Communicating With Supervisors:
Teaching Reading, Writing, Speaking, Viewing,
and Listening in Applied Communications
Janet T. Atkins
Wade Hampton High School
As a teacher of English Language Arts, I am always looking
for new and relevant ways to deliver tried and true lessons to
whatever particular group of students I may be teaching. Rarely
do I ever use a set of lesson plans from year to year without
making modifications. Sometimes, however, I find a lesson that
really works and am willing to use it and share it with others.
Such is the case with Module 8 of the Applied Communication
series from the Agency for Instructional Technology. This
module, which deals with communicating with supervisors, presents
an excellent vehicle to apply theory to real life situations.
The lessons for this module include such topics as
"Supervisor and Employee Interaction," "Exchanging Information
with Supervisors," "Written Communication with Supervisor,"
"Attitudes and Nonverbal Communication," "Communicating Problems
to Supervisors," and "Responding to Feedback." After we do a
complete study of the module lessons, I expect my students to
know the difference between how to communicate with co-workers
and how to communicate with supervisors. We also thoroughly
discuss supervisory styles and the characteristics of effective
upward and downward communication. The AIT material covers these
topics.
In order to make the lessons relevant, I try to case them
in the community in which we live. Hampton has one major
industrial plant, Westinghouse, which threatens layoffs and plant
closings from time to time. We discuss the concept of unions and
other organizations, and I ask what benefits and drawbacks these
organizations present.
To bring writing into the curriculum, I use a simple
exercise based on sentence patterns inspired by Ann Berthoff's
Forming, Thinking, Writing. I ask my students to think about
unions, especially if a family member belongs to one, and to
write sentences about unions using the following patterns:
- A question with five words
- A sentence with two words
- A sentence using a coordinating conjunction
- A sentence with seven words
- A sentence with a compound predicate
A finished response might look like the sample below:
What good is organized labor? Unions work. My
dad belongs to a union, and his job is secure. He joined his
first year of work. He pays his dues and attends meetings
regularly.
We then share aloud what we have written. The point of
this exercise is three-fold. First, it gives me a really good
idea of what my students know about organized labor. Secondly,
the exercise reinforces sentence variation in writing. And
thirdly, it focuses the students' thinking on their future as
employees and supervisos.
Next, I present an article from Historic
Preservation magazine called "The Fabric of Their Lives." (I
have permission to copy the article.) I ask the students to do a
double entry draft on the article. They first draw a column down
the middle of a sheet of paper. I ask them to read the article
silently, focusing on the reasons the mill closing occurred (as
opposed to the preservation aspects). They write down phrases
from the article that catch their attention in the left column.
As they write, they also put their personal comments, including
questions, in the right column. Finally, we discuss the article
and predict what might happen if such a situation occurred in
their own community. Then the students do a free write of three-
fourths to one page about what they learned from the article.
After we have finished this discussion, I show the film
Norma Rae. It takes almost three class periods to show
this film, but it is well worth the time to see what happens in
an industry when the union comes. Of course, the industry is a
Southern cotton mill just like the one in the magazine article,
but more importantly, it is a single industry employing the
majority of workers in a community similar to our own community's
industrial base. During viewing, I ask the students to reflect
on Norma Rae's relationship with her supervisors and how she felt
both as a weaver and as an inspector. I ask them to think about
the issues of safe working conditions, and how they would
approach a supervisor to facilitate discussion of such issues. I
ask them to list during viewing the items Norma Rae wants to
change, and in a follow up composition or discussion question, I
ask them to state why the changes are necessary.
The question that often provokes a great deal of thoughtful
discussion concerns supervisory styles. The movie stereotypes
the mill bosses as domineering Southern good ol' boys who have
little regard for the needs of their workers. Their main
objective is to make a profit, and their method is to increase
worker productivity. I ask my students to identify ways that the
supervisors attempt to get more out of the workers, and they
usually remember the incidents of walling up the windows,
providing few or limited breaks, and timing the workers in
completing a task. I ask them to decide if this kind of constant
harassment increases worker productivity enough to warrant the
resentment. The movie certainly serves as a visual lesson on
what issues industry must address in regard to employee and
supervisor relationships, and it brings out another important
theme on worker unity.
I follow the movie with a field trip to the Westinghouse
plant. Our tour of the entire plant takes a half day. Students
get a firsthand view of working conditions and supervisory styles
going on in a regular day of operation. At the end of the tour,
they may ask questions of a team of workers, and I have them
prepare at least one question ahead of time. The trip is
successful because these students usually recognize the
importance of this industry to their community.
Overall, the module provides a thorough view of the roles of
supervisors and how to communicate with "the boss." By including
the film and magazine article, application to real life becomes
much easier, and the tour of a local industry drives home the
point that there is a hierarchy in business. How an employee
learns to cope with that hierarchy, especially in communicating
with his or her supervisor, is very important to remaining
employed and advancing in the particular career field.
Works Cited
Baker, Beth. "The Fabric of Their Lives." Historic
Preservation 45 (March/April 1993): 52-59.
Berthoff, Ann E. Forming, Thinking, Writing: The Composing
Imagination. Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1982.
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