European Medi@Culture-Online http://www.european-mediaculture.org
Author: Department for Education and Skills, .
Title: Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2. Teaching objectives and classroom activities.
Source: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/literacy/publications/framework/818497/pns0627_2003s_lobjec_act.PDF [18.05.2004]
reproduced under the terms of Crown Copyright Policy Guidance issued by HMSO.
Department for Education and Skills
Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2
Teaching objectives and classroom activities is part of a package of materials all related to the four aspects of speaking and listening in the National Curriculum:
speaking: being able to speak clearly and to develop and sustain ideas in talk;
listening: developing active listening strategies and critical skills of analysis;
group discussion and interaction: taking different roles in groups, making a range of contributions and working collaboratively;
drama: improvising and working in role, scripting and performing, and responding to performances.
This booklet is the practical companion to Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2 Handbook (DfES 0626-2003 G). It aims to support a more systematic approach to oral work by showing how objectives for speaking and listening can be built into teaching. You may wish to use the suggested teaching sequences or develop your own alternatives. This process needs to be supported and monitored in a range of ways, such as in-class support, logging successes and issues for discussion, and agreeing a whole-school approach to identifying the time to teach speaking and listening. The booklet contains objectives for teaching speaking and listening in Years 1–6, arranged in two formats: by term and year to guide planning, and by strand to highlight progression within each strand.
This booklet also contains:
examples of teaching sequences for some of the objectives, selected to illustrate four in each year;
guidance on ways to plan and design a teaching sequence of your own;
commentaries on the edited highlights of classroom work shown on the video, and suggestions on ways of using the video in your school.
Using this booklet
In the first part of this section, the teaching objectives are numbered sequentially across the years for ease of reference.
The teaching objectives cover the four strands of speaking and listening in a systematic way across the terms and years. There are four objectives suggested for teaching each term. Sometimes two are combined together where there is a particularly supportive link between them. In these instances (objectives 42, 55, 62 and 66), the two objectives are listed in the most logical order for the teaching sequence. In every term there is at least one explicit link made between a speaking and listening objective and one in the National Literacy Strategy Framework for teaching. In practice, the literacy link may precede or follow the specific teaching of speaking and listening. Within each term, a further principle is that at least one speaking and listening objective should be taught in the context of a foundation subject. The remaining two may be contextualised in English, mathematics or other foundation subjects. It is also important to plan for effective contexts to reinforce and extend the new knowledge gained in the speaking and listening lesson sequence.
Each objective is set out in the same way.
In the second section, the objectives are shown in strands. Each strand is set out by year to show progression.
The numbering is retained across the different strands. This arrangement of the objectives is useful for discussion and monitoring across the key stages. It is possible to make some adaptation to the objectives but, in the first instance, they should be used in their original form. This is in order to ensure a systematic approach to planning, teaching and learning within and between years.
This section contains examples of ways to build the objectives into teaching in the whole curriculum.
There are three or four sequences for each year group, each one containing suggested timings and resources to help planning.
The sequences show the series of activities necessary to develop speaking and listening in the classroom and also indicate where work on spoken language can be integrated into existing schemes of work. The video accompanying this pack shows edited highlights of eight of the teaching sequences in Years 1, 2, 4 and 6.
The sequences are presented in a two-column format to highlight:
teaching activities – what the teacher does, including the focus of the activities, setting up groups, asking questions, monitoring children’s work;
language features – what the teacher looks for in the language children use. The language features are both what needs to be incorporated in the teaching and evidence of children’s learning. The italicised quotations from children are examples of the sorts of things they might say – not phrases for teaching.
These illustrative sequences can be adapted in various ways to suit school and classroom priorities. For example, adaptations may relate to:
timing: shortening or combining different sections of work, or teaching them with breaks in between;
topic: a range of subjects or topics may be chosen as the context for different sequences depending on the current interests of the class or work already planned;
previous experience: in some cases, the previous experience of the class may suggest giving greater or lesser emphasis to parts of the sequence.
The teaching sequences are carefully structured in response to the objectives and to make the most effective use of varieties of groupings within the class, such as pairs, small groups and whole-class organisation. Purposeful movement between these groupings contributes to a well-paced unit of teaching and enables children to speak and listen in more varied ways.
Specific advice on how to develop a teaching sequence of your own is given later in this section. The four leaflets accompanying this pack contain information about a range of classroom techniques useful for organising speaking and listening work.
Objective 1: to describe incidents or tell stories from their own experience, in an audible voice e.g. recounting events using detail, following teacher modelling.
Tell me a story
Overview: Children listen to a story or recount and comment on the way it is told. They then tell their own story or recount. They:
discuss why one recount is more effective than another;
tell a short story or incident to a partner;
answer questions about their story;
act as a listener to their partner’s story, ask questions and identify parts they like.
Language features: Children develop their understanding of effective retelling and learn to use language to explain, compare and sequence events. They add detail to their recounts and speak audibly to communicate more effectively.
Previous experience: As part of the Foundation Stage curriculum, children have listened and responded to stories and made up their own stories.
Resources: A method of measuring a short time, e.g. a sand timer or a storyboard separated into three sections, helps define a sensible length of speaking turns.
Curriculum link: NLS Year 1, term 1, text objectives 5 and 9.
Objective 3: to ask and answer questions, make relevant contributions, offer suggestions and take turns e.g. when devising ways of sorting items in the classroom.
