Yeah but, no but, yeah but….

– “Constructing arguments and developing listening and speaking

skills using the news”

“Language is an integral part of most learning and oral language in particular has a key role in classroom teaching and learning. Children’s creativity, understanding and imagination can be engaged and fostered by discussion and interaction. In their daily lives, children use speaking and listening to solve problems, speculate, share ideas, make decisions and reflect on what is important. Most social relationships depend on talk and in the classroom children’s confidence and attitude to learning are greatly affected by friendships and interaction that support them.”

‘Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2 DfES 2003

Examples of other speaking and listening opportunities in other areas of the curriculum

• Numeracy – giving oral explanations for problem solving.

• Science – creating instructions for completing experiments.

• History – recreating an historical event through drama, using role play to explore characters actions and responses.

• Geography – group work to create mind maps to organise ideas.

• R.E. – producing a play to explore a theme.

• D.T. – reporting on and evaluating the process.

• Art – creating a display, becoming a curator.

• P.E. – creating new games and sharing this with other groups.

Primary National Strategy

How well do learners make a positive contribution to the community?

• To gain outstanding in this area pupils must be able to ‘express their views with much confidence while listening very well to the opinions of others and through this make an important contribution to decisions about how the school runs.’

• Whilst in ‘inadequate’ schools, relatively few pupils have confidence in expressing their views and they are not skilled or tolerant in listening to others.’

‘Speaking, Listening, Learning: working with children in Key Stages 1 and 2 DfES 2003

“What I found though was when we came to vote on learnnewsdesk’s ballot box, on most issues I was a ‘Don’t Know’ ”

“This made me feel quite ignorant” “So I started watching the news more and talking to my parents about the things I‘d read in the newspaper”

“In the end something really weird happened. I found myself becoming a ’Don’t Know’ again.”

“This time not because I ’didn’t know’ but more, I began to see different points of view.”

“Sometimes it’s really difficult to see things through other people’s eyes. But you can never really begin to do this if

you never actually get to hear their opinion.”

Chelsey Aged 11

“I enjoyed using Learnnewsdesk because it gave me an opportunity to voice my opinion on lots of issues”

“It was like somebody was really taking notice of me.”

“Using this site I might have made somebody see another side, appreciate another view or at least think again.”

“Although I live far away from London, I felt part of the counties grief and furious at what I had seen.”

“Having discussed it at school and read e-mails posted by other young people affected by the bombings I felt ready to give my opinion.“

Rameez Aged 10

“I thought it was important to say that as a proud British Muslim, these terrorists did not represent me or my religion. That was and still is my

message and I believe I spoke not just for myself but thousands of others“

Trying to address some real issues

• Poor language acquisition on entry to the classroom.

• Mobility of pupils.

• Pupils with English as a second language.

• A number of languages being spoken in the classroom.

Many of our Schools in Salford have very fundamental issues about speaking and listening.

Excerpt from In Service training – Salford Authority 2005

The Future is Bright……

The Future is Pollard……