Communication
Grades: 3–8, adaptable
Subjects: Language Arts, Social Studies, Technology, Music, Science
Time: 4–6 class periods
Purpose
Students investigate how people communicate, how communication technologies have changed, and how words, images, sounds, gestures, and devices can carry information.
Learning Objectives
- Identify different forms of human communication.
- Explain how a communication device or system works at an age-appropriate level.
- Construct a timeline showing changes in communication.
- Communicate information clearly for a defined audience.
Procedure
- Create a class collage of communication examples: speech, writing, signs, pictures, gestures, music, telephone, radio, television, and digital communication.
- Research one communication device or system and explain its purpose, development, and limitations.
- Build a simple model or labeled diagram and explain how information travels through it.
- Create a timeline showing major developments in communication.
- Produce a short class news broadcast with clearly identified factual reporting. Students may include weather or sports only if they use real, appropriately sourced information.
- Study how music can communicate mood, story, or ideas without assuming that one interpretation is the only possible one.
- Study animal communication through observation, photographs, or video rather than requiring live animals to be brought to school.
Assessment
Assess research accuracy, timeline sequence, model/diagram, oral presentation, and ability to distinguish information from opinion.
Teacher Note
The original lesson organized activities around “multiple intelligences.” The activities are retained as varied ways to communicate learning, but the lesson is now organized around explicit academic objectives rather than fixed learner labels.