Planning a role-play area
Overview: Children work as a whole class and in pairs to decide on a role-play area. They:
decide on a location;
select contents;
refine choices;
reflect on how they used talk to set up the area.
Language features: Children learn to ask and answer questions using How? When? Why? Who? Where? What?
Previous experience: Build on Foundation Stage work on turn-taking.
Resources: A selection of objects related to the role-play area and small plans of the classroom.
Curriculum link: Science scheme of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, Unit 1A, ‘Ourselves’, and NLS Year 1, term 1, text objectives 7 and 16.
Objective 8: to act out own and well-known stories, using different voices for characters e.g. using drama techniques to portray characters and motives.
Animating Anancy
Overview: Working in small groups, children enact and extend some scenes. They:
make freeze-frame pictures of some illustrations;
discuss what characters should say and how they would speak;
invent and enact what might happen immediately following key moments in the text;
rehearse their ideas to make the characters speak in more appropriate ways.
Language features: Children learn to adopt roles and take on appropriate voices to represent characters in a story.
Previous experience: Link to play in Foundation Stage curriculum
Resources: Anancy and Mr Dry-Bone by Fiona French
Curriculum link: NLS Year 1, term 2, text objectives 9 and 15.
Objective 10: to listen to tapes or videos and express views about how a story or information has been presented e.g. learning to select and describe key features of effective media presentations.
The good story tape guide
Overview: Children:
listen to and evaluate story tapes, first as a whole class and then in groups;
plan and perform a story reading of their own;
listen to and comment on each other’s readings.
Language features: Children learn how to describe different qualities, e.g. clarity, pace, vocabulary choices, and how the reader creates interest and excitement.
Previous experience: Build on earlier Year 1 work on retelling stories, using pace and variety of voice.
Resources: Audio cassette versions of stories (lasting no more than about 5 minutes), including some that are familiar, e.g. The Three Bears, Ten in a Bed by Penny Dale, Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell, A Dark Dark Tale by Ruth Brown.
Objective 14: to listen to others in class, ask relevant questions and follow instructions e.g. listening to and questioning instructions for devising a game.
Listen and play
Overview: Children invent a game in PE, using simple equipment and then explain it to the rest of the class. They:
plan their explanation;
listen to another group’s explanation and then play their game;
reflect on successful explanations and good listening behaviours.
Language features: Children learn how to use language to give instructions. When listening, they use questions to check or clarify their understanding, repeat or rephrase instructions in their own words and ask for repetition or advice when they don’t understand.
Previous experience: In Year 1 term 2, children have worked on following instructions. The quality of work in this unit will be improved if the class are experienced at working in groups in PE and are used to talking about their activities.
Resources: A variety of small games equipment and sufficient space for the games to be played.
Curriculum link: PE scheme of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, ‘Games activities’, Unit 2.
Objective 16: to adopt appropriate roles in small or large groups and consider alternative courses of action e.g. developing a plot and characters from a text, image or artefact.
The Two Grannies
Overview: Children:
listen to the story, Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers, by Mairi T Hedderwick, and use face symbols to show how characters feel;
use paired role-play activities to develop and reflect on characters’ thoughts and feelings;
use pair and group role-play to explore alternative ways in which the story might continue;
reflect on the role-play activities.
Language features: Children learn to adopt the appropriate voice and vocabulary for the role. They articulate and comment on the choices made.
Previous experience: Build on Year 1 work on exploring themes and characters through improvisation and role-play.
Resources: Big Book copy of Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers. The children should be familiar with this story. Face images showing happy, unhappy and neutral (one per pair). Props and/or costumes appropriate for the two grandmothers.
Curriculum link: Geography scheme of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, Unit 3, ‘An Island Home’.
Objective 19: to ensure everyone contributes, allocate tasks, consider alternatives and reach agreement e.g. working collaboratively in planning, predicting and carrying out an investigative task.
Forces and movement
Overview: Children conduct an experiment to investigate how different surfaces affect the distance a vehicle can travel. They:
speculate about the impact different materials will have on the distance travelled;
work in groups to design an experiment, using given materials;
conduct the experiment and record their results;
explain their results to others;
reflect on the different tasks completed in their group and how talk helped it function effectively.
Language features: Children develop their use of scientifically precise language to design and explain their experiment, use language to make comparisons, learn to use talk to plan and agree their work in groups and to organise ideas in ways that others can readily understand.
Previous experience: Children have worked in groups in the previous term, and have covered some aspects of the science unit ‘Forces and Movement’.
Resources: Materials to provide test surfaces, ramps, identical toy cars, 1m rulers, simple checklist for observers, record sheet for each group.
Curriculum link: Science scheme of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, Unit 2E, ‘Forces and Movement’.
Objective 21: to use language and gesture to support the use of models/diagrams/displays when explaining e.g. showing how something works, combining language and gesture.
How does it work?
Overview: Children work in groups to explain how a model works. They:
listen to and comment on the teacher’s explanation;
prepare and practise an explanation of their own models;
share and evaluate each other’s explanations;
reflect on what they have learned about speaking in this context.
Language features: Children learn how to use language to explain, pointing and using this, that, those, appropriately, taking account of what the audience can see.
Previous experience: Build on Year 2 work on explaining processes and presenting information.
Resources: Groups will need to have made working models.
Curriculum link: Design and technology scheme of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, Unit 2A, ‘Vehicles’.
