21st Century Communication Skills: The 4 Cs in our Elementary Classrooms

   The 21st century skills are a set of abilities that students need to develop in order to succeed in our information-based economy. Although these skills have always been important for students, they are especially important now, in our ever growing and changing world and economy. Our students need new skills for new jobs, they need to keep up, as a result, so do their teachers. 

   Students need to be flexible (think differentiated learning/instruction), take charge (think collaboration skills), be capable of handling a flood of information (time management, critical thinking, and prioritizing), and produce something new and useful (think, creative and innovative). All of these skills require the Cs. The quotes below help us better understand why:

"The American Management Corporation reports that employers want workers who can think critically, solve problems creatively, innovate, collaborate, and communicate." -Thoughtful Learning

"'The New York Times reports that low-skilled workers are being laid off and "turned away at the factory door and increasingly becoming the long-term unemployed . . .' This issue results from a disparity between the skills that worker have and those that employers need."   -Thoughtful Learning   

"The National Academies indicate that “The danger exists that Americans may not know enough about science, technology, or mathematics to contribute significantly to, or fully benefit from, the knowledge-based economy that is already taking shape around us.” - Thoughtful Learning

   

Alarming isn't it? So let us discuss and come to better understand the necessity, and use of the 4Cs. 

1) Communication 

"Students must be able to communicate not just with text or speech, but in multiple multimedia formats. They must be able to communicate visually through video and imagery as effectively as they do with text and speech. Communication is a broad term that incorporates multi-faceted levels of interaction and imparting information to others. Students love to communicate using technology, and this is an essential part of Media Fluency. But it’s more than just being able to effectively use digital media—it’s about personal interactions as well" Global Digital Citizen.

   Do we even have to ask why effective communication is essential to teach? You can find countless seminars, books, presentations and lectures on all of the reasons why this is such a significant, life long skill.  You need skillful communication to land a job (during interviews), to keep a job (meetings, emails, professional correspondence with fellow employees and clientele), healthy relationships with spouses, friends and family. The way you communicate says a lot about you. Without effective communication a message can be misunderstood and lead to arguments, frustrations, mistakes, unemployment and strained relationships. 
   Successful, professional and healthy communication help students strive while collaborating, you need to be a good communicator in order to be a good team mate. Communication, can also often be creative, which makes an individual engaging, stimulating, interesting and fun. All wonderful qualities to have in a friend, team mate, and employee. All qualities can be useful during interviews, proposals, meetings and socializing. Good communication skills also include verbal, written and listening skills. 
   Communication is a practiced skill. You get better with proper use and time. Reading, writing and presenting information are all effective ways to learn, use/transfer and better understand successful communication. Vocabulary is essential in communication. There are different ways you can add communication practice into your classroom activities: 1) Play a phonetics games in class. 2) Divide students up into small groups, each reading a page in their assigned story. Then ask the students to discuss amongst themselves the summary of the story, while completing a Q&A assignment sheet. 3) Have each student stand at the front of the class (or sitting down), and take the time to answer questions about themselves from their fellow classmates. 4) Ask students to group together and practice their assigned weekly vocabulary list by acting the word out and/or creating sentences with the word. 

2) Collaboration

"Students must possess the ability to collaborate seamlessly in both physical and virtual spaces, with real and virtual partners globally" Global Digital Citizen.

   Collaboration asks you to take responsibility. You are held accountable in your team, if you were to let the ball drop in your court, you could inevitably be letting the entire team and your project down too. Learning how to collaborate successfully and effectively will help students in both their college and working careers. Working well with others is essential in today's world. 

   I think today, especially in our newer day classrooms, with differentiated instruction, we are instilling successful collaboration skills at an earlier age. Group work, whether it be homogeneous or heterogeneous or even 'think-pair-share', can be implemented in almost all of our in class assignments today. Collaboration can be incorporated into classroom activities has often as you'd like, for example: 1) You can group students together to work on an art project, asking each student to be responsible for a specific task. 2) You can break students up into small groups and have them work on math problems or complete a digital book report together. 3) Students can work together to decide which role they will play in their group presentation or play. 

3) Critical Thinking

"Students need the ability to think analytically, which includes proficiency with comparing, contrasting, evaluating, synthesizing, and applying without instruction or supervision. Analytic thinking means being able to use the higher end of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, known as the  HOTS , or higher-order thinking skills" Global Digital Citizen. 

   Critical thinking is a decision making process used to solve problems. We use critical thinking in our every day lives, whether it be at home, in the classroom, on the playground, or in a working environment. Critical thinking is based on logical reasoning and evidence. Because it used and needed daily, employers expect and demand that their employees carry strong critical thinking skills. Critical thinking also allows you to be a better team player, which flows back into effective collaboration skills, "It allows you to be a better listener and collaborator when you’re working as part of a group, as well as to become more flexible in your problem solving. Plus, focusing on logical reasoning rather than on emotion or interpersonal team dynamics helps you check your ego at the door. That way, you more easily can be a valuable part of a team" -dsst.

