At its meeting on Tuesday, April 24, the school board approved a new elective for sixth grade students: Communication Arts 6.
Currently sixth graders in the district elect to take either band, choir, or orchestra. The schedule rotates every other day along with students’ physical education classes. Students who did not elect to take one of the music electives were automatically placed in study halls.
An underlying problem was recognized as 90 students at Community Middle School as well as 75 students at Grover Middle School had study halls instead of a music elective. Additionally, some students at Grover had another study hall period each week when the district’s calendar changed its cycle. That allowed time that could be used for class instruction . Literature from the district stated that “the course would benefit students who currently sit in a study hall every other day.”
In seventh and eighth grades the same situation does not occur. The district believes the new course will meet a need. Citing data from eighth grade exit assessments shows that students need to work to develop strong communication and presentation skills.
“The ability to communicate is essential for success in the 21st century. High school, college, and work situations will require students to present ideas effectively. Presenters are not born, they are made,” the memo read.
The cost for implementing the course into the district’s curriculum is estimated at $3,000. No additional staffing is required for the course because a current WW-P staff member who teaches Performing Arts for seventh and eight grades and a section of TV/Radio is expected to be assigned to the class at both middle schools. Class sizes in those Performing Arts courses are expected to be decreased to accommodate the assignment.
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Assessment Martin Smith says that the principals of Community Middle School and Grover Middle School came forth with a recommendation for the communications course.
“It would be best to have another elective for students not interested in the performing arts or music, and we have a staff member to work with to develop the communication arts course.”
Some elements of a public speaking course will be introduced. Smith says the new course will focus on developing students’ presentation skills, including the ability to deliver messages in front of groups of people.
“That’s a skill set that is being developed in other classes including language arts, social studies, and sciences. After the sixth grade, in both middle school and high school, there are related courses for developing that skill set,” he said.
Units of study for the new course will include “reader’s theater,” storytelling, debating, and “the power of presentation” where students will use multimedia components to persuade, influence or educate their classmates of a concept.
Smith acknowledges that in the future more school districts will be focusing on developing students’ presentation skills because it matches parameters of “21st century skills’ competencies, in terms of being an effective communicator.”
The curriculum for the communications class will be developed over the summer. Teachers of social studies and language arts will work with the communications teacher to develop the curriculum so that the subjects can complement one another.
