Life Skills Communication TU

8/3/2019 Life Skills Communication TU

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/life-skills-communication-tu 1/11

Life Skills: Communication

Communication skills are essential to performance in the workplace, society, andinterpersonal relationships. Communication includes many forms, including:

• Verbal: listening and speaking

• Non-verbal: electronic communication (texting, email), body language, dressand appearance

• Active listening• Ability to express feelings and to give feedback

• Ability to cooperate and express respect

Indicators of Communication:

• Selects, plans, and organizes ideas to communicate

• Communicates with clarity, purpose, and understanding of audience

• Actively listens, responds appropriately, and acknowledges the ideas of others

• Integrates and uses a variety of communication forms and skills (eg, verbal,

written, electronic, listening)• Recognizes, analyzes, and evaluates forms of communication

To Teach Communication:1. Write the word ‘communication’ on the board. Ask students what the word

‘communication’ means. What does it include? Write their responses on theboard next to the word ‘communication.’ Make sure that they include non-verbal communication—prompt them if they don’t bring it up themselves. Non-verbal communication includes texting, email, written letters, and even bodylanguage, dress, and attitude.

2. Give an example of a time when communication went awry—you can give

one from your experience or ask the students for an example from their ownlives (texting is a great example of this—especially if you accidentally misspella word and the receiver gets a totally different message than you intended).Make sure that students understand that had there been effectivecommunication, things would have gone as planned!

3. Give an example of effective communication. Use one of the activities given(on the following pages) and do it with the students. You can do more thanone activity if time allows.

4. Review the importance of communication with students.5. Sit back and pat yourself on the back for completing an awesome lesson on

communication J



Possible Activities:1. Play telephone! Remind students to keep words/phrases class appropriate!!

Give it a few tries and see what happens. Have a short ‘de-briefing’ sessionafter each round where you discuss what the original word/phrase was, andhow it got distorted. Who heard what? Where did it go wrong? Did anyoneintentionally mess up the message, and if so, why? Make sure to point outhow this can happen in real life—often something we say or even didn’t sayout loud (non-verbal) gets interpreted wrong regardless of what we do. Howdoes that affect the message that gets communicated to the receiver?

2. Give Directions! This requires some planning. You can make anything thatrequires directions, but here is my idea. Bring bread, peanut butter, jelly, anda butter knife to class (plastic, just in case—we don’t want any stolenknives…). Tell students that they need to help you, so they need to give youdirections on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then makesure you do EXACTLY as they tell you. If they say, “Put the peanut butter onthe bread,” do JUST THAT—without opening the jar or opening the breadbag, put the peanut butter jar on top on the bread bag. Take everything theysay literally! Point out to students that they need to be as specific as possiblewhen they are communicating. Often we don’t realize that other people don’t

understand the ‘unwritten’ directions of opening the bread bag, getting outbread, opening the peanut butter jar, etc.

3. Dress for success! I have included some pictures for this activity. Showstudents the attached pictures of people who are well-dressed—suit and tie,women in business suits or dressed for a fancy occasion, their hair combedand styled—and ask the students what their dress communicates about theperson. How might they be treated at a job interview, a bank, a Mercedesdealership, or a fancy restaurant? Now show them the picture of someonedressed very sloppily—in pajamas, wearing slippers, stains on their clothes,undone hair, etc—and ask students what this person is communicating abouthimself or herself. How might they be treated at a job interview, a bank, a

Mercedes dealership, or a fancy restaurant (you could show up in your pajamas, looking disheveled, and discuss what your dress communicates)?You can also do this with your posture. If you are sitting up straight, headforward, making eye contact, what does that communicate? Now, if you areslumped over, shuffling your feet, not making eye contact, what does thatindicate (if you’d like, you can also talk about how attitude is conveyed in our body language)? Make sure to explain to students how our non-verbal cuescommunicate just as much, and sometimes more, than verbalcommunication. Use the example of a job interview—you would need tospeak appropriately (no slang or swearing), but you would also need to dressappropriately, and have a confident posture!

4. Background Noise! Have one student recite the Pledge of Allegiance whileanother student sings a simple song, like “Row, row, row your boat” or “Yankee Doodle” or whatever. See if they can both do it without messing up.If they can, make it harder. Give them each a passage to read and see if theycan read it aloud, without messing up, and then be able to tell you what they

just read. Can they tell you what the other student was reading out loud aswell? Tell students that effective communication requires listening and payingattention. The old saying is that God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we could listen twice as much as we talk!

