability, and predictable work hours at their jobs tend to be more engaged. That's because they can be.

But many families may have trouble getting time off from work to come to IEP meetings and other school events or conferences. They may have inflexible or unpredictable work schedules. Many parents and caregivers who work hourly-rate jobs may not be able to financially afford to take time off. Others may work night shifts and rely on getting sleep while students are at school. And many parents and caregivers may not have access to email or the ability to take a phone call at their job.

Offer the option of having meetings over the phone or via video conferencing instead of in person.

When it's time for parent-teacher conferences, offer early morning or evening meeting times if your schedule permits.

Consider keeping in touch with families using messaging on a communication platform like Remind or Participate. You can use these tools to send quick updates about student progress.

Let families know that the U.S. Department of Labor has said that parents and guardians can use the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) intermittently to attend IEP meetings.

Consider meeting in a mutually convenient public location, like a library or a community center. (Check your school's policies on this before moving forward with this type of plan.)

Barrier 3: Limited Resources

Even if family members are able to take time off from work to visit the school, getting to the school can put a strain on their resources. For instance, parents and caregivers might have trouble arranging childcare for their other children. Or they might have difficulties with transportation, including limited access to a car or mass transportation. All of these factors can make it hard for families to participate in school events or meetings.

Talk with your administration about the possibility of providing bus, train, or subway passes for families.

Suggest organizing a carpool for families to attend school events.

Video record your back-to-school-night presentation and email it to all families after the event. That way, families who couldn't make it in person can still access the same information.

Ask your school's administrator about collaborating with agencies like a local recreation center to provide childcare during parent-teacher conferences. Or check with your district to see if some high school students can watch your students' young siblings at your school in exchange for community service hours.

Offer opportunities to engage that don't involve coming to the school. For example, ask families if they'd like to help with the classroom newsletter or cut out materials for you if you send them home with their child.

Barrier 4: Shared or Complicated Custodial Situations

Some students split their time between their parents' homes. Other students are being raised by grandparents or other family members, or they're navigating the foster care system. A family member who seems hard to engage may not be on your class email list because the child moved into their home after the start of the school year. In other cases, a parent or caregiver may not get notices that are sent home because it's not their day with their child.

If you're unsure about the educational rights of a parent or foster parent, work with your school's social worker or counselor to get a clear answer.

Ask the family who needs to be kept in the loop about school events, meetings, and other announcements. You may need to add more than one family member to your email list or to send an extra copy of a notice or a report card to separate households.

Barrier 5: Cultural Differences or Immigration Concerns

It can be challenging for families of English language learners (ELLs) or immigrant students to interact with their child's teacher and school. A language barrier may deter some parents and caregivers from engaging with the school. There may also be cultural differences, like the view in some cultures that asking questions of the teacher is disrespectful. And some families may hold beliefs that having a struggling learner or a child with a disability is not something that should be talked about.

In other cases, families may have concerns about their immigration status. Those families may be afraid to engage because they don't feel safe or are unsure whether they can trust the school.

Read these six strategies for partnering with families of English language learners.

Use an interpreter to communicate with families, if possible. Ask your school administration how to request one. Try to avoid using students as interpreters between you and their families.

Know your students' rights. They not only have civil rights, but also rights to privacy and an education, regardless of their immigration status.

Know that schools and bus stops are currently " sensitive locations." This means that the Department of Homeland Security recognizes them as places where immigration enforcement shouldn't take place unexpectedly and without proper approvals.

Barrier 6: Prior Negative Experiences With Schools

Families of students who learn and think differently may come to you with years of negative experiences with the education system. They may feel intimidated by, angry at, or mistrustful of teachers and schools.

Keep in mind that some learning and thinking differences are genetic and run in families. There may be generations of family members who have their own negative associations and emotions about their experiences in school. They may feel as though they don't have the skills to support their child academically.

Acknowledge past negative experiences if families bring them up. Let them know that your goal is to work together collaboratively and respectfully.

Offer information in multiple formats, such as short videos, visual instructions, and printed information. Keep in mind that for some families, a lot of text may be overwhelming. Be as concise as possible and avoid using jargon.

Use neutral language when talking about a student's struggle with learning. Using the Universal Design for Learning framework can help you talk about learner variability and explain that you know all students have strengths and challenges. Let families know you work to support all learners and address their challenges to help them thrive.

Developing relationships with your students' families isn't always easy. But it's an investment that can lead to improved student achievement and trust, as well as improvements in communication with families. Want more information?

About the Author

About the Author

Amanda Morin&nbsp

worked as a classroom teacher and as an early intervention specialist for 10 years. She is the author of The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education. Two of her children have learning differences.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Timothy King, EdD&nbsp

founder of Crowning Moments, is the director of exceptional student education for Flagler County Schools in Florida.

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How to Break Down Communication Barriers Between Teachers and Families

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Keep in mind that what may seem like reluctance doesn't always mean families don't wantto be engaged in their child's education. Many families would like to be more involved. But some families may face significant barriers like unpredictable work schedules or immigration concerns.