21st Century Communication Skills Necessary For Today's Students To Develop

The 21st century skills are a set of abilities that students need to develop for living and thriving in the 21st Century. Effective communication is the foundation on which many careers are built on. Communication skills will be necessary for students' lasting success in their personal and professional lives.

21st Century communication skills that should be developed in students are:

Collaborating
Use: This is when students are able to engage and discuss an idea or topic with fellow peers. This may be done digitally or non-digitally.
Necessity: This skill is important because collaborating is crucial for students' learning, mental, and emotional health. It is also essential for students to be able to work in a group to formulate ideas.

Communicating
Use: Students will develop the ability to use multimedia to express themselves in an appropriate manner.
Necessity: This skill is necessary for students to build personal interactions. Students' ability to communicate will help them to put forth their best representation of who they are as individuals in relationships throughout their lives. This skill will assist them in their personal and professional lives.

Social Skills
Use: Students need to be able to interact with various people, different cultures, and people of different ages.
Necessity: This skill is necessary for students to build human relationships and intertwine into society and cultural events.

Problem-Solving
Use: Students need to develop the ability to define a problem, create a solution, and follow through on resolving the problem.
Necessity: Students need to have the ability to devise effective solutions to real-world problems in order for them to be more successful.

Creativity
Use: Students need to be able to think and work in both digital and nondigital environments. They also need to have the ability to develop unique and useful solutions.
Necessity: This can be a method for students to express themselves and their uniqueness. Creativity is an outlet that helps students see who they are and what they can do. This skill also nurtures children's emotional health.

Strategies that I will use to assist my students in attaining the previous 21st Century Skills:

• Create lessons where students will discuss content as a whole class, small groups or in partners.
• Have opportunities for students to give oral presentations, for example, presenting a poster report to the class.
• Teach students to evaluate their voices to enhance their presentation. 
• Have students be able to express themselves by writing in a variety of formats.
• Provide opportunities for students to interact with one another to build social skills.
• Present a problem to the class and have the students create solutions. For example, discuss with students problems in their environment, have students brainstorm to create solutions, and then present their solutions to the class. 
• Students may also create a problem that they would like to find solutions for. 
• Allow students to complete an assignment in their own imaginative ways. For example, students may make a video, a poster report, write an essay, or draw pictures. 

Inspired Versus Deflated In My Own Education

When creating motivation strategies for my future classroom, I take moments to look back on my past experiences as a student and what my teachers did that motivated me. I think of examples from past teachers of mine that motivated and deflated me. I then try and incorporate the motivating strategies into my future own classroom.

One teacher of mine that immediately stands out was my 7th and 8th grade history teacher. She always had our class engaged and excited about the material we were learning. For example, when we studied the Civil War, we received the content from multiple resources. As a class we read chapters from our history book, watched Gone With The Wind movie, watched a show on the Civil War from the National Geographic channel, and read articles the teacher had printed for us. We also had our own Civil War in the classroom. The classroom was split down the middle into the North and the South. After learning the content for the day, each side would be given the chance to answer questions. Students were motivated to pay attention during the lesson and retain knowledge on the content because if a student answered a question correctly, their side (North or South) would be given a point and a chance to throw a soft nerf ball towards the other side. If the nerd ball hit a student, they would be "dead". We were also given the opportunity to answer questions to bring people back to life. The side with the most points at the end of the unit won the classroom civil war. This made learning extremely fun for students. I didn't realize this at the time, but how she offered the content through multiple sources met the needs for various learning styles.

A teacher can also deflate a student's motivation. The first teacher that comes to mind when I think of deflated motivation, I am reminded of my 9th grade history teacher. This teacher only provided the material in two methods; the teacher would lecture while sitting in his chair or we would read the chapter in our history book independently at our desks. This class was very boring, not motivating, and did not keep most students engaged on the content. The teacher would lecture in a mono tone and sat in his chair at his desk. The teacher appeared bored during his lecture on the material. I wish we had a collaborative discussion on the material in the class. I am a strong believer that if students can talk about the material, then they understand the material. I did not retain the information well from just reading it independently. It would have been more engaging to have a class discussion after reading the material. My father would take over teaching me the material in the evenings at home. He would read the chapter, then we would have a discussion on the entire chapter. My father took over the responsibility of engaging and motivating me in history. I was soon back on track and retaining all of the material.