Objective 30: to identify the presentational features used to communicate the main points in a broadcast e.g. identifying main sections of a video and how these are signalled through voice-over, music and graphics.
Watch and listen
Overview: Children watch and listen to factual television programmes. They:
identify and discuss presentational features;
evaluate the broadcast;
reflect on the special features of listening in this context.
Language features: Children learn to identify presentational techniques such as voice-over, graphics, music and pictures and evaluate their impact.
Previous experience: Earlier Year 3 work on identifying key sections of an informative broadcast and noting how changes of focus are signalled.
Resources: Recordings of short extracts from children’s television, e.g. news documentary, advert, magazine programme, which use a variety of presentational techniques, e.g. voice-over, music, graphics, pictures; one longer extract from the range above.
Curriculum link: Geography scheme of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, Unit 7, ‘Weather around the world’.
Objective 32: to identify and discuss qualities of others’ performances, including gesture, action, costume e.g. responding to a live or recorded performance by selecting dramatic features for comment.
Acting it out
Overview: Children work in groups to develop and present a performance of a scene from a story. They:
investigate the impact of using props, gesture and dialogue;
prepare and rehearse a scene, then present it to the class;
make critical comments, both positive and negative, on others’ performances.
Language features: Children learn to talk about the use of gesture, action and props in a performance and how to comment critically and supportively on these in the performances of others.
Previous experience: Build on earlier Year 3 work on engaging the interest of an audience and on Year 2 work on presenting stories and elements that create mood and atmosphere in performances.
Resources: Simple props appropriate to the story being performed.
Objective 35: to use the language of possibility to investigate and reflect on feelings, behaviour or relationships e.g. investigating and reflecting on the interactions between characters when reading a story.
Plot detectives
Overview: Children discuss different scenarios for an ending to a novel they have been reading, The Battle of Bubble and Squeak by Philippa Pearce, and decide which is the most plausible. They:
discuss how to talk about things which might happen;
work in groups to talk about different endings;
appoint a spokesperson to report on their discussion.
Language features: Children learn how to develop predictions and express different types of possibility.
Previous experience: The class will need to have read or listened up to the end of chapter 8 of the novel.
Resources: The Battle of Bubble and Squeak; a variety of scenarios of possible endings for the novel, based on ideas or clues in the text with prompting questions for the groups to consider.
Curriculum link: NLS Year 3, term 3, text objective 5.
Objective 37: to use and reflect on some ground rules for dialogue e.g. making structured, extended contributions, speaking audibly, making meaning explicit and listening actively.
Celts and Romans
Overview: Children discuss the relative importance of different ground rules for dialogue, before applying them to their own group discussions. They:
rehearse in groups what they know about some aspect of the life of the Celts;
discuss Celtic life in a new group, as though they were Romans finding out about Britain before an invasion;
give advice to the ‘Roman Emperor’ as to whether Britain was worth invading;
reflect on how well they applied the ground rules for dialogue in their group discussions.
Language features: Children learn to make more extensive contributions to group discussion, adding detail and examples, and to listen more effectively to each other, building on others’ ideas. They also begin to adopt the language of role.
Previous experience: During Year 3 children have explained processes, developed and sustained conversations. They have done independent research on different aspects of Celtic civilisation.
Resources: A simple checklist for observers; textbooks and source material; an artefact, e.g. material to suggest a cloak (not essential); A set of ground rules for each group to order:
What are the ground rules for dialogue?
Making eye contact with the speaker
Everybody having a turn in speaking
One person speaking at a time
Always agreeing with other people
Speaking in a clear voice
Using good vocabulary
Being clear about what you mean
Responding to the other speaker
Making a longer contribution than just one or two words
Using facial expressions and gestures
Curriculum link: History scheme of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, Unit 6A, ‘Why have people invaded and settled in Britain in the past?’
Objective 39: to take different roles in groups and use language appropriate to them, including roles of leader, reporter, scribe, mentor e.g. sustaining different roles when carrying out a decision-making task.
Designing a pantomime set
Overview: The children discuss in groups, taking different roles, in order to plan the staging of a pantomime. They:
observe a group modelling different roles within a group discussion;
work in groups to discuss ideas about different pantomime scenes;
report back on their ideas;
reflect on how the different roles contributed to the success of the group.
Language features: Children learn how to use the language associated with various group roles. They practise summarising their ideas, reaching agreement and presenting ideas to an audience, ensuring their ideas are understandable to someone outside the group.
Previous experience: In Year 3, children have used talk to organise roles for themselves as they work in groups.
Resources: A script for the pantomime, a planning sheet which includes a sketch of the stage with fixed items marked, an activity for the demonstration group to work on.
Objective 42: to listen to a speaker, make notes on the talk and use the notes to develop a role-play e.g. listening to an expert explaining their job, using notes as a basis for improvisation.
to develop scripts based on improvisation e.g. filling out brief notes, expanding on key words as the basis for script writing.
What did they say?
Overview: Children:
listen to and make notes on a talk;
comment on the main features of the talk;
work in groups to develop, present and comment on role-plays based on the talk;
reflect on strategies for listening and on role-play.
Language features: Children learn to listen for main events, to note selectively, paying attention to dramatic potential in speaker’s talk, and how to develop a role-play based on information presented.
Previous experience: Build on Year 3 work on identifying main points and presenting events and characters through dialogue, and on earlier Year 4 work on commenting on plays and performances.
Resources: An effective speaker, e.g. firefighter or football coach; whiteboards or note books; tape recorder.
