I think the Speaking and Listening component of the Literacy strand is often neglected in the classroom, yet it is an extremely important and educationally valuable aspect part of a child's development. Children need to be able to 'listen' and 'speak' in a variety of contexts and most children need to develop confidence in this area. This is important especially for their future working life, where they will have to deal with customers, or the public; go for job interviews; negotiate; sit in meetings; put forward proposals; and make speeches. I've outlined the broad standards and then some applications that can be used in the classroom to teach these skills:
The iPad provides many opportunities for students to develop their speaking and listening skills.Students can record their own voices reading poetry, or explaining a math lesson, which can in turn increase their confidence in public speaking.There are a variety of apps that contain lectures, talks, lessons and books where students can use their listening skills to make assessments about content.
The iPad has numerous apps that students can use to create oral presentations, stories, interviews and creative presentations.The Poets Pad app provides students with the ability to record their own poetry and the poetry of others. This way they hear the way the words sound.
Screencasting apps can be used to record and present work orally. I believe these apps have fantastic potential in building student's confidence in the area of speech. Some students find it really difficult to speak in public; so using a screencasting app can be where students can still present an oral presentation but where they can create the work in private.
Once they build their confidence by achieving success in this area, they could segue to speaking publicly without the app.
The iPad is particularly impressive because of the depth and breadth of iPad apps that provide diverse and different ways in which to learn and demonstrate what has been learned.
Students can use apps in a number of ways where they can explore the English language through speech, sound, expression and creativity.