Sarah Wyeth – Barriers to oracy in the classroom

I don’t think any of us doubt the importance of oracy in the classroom by now. So why isn’t oracy threaded through our curriculum in a slick and integrated way? Why are we not all proficient dialogic practitioners? There was a question in a recent feedback form to staff asked, ”Should we add to our non-negotiables that we only ever cold call in lesson? No hands up, apart from when ‘taking the temperature’ of whole class understanding / comprehension.” This got me thinking about how hard it is to get some students to speak at all let alone extend their answers. We tread that line of attempting to expertly stretch and challenge our keen outgoing students yet support and coax our less confident ones. We all know a particular student with their hand up before the end of a question has been finished and you know they haven’t formulated an answer and when they do, it may only be very loosely linked to the topic and possibly involve a tedious tale of a distant relative. You know this student needs validation but you also need to crack on with the learning. At this juncture, the cold calling route only seems humane but teaching and learning aimed towards strong oracy skills needs planning for and building.

How can we remove the barriers to effective classroom oracy? My two main sources for answers are ‘Speaking up: The importance of Oracy in teaching and learning’ by Will Millard and Any Gauntmay 2018 and ‘The State of Speaking in Our Schools’ by Will Millard and Loic Menzies – Voice 21. I also asked two of my classes for their ideas.

Here is a table found on p55 of ‘The State of Speaking in Our Schools’ by Will Millard and Loic Menzies – Voice 21 exploring the barriers to oracy.

H e r e a r e 5 m a i n b a r r i e r s a n d p o t e n t i a l wa y s o f t a c kl i n g t h e m .

Time

“If teachers think ‘we’re wasting time’ or ‘we’re spending too long talking’ [then] maybe that means that the talk hasn’t been scaffolded correctly. If you’re doing really good talk and they’re working really well, then it really will support thinking about those [learning] outcomes” Amy Gaunt, Head of Oracy Primary, School 21 Teachers will always need to balance the demands of a content heavy curriculum with how that content is consumed. When teachers feel confident in building in well planned oracy tasks, this will enable better access to that curriculum.

Student passports

Often on a passport there will be a bullet point asking that a student not be asked questions in front of the class or asked to read aloud. Sometimes this can be seen as a strange request when the student in front of you is evidently more than happy to express themselves quite volubly. With those students who really do struggle with class participation, I would suggest that this is an opportunity to sit with the student and chat through their needs on the passport. Sometimes a partner is able to voice their ideas or small groups could enable confidence to grow. However, that child is not going to grow in being able to express themselves if always left out of class questioning and involvement. They would then have little incentive to engage with the material if they knew they ideas will never be sought. Surely, this reduces self-esteem in the long run.

Fear of disruption / break down in behaviour

This is tackled in Voice 21 where you can find a list of suggestions. Especially helpful are the ideas of Amy Gaunt on p60.

Nothing to show for it

The nature of ephemeral talk makes progress hard to check and record. There is also not a lot of research to provide evidence. However, in a small study by Dave Spence at the Wilmslow High school group, he demonstrated that setting up a process where underperforming students in a mixed ability Yr 11 class were able to progress after research into discussion tasks resulted in improvement in assessments. “Students’ marks across all abilities went up following this oracy initiative, and this was particularly pronounced when looking at SEN students’ attainment.” Moira Henderson attempted to collect data in 2020 for a research project she had planned out. Unfortunately, covid aborted the study but in her evaluation she comments that, “Although the impact of this research is not measurable in terms of hard data, the outcomes which I’ve seen during the students’ work, alongside comments from the students themselves, have convinced me that including more thoughtful prompts and sentence stems for discussion, along with creating a shared understanding of and familiarity with a language for discussing oracy, have great benefits to play in the classroom.” It is worth reading her paper for intervention strategies she used with the class.

High stakes curriculum/ attitudes from different subject areas / confidence in aspects of oracy

Speaking assessments have been down graded in English to a bolt on extra that doesn’t hold much value to the students. “It’s now a box you have to tick, but it doesn’t actually count towards anything” says Mark Crossley, English Teacher and Key Stage 4 Coordinator (Voice 21). I would be interested if any employer ever looked at the grades assigned to these presentations. The irony is that employers have make it really clear that they are looking for employees that can communicate, lead teams, present and think on their feet.

