Talking About Oracy Developing Communication Beyond The Classroom

Whether considering the art of debate; understanding dialogic teaching methods; the necessity of questioning; or the ability to assess and develop these skills, this book has been written by a classroom teacher, for classroom teachers, in the hope that oracy is dragged out of the shadows and recognised for its significance to improving students’ life skills and future aspirations. When we think about the transferable skills all students will take with them post-academia, oracy, literacy and numeracy should logistically stand proudly side by side. This triad of skillsets are the key components that are used to measure intellectual development in childhood, as well as being further instilled and nurtured in all students throughout their education. However, as children become students and as these students become critical thinkers, an element of this crucial triad appears to have been disowned in recent years. In 2020, oracy appeared to have even less relevance in academia, with the only supportive provision for both Language and Literature to deal with any missed learning being the eradication of any recorded proof of this skill. Yet another indication that oracy has, in some circumstances, been cast into the shadows and banished into the realm of the subject specific curricular. We need to be realistic and embrace the idea that this skill is a necessity to success for all learners post-academia. Training students in the ability to communicate effectively with different audiences in different contexts, needs to be brought back into the spotlight in the hopes that we can attempt to resolve any misconceptions regarding oracy’s place in the curriculum. Through the recognition of the theoretical understanding of communication that will provide the foundations for this book, the aim is that it acts as a supportive guide that will provide suggestions and strategies in order to hopefully empower and encourage educators in all subjects in education, thus restoring the use and appreciation for this necessary skill both inside and outside the classroom. For so long, focus has been on the stress and rigor of assessments, and the fulfilment of the curriculum to ensure that all students can navigate their GCSE examinations. This book will question whether this will have a detrimental effect on students who may have been exposed to fewer of the skills that they will require when leaving an educational setting and venturing into everyday life. So, let’s address the elephant in the room, and provide it a voice.

“Reading and writing float on a sea of talk” declared James Britton – and yet in our current education system, where the pressure is on for students to pass written exams, it is all too easily left adrift. How then, as teachers and educators, can we turn the tide and harness the power of talk in our classrooms? This is not just an educational choice but rather, given students’ vastly different experiences of language, a moral imperative. Amy Gaunt and Alice Stott’s must-read book serves as a detailed and engaging guide to get talking in class. It blends the academic research and evidence, with first-hand classroom experiences and practical strategies to enable you to unlock the power of oracy in your classroom and equip your students with the speaking skills they need to thrive in the twenty first century. Transform Teaching and Learning Through Talk describes how to: Identify and teach good talk (and listening!) Build a classroom culture which values talk Create meaningful and authentic contexts for oracy Support your quietest students to speak up too! This book is a rich resource for teachers, drawing upon key academic research and outlining what this could look like in your classroom. Throughout, the authors share personal insights, engaging anecdotes and tried-and-tested approaches drawn from their experience teaching in primary and secondary classrooms. Whether you teach college-age students or those just starting their journey through school, this book will challenge you to think deeply about what you can do integrate oracy into your practice.

Educational books can help teachers engage in quality CPD (Continuing/Continuous Professional Development), but how do we find the time to read the latest literature? And if we have the time, how do we know what to choose or what we should do with what we read? Born from a real-life book club, The Edu-Book Club helps teachers and school leaders to navigate the wealth of evidence-based CPD by bringing together key publications on teaching, assessment, and curriculum. It shows how the ideas and research presented in these publications can be translated into everyday classroom practice, to help teachers and school leaders develop and inform these practices for their own professional and classroom development. Drawing on a diverse range of books and including practical advice on how to set up and run a book club, each book club session covers: The rationale for choosing that title An interview with the author with accompanying visual notes A summary of the key ideas Key takeaways and implications for classroom practice With an accompanying website featuring the video interviews and additional resources, accessible at https://glt-alwayslearning.co.uk/posts/glt-friends-book-club-edu-book-club, this will be a valuable resource for teachers and school leaders at all stages of their careers.

Debate and critical oracy allow students to deepen their knowledge and understanding of academic subjects while simultaneously developing their communication and critical thinking skills, which can be hugely effective in increasing attainment. This book, written by an experienced teacher and founder of The Noisy Classroom, aims to help students learn to argue, disagree and debate in a constructive manner. Packed with resources and engaging exercises, it shows teachers how to develop an argument culture in the classroom that promotes open-mindedness and encourages students to explore new perspectives, defend views and challenge others. The Noisy Classroom includes: A reflection on critical oracy and why it is important. A step-by-step guide for teachers to set up and encourage debate across the curriculum, highlighting how to get the most out of a noisy classroom. Advice for teachers on how to overcome barriers to building and using critical oracy in the classroom, including troubleshooting when things go wrong. Practical ideas for sharpening pair, group and whole-class discussions, ranging from small starter and plenary activities to full parliamentary-style debates. The book brings together activities gathered and tested over 20 years of working in debate, oracy and education. It is intended for school teachers, including both NQTs and more experienced practitioners.

This book summarises the theoretical principles behind talk in school and briefly maps the research tradition in this field. It examines the evidence relating to a variety of forms of classroom talk, including whole school culture and oracy; classroom environments conducive to talk; whole class teacher-pupil talk and pupil-pupil peer talk. The final chapter explores up-to-date issues and influences relating to talk, such as mastery learning, informed by international comparisons. Firmly grounded in evidence and the latest thinking, the book also offers practical advice for everyday implementation and evaluation of these principles. Evidence-based teaching is fast becoming a new orthodoxy. There are many strong voices, including policy voices, advocating its adoption. Understanding the underlying principles allows you to better evaluate the benefits of different approaches to evidence-based teaching and how they relate to your own school context.

