100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Oracy

When schools start thinking seriously about oracy, it's easy to focus on activities: talk partners, debates, discussion routines and so on. These things matter, but they only work when three fundamentals are in place: high expectations, opportunities and a respectful classroom culture.

 1.       High expectations

I talk a lot about high expectations for oracy. We mustn’t write off pupils as ‘shy’ or ‘unconfident’ and assume it’s ok that they rarely speak in class. We wouldn’t write off a pupil’s potential like that in a subject such as maths – we’d use our skills and experience to find strategies that help them improve. We’re all used to the idea that maths is important to pupils’ futures and that it’s worth the effort. Many educators have long recognised that effective speaking and listening are at least as important, and this understanding is now becoming more widespread. So let’s accept this challenge as teachers – to set the expectation that everyone can get better at oracy, no matter what their starting point is.

2.      Opportunities

So, we’ve decided we want every pupil to improve their speaking and listening.  They will need opportunities to learn skills and practise them. This will include talking in pairs, trios, or maybe larger groups if they are ready; your role is to give them purposeful talk tasks and helpful structures, and to hold them accountable for their spoken work. When it comes to whole-class talk moments, I’m a strong advocate of using a range of ‘participation systems’ to decide who speaks. There are more options than you might realise – cold-calling, random selection, rounds, speak into the space, speaker chooses and more. There’s also choral repetition where everyone speaks together – surprisingly useful at any age. Volunteer-based participation such as ‘hands up’ can be useful sometimes but I wouldn’t recommend it as your default, because it usually means you hear from the same few volunteers. And remember – they need to practise listening too. Pupils who often put themselves forward to speak may actually need opportunities to practise things like active listening, turn-taking, or making their point concisely to allow others to contribute.

3.      Classroom culture

High expectations and opportunities to practise will only be effective within a supportive, respectful classroom culture.  You must ensure that everyone behaves kindly when listening to other’s contributions. One great strategy is to agree ground rules with your pupils. And classroom culture has to start with you. Aim to always react respectfully when pupils speak. That way you’re modelling the positive culture that you expect from them.  Reflect on your own habits – do you ever cut pupils off?  Think about your next move, rather than fully understanding their point?  Only pay attention to the information you are interested in? It’s difficult, in a busy classroom, but if we want pupils to talk and to expand on their ideas, they need to know that we’re genuinely listening to them and interested in their thoughts.

There are 100 ideas for oracy in my books 100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Oracy and in 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Oracy which I wrote with veteran oracy practitioner and fellow Oracy Cambridge Associate, Alan Howe.