Curriculum link: NLS Year 4, term 2, text objectives 21 and 22.
Objective 49: to identify some aspects of talk which vary between formal and informal occasions e.g. contrasting excerpts from a national news broadcast and children’s TV.
Talk detectives
Overview: Children work as a class in groups to investigate formal and informal talk. They:
identify a range of greetings;
listen to samples of formal and informal talk;
develop formal and informal conversations;
present and comment on each other’s work.
Language features: Children learn about how to make choices between formal and informal talk according to context and purpose.
Previous experience: Build on Year 4 work on how talk varies and investigation of talk in different contexts.
Resources: Recordings of formal speech, e.g. TV or radio news bulletins, speeches, formal interviews, and informal speech, e.g. radio or TV drama, conversation in reality TV programmes, ‘chat’ between presenters on children’s TV.
Objective 50: to plan and manage a group task over time by using different levels of planning e.g. using knowledge of group roles to organise and accomplish a collaborative activity.
Mathematics presentation
Overview: Children:
focus on strategies and methods for solving mathematical problems;
work in groups to devise and solve problems;
observe and comment on effective group work;
make presentations about their findings.
The sessions could take place in consecutive daily mathematics lessons within a week where the focus is on problem solving and the times adjusted accordingly.
Language features: children learn to use mathematical language in explaining, reasoning and questioning.
Previous experience: work on problem solving and managing tasks in groups.
Resources: selection of problems for initial group work and simple checklists on methods for solving problems and effective group work.
Curriculum link: NNS Year 5 Problems involving ‘real life’, money and measures or shape and space.
Objective 52: to identify different question types and evaluate impact on audience e.g. distinguishing open, closed, leading, negative and rhetorical questions.
to use and explore different question types e.g. how to vary and sequence questions.
The interview
Overview: Children:
watch and listen to an interview containing a range of questions types;
listen for questions asked, categorise into types;
generate own questions for particular purposes and try these out;
devise questions to use when interviewing a visitor;
carry out interview;
reflect on the effectiveness of their questioning.
Language features: Children learn to distinguish different kinds of questions, e.g. open, closed, leading, negative and rhetorical, and to use them in an interview.
Previous experience: Children have had experience of observing and participating in different forms of question and answer exchanges at contrasting levels of formality.
Resources: Rough books. Prepare for this unit by planning a short interview in which you ask another adult in school a range of different question types, and by arranging for a series of visitors (one for each group) to answer the children’s questions about the same topic, e.g. their school days.
Objective 54: to reflect on how working in role helps to explore complex issues e.g. sustaining work in role to explore issues from different social, cultural or historical perspectives.
Time travel
Overview: In groups and as a whole class, children:
work on key episodes from texts;
create freeze-frames and develop roles for characters;
present and discuss scenarios;
reflect on historical implications.
Language features: Children learn to use and sustain the expressions and gestures associated with their chosen role.
Previous experience: Build on Year 4 work on recognising how roles can be approached from different viewpoints.
Resources: Familiar extracts from fiction and non-fiction texts about Victorian England (one per group) related to a particular theme, e.g. sickness, child labour, education, poverty, industry. Include contemporary texts, e.g. from Dickens and Mayhew.
Curriculum link: History scheme of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, Unit 11, ‘What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?’
Objective 58: to use a range of oral techniques to present persuasive argument e.g. attracting and holding listeners’ attention through what is said and how it is delivered.
Take our advice
Overview: Children are reminded of the features of effective persuasive talk before they create and present their own talk to an audience. They:
listen to an example of persuasive talk and identify the rhetorical devices used;
plan and rehearse a talk about a topic which is important to them;
listen to some examples of talk created by the class before refining their ideas further;
present their talks in pairs and receive comments.
Later, some talks are presented to the intended audience.
Language features: Children learn to use rhetorical devices including the use of appropriate vocabulary, emotionally charged language with points linked logically, and the anticipation of conflicting views. They also consider how to present the talk persuasively, considering body language, the use of gesture, eye contact.
Previous experience: Children have worked on persuasive language, learning how to sequence and support an argument in Year 5 term 3.
Resources: Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech is available from www.webcorp.com/civilrights/mlkfr.htm
Curriculum link: NLS Year 6, term 2, text objectives 18, 19 and 20.
Objective 64: to improvise using a range of drama strategies and conventions to explore themes such as hopes, fears, desires e.g. drawing on shared text to explore emotional tension at key moments in a story.
Escape!
Overview: Children use various drama strategies to explore a text, Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr. They:
use freeze-frames to create a landscape from the narrative and explore a moment of crisis facing the main characters;
use a ‘conscience alley’ technique to investigate how a character, facing a difficult decision, can be influenced by conflicting emotions;
improvise dialogue and action to create a short sequence which predicts what might happen next;
reflect on how the drama activities enhance their understanding of the whole text.
Language features: Children link language and action to investigate and communicate emotion, both in and out of role as a character from the text.
Previous experience: Build on earlier work in role, and knowledge of selected text.
Resources: The activities will require space, e.g. a school hall.
Curriculum link: NLS Year 6, term 2, text objective 8.
Objective 66: to listen for language variation in formal and informal contexts e.g. identifying when and how speakers use more or less formal language.
to identify the ways spoken language varies according to differences in context and purpose of use e.g. discussing and explaining differences in the use of standard English and dialects.
