Literacy – Rebecca Smith UWS ITE ePDP

Middleton (2013, p.467) says “natural hazards should be defined and studied both in terms of the physical processes involved and the human factors affecting the vulnerability of certain groups of people to disasters.” Therefore, natural disasters can be defined as uncontrollable events which have devastating impacts on the lives and environment of the area in which they occur.

There are many different types of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and disease epidemics. Most of these can be related and if one happens it is possible that another will follow. The likeliness that a country will suffer from a natural disaster depends on past experiences of natural disasters, scientific forecasts using data, and the extent of population growth within the country. The likeliness of natural disasters occurring is increasing, due to a combination of environmental factors such as global warming impacting the climate, and social factors such as more countries reporting natural disasters.

Before learning about natural disasters on this scale, I had not considered how strongly politics impact on their power and effect. Mitigation is not always possible but extensive efforts are being made by scientists across the world to mitigate the effects of natural disasters. The political will and economic status of a country heavily dictates the ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a natural disaster. In order for countries to prepare for disasters, they have to have enough money and resources to do so. They also must have a non-corrupt government which has natural disaster preparation as a priority. Having a government which has many inter-national allies is also important as this means that the country is more likely to receive help if and when they need it. Preparation takes place at a local, national, and inter-national level. This can be by means of government policies, training in schools, local building supports, and guarantee of funding from other countries. It is the government’s job to prepare the country adequately, respond as quickly as possible by sending out emergency services and putting emergency plans into place, and to rebuild the country after the disaster has hit. International and non-governmental organisations also take part in the response by providing the people of the country with aid and helping them to rebuild schools and other community hubs. These aim to work unbiasedly but can sometimes be pressured by governments to prioritise certain things.

By comparing two case studies about Japan and Haiti I found that developing countries have less money and so less resources, meaning that their preparation for natural disasters is poorer. Poor preparation then leads to slower and less effective responses and this then means slower and often less effective recovery. Developing countries also often have fewer countries who are willing to help them, but it is these countries who rely most heavily on international aid. This may be related to the fact that the media and people of power indirectly portray messages about who is most worthy of help (Nix-Stevenson, 2013).

It is not just the poorest countries that tend to suffer most from natural disasters, but the poorest people in a country. Middleton (2013) discusses that it is often the poor, the young, the old, disabled people, and people of minorities who suffer most heavily from natural disasters. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that many of these people have less choice about how they are going to deal with hazards. Some of them may also find it more difficult to evacuate and a lack of social support can mean that they are more reluctant to evacuate. In addition, Stout and Buono (2008) says that there is evidence of government and organisational corruption in many countries which have previously suffered from natural disasters as the rich were favoured and given priorities for many things including reconstruction. Developing countries and poor people rely heavily on charities and other non-governmental organisations for aid and support during these times of crisis.

This is not to say however that the richest countries and the richest people do not fall victim to natural disasters. Middleton (2013, p.468) states that “very rich societies suffer the highest property damage”. This may be due to the fact that they have more expensive structures and generally more property on their land for the natural disaster to destroy. This may mean that their more expensive buildings are going to cost more for them to replace.

All of this knowledge is relevant to teaching as children must learn about the different natural disasters which occur. Nix-Stevenson (2013) discusses the importance of educating people about natural disasters as she says education leads to knowledge which leads to power. This power then leads to the ability to take action. It is through explaining these things to children and helping them to relate to natural disasters by doing cross curricular activities that they will develop an interest in events such as these. This interest will then help them to foster critical skills when they next hear about a natural disaster and to question whether or not they think that the media has portrayed it accurately. Guest speakers such as charity workers and video chats with children from countries which are prone to natural disasters would be a good way to show that these things happen to people just like them. We could also do drama activities such as a talk show within which different children acted as interviewers, emergency services workers, survivors, government officials from different countries and charity workers, discussing their preparation, response and recovery from a recent imaginary natural disaster. There are also many literacy lessons which could take place including a newspaper report and a diary extract. Maths could also be covered as learners could interpret graphs and plot points on a grid in relation to detection of hurricanes for example. All of these activities would help learners to develop their knowledge of the subject and to develop critical thinking skills.

There are also a variety of skills which I developed and which learners would develop through completion of science experiments related to natural disasters. By completing an activity using bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, fairy liquid and food colouring to represent a volcanic eruption I developed my ability to use and apply models. Learners could also develop this skill by making their own tectonic plates out of play dough and connecting them to those shown on a map of the tectonic plates. By pouring the acid and water on to rocks before hammering them I was developing my skills of pattern seeking, exploring and fair testing as I was investigating which rocks would be broken by the hammer and then considering the common properties of the rocks which could and couldn’t be broken. I also had to ensure it was a fair test by only dropping the same number of drops of acid and water on to each rock and hammering them the same number of times. This type of things would not be suitable for primary school children. However, the skills can be developed through other activities such as making model buildings of different materials and using fans to replicate the strong winds of a tornado, or shaking the table to replicate an earthquake, and then testing which of them collapsed and which remained standing. The learners would be required to make sure that the models were placed in front of the fan for the same amount of time and at the same distance from the fan for the results to be accurate.

