The Noisy Classroom

Developing Debate and Critical Oracy in Schools

Debbie Newman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351020206
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

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:

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• A reflection on critical oracy and why it is important.

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• 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.

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• Advice for teachers on how to overcome barriers to building and using critical oracy in the classroom, including troubleshooting when things go wrong.

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• 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.

Part I

The case for critical oracy

Introduction

I want your students to argue with you more. And not just with you but also with each other, with great thinkers of the past and with today's leaders. I want them to argue, and I want them to argue well. I want to them to be critical thinkers; careful, active listeners; and persuasive speakers. The education I have in mind in my vision of a noisy classroom is one where students question and interrogate everything that is put before them. They listen with an open mind, are willing to consider all perspectives and are not afraid to defend their views and challenge others or to change their mind if they find themselves convinced. Of course, in so doing, they will find themselves in the long and fine tradition of academia over millennia. One seldom moves forward without understanding the body of knowledge that came before. Progress comes by questioning that knowledge. Plato challenged Aristotle, Einstein challenged Newton, and Friedman challenged Keynes. To do the same, students need the opportunity to engage in debate and critical oracy. Certainly, argument happens in writing too, but it is slow. You must wait until someone has read your work and responded to it in their own work before you can offer a counter-rebuttal. This might be possible for university fellows, but it is less practical for your Year 10 English class. Most school pupils' experience of argument will primarily be through the spoken word, and whole-class, group and pair activities can be designed to allow disagreement to flourish constructively. When pupils have to put forward their own written argument and show an understanding of multiple perspectives in their examinations, they will, of course, be admirably prepared.

By its nature, debating can seem very adversarial. It need not be, however, and not all of the exercises in this book are combative. That said, they all require students to engage critically with each other and their studies. The activities contained within this book will help them to develop their thinking and their communication skills and prepare them for university, the workplace and civic life.

Who is this book for?

This book is aimed primarily at secondary school teachers who wish to embed more debate and critical oracy into their lessons. It is suitable for teachers of all disciplines, studying any curriculum and teaching any age from 11 to 18. It is also useful for senior managers or literacy leads who wish to introduce more debate and oracy across their school. Teachers of English as an additional language (EAL), or indeed any foreign language, will find the activities a useful and engaging way of practising speaking and listening skills. Adults involved in running youth groups will also find many exercises that would be appropriate for their context.

How can I use this book?

Part I of the book looks at the case for more debate and critical oracy in schools. It covers what critical oracy is, why teachers should be doing more of it and how to overcome the barriers to doing more. It also looks at some of the overarching issues of running oracy-based activities, discussing the role of senior managers and teachers, troubleshooting and assessment.

Part II of the book is a toolkit for oracy-based activities that teachers of all subjects can use to introduce more high-quality, structured talk into their classrooms. Teachers should dip into these activities in any order, and there is no need to read Part I first if you already run oracy-based activities and are looking for more ideas to broaden your practice or if just want to get started.

This part starts with set-piece debating, the jewel in the crown of critical oracy. It then goes on to cover other debate formats, shorter activities that are perfect for starters and plenaries, in-character activities such as Hot Seating and Mock Trials that are terrific for helping students to see different perspectives and structured activities to replace more free-form whole-class, group and pair discussion. The last chapter looks at some ideas for activities that explicitly develop oracy skills, rather than using oracy to deliver the rest of the curriculum. Each of these activities includes instructions for running the activity, possible topics covering a variety of disciplines, planning and resources needed and any other points to consider.

In the appendices, you'll find some detailed resources such as speech scaffolding sheets and assessment criteria for debates, key vocabulary for debate and ideas for sentences stems, connectives and debate and discussion topics.

How did this book come about?

This book brings together activities gathered and tested over 20 years of working in debate, oracy and education. At the start of my career, I was fortunate enough to work at the Centre for Speech and Debate at the English-Speaking Union (ESU), where I felt myself so lucky to take that often-wished-for path of turning my hobby into my job. I had loved the thrill of debating ever since I took part in my first inter-form debate when I was 11 years old. Debating had become a passion as I competed nationally and internationally through school and university, and it was at Cambridge that I was afforded opportunities to teach debate too. And so my intentions to enrol in a law-conversion course diminished, and I found myself heading to Dartmouth House, the glorious headquarters of the ESU. It was an exciting time to be at the ESU. Under the direction of Marc Whitmore, the Centre for Speech and Debate was widening its focus from competitive debate to debate outreach and debate in the curriculum. I had opportunities to learn so much from colleagues at the ESU, the International Debate Academy in Slovenia, the World Schools Debating Championships and especially at the World Debate Institute in Vermont, then under the leadership of the late and incomparable Professor Alfred “Tuna” Snider. There are so many professional and amateur debate trainers of great skill and passion, and it is extremely rewarding to be a part of this community.

