June is Effective Communication Month, dedicated to highlighting the importance of effective communication in our personal and professional lives. Although civilizations throughout history have found ways to communicate, the introduction of Morse code in 1844 marked the first use of technology to share messages instantaneously. We’ve come a long way since then, but effective communication—both conveying and interpreting information—still requires attentiveness and precision. Just as decoding dots and dashes requires focus and understanding, active listening in the classroom also demands intentionality, empathy, and engagement.
Today’s students regularly practice verbal, nonverbal, written, visual, and digital communication. One of their favorite modes of communication is messaging, where they often use emojis to express ideas, share feelings, or as shorthand. Let’s consider some ways to use emojis to enhance communication skills.
- Practice storytelling with emojis! Have students write a sentence or two incorporating emojis, then create a story based on that sentence. Encourage them to use emojis liberally throughout the story and have their peers retell it to see if they can accurately convey the information, including the correct objects and emotions.
- Use ChatGPT (reviewed here) or Claude (reviewed here) to create schema activators and introductory sentences for students to translate as you start a new lesson. For example, try asking an AI tool to create a sentence with as many emojis as possible about your upcoming geography lesson. The response might look like this:
The mighty 🏔️ of the Himalayas separate the 🇮🇳 subcontinent from the
vast 🏜️ regions of Central Asia, creating diverse ecosystems where 🐯 roam
dense 🌲 while 🐪 traverse the arid 🏞️ beyond.
- Use Emoji Kitchen (reviewed here) to create emojis that communicate complex ideas. For example, combine cloud and raindrop emojis to create a rain cloud, or mix the sun with the wind to illustrate a windy day. Combine a smiley face with broccoli to serve as a creative writing prompt.
- Encourage your class to use emojis to represent story characters or historical figures. Have students explain their emojis and how they relate to the individuals described, or encourage communication by trying to guess who their emojis describes. Try to figure out this example of a character from a novel by Suzanne Collins:
🏹🔥🌾✊
- Create a timeline of a character’s journey in a story or novel using only emojis. Get help from an AI tool by asking it to create a timeline for you to share with students, then have them interpret the emoji timeline. Here is an example for Romeo and Juliette:
🏠🎭❤️🤫💍⚔️💀💤📜☠️
- Have students use Fake Text Message (reviewed here) to create an emoji-filled text message chain between book characters or world leaders as they try to solve an upcoming problem or crisis.
- Use Solvemoji (reviewed here) to share emoji math puzzles and logic games to help students develop critical thinking skills. This site allows you to use up to three free logic and math puzzles daily and two hundred free emoji riddles total.
- Introduce students to early communication systems by creating Morse-code-like emoji messages. Assign each letter a specific emoji and have students “decode” them for a fun twist that connects historical and modern communication.
- Create a classroom emoji code of conduct that guides students toward being respectful when communicating using digital tools. Use this code of conduct as part of your digital citizenship lessons.
- Use emojis as debate starters. For example, use 💻 vs. 📚 to debate whether technology is better than books or 🧠 > 💪to debate whether intelligence is more important than physical strength.
Just as Samuel Morse’s Morse code revolutionized long-distance communication in 1844, emojis have transformed communication in the 21st century. As you celebrate Effective Communication Month in June, consider boosting engagement by incorporating emojis into lessons and activities that teach students to communicate clearly and appropriately.
Have you used emojis in your classroom to improve communication skills? Share your ideas with our readers as we learn together!