Talk and Science Wrecsam/Wrexham 26th June 2009

Putting talk at the heart of learning Andrew Wilkinson - Oracy Harold Orton - English dialect survey Britton, Barnes, Rosen 1974 Collaborative Learning Project 1983 Language in the National Curriculum Oracy Project

1993 “Where appropriate” IRF Interactive whole class teaching

Some good news Dialogic teaching (Alexander) Exploring talk (Mercer) Antidote and SEAL Philosophy for children APP (wait and see!)

Build on prior knowledge Move from concrete to abstract Ensure everyone works with everyone else Extend social language into curriculum language Provide motivating ways to go over the same thing more than once

How does collaborative learning help thinking? Visual/kinesthetic support for concept development Opportunities to value prior knowledge Supportive environments to formulate new ideas Opportunities to rework/reword ideas and provide time for reflection

Opportunities to revisit learning in attractive ways Templates for pupils to develop their own activities Scaffolds talk at all levels simultaneously Provides tasks that model thinking processes Transformation of information

Activities that provide access to the curriculum, opportunities to practice predictable language structures and improve social relations

Build on prior knowledge Buzz groups/talk partners Information gap

Move from concrete to abstract Key visuals/graphic organisers Humanising the abstract

Some key visuals Chart Grid Venn diagram Tree diagram Sequencing line Time line Cycle Diamond Nines Sorting table Tracks

Everybody working with everybody Create different roles and then jigsaw!

How do you jigsaw?

Move social language into curriculum language

Provide motivating ways to go over the same thing more once

How are activities planned? What do we want the children to know? What kinds of thinking do we hope they will practice? What kinds of language do they need? Necessary language and potential language? What key visuals best produce the thinking and the language? Can we make our activity collaborative/sociable?

Here is an example!! We want children to consider the different habitats of animals. Where do they live? What is it like there? Why do they live there? How do they survive and/or thrive?

What key visual will help their thinking? A sorting grid or chart.

This can be made into a game. You need 4 people, one baseboard and two sets of cards (different colours.) Work with a partner to make a team of two. Shuffle your cards and place them in a pile facing down. Take it in turn to turn over your top card and decide where to put it on the board. The winning team gets four in row vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Decide whether to have challenges or a checking system.

Collaborative Learning and the National Forest Inspired by a vision Fits in where there is space Committed to growth Scattered outcrops all over the place Plans to cover the whole country

Go to csam.html For links to all the resources you have seen today including the powerpoint.