The way people talk
Overview: Children:
listen to recordings of people speaking in different accents and dialects, and in formal and informal contexts;
investigate language variation in their school community;
share their findings.
Language features: Children learn about features of formal and informal English, standard English and dialect.
Previous experience: Build on Year 6, term 2 work on how talk varies depending on context and purpose; Year 5 work on how talk varies between formal and informal occasions.
Resources: Audio or video recordings illustrating standard English and received pronunciation, for example, from radio or television news bulletins. Audio and/or video recording equipment. Useful websites for a variety of accents and dialects include:
www.quarrybankmill.org.uk – mill demonstrators from Cheshire talk about their work; transcripts available.
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish – for a variety of accents and dialects: A Pitmatic Primer from Pitmatic (Northumberland); Hench from No Pigeon: Black English in Brixton; and Lost Words from Cornwall; and for discussion of standard English: Generation Game from Northumberland.
http://home.freeuk.net/mwpcf – Ghost Train (ghost story 2) told by a boy from South Yorkshire.
Curriculum link: NLS Year 6, term 3, text objectives 16 and 20.
There are many teaching sequences in this booklet you might wish to try out in your own classroom as they stand. Alternatively, you may prefer to take an objective and devise your own way of teaching it, bearing in mind that working through one sequence in detail will give you a clearer understanding of the planning process and the principles underlying the work.
Getting started
Look at the examples provided in this booklet.
Before you start, remind yourself of section 1 in the Handbook about the distinctive features of speaking and listening.
Have your medium-term plan for the whole curriculum available for reference.
Stages in planning a teaching sequence
Start by selecting an objective that is relevant to the children and to your planned teaching. For example, you may want your class to listen more attentively, or work more effectively in groups.
Consider the language features associated with the objective. The selection of language features is crucial because it underpins your role as teacher, what the children will say and do, their reflection upon their work and how you will assess their learning. This means understanding what language is needed to work on an objective and what language would give evidence that children are succeeding in the activities. For example, asking different kinds of questions, or using the language needed to sustain and structure a talk. Each of the teaching sequences includes examples of the language expected within particular units of work.
Choose a subject area and unit of work into which the objective fits well, so that both the speaking and listening work and the subject are mutually supportive. You might want to add to your note of language features any subject-specific vocabulary or talk that it will be important to include.
Decide on a sequence of activities that will explicitly develop the skills and language in the objective.
You need to:
i. outline each activity in the sequence;
ii. decide the most useful groupings (pair, group, class) for each activity;
iii. refer to the leaflets in this pack for ideas about particular teaching techniques;
iv. work out how these activities can be embedded in the existing plan for a unit or subject. This involves using the content of the subject for the activities, sometimes focusing solely on speaking and listening and sometimes emphasising the subject;
v. revisit the timings and duration of the unit if the original plan has altered.
If possible, ask a colleague in the same year group to try out the same teaching sequence so that you can compare notes about it at the end.
Focusing on the language
In all teaching sequences the language features need to be introduced, used and reflected on. When planning a teaching sequence, remember to take account of factors contributing to variation in talk.
Introducing these features of language can take different forms:
adult modelling;
providing examples from TV, audio or ICT recordings for children to investigate;
creating opportunities for children to observe and reflect on others’ language use or ways of working in groups.
Once children have been introduced to the language features, they will need to participate in activities where they can use such language appropriately. For example, after discussing ways to listen and follow instructions accurately (objective 6) or investigating features of formal language (objective 66), activities need to be provided which will necessitate the use of this language.
Planning opportunities for children to reflect on the quality of their talk enables them to consolidate their learning and understand how talk supported them. They are also able to evaluate the success of what they have said or done, thinking critically about the work. All such reflection involves being explicit about features of talk and prompts the use and development of an appropriate metalanguage.
At the end of the work, you also need to reflect on what happened and what you did to help success. Where children had difficulty completing the task and using the language, was this because, for example, they had not worked in groups like this before, or were they unused to a lesson with an oral focus?
Finally, having planned and taught one sequence, you will see how the same principles apply to devising, adapting or using other sequences. As well as enabling you to take a more systematic approach to speaking and listening, another outcome should be a more time-efficient way of planning teaching and learning throughout the curriculum.
The video was filmed in a number of primary schools, using sequences of activities designed by teachers to illustrate the objectives. There is a reference table for locating sections on the tape in this booklet. Each video example shows part of the complete lesson sequence but aims to reflect the way a whole class works on speaking and listening, in a range of groupings and in the context of the primary curriculum.
There are commentaries on each activity on the video.
There are a number of ways to use the video. Any sequence may be taken as a starting point for exploring both the materials and important issues in teaching speaking and listening.
An example of work in a Year 4 class can be seen in the video sequence designed to illustrate objective 37: to use and reflect on some ground rules of dialogue. This objective is being taught in the context of unit 6A of the Key Stages 1 and 2 history scheme of work: ‘Why have people invaded and settled in Britain in the past?’
Before watching this sequence, read through the full teaching sequence. View the video sequence once through to gain an overview and become familiar with the extract prior to more detailed discussion and analysis. While watching, track the teaching sequence, noting its development and any points of interest to discuss with colleagues in pairs or small groups.
Depending on what your initial discussion of the video example has highlighted, these are some of the areas you can pursue in more detail:
Teaching techniques
How does the teacher’s behaviour encourage the development of speaking and listening? (e.g. wait time, tone of voice, body language, use of questioning)
Characteristics of children’s talk in relation to the objective
What is the evidence supporting their ability to make extended contributions, make their meaning explicit, listen actively, justify a point of view, provide evidence, take turns?