Some subjects feel that oracy isn’t that important in their area or doesn’t aid learning. Voice 21 explores this in detail p64 – 67.

S t u d e n t f e e db a c k

I asked a Yr 7 and a Yr 8 class to fill in a questionnaire for me on oracy and their views. Both were classes that I had been experimenting with different oracy tasks. I had especially been trying to hand over managing the tasks to the students themselves. The answers the students gave were not particularly revolutionary but they showed awareness of the importance of discussion in the classroom.

Here are the general findings:

➢ Many were worried about the anxious, shyer students ➢ They felt that E1m and RS were particularly good places for discussion.

➢ There was a real sense that discussions added fun and interest to the learning ➢ They saw the importance of building confidence and the link with future jobs and skills needed in the future ➢ There was a value placed on the point of view of others and the value of disagreeing with the teacher too. ➢ One student said they felt validated and supported when they offered their views ➢ Many felt strongly that teachers should only ask students with hands up – the idea that those not wishing to respond should be left alone. ➢ There was an overall appreciation for oracy in the classroom

Here is some advice to teachers from the students:

➢ Teachers should set up tasks by prewarning certain individuals that they will be asked specifically so they need to be prepared. ➢ They liked the use of lolly sticks with names on and random name generators ➢ Timers ➢ They felt small group discussions leading to whole class feedback was effective ➢ Using prompts and structures to guide students to answers enabled the less confident students to build their answers. Here is the advice from are ‘Speaking up: The importance of Oracy in teaching and learning’

• Set clear ‘ground rules’ for talk during lessons (for example, by clarifying how and when students can contribute to class discussions, and what ‘active listening’ involves). Whole schools can also set expectations in this regard, such as in terms of how students should speak to their peers, and to staff and visitors. • Model the talk they expect from students(in terms of tone and etiquette, as well as vocabulary and content). • Ask great questions, encouraging different sorts of thought processes at different stages in the learning process. For example, teachers might prompt students to recall information at first, before then encouraging a deeper exploration of ideas. • Scaffold students’ interactions and responses during lessons, for instance, by using sentence starters. • Provide students with feedback on both what they say, and how they say it. • Seek and give colleagues feedback on their classroom talk during development lesson observations

C o n c l u s i o n

There is an All party parliamentary group looking into oracy that certainly shows government intention for change, “The pandemic has increased the imperative to act now. The Oracy APPG believes that there is an indisputable case for oracy as an integral aspect of education and that all children and young people should benefit from high-quality oracy education as a consistent and comprehensive entitlement of their education in school.” What ever happens with the Covid reboot in education, I believe that oracy has to be our duty to the future of our students. There may be massive changes to what we teach and how we assess but fundamentally we need to empower those in our care to speak up and be heard. They cannot let others speak for them and we need to remove the barriers.

“I want your voice to fill this school. I want your voice to be one of the many sounds that build this community. I want you not just to talk but to listen. Listen to yourself: your breath, your heart and your true thoughts. I want you to listen to other people. I want you to discover the many voices that make up a human being. I want you to find your voice.” Daniel Shindler, Drama and Wellbeing Lead, School 21 R e f e r e n c e s

Dave Spence, Group discussion and extended writing Wilmslow High School

Moira Henderson To what extent does structured group work, implemented for eight weeks, improve the written outcomes among a low-attaining group of male students? Cowes Enterprise College

Oracy cambridge, ‘Our submission of evidence to the Oracy All Party Parliamentary Group’ The Hughes Hall Centre for Effective Spoken Communication, January 21, 2020

Will Millard and Any Gauntmay , ‘Speaking up: The importance of Oracy in teaching and learning’ 2018

Will Millard and Loic Menzies, ‘The State of Speaking in Our Schools’ Voice 21.

W e b s i t e s :

https://oracy.inparliament.uk/speak-for-change-inquiry

https://impact.chartered.college/article/millard-importance-of-oracy-in-teaching-learning/