This is why it is crucial teachers take the time and the effort to create strategies for motivating and engaging their students. I believe one of the most important strategies is to provide the material through various sources to reach all students' learning styles. I will always remember my 7th and 8th grade history teacher for showing me how much fun learning can be. I will try my hardest to create that same environment in my future classroom.

5 Outstanding Strategies for Increasing Reading Comprehension

While volunteering in classrooms, I have observed teachers use five outstanding strategies to develop reading comprehension. These strategies are: Think-Pair-Share, mind maps, shared reading followed with a collaborative discussion, independent reading followed with answering questions on the content, and by making predictions prior to reading. I am so excited to announce that I have also been using some of these strategies right away in the classroom because I have started substitute teaching while I finish getting my teacher's credential and master's degree.

The first strategy, Think-Pair-Share, is a collaborative activity that helps increase reading comprehension. Students may read independently, the teacher may do a read aloud, or the class may do a shared reading. The teacher may pause during the reading or at the end of the reading to ask a question based on the material read. Students may be given a moment to think about their answer to the question. Then, they will turn to a partner and discuss their answer to the question. Once students have discussed with their partners, the teacher will bring the students back to a whole group. The students will discuss with the whole class the answers they came up with their partner. This strategy allows students to collaborate and learn from each other. My best practices book A New Teacher's Guide to Best Practices by Yvonne S. Gentzler states an instructional strategy for use during a unit is to, " Ask students to work sometimes individually, but other times in cooperative groups" (Gentzler, 2015, pg. 136). This is exactly what Think-Pair-Share does for students. 

Another extremely beneficial tool for developing reading comprehension that students can do individually or collaborate with a partner is to make mind maps. Mind maps are a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. Students may read individually, the teacher may do a read aloud, or the class may do a shared reading. Once the students are done reading, the teacher must give a detailed explanation on how to format their mind maps. I would recommend doing an example on the document camera or Promethean Board as a whole class before the students complete their own mind maps individually or with a partner. Students will use their mind maps to help structure information, analyze the material, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas. Gentzler describes this learning strategy, " Use a graphic organizer to create mind maps for students, thereby strengthening learning and subsequent recall of material" (Gentzler, 2015, pg. 147) This strategy may also be differentiated based on the ability of the student. Gentzer recommended differentiating this activity, "A slightly different twist is to use pictures or drawings instead of words to create a mind map" (Gentzler, 2015, pg. 147). This is a learning activity that can benefit different student learning styles in the classroom.

Another favorite strategy of mine to develop reading comprehension is through a shared reading. The teacher reads aloud while the students follow along. The other day when I was substitute teaching in a third grade classroom, we did a shared reading for Charlotte's Web. The teacher had the book on a CD. The students read along to Chapter 3 while it was played from the CD out loud. I would occasionally pause the CD when we came to words the students may not know or to ask questions on what was happening in the story. We discussed the Chapter as a whole class, which allowed me to check for understanding. Gentzler further explains the importance of shared reading as, "…you can teach thinking skills at the same time you are teaching the content of your subject" (Gentzler, 2015, pg. 129). It is important we show our students how to think or what they should think about while they are reading. Pausing during the shared reading to ask questions helps teach thinking skills to students and will develop their reading comprehension skills. 

Students may also develop their reading comprehension skills by reading a passage or level guided reading independently. After their reading, students will answer questions on a worksheet and label which paragraph the answer was found in. When I was substitute teaching in a 6th grade classroom, I saw this strategy done during science. The students appeared to comprehend the material much better than if they had just read the material. I believe that by having the students state where in the reading they located the answer to the question helped them to develop their reading comprehension skills. They needed to really understand what the question was asking, have a strong comprehension what they read, and to be able to state where in the reading they located the answer. 

