4.+Communicating+in+the+Information+Age

__**Section Outline **__

Chapter 25: Using Information Resources Chapter 26: Evaluating Information Chapter 27: Oral Communication Chapter 28: Persuasion and the Media Chapter 29: Creating Media Products Chapter 30: Vocabulary Development Chapter 31: History of English Chapter 32: Taking Standardized Tests

This section of the text primarily focuses on the gathering of information for research based writing and communication skills. The first two chapters are valuable to student’s development of writing as most schools require their students to write research papers and using credible sources is a large part of these assignments. The concept of the "Information Age" is largely the background for this section. There is so much information out there with the development of the internet and students have these sources and any information at their fingertips. This text helps to try and teach students the proper way to use these sources of information in their writing.

As the students are learning to find credible sources and sort through and use good supporting information communicating that information to your audience becomes the next step. While this text focuses mainly on oral communication, such as speeches or presentations, we believe that it translates to composition all the same. A student must be aware of their target audience and how to properly shape the argument for that audience. Teaching these communication skills to your class can help them be aware when writing to use the appropriate voice. These teachings are rooted deep in rhetorical pedagogy finding a way to properly shape an argument appropriate for the context or ones audience. This chapter outlines different listening strategies and ways to evaluate the message of the speaker as well as how to evaluate your audience and the purpose of the argument when speaking, or writing in this case.
 * "The approach you choose will depend on the situation, your audience, and what you're trying to say" (Language Network 499). **

Perhaps the most important chapter in this section, pertaining to writing, would be the vocabulary building chapter. It may seem to be a remedial part of the book that high school students do not need, however, high school writers can always use the help to broaden vocabulary. As the text puts it, "Building a large vocabulary of your own will increase the power of anything you say and write" (Language Network 545). The text then goes into a prompt where the student is asked to describe the view of the Grand Canyon at the top of the page using the most descriptive words they can as if to convey the scene to someone who is not there to see it. The chapter goes on to offer many exercises to help students recognize root words and origins of these roots or prefixes and suffixes. Another useful tool in this chapter is the lesson on using reference tools such as a thesaurus when writing. Teachers, for the most part, want their students to vary their word choice in their writing and a lesson like this may help to broaden some students writing.

This lesson of vocabulary can segue into the final chapter on taking standardized test quiet well. When writing for a standardized test such as the PSSA or SAT the essay sections are often difficult for students to deal with, they are not used to writing in a timed scenario. By using this lesson you can share some helpful planning tips for timed writing on standardized tests and by continuously reinforcing the student’s vocabulary and communication skills these timed essays can become a simple task for the student. The text offers many tips on how to prepare to write for these tests and all of which would fall into the current-traditional theory of composition. In this case these current-traditional aspects offer a valid insight into writing and serve as a good base when approaching a timed writing situation.

__**Strengths and Weaknesses **__

We believe this section of the text can be over all very beneficial to students it holds a great deal of valuable information. The chapters on communication we thought were a strength of the book, due to the fact that some students may have a difficulty evaluating the audience they are trying to reach in their writing. By using the lessons in this text the teacher can convey this aspect of writing to his or her students. The exercises provided in the text are excellent for students of this age from the free writes in the beginning of the chapters to the vocabulary builder exercises. These are very good to help young writers discover their own way through writing and discover the different ways to improve their writing. Finally this text presents itself in a way that is easy for students and not to overpowering so the students are not overwhelmed with information and simply expected to read and retain all of it.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">This section also had various weaknesses throughout. Some of the sections seemed fairly irrelevant to helping a student writer develop their writing further. Such as the sections on persuasion in the media and creating media projects. This section of the text could have been given more attention to help these young writers build communication skills. If the teacher is using a collaborative pedagogy these types of communication skills, although not focused toward writing specifically, would be extremely useful.

__**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Activities/Exercises **__

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">One example of the exercises in this section comes from the vocabulary chapter. The students are given a paragraph with multiple bolded words and they are asked to use the multiple types of context clues discussed to identify the meaning of these words. This is a great way to introduce the concept of context clues to students and help them discover for themselves the meaning to various words. Along with the introducing activity mentioned above trying to broaden the student's descriptive vocabulary using the picture of the Grand Canyon. It seems as though the use of the "Write Aways" at the beginning of each are an excellent way to grab the student’s interest and bring them into the content of the chapter. Simply giving them a small amount of time to write freely on these prompts can give them a sense of control and understanding, not only of their own writing but of the chapter’s message as well.