Evidence of children’s learning
How does talk support children’s learning in both English and history? (e.g. rehearsing ideas, evaluating, making connections, improving as speakers and listeners over the sequence as a whole)
Classroom management and organisation
What are the different strategies used by the teacher and why are they effective? (e.g. providing a written version of the ground rules, preparing a schedule for children to use as observers, organising a range of groupings)
Discussion of these and similar questions can be carried out in different ways. One option is to employ a strategy for group discussion and interaction shown on the video, such as the jigsaw technique, or to choose one from the relevant leaflet in the pack. You can also compare ideas with those made in the commentary on the video.
Watch both sequences for one year group, again after reading through the written sequence. Apply one or two of the suggested approaches to analyse the way different strands of speaking and listening are developed in different contexts, and how the teacher’s role changes accordingly.
Select one strand, such as speaking, listening, group discussion and interaction, or drama, and look at examples in two different age groups to promote discussion about progression. Make a note of key features in children’s developing use of language and check existing schemes of work to ensure that there are planned opportunities for children to progress as speakers and listeners.
Within a year group, choose one of the lesson sequences shown. Identify how classroom activities actually planned for the next few weeks could be adapted to help children use talk in this way.
Choose some extracts from the video to use with children in your class to encourage discussion of what makes a good speaker and listener.
In this activity, children are learning how to talk about events in ways that are effective and engaging for their listeners. To make these points more accessible, the class teacher has arranged for another teacher to come in and recount the same incident in two different ways. Through direct experience of contrasting models, the children develop a better understanding of how to recount and describe their experiences.
The activity begins with children seated on the carpet in front of the teachers. Later in the lesson, children, in pairs, tell stories to one another.
Notice over the whole sequence how the class teacher:
asks questions which cue the children to identify what needs to be improved;
organises the class to provide opportunities for reflection and practice;
later in the sequence, models a way of asking speakers to give more detail, e.g. I’d like to know a bit more about one part of the story.
Notice how Mr Brown’s recount is improved by:
adding more detail;
use of more varied and precise vocabulary;
a more dramatic delivery, including the use of exaggerated voices;
reference to thoughts and feelings;
gesture and actions.
Also observe how the children’s listening and response is shown by:
facial expressions;
physical movement;
spontaneous comments.
Through a sequence of whole-class and paired activities, children have the opportunity to identify and put into practice some of the features of effective story telling.
Notice that they single out:
audibility and clarity (prompted by the wall display);
interesting words (vocabulary choices);
humour and drama (fanning action, seagull).
Children’s responses to the stories reveal awareness of how different kinds of talk impact on the listener. They comment on the effect of:
sad and happy stories;
intonation – a ‘medium voice’;
audibility.
In the course of the work, there are many features of talk highlighted, implicitly and explicitly. The teacher has to choose which to pick up and develop as they arise and which to build on in the future. For example, the children’s language of evaluation could be extended beyond comments about interesting, exciting and describing words. The technique of having two adults model ways of giving feedback could be further extended to develop this aspect of the work.
In preparation for this work, the children have read with their teacher the story of Anancy and Mr Dry-Bone by Fiona French. The Anancy story lends itself to work in drama for children of this age because of its easily identifiable characters. At this stage in the year, children have just started to learn about using the technique of freeze-frames. By working in this way, the teacher aims to develop a better understanding of how characters’ behaviour and talk reveals their motives. The children work in groups of threes and fours to explore through drama some of the key points in the story.
Notice how individual children:
use movement to get into role;
develop physical control in adapting shapes and poses of characters suggested by the illustrations in the book;
plan, recount and reflect on what they have done.
Notice how groups of children:
devise a tableau showing relationships between characters;
improvise speech and action in ways that fit the characters.
Notice how the teacher’s use of freeze-frames:
stops the narrative to enable exploration of ideas;
provides a basis for improvising dialogue;
helps to structure children’s reflective feedback and response to the story.
The work in this sequence provides the basis for the next drama lesson, encouraging a more sustained exploration of Anancy stories now that typical characters are better understood. For example, the teacher might begin with a reading of a new story and invite children to improvise what follows, building on knowledge of movement and language.
In this Year 2 PE class, children are listening to instructions about how to play games they have devised and asking relevant questions.
Throughout the activities, notice how children’s listening skills are developed through:
rehearsing, discussing and evaluating what they’ve understood before trying out the game for themselves;
checking their understanding of lesson content, through asking a range of questions;
building an explicit understanding of how to be an active listener.
The teacher begins by asking the children to reflect on what is required to be an active listener. At this stage of the discussion the children focus on:
looking at the person speaking;
asking for repetition to clarify misunderstandings.
The teacher asks the children to work in groups to make up a game for others to play with limited equipment. The teacher then asks a representative from one of the groups to explain the game to the rest of the class.
In groups, children orally rehearse the playing of the game by rephrasing and putting the instructions into their own words. Having discussed the instructions in groups, a representative from one group is selected to give the group’s version of the rules. The class follow the instructions and play the game, asking the ‘expert’ group for clarification.
The teacher brings the class together and uses paired discussion to allow the children to reflect on which instructions were easy/difficult to follow and which required more information.
