Last week at JUMP, with the participation of four splendid women from Poland and Estonia, these three macro categories were looked at and discussed.
The art of communication and how we transfer information is of vital importance to our lives and how we interact with other people. The different types of verbal and above all non verbal communication were welcomed and understood better.
The fact that people of different cultures and languages find together for a few days sharing and expanding on ideas and initiatives is, in itself, a way of communicating. And this is what we did..
We spoke about improving our techniques as good communicators, with students, parents and peers: what we can do to speak better and to speak ‘between the lines’, to make ourselves understood.
We went on to further our discussion on CLIL, Content Language Integrated Learning. As we know and have discussed, CLIL is another way of communicating in English, communicating, transferring language and knowledge through a non-linguistic subject. We communicate content, cognition and culture all in English, in a way that is appealing and pleasant to learn, keeping in mind all the necessary requisites of a good CLIL lesson.
After analyzing CLIL and getting to know what and how it is developed and put into practice, the ladies were then, invited to prepare their own CLIL lessons, each teaching their own subject of expertise. One brought her Science lesson outdoors, on a meadow, and started brainstorming with a mindful setting activity. Walking barefoot on that meadow, inhaling and exhaling deeply.
After which, she continued her activities and final project-based instruction. Another guest at Jump, introduced her CLIL lesson on Surrealism with a Video from YouTube, inviting her peers to answer questions and above all questioning oneself. Yet, another guest taught her Physics lesson on the photoelectric effect. All lessons were interesting and captivating because each teacher had put her points of strengths into practice bringing their non linguistic school subject into and through a language and conten- based lesson.
Sometimes we say that it is not to easy to communicate, to get our ideas across, people understand A when we are trying get across B.. It is in how we transmit what we want to make other people know. May it be verbally, non-verbally, empathetically, the goal is to understand and be understood.
Written by Teresa Platì - JUMP Trainer