I learnt just as much when I left the ESU to become an English teacher. I was lucky to work in a school, and a department, with an established culture of oracy, and there I discovered the power of debate and critical discussion in a new way. I experienced first-hand the power that lies in debate's ability to deepen understanding and help pupils to appreciate multiple perspectives. I saw close up its value in securing unprecedented levels of student engagement. I experienced the magic of a silent classroom in which 30 students were working next each other writing and reading, and I also experienced the magic of a noisy classroom in which 30 students in pairs were simultaneously arguing over a text in a vibrant, exciting forum. I am convinced that both forms of learning should be part of students' day-to-day education. Some pupils will naturally excel more than others, but all students must have the opportunity to improve at both. Debating and critical oracy are not just for the most gifted and enthusiastic; they are for everyone.

Over the last ten years, The Noisy Classroom has been working with schools, building the skills and confidence their teachers need to incorporate debate and critical oracy into their classroom practice and running workshops directly for pupils. During this time, I have learnt so much from teachers about how activities can be adapted and applied to different curriculum areas. There's nothing better than receiving positive feedback from a maths or physical education (PE) teacher about an oracy-based lesson that they have run! If something works for you—a particular topic, unit or activity—I would love to hear from you at [email protected].

I hope you find a lot of joy running the activities in this book and seeing all the ways in which your students may surprise you.

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What is critical oracy, and what is the state of oracy in our schools at the moment?

What is critical oracy?

“Oracy” is the currently favoured term for what at other times has been called “speaking and listening” or “the spoken word”. Although no term is perfect, oracy has the advantage of suggesting parity with literacy and numeracy. It covers all verbal communication skills from presenting to questioning, summarising to storytelling, listening to negotiating. It covers the formal and the informal and encompasses everything from a one-on-one conversation to an address delivered to the nation.

It is important to make the distinction between “performance oracy” and “critical oracy”. Performance oracy includes reading aloud, reciting poetry and learning and performing the lines of a play—and perhaps telling stories and delivering a memorized speech. Performance oracy can be an excellent tool for building confidence, developing memory and building empathy. It is valuable in and of itself without necessarily contributing to students' further learning across the curriculum. Very often, there is a limited amount of time that teachers outside of English and drama faculties would feel they could give to these formats.

Critical oracy is talk that involves engaging with other people, ideas and the outside world and includes discussion, debate, advocacy, enquiry and role play. When a class is involved in critical oracy, speaking and thinking (or listening and thinking) are happening simultaneously. Critical oracy is different from performance oracy, as it is a way of engaging with core learning. Having absorbed a literary text, a historical source or new scientific knowledge, the students then argue with the teacher, each other and scholars from across the ages about the interpretation and application of that knowledge. That is why the progressive v traditional, skills v knowledge tussle has no place here. When students are debating whether the Treaty of Versailles led to World War II, are you in a progressive or a traditional classroom? They are using critical thinking and communication skills to fully understand the knowledge with which they are being presented. They are questioning, clarifying, challenging, interrogating, defending and summarising the curriculum. Critical oracy prepares us for examinations, interviews, civic discourse and workplace communication in a way that performance oracy does not, and it is the concern of this book.

What is the state of oracy in our schools at the moment?

As with everything in education, the picture of oracy varies greatly from school to school. In some schools, teachers report that as much as they would love to debate in the classroom, it is forbidden by leadership teams that want traditional teaching, all work in books and silent classrooms. In other schools, oracy is embraced from top to bottom with oracy lead teachers, assessment criteria and whole-school projects and training. Other schools may have quite a lot of talk in the classroom but without the planning and structures to get the most out of it. On a national level, the profile of oracy has been boosted by School 21, an all-through comprehensive school in East London. Oracy is integral to teaching and learning at the school, and it is taught explicitly through the Oracy Framework, co-created with Oracy Cambridge, University of Cambridge. The success of the approach led to the establishment of two Education Endowment Foundation pilots assessing the applicability of oracy across the curriculum and in schools across the UK and to the founding of Voice 21, a charity dedicated to raising the status of oracy in UK schools with a focus on teacher professional development. Along with the English-Speaking Union (ESU), which has renewed its focus on oracy in the classroom, Voice 21 has developed the Oracy Network and supported the launch of an All Party Parliamentary Group on Oracy.

In 2017, Voice 21 commissioned a report titled Oracy: The State of Speaking in Our Schools, and its findings give a useful snapshot of the national picture. For example:

• 68% teachers agree that is it “very important I develop my pupils' oracy skills”.
• 57% of teachers say that they have had no training in oracy over the past three years.
• 20% of schools formally communicate with parents about the quality of pupils' verbal contributions.
• 16% of schools have a school-wide policy for oracy.¹

Oracy took a blow when marks for speaking and listening were removed from the English Language General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in 2014, disincentivising a focus on build...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Part I: The case for critical oracy
• Part II: What to do in your classroom: The activities
• Appendices
• Bibliography