Conversing with others has given insights to different perspectives, helped build ideas, and solve problems. Academic conversations push students to think and learn in lasting ways. Academic conversations are back-and-forth dialogues in which students focus on a topic and explore it by building, challenging, and negotiating relevant ideas. In Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings authors Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford address the challenges teachers face when trying to bring thoughtful, respectful, and focused conversations into the classroom. They identify five core communications skills needed to help students hold productive academic conversation across content areas: Elaborating and Clarifying Supporting Ideas with Evidence Building On and/or Challenging Ideas Paraphrasing Synthesizing This book shows teachers how to weave the cultivation of academic conversation skills and conversations into current teaching approaches. More specifically, it describes how to use conversations to build the following: Academic vocabulary and grammar Critical thinking skills such as persuasion, interpretation, consideration of multiple perspectives, evaluation, and application Literacy skills such as questioning, predicting, connecting to prior knowledge, and summarizing An academic classroom environment brimming with respect for others' ideas, equity of voice, engagement, and mutual support The ideas in this book stem from many hours of classroom practice, research, and video analysis across grade levels and content areas. Readers will find numerous practical activities for working on each conversation skill, crafting conversation-worthy tasks, and using conversations to teach and assess. Academic Conversations offers an in-depth approach to helping students develop into the future parents, teachers, and leaders who will collaborate to build a better world.

The field of medical humanities is growing rapidly and offers many valuable insights for medical education generally and for enhancing and improving communication specifically. Through practical and thought-provoking examples, this innovative new text demonstrates how engaging with the arts and humanities can benefit the work of doctors and make them better, more effective practitioners with a focus on achieving this through better communication and by stimulating self-reflection. Key features: Utilises modern and familiar examples, including case studies, to illustrate and explore language and communication skill deployment in a variety of given scenarios Reflects the increasing use of online consultation and the associated importance of ensuring effective communication in virtual settings Describes several models for reflective practice Supported by a selection of eResources to enhance reader experience and understanding; visit www.routledge.com/9781032272726 This new book is written specifically for medical students, junior doctors and medical educators looking to develop or teach communication skills. It will instil and support the background understanding of the role, need and ongoing requirement for humanities engagement in self-development and reflection to enhance and improve the experience of both the practitioner and the patient.

Building on Robin Alexander’s landmark Towards Dialogic Teaching, this book shows how and why the dialogic approach has a positive impact on student engagement and learning. It sets out the evidence, examines the underpinning ideas and issues, and offers guidance and resources for the planning, implementation and review of effective dialogic teaching in a wide range of educational settings. Dialogic teaching harnesses the power of talk to engage students’ interest, stimulate their thinking, advance their understanding, expand their ideas and build and evaluate argument, empowering them for lifelong learning and for social and democratic engagement. Drawing on extensive published research as well as the high-profile, 5000-student trial and independent evaluation of Alexander’s distinctive approach to dialogic teaching in action, this book: Presents the case for treating talk as not merely incidental to teaching and learning but as an essential tool of education whose exploitation and development require understanding and skill; Explores questions of definition and conceptualisation in the realms of dialogue, argumentation and dialogic teaching, revealing the similarities and differences between the main approaches; Discusses evidence that has enriched the debate about classroom talk in relation to oracy, argumentation, student voice and philosophy for children as well as dialogic teaching itself; Identifies what it is about dialogic teaching that makes a difference to students’ thinking, learning and understanding; Presents the author’s rationale and framework for dialogic teaching, now completely revised and much expanded; Proposes a professional development strategy for making dialogic teaching happen which, like the framework, has been successfully trialled in schools; Lists resources from others working in the field to support further study and development; Includes an extensive bibliography. Robin Alexander’s A Dialogic Teaching Companion, like its popular predecessor Towards Dialogic Teaching, aims to support the work of all those who are interested in the quality of teaching and learning, but especially trainee and serving teachers, teacher educators, school leaders and researchers.

With dialogue and dialogic teaching as upcoming buzz-words, we face a familiar mix of danger and opportunity. The opportunity is to transform classroom talk, increase pupil engagement, and lift literacy standards from their current plateau. The danger is that a powerful idea will be jargonised before it is even understood, let alone implemented, and that practice claiming to be dialogic will be little more than re-branded chalk and talk or ill-focused discussion. Dialogic teaching is about more than applying tips such as less hands-up bidding. It demands changes - in the handling of classroom space and time; in the balance of talk, reading and writing; in the relationship between speaker and listener; and in the content and dynamics of talk itself.

Selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine, January 2010 Classroom talk, by which children make sense of what their peers and teachers mean, is the most important educational tool for guiding the development of understanding and for jointly constructing knowledge. So what practical steps can teachers take to develop effective classroom interaction? Bringing together leading international researchers and drawing on the pioneering work of Douglas Barnes, this book considers ways of improving classroom talk. Chapters cover: - classroom communication and managing social relations; - talk in science classrooms; - using critical conversations in studying literature; - exploratory talk and thinking skills; - talking to learn and learning to talk in the mathematics classroom; - the ′emerging pedagogy′ of the spoken word. With an accessible blend of theory, research and practice, the book will be a valuable resource for teachers, teacher-trainers, policy makers, researchers and students.