Through development of my knowledge and by practising my skills in these areas I am now more confident that I will be able to transfer them to children through different IDL activities.

References

Middleton, N. (2013) The Global Casino (5th edition). London: Hodder Arnold. pp.467-496.

Nix-Stevenson, D. (2013) Human Response to Natural Disasters. SAGE Open. [Online] Vol.3(3), pp.1-12. Available: http://journals.sagpub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244013489684

Stout, A. and Buono, R. (2008) “Natural” Disasters are Social Problems: Learning from Katrina. [Online] Available: http://www.sssp1.org/file/AgendaforSocialJustice/Agenda_For_Social_Justice_2008_Chapter_4.pdf

During the week beginning the 31st of October I worked with seven class teachers, a Principle Teacher, a Head Teacher, class room assistants, cleaning staff, and a janitor, as well as pupils from primary one to primary seven of a primary school.

I completed eight placement tasks which were based on mathematics and literacy. These tasks allowed me to observe and analyse the effect of different teaching strategies and to see the things that I had been taught about these subjects in practice. While paying close attention to the structure of lessons, I noticed that in spite of the vast amounts of planning carried out by teachers, it is impossible to plan exactly how the day is going to go. I found this to be the case especially in classes where the behaviour of some pupils was particularly challenging or in classes which had pupils with additional support needs. This provided challenges for me as when I was trying to support the whole class, I felt myself spending most time with pupils who required the most attention and not getting a chance to spend time with the rest of the class. I also felt that, in one case, while I was in a class which had a pupil with Autism in it, I was constantly having to remind the pupil to stay on task. This was due to her particularly high academic ability, meaning that she was often not being challenged enough by the work that the rest of the class was doing. I found that these types of things proved as challenges to my ability to always communicate effectively with the whole class and to provide support for all learners.

However, the willingness of the staff in the school to help me, whenever possible, to experience different learning environments and to teach small groups as well as lead whole class activities, gave me numerous opportunities complete my self-assessment forms and to assess myself constantly. Through use of these, along with my peer-assessment and feedback from staff, I have been able to learn a lot about my own communication skills, picking up on my strengths and development needs.

Strength – Throughout the week, I found through my self evaluations, as well as my peer evaluation, that showing expression in my voice through para-language is my communication strength. This means that I am a clear speaker and I show expression through my voice by use of tone, pitch, pace, and volume. I find that to speak with expression comes naturally to me.

I adapted my verbal communication when I was speaking to different age groups. For example, when I was speaking to lower primary classes, I had to speak in a very concise, slow and clear manner, making sure to make my tone of voice easy to interpret. When speaking to pupils further up the school I had to focus on making my voice easy to understand but there were times that I could speak in a more relaxed manner with these more independent pupils. When speaking to staff I made sure to speak in a formal manner at first, before having been in the company of each individual enough to adapt and speak in a more relatable and relaxed way with them. I found that I was able to identify the para-language which was appropriate for each age range and I was always conscious of the way in which I spoke when talking about a pupil to a teacher and when discussing challenging behaviour and mental and social issues faced by pupils.

After reading a story to a Primary 3 class, the teacher told me that my tone of voice and change of volume to suit different parts of the story was very effective. I felt that this, as well as stopping reading to ask the pupils questions about what they thought might happen next, helped to keep them engaged and made the process active rather than passive, so more interesting for the pupils. Through my self evaluation, I found that in all of the activities I carried out with pupils, my change in tone of voice and appropriate volume and pace showed my enthusiasm and helped to make sure that what I was saying had the desired effect on the learners.

Area of most progress – Before going on placement, I would have said that I was confident in my ability to use the academic language appropriate for different ages of pupils. However, I quickly found this to be a communication development need, as I often spoke without considering whether or not the pupils would have been introduced to a term that I was using.

At the beginning of the week, I worked with a Primary 3 class on their mental maths quiz by reading out the questions to them. The questions were focussed on addition up to twenty. When I first began to read out the questions, I used the word ‘plus’, for example “What is fourteen plus three?”. However, it was when a pupil raised his hand and asked me if ‘plus’ meant to take-away, I became aware that I had been using language that some of the pupils in the class were not familiar with. This meant that I had to go back to the beginning and read out the questions using the word ‘add’. This made me extremely conscious of the language that I used when I was working with the pupils as I did not want to cause confusion.