The whole class reflects on what they have learned so far about formulating clear instructions and the strategies they have used to help them listen to and understand a series of instructions. At this point in the lesson the children now focus on:
getting a picture in their head;
running through the sequence in their head;
saying the instruction in their own words.
A representative from a different group explains his/her group’s game to the rest of the class using strategies learned in the lesson to aid listening. The teacher draws attention to the sequencing language used and children ask relevant questions to clarify understanding before going on to play the game.
In this Year 2 science class, children are using talk to plan an investigation and predict outcomes.
Throughout the sequence, notice how:
the teacher challenges children in order to test their scientific understanding;
children cooperate on tasks in groups of different sizes;
children use talk to organise and explain their work.
The teacher sets out the lesson objectives clearly and makes connections with the previous week’s lesson through reflecting on prior knowledge. Notice how the teacher gauges children’s understanding about changing and constant variables and what makes a fair test. The teacher uses group discussion to encourage children to share their ideas and clarify initial misconceptions about variables.
In groups, the children make predictions and observers note how well individual children contribute ideas. The teacher focuses the attention of the observers on ensuring that everyone takes part in the planning task and has the opportunity to share their ideas. She provides visual and linguistic prompts for the observers to use as a checklist. Notice how the teacher focuses the observers on the objective and challenges them to consider how the group working together affects the planning of the investigation.
The teacher asks two observers to report on one group’s predictions and having established clear criteria for reporting, focuses on whether children make their suggestions clearly. The teacher, through the use of follow-up questions, challenges children to be explicit.
In groups, children plan the investigation and the observer asks questions from the checklist. Tasks are then allocated to individual children. Having made their predictions, the children work to test their ideas about force and movement.
Envoys from each group share their findings with a new group. Children ask questions and offer suggestions from their own experience in order to reach agreement on their findings.
At the end of the lesson, the teacher draws the class together to check how far they now understand the effects of different variables. Notice how the teacher focuses the class on giving reasons for their findings. Through the use of open questions the teacher supports the children in teasing out why things happen. Automatic praise, which can have the effect of closing down discussion, is avoided. Instead, searching follow-up questions are used to extend children’s thinking further in considering alternative viewpoints and in finally reaching agreement on the effect of variables and fair testing.
In this activity, children are learning how to take longer turns in talk while working on a history topic about Celtic Britain. In preparation, the children have been independently researching aspects of Celtic life such as farming, warfare, religion, arts and culture, and housing. The teacher wants the class to consolidate these different strands of knowledge before moving on to speculate on the likely impact of Roman settlement on the Celts. He provides an opportunity for children to talk in their specialist topic groups before using the jigsaw technique to rearrange them into mixed groups where every topic has one spokesperson.
In order for children to explain what they know and to answer questions, they need to be able to sustain their contributions, giving reasons and evidence for their opinions, and to be prepared to engage in an open-ended exploration of issues. The teacher begins by asking children in their groups to recap on some of the important features of this kind of dialogic talk.
Notice the way the teacher exemplifies some of these features. He:
asks open-ended questions;
avoids rephrasing or repeating what children say;
does not give automatic praise;
clearly expects children to make extended contributions.
As the children discuss the criteria for effective group discussion, notice that they quickly prioritise:
speaking clearly;
taking turns, speaking one at a time;
acknowledging the possibility of having different views;
asking questions.
These are features that relate to most group discussions. The teacher wants to move towards more sustained talk so he introduces two more challenging ideas for children to concentrate on:
making longer contributions than just one or two words;
responding to the other speaker.
Children move into their expert groups to discuss what they have researched and studied together. The group working on Celtic religion grapples with the uncomfortable fact of human sacrifice. The teacher’s role is crucial in enabling the children to engage in an open-ended discussion.
Notice how the children:
approach their assigned topic in different ways and have different views;
where possible, draw on their own experience as well as what they have studied.
Notice how the teacher:
participates in the conversation without supplying answers;
does not push children to agree with one another;
asks questions that prompt evaluation;
helps children explore and refine their ideas;
withholds endorsement of any particular answer until the end.
Children move into their jigsaw groups to share their expert knowledge. To support them in asking open-ended questions, the teacher has modelled approaches. In this part of the lesson, there are observers attached to each group to note how well the rules for dialogic talk are enacted.
Notice how the children in their groups:
sustain coherent and informative turns in conversation;
structure their answers in different ways, e.g. yes and no..., yes…, the main one...
Notice how the observers:
talk about the criteria for effective group work;
give positive and negative feedback;
present criticism in a friendly and constructive manner.
Notice how the teacher:
asks for information in ways that support the observers;
uses the feedback to prompt the whole class to think about improvement;
selects one child to say what he has understood as a way of demonstrating that the whole class has succeeded.
In the final part of the lesson, the teacher puts the class in role as Roman envoys, reporting to him in role as Emperor Claudius on whether or not to invade Britain. The slight shift in focus achieved by the teacher adopting this role prompts children to take more seriously the questions about Roman settlement.
Notice how the teacher taking up a role challenges the children to:
use their specialist knowledge in a new context;
make contributions that look at the consequences of actions.
Notice how the children:
respond to the teacher’s two-part question: What and why you’ve decided…;
reformulate ideas, giving evidence, exploring alternatives.