5. Um contest! Have students tell you a story: about their weekend, something



fun, their favorite restaurant, whatever. Count how many times they say, “um,er, uh, like, you know,” etc. You can even tell them beforehand and see if theycan tell their story without using those ‘filler’ words. Give an example of how,when talking, those filler words can make someone sound less intelligent or they can muddle up the intended message. Encourage students to get rid of those words while speaking. It will improve their eloquence, give themconfidence in their message, and improve their communication skills.

6. Misspelled Bee! Use the example below (about Che Guevara) in whichmany of the words are misspelled or missing. Have students mark theincorrect words. Ask students how the message is confusing, or even wrong,when words are misspelled, missing, or incorrect grammar is used. What didstudents think of the person who wrote the piece? Point out to students thatusing incorrect spelling or missing words when we write something makes thewriter seem unintelligent or too hurried too care. To effectively convey our message, we need to have correct spelling, grammar, and make sure wePROOFREAD our work (ALWAYS).

7. To Whom it May Concern! Have students read the example below that isintended for a person in a leadership position but it is written using slang, ispoorly spelled, and uses a tone of familiarity not appropriate for someone in a

leadership position. Ask students what your boss’ reaction might be toreading such a piece of literature. Now have students read the example froma college-level textbook. Did they understand any of it? How did they feelreading that passage? A high-school level textbook is written easier than acollege-level one, and for good reason! Also, it is hard to understandsomething without context—knowing what came before and what thepassage is actually describing is the context. Reading that passage out of context is really confusing! Remind students that effective communicationmeans you have to understand your audience and make sure to tailor your message appropriately, and you also need to be aware of context—will your audience know what you are talking about right away or do you need to

discuss some background first?8. Live Performance! Use the attached sheet with the behaviors on it. Cut

these into strips, fold them, and put them in a container. Ask for a volunteer tobe the ‘teacher.’ Have the ‘teacher’ stand in the front of them room, and havethe rest of the students each pick a strip of paper. Have the studentscommunicate NON-VERBALLY what their behavior is. They can use their body language and even get up and move around the room but they can’ttalk. Then have the ‘teacher’ try and guess what behavior each student isportraying (you can give them a list of behaviors to make it easier). You canswitch ‘teachers’ and do this again as many times as you like. Make surestudents understand that their actions and behavior in class communicate

things to the teacher as we try and teach. Let them know how to actappropriately and how to communicate respect and attentiveness.

Writing samples:



Misspelled Bee:Incorrect: Che Guevara was a Argentine-born Marksist revolutionary and cubangorilla leader. guevara is admired for his sprit of self-sacrifice. He is single outfrom other revolutionaries by many young people in the west because he reject acomfotable background to fight for global revulution. And when he gained power in cuba, he gave up trapping of privilige and power in cubs in order to return tothe revolutionery battlefield and, ultimate, to dead. after his death, Guevarabecame a hero for revolutionery movements, as a theorist and tactcian of assymmetric war fare.

Correct: Che Guevara was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and Cubanguerilla leader. Guevara is admired for his spirit of self-sacrifice. He is singled outfrom other revolutionaries by many young people in the West because herejected a comfortable background to fight for global revolution. And when hegained power in Cuba, he gave up all the trappings of privilege and power inCuba in order to return to the revolutionary battlefield and, ultimately, to die. After his death, Guevara became a hero for revolutionary movements, as a theoristand tactician of asymmetric warfare.

To Whom it May Concern:Leadership example: Hey boss man! what’s up. I need Friday off work. my momis having surgey and needs someone to watch her stupid cat. I hate that cat butsince i loves me ma I gotta do it. I know i was suposed to do that presentation butno one really cares anyway so its no big deal right, ha ha jk. I can just do itmonday hope thats cool. alright then I’ll see you Monday have a good weekend.

Textbook example: The advantage of Skinner’s apparatus is that the animal, after completing a

response and experiencing its effect, is still in the box and free to respond again.With Thorndike’s puzzle boxes and similar apparatuses such as mazes, theanimal has to be put back into the starting place at the end of each trial. WithSkinner’s apparatus, the animal is simply placed in the cage and left there untilthe end of the session. Throughout the session, there are no constraints on whenthe animal may or may not respond. Responses (such as lever presses) caneasily be counted automatically, and the learning process can be depicted aschange in the rate of responses.



BORED

HYPER

DISTRACTED

DISRESPECTFUL

SAD

HAPPY

DISRUPTIVE

RESPECTFUL

ON TASK

ATTENTION-SEEKING

ANXIOUS

ANGRY

SLEEPY

HELPFUL

Life Skills Communication TU

Documents

Transcript of Life Skills Communication TU