Communicaton
Schools across the nation have embraced the renewed emphasis on the teaching of reading and writing skills. There is a good reason for that, as these skills are essential to success in academics, the workplace, and daily living. To demonstrate successful communication, students must effectively convey their knowledge of new information or concepts to others, support their points of view, and offer solutions to problems.
Conn students will learn to communicate ideas through the arts of speaking, listening, writing, presenting, and collaborating. In addition, all students will learn Spanish as a second language to better equip themselves to communicate within their local and international communities.
All schools teach communication. What sets Conn apart from the others?
How will the arts be used to develop communication skills?
How will learning Spanish develop communication skills?
All schools teach communication. What sets Conn apart from the others?
Conn Elementary expands beyond the traditional elementary communication focus to include the teaching of effective speaking and presentation skills, including public speaking, debate, multimedia presentations, and group presentations.
At Conn, children can become creative, articulate, interesting, and proficient communicators. Conn’s significantly revised magnet theme incorporates Ian Jukes’ ideas that effective reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills are all essential and must be explicitly taught at all grades in all subject areas. In an effort to focus on student communication proficiencies, all of Conn’s Active Project-Based Learning Modules will culminate in student presentations. These presentations may be solutions to a problem, findings of an experiment or study, or sharing and discussing a product.
The television station operating from Conn’s media center will be widely used for student application of communication skills, with an emphasis on articulation and language usage. In the 2005-6 school year, a radio station will be added to further develop Conn’s communication program. In addition, multimedia tools are accessible for student use in making high quality and creative presentations.
How will the arts be used to develop communication skills?
Artistic expression of ideas and thoughts with a focus on artistic presentation skills will be another component of the communication strand. Integrating arts education is a way to help all students—especially those who are at risk—gain the skills needed to achieve and surpass grade-level performance. The arts contribute to increased self-esteem and the development of creative thinking, problem solving, and communication skills (Issue Brief, NGA Center for Best Practices, May 2002). In NCLB legislation, Congress named the arts as one of the core academic subjects that all schools should teach.
At Conn, students at each grade level will participate in daily visual and performing arts classes with certified arts teachers. These classes include dance, drama, music, and fine arts. Arts classes develop presentations or performances linked to the core curriculum and share them with the school and in the community. Innovative uses of technology and software applications will enhance creativity and increase opportunities for artistic communication.
For older Conn students, the production of television (and soon radio) performances incorporate and put into practice arts and communication skills and showcase the many ways that technology can enrich artistic expression.
How will learning Spanish develop communication skills?
Language barriers are increasing in our district as the numbers of Spanish-speaking immigrants grow. Wake County experienced a 529.8% increase in the Latino population in the past decade. This data indicates an essential need to offer more Spanish language instruction to students in a county in which 1 out of 18 members is latino. While programs for students with limited English proficiency have grown, there has been little or no increase in formal Spanish instruction in WCPSS schools.
In response to this need, the effective communication program at Conn includes regular Spanish instruction for all students, beginning in Kindergarten. Opportunities to practice conversation with native Spanish speakers is offered through community outreach. All students at Conn will acquire a beginning conversational level of Spanish by the end of grade 5.