In this activity, children work in groups to design the set for one act of a school pantomime. To help focus the discussion, the teacher has prepared a diagram of the stage and a copy of the play text for each group. At the same time, the teacher wishes to use this activity to develop children’s ability to adopt specific roles in their groups and use the language appropriate to them. The sequence begins with the teacher recapping on children’s knowledge of roles before inviting one group of children to model for the whole class how these roles work in practice. The demonstration group discusses the selection of material for the pantomime cow.
Throughout the sequence, notice how the teacher:
maintains a focus on individual children in order to develop reasons for opinions;
prompts the children to see and experience how the roles interrelate.
Notice how the children:
fulfil their roles;
work together on the task;
contribute and take turns in an ordered way;
give reasons for their choices.
When reporting back on the set design task, notice how the children:
articulate the range of views as well as the outcome;
take turns in answering questions;
ask meaningful questions of one another.
In the concluding phase of the lesson, the teacher returns to the matter of group roles, reinforcing what the children have learned in speaking and listening. By inviting reflection on what was easy or hard, he encourages children to see the complexities of each role.
In this activity, children are learning more about how to give a persuasive talk. The activity follows extensive discussion about the features of persuasive talk as well as literacy work on persuasion in writing. Through a sequence of whole-class discussion, planning and rehearsal in pairs, the children devise and try out various ways of putting across their case about whether the annual Year 5 trip to an outdoor educational centre (Sayers’ Croft) should go ahead. The choice of topic is significant in ensuring children’s interest and commitment. It is familiar, so children have all the information they need, but it is also a subject about which there can be different views. The teacher provides a selection of enlarged photographs to remind children of some of the things they did at the centre. Such support is important when the emphasis of the lesson is on developing techniques of organisation and delivery rather than on information gathering or giving. Overall, the lesson shows children’s work in progress with much to build on, but not yet at the stage of the polished product.
Throughout the sequence, notice how the teacher:
encourages children to make connections between general ideas about persuasive talk and their particular applications;
withholds judgement on individual contributions;
prompts exploration and experiment about ways of speaking.
The children quickly suggest a range of persuasive techniques:
non-verbal gestures;
the use of real-life examples;
being confident in voicing ideas;
structuring talk, using rhetorical questions.
After some further discussion, the teacher draws together these ideas on a flipchart that the children may refer to as they work in pairs to plan their talks and then rehearse them. During the planning stage, children use pen and paper but do not rely on their notes when they talk – an important consideration when trying to maximise the use of body language and gesture. The rehearsals show that pairs adopt different techniques for their presentations depending on the messages they wish to emphasise.
Notice the ideas that children try out:
using alliteration as a mnemonic (the 4 Cs);
making direct rhetorical appeals to their listeners;
improvising a role-play around conflicting viewpoints.
As she listens to children’s plans, the teacher asks questions which challenge them to extend their ideas. She resists rephrasing or elaborating their points and keeps the discussion open by not privileging one plan over another or suggesting consensus. Following a short review still in their small groups, pairs then come to the front of the group to present their talks more formally.
Notice how the first pair of children:
make dramatic use of visual aids;
adopt appropriately emphatic language;
anticipate counter-argument (safety, expense);
stress strong positive points (educational value, enjoyment);
manage their own turn taking;
speak in unison to conclude forcefully.
Notice how the second pair of children:
use the technique of mock interview to establish the ‘evidence’;
propose solutions to anticipated problems (before you complain about safety);
link general points to personal testimonies.
The lesson concludes with the teacher drawing the class together to reflect on what they have heard and done.
Notice how the children:
make astute comments about features of performance (need to back up points/know what they were saying/know their audience/be able to answer questions);
are able to reflect in general terms about using the language of persuasion.
On the basis of these understandings, the teacher tells children that next time they will work particularly on ways of ending their talks and indicates why this is important. Throughout the lesson, the specific focus of learning about speaking and listening is clear to the class.
In this activity, children are learning to use drama to explore a turning point in their class novel, Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr. The use of drama helps them explore the feelings and motives of the two main characters as Marianne tries to help Mark escape from the house which imprisons him.
The quick warm-up activities at the start of the lesson encourage children to adopt bodily postures depicting unusual shapes – curled, twisted, jagged. These words resonate with the atmosphere of the novel and, in creating freeze-frames for each one, children begin to interpret some of the mood of the episode. Following the teacher’s reading of a short extract from the book, she invites children to add movement and sounds to their enactment of elements in the mysterious landscape – the grasses and the rocks.
As a way of entering more deeply into the emotional turmoil of the characters, the teacher uses the technique of ‘conscience alley’ in which a child in the role of Mark walks between opposing ‘voices’ with one side encouraging escape and one side threatening to prevent it. Freeze-frames are used again, this time in a series of three to depict the separate moments of the children’s escape. Finally, children work in pairs to improvise the dialogue between the characters at their moment of escape. A significant feature of the lesson structure is that children’s improvisation of dialogue comes only after intense and varied exploration of the novel’s themes.
Over the whole sequence, each activity contributes to the development of the next, culminating in the children’s dramatisation of the moment of escape.
Notice how the teacher:
begins with dramatic actions;
establishes movements before introducing sound;
adds sounds to gestures;
links speech to gestures and action.
As pairs of children dramatise the moment of escape, notice how they:
enact their understanding of suspense and fear;
show different interpretations of characters and motives;
convey the emotions of each character through actions and words.
At the end of the activities, the teacher uses a brief plenary for children to reflect on what they have done and how the work has illuminated their understanding of the novel. The teaching sequence contains suggestions for extending this discussion further.
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