After this instance I made sure to always listen very carefully to the language used by the class teacher and to ask the teacher or to use aids such as wall displays to allow me to get an idea of what the class had already covered and what they may be have been unfamiliar with. As the week progressed, I completed another self-evaluation and a peer-assessment which showed me that I had improved on using language which was friendly to the pupil’s level of understanding.

Area Requiring Progress – Over my time spent in the school, when doing whole class activities, I found it very difficult to make sure that every pupil was involved and that nobody was dominating. While I did not want to discourage pupils who were happy to take part and to share their ideas, I also wanted to try to make sure that non-participating pupils were encouraged. I found that this was a challenge which was limited by my communication skills as when the teacher had instructed me to get the whole class to answer together, it was difficult to see who did not really understand what they were doing, making it difficult to pick them out and so, difficult to communicate in a way which suited them. I also did not want to pick certain pupils out in front of the class as I did not want to embarrass or upset them.

When I was in the Primary 4 class, I was asked to teach the pupils their seven times-tables by writing them up on the board and gradually rubbing off the answers, while getting the pupils to chant the calculations. I found this a particularly difficult activity to make sure that everyone was involved and that nobody was dominating and although I attempted to solve the problem by splitting the class in to groups to chant it and by saying things such as “This time you need to be much louder because not everyone was participating last time! It doesn’t matter if you’re wrong, just have a try. The loudest group wins!”, there were still pupils who did not try and pupils who just shouted even louder than they had been before.

I identified this as a development need through my self and peer evaluations as both highlight this as an issue in my communication which I need to work on. This may be because I did not know the pupils well enough to use all of their names and be able to pick out people who I knew were struggling to understand it, meaning that I could not individually target questions at them. However, it may be because I do not know how to communicate effectively with all types of children in a way which will challenge, yet encourage them and I felt intimidated and nervous at the thought of possibly doing the opposite.

Action Plan – In order to develop the skill of encouraging all pupils to participate and none to dominate, by promotion resilience to failure, through effective verbal and non-verbal communication, I will make sure that after some time of pupil discussion and participation, that I take back control of the activity in hand, to try to help all pupils to stay engaged and none to get too carried away. In order to encourage non-participating children to take part, if they appear to be struggling with an open question that I have asked, I will go back and ask them some closed questions which relate to the open question and which will help them to build confidence and at least try to find the wider answer. If the answer given by a pupil is incorrect I will use probes such as ‘Accuracy Probes’ and ‘Restatement Probes’ as discussed by Hargie (2010), to encourage them not to give up trying to find the correct answer and to teach them to be able to accept being wrong and to move on from it.

I discussed my lack in confidence in this area of communication with a teacher and she suggested that I work on using eye-contact and facial expressions as a means of showing pupils that I am aware of their lack of participation and to make sure that every pupil is engaged and feels included. I found that this method only worked when pupils were looking at me.

A strategy to ensure the involvement of every pupil is to promote critical thinking through inquiry and collaboration (Lange, 2014). Stacey Lange believes that as educators we should encourage pupils to ask questions about what they are being told and that they should be given time to do this. This would involve using spoken language and body language to promote a comfortable environment in which pupils feel comfortable enough to ask questions and to inquire further in to what I am saying. For pupils to link their knowledge to something else, they must understand it, so by asking them to come up with questions or links to other knowledge, it could be argued that each pupil would be forced to learn and to try to take part. She also discusses collaboration as a strategy. She talks about how collaboration allows for pupils to share ideas and to build an understanding of a topic, leading to the development of critical thinking skills and in turn, involvement in a task. This would also help me to prevent certain pupils from dominating as it would encourage them to share their knowledge and to explain their understanding to their peers, helping all pupils to become more equal with their involvement. For myself, as a communicator, it would involve the use of clearly stated instructions with language which all learners will understand and constantly bringing the pupils back to my control as, especially with younger learners, the independence of working with a group may be too much for them to handle and cause for them to go off task.

In conclusion, through working within a school community and being welcomed by staff and pupils, I was able to learn a lot about different communication strategies and about myself; how I communicate with both proffessionals and school pupils. This evaluation of my own practice has allowed me to see that I am a competent user of para-language and should play to my strengths, using this as effectively as possible. It has also allowed me to pick up on things which I communicated in an ineffective way and in some cases, to make progress on these over the course of the week. Although, I require to continue to work on my ability to use language and non-verbal communication to take more control over the learning of pupils and to make sure that they are all equally involved. I will attempt to improve on this communication skill through the range of strategies mentioned above.

References

Hargie, O. (2010) Skilled interpersonal communication: Research, theory and practice, 5th edition. 5th ed. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Lange, S. (2014) Strategies to promote critical thinking in the elementary classroom. P21Blogazine. [Online]. Available: http://www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1435-strategies-to-promote-critical-thinking-in-the-elementary-classroom [Accessed 7 Nov].

Sustainable Development – Disasters

Reflections on Placement