MarcoGram May 2005 -- Communication: Connecting People and Ideas

Communication: Connecting People and Ideas
We humans communicate all the time, often without even thinking about it. We use our voices, our hands, our bodies and an array of high-tech gadgets to accomplish it. If we're good at it, it is noted on our report cards and resumes. Those who are exceptionally skilled at it frequently attain positions of great influence. Use this month's MarcoGram to take a closer look at the origins, forms and significance of human communication. Use the activities below to get your students thinking about how and why people communicate as they do, then scroll down for more links and resources on this topic.

Photograph of a Lascaux, France, cave painting courtesy of the French Ministry of Culture.

1. It may be hard to believe, but our modern forms of communication descended from the primitive interactions of the earliest humans. Over time, the grunts, gestures and drawings of our ancestors were transformed into the formalized languages, signs and symbols we use today. All advancements that have occurred along the way have simply enhanced the basics.

Nowadays, how might people communicate with someone far away? How does one record things he or she wants others to know about or remember? How can one communicate an idea or concept to a large audience?

Ask students to think about how people communicated with each other before the development of modern technologies and conveniences. Divide the class into four groups. The first group should imagine itself a tribe of cave dwellers in 10,000 B.C.; the second, a band of soldiers in first-century Rome; the third, a group of university students in Paris in 1800; and the fourth, a troupe of entertainers in the U.S. in the 1930s. Each group must identify a method of sending a long-distance message, recording a message and communicating a message to a large audience, using only technologies available at the time. If desired, provide students a list of communication options (i.e., picture-writing, smoke signals, alphabetic symbols, foot messengers, carrier pigeons, fire beacons, printing press, optical telegraphy, telegraph, telephone, film, radio, etc.).

Explore the development of different forms of human communication in:

"Communications Technologies" (9-12) from Science NetLinks, American Association for the Advancement of Science

"Couriers in the Inca Empire: Getting Your Message Across" (3-5) from EDSITEment, National Endowment for the Humanities

"Egyptian Symbols and Figures: Hieroglyphs" (K-2) from EDSITEment, National Endowment for the Humanities

"The Alphabet Is Historic" (K-2) from EDSITEment, National Endowment for the Humanities

"The Emergence and Evolution of the Cuneiform Writing System in Ancient Mesopotamia" (6-8) from EDSITEment, National Endowment for the Humanities

2. English as a Second Language (ESL) students often have difficulty understanding inconsistencies in the English language that native speakers take for granted. For example, while the past tense of the verb "teach" is "taught," the past tense of "preach" is not "praught." Similarly, while you can say that teachers teach, you can't say that grocers "groce." Complicating matters more for ESL students are regional dialects ("Are y'all fixin' to leave?"), slang expressions ("Yo, wassup?") and idiomatic sayings ("I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!").

What are some words or phrases you use that could confuse someone who is learning English? What sites in your community, such as malls, sports arenas, schools or other public places, do you refer to using terms that might not make sense to ESL students or visitors to your town (i.e., referring to the New York City's Metropolitan Opera as "The Met")?

Ask students to create a glossary of easily misunderstood words, phrases, and terms and provide definitions of their meanings for people who are unfamiliar with the language or the community. Challenge students to expand the glossary into a travel guide, which may include commonly used gestures, local history or folklore, maps and information about points of interest. Embellish with photographs or drawings.

Discover how people around the world use art, language and signs to communicate in:

"Folk Art as Communication" (9-12) from ARTSEDGE, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

"Gestures, Signals and Sign Language" (9-12) from Xpeditions, National Geographic Society

"Slang: Are You Sure We're All Speaking English?" (9-12) from Xpeditions, National Geographic Society

3. Just as the alphabet is a series of letters with which we form words to express ideas, numbers are symbols that allow us to communicate quantities or equations. While we often communicate concepts with letters and words, we also can communicate through graphs and charts using numbers and equations.

Give students the opportunity to express their birthdate in several alternate forms. First, have them express each individual number or string of numbers as a mathematical operation (i.e., 11/5/1992 could become [4+7][20/4][3000-1008]). Next, students should create a visual representation of their birthdate with a bar or line graph. Finally, ask students to think globally and try to record their birthdate using an entirely different number system than the modern Arabic numerals in common use in the United States. Links to Information on Number Systems, including Babylonian, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Mayan and Roman, are available through Math Forum, an Illuminations-reviewed Web site. Have students exchange their work with a partner and decipher each other's birthdates.

Learn more about how numbers are used as a form of communication with:

"Mathematics as Communication: Graphing Information Collected Over Time" (6-12) from Illuminations, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

"The Big Mac Index" (9-12) from EconEdLink, National Council on Economic Education

"What's in a Graph?" (6-8) from Science NetLinks, American Association for the Advancement of Science

"Who Is Working?" (6-8) from EconEdLink, National Council on Economic Education

4. With the widespread use of e-mail, instant messaging and cellular text messaging, traditional letter writing has become something of a lost art. Yet it remains an integral tool for teaching students about the importance of tailoring the contents of their messages and the language and tone of voice they use for different audiences and situations.

Have you received letters from both friends and relatives? What were the letters about? How were they structured? In what ways were the letters similar to each other? How were they different? Why?

Briefly review the main parts of a basic letter: heading, inside address, salutation, body, complimentary closing and signature. Ask students to pretend they are going to write two types of letters – one to the governor of their state and the other to their favorite cartoon character – about what they've learned in school this week. As a class, discuss and select salutations that would be appropriate for the governor (i.e., Dear Governor,) and the cartoon character (i.e., Hi, SpongeBob!). Repeat for the body, complimentary closing and signature, having students explain why their choices are appropriate for each letter recipient. Invite students with sufficient writing skills to compose both types of letters.

Continue to nurture students' writing skills with:

"Family Message Journals Teach Many Purposes for Writing" (K-2) from ReadWriteThink, International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English

"What's the Difference? Beginning Writers Compare E-mail with Letter Writing" (K-2) from ReadWriteThink, International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English

"Write Right Back: Recognizing Readers' Needs and Expectations for E-mail Replies" (K-2) from ReadWriteThink, International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English