Oral Communication to Teach Tolerance and Empathy

When looking at the first Ontario Standards of Practice "Commitment to Students and Student Learning" the word that I believe connects the three very vague points of it, is "Empathy." When teachers are empathetic towards their students then they can be more sensitive to factors that influence students’ learning such as stress, family life, exceptionalities, individual experiences or cultural upbringing, or just the fact that we are all human and may have bad days from time to time. When teachers are empathetic to student needs, then they are more aware and prepared to strive for an equitable classroom, Personally, I think a huge part of being Canadian is our ability to empathize with many different walks of life. Yes, there is still racism and sexism, etc., but I would argue that ours is one of the most tolerant societies. The way we continue and improve that is by teaching our students to be empathetic as well. To teach this, we must lead by example.

Literature for Empathy

Literature is a powerful teaching tool that can easily be transformed into an oral communication unit. Book’s such as Charlotte’s Web, The Song From Somewhere Else, The Arrival, and Wonder are fantastic books that exemplify empathy. Charlotte’s Web is a wonderful story that portrays each animal being empathetic to each other in many different ways. The short description of The Song From Somewhere Else is “Frank doesn't know how to feel when Nick Underbridge rescues her from bullies one afternoon. No one likes Nick. He's big, he's weird and he smells - or so everyone in Frank's class thinks. And yet, there's something nice about Nick's house. There's strange music playing there, and it feels light and good and makes Frank feel happy for the first time in forever. But there's more to Nick, and to his house, than meets the eye, and soon Frank realises she isn't the only one keeping secrets. Or the only one who needs help.” This is a great tale about bullies and finding friendship that looks past judgement. The Arrival is a graphic novel that tells a universal story of immigration. The story is about a man leaving his home to find work and support his family and conveys messages of solitude, alienation, and hope in a foreign land. Shaun Tan states “people don't stop to imagine what it's like for some of these refugees. They just see them as a problem once they're here, without thinking about the bigger picture. I don't expect the book to change anybody's opinion about things, but if it at least makes them pause to think, I'll feel as if I've succeeded in something.” Lastly, Wonder tells a story about a boy with a rare facial abnormality and his rough time in school because the children bully and tease him. The movie made from this book was released November 17^th.

Online Empathy Resources

Empathyed.org also offers lesson plans centered around empathy and Tolerance.org has resources to help teach about many different topics such as ability, bullying and bias, class, gender and sexual identity, immigration, race and ethnicity, religion, and rights and activism. Another option is to implement a routine where each morning it is one student’s responsibility to bring in a social justice issue from the news for the class to critically reflect and discuss it together.

Seating Arrangement and Equity

Another way to uphold the “Commitment to students and student learning,” especially through oral communication, is through the ideas from the article “Teaching Indigenous Histories Through an Authentic Voice” that I read for another class. The article discussed teaching, especially about social justice issues and sensitive topics, in a circle.

When thinking about implementing this in my classroom, I felt a little uncomfortable. I knew that sitting students in rows worked very well for classroom management. I’ve seen it work as a student: I never experienced any other form of classroom seating and I personally had no complaints, but I also was a rare thing called “a goody two-shoes.” I also have seen rowed-seating work very well for classroom management as a teacher. My associate teacher has the Grade 7’s in rows and if the students are talking or getting distracted it is usually because they are out of their desks and a simple “go sit down” fixes the disruption. So naturally, I was uncomfortable with this new seating idea because it might disrupt the classroom management. But, when we, as teachers are faced with a new idea, and it makes you feel uncomfortable, it is okay, because that’s the signal! Discomfort is the signal to reflect!

Reflective Practice

So, the first reflection I took part in was critical reflection. So, yes, I knew that rowed seating was the best for quick and easy classroom management but was it the best for my students? I realized that sitting students in a circle, or even a U-shape was a real-life, visual representation of student equity. No one was in the front, potentially getting more teacher attention. There were no visual representations of hierarchy, which I realized would probably make students feel more connected and comfortable to discuss opinions, especially about sensitive topics like social justice issues.

But then I noticed that, in the picture, the teacher was sitting among the students in the circle as well. This would completely erase the hierarchy of Teacher > Student. This again brought me discomfort because one of the easiest forms of classroom management is the “I’m the boss” method. So then I had to self-reflect on my personal biases of the hierarchy of teacher to student, which I realized is a little rooted in ageism. I worried that if this hierarchy was minimalized that the classroom would be complete chaos. However, if you are teaching students empathy they would most likely be able to self-regulate and listen to your requests, not out of fear but because of your mutual respect for each other.

After I critically and self-reflected, it was easy for me to pedagogically reflect to see if this seating arrangement was aligned with the current theoretical practices. Today, we have moved away from the traditional, teacher-centered, lecture-based classroom and more towards a collaborative, student-centered, inquiry based learning environment. Pedagogically, sitting students in this manor makes sense and in my opinion fosters equity much more than rows. After my reflection my opinions have changed, and I am very excited to try this type of class arrangement with my students when I have my own classroom.

I believe all of the resources that can be used for oral communication I have exemplified aids in working towards an empathetic classroom based on mutual respect. I think this is the most important thing to teach in the classroom because when students learn and practice empathy, they can go into Canadian society and make a positive difference because they care about the well-being of others.