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Chapter 1 Talk about talk
Raising childrenâs awareness of their spoken language as a powerful tool for learning with others.
About this chapter
Childrenâs talk is a distillation and re-purposing of the talk they have experienced. Some children talk fluently from their earliest years; for others talk is difficult. Setting aside specific learning difficulties, some children may not have had the chance to be part of the sort of conversations which will help them speak within a group with confidence, fluency and a good working vocabulary. Talk in school enhances childrenâs spoken language. Talk with peers about a common educational focus is a chance for every child to understand the importance of their own voice, and to learn that communication is an interesting and valuable two-way process. In this chapter, we suggest three specific lessons to raise awareness of talk for learning and to encourage group cohesion, with some extension or follow-up activities.
Activity 1: Talk it up!
Raise awareness of talk as a tool for finding things out.
Learning intention to share with the class
To find out more about a classmate by asking questions and listening.
Whole-class activity
Ask for volunteers to come and choose one of the selection of tools from the Talk Box; hold it up and to say what it is used for. Explain that people make tools to help us do particular jobs well. Show the shoe box and tell children that it is a mystery â we do not know what is inside! Ask children to suggest how we can find out whatâs inside without damaging it, but using the tools available.
A child will suggest looking into the hole and using the torch because itâs black inside. Ask a child to try. Explain that this is a good use of tools: we need the right one for the right job.
Ask one of your confident children (Leah in this example) to volunteer for an investigation. Explain that our brains (where we think) are also something of a mystery, like the shoe box â can we tell whatâs in someoneâs mind? Why do we need to do so? Can we use any of these tools from the Talk Box? The torch? Stress the danger of light in the eyes. Ask children how we might find out what the volunteer child thinks. Lead children to suggest asking him/her, which is the right way to go about it. We can use the tools of spoken language.
Now help the class to investigate what Leah thinks.
Use some starter questions, for example:
Leah, whatâs your favourite colour?
Please say yes if you have a bike, no if you havenât.
What are you planning to do after school today?
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In the Talk Box
Torch: other tools, for example spanner, screwdriver, garden trowel, paint brush, big ladle, scissors, key, hair brush, scissors â anything unusual you can find.
Shoe box with lid taped down, small hole at one end, small toy taped inside
Model how to listen and respond to the answers.
Ask the class to suggest, ask and listen to further questions and answers, respecting Leah and the way she is prepared to talk about herself.
Explain that by asking Leah to talk, we have found out more about her. She has told us what she thinks about some things. Leah has been good enough to share some information about herself. People might not always want to talk, but in a school classroom, everyone gets on better if there is open sharing. Particular talk tools help us to find out what others are thinking. Questions are useful talk tools, for example the questions, âWhat do you think?â âWhy do you think that?â. Knowing about people helps us to understand them. Thank Leah for her help.
Group work
Ask children to talk to one other child. They should take turns to ask each other questions and listen to the answers. They can use the questions already heard, if needed, or provide a definite focus for the talk, such as âFavourite peopleâ, âBest day everâ, âA story character I likeâ or âWhat I like about weekendsâ.
Plenary
Ask children to say what they found out about one another. Were there any surprises? Ask for examples of good questions, clear answers and who could be nominated as a careful listener.
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Extension
Share some key ideas about spoken language with the children.
1. Explain that we use spoken language â talk â as a tool to find out whatâs in each otherâs minds, all the time. Often we do this without really considering what we are doing. We are rarely taught how to talk, but instead pick up our spoken language skills by talking with others. The talk lessons â this is the first one â will help everyone in class to get more out of their talk with one another.
2. We can use reading and writing to find out what people think, but neither is as quick or easy. Writing has benefits. We will go into those another time; for now we will concentrate on talk. Ask children why they think talk is important for learning.
3. Talk is a tool for finding out things about what others and we think; particular language tools are special ways of talking; for example, we can use questions to find things out. Weâve found out a bit of whatâs in Leahâs mind. Is there more? How can we find out more? By asking questions, listening and encouraging others to talk. What other sorts of talk are there, as well as questions? Other language tools â children might suggest them â are explaining, describing, sharing ideas, giving opinions or reasons, challenging others, agreeing with others.
4. Ask children to consider the relationship of speaking to listening, and talking to thinking. Do we put fully-formed thoughts into words, or do we speak in order to arrange our thoughts?
Activity 2: Talking in my group
Outline
For the important task of using talk tools together, we need special Talk Groups. Introduce the special talk groups that will help children to work together. The talk lessons are about learning language tools so that we can talk more effectively â for children, you can compare this with learning how to use tools to paint, or how to write using a pencil, pen or keyboard.
You will know your class best. In advance, allocate them to a group with one or two other children; try to mix boys and girls and abilities, and try to avoid friendship groups.
Learning intention to share with the class
To join a group and work together by sharing ideas through talk.
In the Talk Box
Coloured dot stickers
A selection of small plastic animals/sea creatures/insects/dinosaurs
Whole-class activity
Explain that each child has been chosen for their group because they are good at sharing (give a red sticker); have good general knowledge (blue sticker); are particularly helpful (yellow sticker); or are good listeners (green sticker) (adapt these, or make your own positive criteria). Point out to the children that their groups will have mixed colour stickers because everyone has different abilities and strengths to bring to the group. Call each child to collect a sticker, be congratulated on their strength and to join their group.
Ask children seated with their partner or group to say hello and be ready to listen.
Group activity
Ask a group member to come and choose three animals from the Talk Box without looking. Stress that children cannot swap animals with other groups. Let the children look at these animals with their group and share anything they know about the creatures: names, where they live, what they eat and so on. Now ask the children to think about listening and taking turns. Ask them to take it in turns to tell their group which of the animals they would choose to be their âgroup mascotâ and why before jointly deciding on an animal mascot. If this isnât possible, leave the choice open for now.
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Whole-class plenary: Suggested questions
Can anyone tell us anything interesting they found out about their animals?
Anything you didnât know before?
Anyone give an example of someone who is a good listener?
How well did your group work together?
What should groups do if they didnât reach an agreement?
Were there any problems â what happened â how can the rest of us help?
Can you think of times when itâs useful to ask questions?
How did you learn to talk in the first place?
Who doesnât really like talking in groups â can they say why?
Finally ask the class to think about talk. In this lesson, talk has been used to complete the job of choosing mascots. The talk tools in use were questions. During the next lesson the class is going to learn a special sort of talk that will help everyone to do better at school and get on better with people generally. Explain that by working well together we can do better than we could if we worked separately.
Extension activity
Ask groups to write their names or draw pictures of themselves/each other with coloured stickers and a picture of their group mascot.
Find out about other animals that use tools (there arenât many), e.g. chimpanzees, sea otters.
Activity 3: Using questions
Outline
Some children ask questions incessantly. Others may be less familiar with using this way of prompting others to talk. Children in classrooms may get used to being asked questions, and may stop asking questions themselves. In this lesson there is a focus on how and why to ask questions, with the corresponding focus on answering questions. An answer may be that you donât know; itâs useful for us to think about what is not known.
Learning intention to share with the class
We are going to think about asking and answering questions.
Whole-clas...