‘Writing floats on a sea of talk’ - James Britton
Why has there been a tendency to privilege writing over speaking, listening and reading? While oracy has recently gone further up the agenda, it’s odd that high quality talk in classrooms has often been regarded as an optional extra, something quite nice to do, rather than an entitlement for all pupils.
Why do we tend to think that written outcomes matter more than verbal responses? It’s partly to do with the transient nature of the spoken word and the challenge of capturing the quality of responses. It’s easier to do this with written responses.
While plenty of time and effort goes in to developing and improving writing, less attention has been paid to developing oracy. High quality talk, and its twin, listening, underpins reading and writing. And yet in too many classrooms, it’s something that is just assumed will happen, without being explicitly taught.
As Beccy Earnshaw says,
Classroom talk is frequently an unstructured break in a lesson rather than a fundamental and integral part of teaching and learning. Students are rarely given feedback on the quality of their verbal contributions; we don’t consistently plan the purpose of a discussion item; and there isn’t a consistent view as to what ‘good talk’ looks, sounds and feels like.
It’s now recognised that high-quality talk in classrooms does improve standards. The Education Endowment Foundation’s report on oral language interventions found that for all oral language interventions, certain factors are associated with higher learning gains, suggesting that careful implementation is important. ‘For example, approaches which explicitly aim to develop spoken vocabulary work best when they are related to current content being studied in school, and when they involve active and meaningful use of any new vocabulary.’
There are many resources to develop this work. My own thinking has been informed by Robin Alexander’s Dialogic Teaching. It makes the case that
‘Dialogic teaching harnesses the power of talk to engage interest, stimulate thinking, advance understanding, expand ideas, and build and evaluate arguments, empowering students for lifelong learning and democratic engagement. Being collaborative and supportive, it confers social and emotional benefits too.’
Alexander goes on to show how it also helps teachers:
‘By encouraging pupils to share their thinking it enables teachers to diagnose needs, devise learning tasks, enhance understanding, assess progress, and guide pupils through the challenges they encounter.’
It’s great to see that there’s a growing body of material and resources to support this work:
Voice 21 the national charity that supports schools to build speaking and listening into the curriculum, teaching and learning and wider school life
‘Thinking Together Project’ from Cambridge University’s Faculty of Education
The English Speaking Union ‘Speaking Frankly’.
‘Oracy Is Not Just Speaking and Listening’ by Ros Wilson
The Oracy Education Commission
Oracies not Oracy by Clare Sealy
It’s an exciting time with a growing body of thoughtful work to support this essential aspect of provision.
On Myatt & Co, we’ve created a series of films with colleagues talking about how they develop oracy in their settings.
And finally, a brilliant new whole school approach ‘Finding my Voice’ developed over several years by Rachel Higginson, and now an online suite of materials for leaders, teachers and pupils.
Rachel and I are doing a free webinar on how to create a ‘fingerprint’ culture to support belonging, an essential element for authentic oracy. Monday 23 September 4pm and you can get the link here.
Until next time
Mary