Module 4

Contribute to positive relationships

Exercises and Activities

Question 4.1
Make a list of all the ways in which a teaching assistant will interact and respond to children with whom they are involved.
If you are not currently working as a teaching assistant you may need to do some research in order to fully answer this question.
Question 4.2
Look at the people in the following photographs and for each say what you think their facial expressions could reveal about how they are feeling. (Note: you may feel that there is more than one possible answer, if so list them all.)
A
B
C
Question 4.3
Case study:
You have been asked by the class teacher to plan and implement a group discussion with six of the children/young people in the class. The topic to be discussed is based on the theme of ‘My Community’ and you are to ask the children to talk about the best and worst things they feel about their community.
Give brief details of your group (age, ethnic make up, etc.) and then consider the issues that you would need to take into account for the group exercise to be effective, describing how you would deal with each of the points listed.
If you are not currently working as a teaching assistant, you should invent a fictitious group for an age group that you are interested in working with.
Details of group:
Issue to consider:
Location
Timing and duration
Measures you would take to ensure that children have your full attention
(e.g. your body language, facial expression, listening, language and gestures).
Explain why it is important that you give all the children/young people the opportunity to be heard and how you would ensure that this occurs.
Other issues:
Question 4.4
As a teaching assistant what type of communications problems do you find/would expect to find, when interacting with children that you are/are likely to be, involved with? Say how you do/would deal with these.
Communication problems / How these are dealt with
Question 4.5
Why is it important that you are able to communicate effectively with people in your job role?
Question 4.6
Observe one of your colleagues or friends during the course of a meeting or conversation (one in which you are not involved), and assess whether you think they are ‘Actively Listening’.
To do this consider each of the actions listed below and note whether they were used and how often.
Note: you should ideally do this without them knowing, but be sensitive to any issues of confidentiality.
Actions used / Frequency/details
Never / Sometimes / Often / Details
Maintain eye contact
Body language
Facial expressions
Not tapping fingers
Encouraged speaker
Summarising/repeating
Using questions
Question 4.7
You are concerned about the behaviour of one of the children with whom you are involved. You believe that this is due to learning development problems and suspect that this may be due to underlying medical issues.
Explain how you would ensure that effective communication is maintained when discussing these issues with the child’s parent, other teachers and social workers.
How would you make sure that the information you give is presented positively and that you maintain the rapport and trust between all parties?

Check your answers to these questions and then submit them to your tutor or assessor.

Tutor signature: ______Date:______

Student signature: ______Date:______