No Pens Day Wednesday - The Communication Trust

Teachers’ Activity Pack
How to make classroom talk more effective
No Pens Day
Wednesday
28 September
2011
Talk is at the heart of education
- teachers use talk as the main
tool of their trade. The amount
and quality of talk that children
experience in the early years is a
good predictor of how well they’ll
do in school. And we now know that
teaching children and young people
how to use talk to think together
can improve their commitment to
learning and to their educational
attainment.
No Pens Day Wednesday will enable
teachers to give pupils opportunities
throughout the day to develop their
communication skills and use them
to support their learning.
We know from a range of research
that pupils are more likely to get
enthusiastically involved in their
education, and learn best from it,
when teachers support and enable
effective use of speaking and
listening to support learning.
We have therefore suggested
the following ten key principles
for effective use of speaking and
listening.
>>
‘Open and challenging questions
extend pupils’ reasoning and vocabulary
and help them to become enthusiastic
and self-motivated learners, eager to
contribute and share their ideas. At its very
best, such teaching generates an infectious
enthusiasm for learning’
Ofsted Annual report 2009/2010
and yet...
...‘recent research shows that
the average length of a pupil’s
contribution to a class discussion
is just four words’
National Literacy Trust, 2011
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