   Critical thinking is used in every lesson plan and instruction in the classroom, but there are some ways to further assist my learners in obtaining critical thinking skills: 1) Do not jump in right away, giving students a few minutes to figure it out on their own, forces them to tap into their prior knowledge and logic. 2) Use brainstorming. Brainstorming can be used in every subject before starting a lesson. By asking a lot of questions, you are promoting students to use their critical thinking skills before even beginning the lesson, also prompting immediate engagement in the assignment. 3) Ask students to categorize, this activity prompts students to ask themselves where objects, people, and places go and why. 

4) Creativity

"Students need to be able to think and work creatively in both digital and non-digital environments to develop unique and useful solutions." Global Digital Citizen

   Students who create and complete rewarding projects and meaningful tasks are able to overcome challenges in imaginative ways. 

   Creativity, much like the other three Cs we've discussed, tie into the C strategy in one way or another. You need creativity while working with others. Your ideas, theories and efforts help contribute to the team's project, and the more unique, useful and creative it is, the better. Creative thinking can also make communication more colorful, interesting, fun, and catchy. Which can be quite beneficial during presentations, sales pitches, socializing and job interviews. Being creative is a process, you take an idea, feeling or hunch, and you work your way with it (using critical thinking), to the finish line. In order to complete the process, you need critical thinking. Many feel that creativity and critical thinking are as opposite as oil and water, but they do in fact go hand in hand.

   To be creative is very much to be innovative and in this ever changing world of technology, that is a good, good thing. Creativity helps set you aside from others, it allows you to stand out in your own way and express yourself in a way that is comfortable for you. It gives people a glimpse of who you are and how your mind works, your likes and dislikes et cetera. With technology advancing at a greater speed each and every day, it's imperative that we mold creative, innovative learners into successful engineers, scientists, and other useful, skilled individuals. You often (in fact, very often), here Fortune 500 businesses say, "We need innovative thinkers", and it's true. The world; our economy, needs creative and innovative leaders. We are not at a stand still, we are always evolving. It only makes sense to need creativity. 

   Creativity can be incorporated in the classroom in many ways: 1) Ask students to sketch responses to Q&A's during story time. 2) Gather a collection of different clippings and/or puppets, ask students to put together a visual story line of how their weekend or holiday break went, or even share a response to a story or history piece. 3) Give students an engineering projects such as creating a leprechaun trap or bridge out of Popsicle sticks. 4) Ask students to create digital book reports, instead of traditional written ones. 

Diagram showing how the 4Cs flow together:

   Adding the 4Cs into our classroom ensures that we as educators are keeping up with today's society, economy and world. Our world, is not the same as it was yesterday, it certainly won't be the same "tomorrow".  The 4Cs are life long essential skills for both inside, and outside the classroom, work place and every day society. The 4Cs also comply beautifully with the Common Core State Standers: 

   "The 4Cs, a fundamental aspect of the most rigorously-designed projects, are emphasized throughout the CCSS in a variety of ways.

·         In Literacy,  almost 90% of the reading standards are driven by higher order critical thinking verbs such as analyze, compare and distinguish.Similarly, these verbs describe what is required of students when they address a rigorous Driving Question in a project;

·         In Mathematics, the standards call for the real-world problem-solving and communication of ideas that are hallmarks of PBL;

·         In ELA, Speaking and Listening standards call on students to “engage effectively in collaborative discussions” – essential when students work in project teams – and “use technology to interact and collaborate with others”;

·         Speaking and Listening standards also ask students to make presentations that “present claims with well-chosen evidence” – such as their answer to a project’s Driving Question – and “use well-produced multimedia or visual displays,” when students present project work to an audience;

·         Speaking and Listening standards expect that by 12th grade students will be able to engage in conversations that “promote creative and divergent perspectives” – like those they might have when discussing different ways to answer a Driving Question or create a product for their project" - P21.

   It makes sense that our students must use the 4Cs doesn't it? To keep up? Be ahead, even. Yet, most of our educational systems remain traditional and are set in their routine of teaching for yesterday, instead of tomorrow. Hardly seems fair to our future leaders. Something to think about...

                

                                                       References:

Global Digital Citizen Foundation. The Critical 21st Century Skills Every Student Needs and Why. Retrieved on January 22, 2016, from:  https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/critical-21st-century-skills-every-student-needs

Thoughtful Learning. What are 21st century skills? Retrieved on January 22,2016, from: https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-21st-century-skills

dsst. Critical Thinking: What Is It and Why Is It So Important? Retrieved on January 22, 2016, from: http://getcollegecredit.com/blog/article/critical_thinking_what_is_it_and_why_is_it_so_important

P21. Is there a Best Way to Develop the 4CS in All Students? Retrieved on January 22,2016, from: 

http://www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1249-is-there-a-best-way-to-develop-the-4cs-in-all-students