The last strategy I believe helps with developing reading comprehension is to have students make predictions. Predictions encourage active reading and keep students interested to see if their predictions were correct. I have seen predictions made prior to reading or after the students read the first paragraph. The teacher had their students write down their predictions on a piece of paper. She also wrote the students' predictions on the whiteboard, document camera, or promethean board. During the reading, the teacher would check in with the students to see whose predictions were correct or whose were incorrect and why they were incorrect. Gentzler also discussed an instructional strategy for use during a unit as, "Provide students with ways of thinking about a topic in advance" (Gentzler, 2015, pg. 136). Here, Gentzler is also describing the importance of getting students thinking about the topic prior to reading. Gentzler also recommends, "Ask students to revise linguistic and nonlinguistic representations of knowledge in their notebooks as they refine their understanding of the knowledge" (Gentzler, 2015, pg. 136). This is when the teacher will pause throughout the reading to check in and see whose predictions were correct or whose predictions were incorrect and why. This strategy will increase students' reading comprehension and keep them more engaged and interested throughout the reading. 

I have seen these five strategies be a success in developing reading comprehension for students. I look forward to using these strategies while I substitute teach and in my own future classroom.

References
Gentzler, Y. (2015). A New Teacher's Guide to Best Practices. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing.

Hello everyone. I wanted to re-introduce myself for those of you just joining me now on my journey in Education. I am currently working on my Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and Master's Degree in Education. I have been volunteering in 1st grade- 5th grade classrooms since I was in middle school. I have always had a passion for teaching ever since I began my volunteering in middle school. I decided to pursue my passion for teaching last year in March 2015. Before pursuing my new career, I was working as a Department Manager in Nordstrom in Orange County. I was working at Nordstrom during my senior year at San Diego State University. My career took off and I was quickly promoted two times at Nordstrom within two years. This persuaded me to put my passion for teaching on hold. Last year, I began to feel like something was missing. I began volunteering in a 1st grade when I moved back to my home town San Diego and remembered the joy and passion I had for teaching. I knew that this was my calling and it was time to make a career change.

I am not currently working in a classroom, however, during my time of volunteering I have observed multiple strategies to use for meeting the needs of diverse learners. The teacher emphasized the importance of grouping students based on their needs. For example whole class grouping, small groups, or working individually with a student that needs additional support. During these groupings, the teacher also differentiated her instructions. For English Language Learner, Special Needs Students, and struggling students the teacher used manipulatives and pictures to further explain the unit. She also used various delivery formats including videos, readings, lectures, audio, or pictures to assist in presenting the material for the lesson. I also observed the teacher provided different activities for the students to show their understanding of the content.

I feel my personality will assist me in meeting the needs of my students and to building a strong relationship with my students. I took the Teamtechnology personality test and found my results to be a true description of my personality. The personality test suggested that I prefer to deal with reality, facts and tangible outcomes. I feel this will help students that need to use manipulatives and learn by using concrete examples. The test also revealed that I enjoy taking a more personal approach when communicating with people and I care about people's feelings. Children need to feel that their teacher values their thoughts and their feelings. I feel these strengths in my personality will help build strong relationship with my students.

I also took the Felder and Soloman Learning Style Survey and found my learning style will assist me in teaching my students so they will be more successful. The results of the survey stated that I am an active learner as opposed to a reflective learner. This learning style is comparable when students collaborate with fellow classmates after a lesson on the material. I also found that I learn best by collaborating with others rather than reflecting quietly. I appeared to be a well balanced visual and verbal learner. Having a balance with both visual and verbal learning styles will assist me in making sure I present the material visually and verbally for my students. This will meet the needs of diverse learning styles in my classroom.

Lastly, I took the Grasha-Riechmann Teaching Style Survey and found some of my teaching styles will also increase my students' abilities to be successful. The results of the survey stated I was ranked high in expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator, and delegator. One of the sections that stood out to me was how I scored high in Facilitator. Facilitator is the ability to focus on the students's needs/goals, display willingness to be flexible and explore options for students' learning, and use different methods for how students will show they have achieved these goals. I also found my score was high in delegator; to assist students to perceive themselves as independent learners. I feel it is important to hold students accountable and responsible for their learning. I will make an effort to help students feel confident and comfortable in the classroom, which will lead to students' success in the classroom.

After taking the personality, learning style, and teaching style surveys, I am confident that I made a great choice in changing my profession to teaching. I will continue to look for best practice strategies while volunteering in classrooms to bring to my own classroom one day.