Oracy
2fcBkno
2fcBkno
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
In contrast, teachers working in independent schools<br />
are significantly more likely than their colleagues in the<br />
state sector to feel all their pupils are confident asking<br />
questions or articulating their ideas with a teacher.<br />
They are also more likely to say most of their pupils<br />
are confident articulating ideas with other pupils, and<br />
giving presentations during lessons. Interviewees in one<br />
independent school highlight the contribution to this<br />
made by pupils’ high cultural capital and independent<br />
schools’ often selective admissions processes:<br />
“They’ve been encouraged since<br />
babyhood to be communicators, and<br />
therefore I think we’re working with<br />
children who are very accustomed to<br />
communicating extremely comfortably<br />
in a way that comes naturally to them.<br />
We’re a selective school, so by the<br />
time they’ve joined us they’re able<br />
to read and write, and as part of the<br />
entrance assessment we would be<br />
talking to them”<br />
Katie Milne, Head of Junior School<br />
Stephen Perse Foundation<br />
Anxiety around talk<br />
Pupils’ feelings about talk and speaking out<br />
publicly can vary with age as Mark Crossley,<br />
an English teacher at King Edward VI School,<br />
explains.<br />
“We’ve just taken on years 7 and 8s, and<br />
they come with a certain willingness to stand<br />
and talk about themselves…. They haven’t<br />
got to the really awkward stage yet where<br />
they suddenly lose the confidence to do that<br />
because they’re worried about how they are<br />
perceived. [In contrast] Year 9 can be more<br />
awkward about it…. One of their first responses<br />
can be, ‘we’re not going to have to talk about<br />
this in front of people are we?’”<br />
Mark Crossley, English teacher<br />
Mark highlights particular strategies that can help reduce<br />
pupils’ social anxiety pupils around public speaking. He<br />
argues that encouraging pupils to work and present in<br />
pairs or groups can help build confidence and that giving<br />
pupils time to consider their response before answering<br />
a question can increase the depth of verbal dialogue in<br />
lessons. Encouraging pupils to deliver presentations,<br />
however, can still be particularly difficult:<br />
“I think they’re a lot happier in groups.<br />
We don’t do a lot of standing up and<br />
making speeches – they’re much less<br />
happy about that”<br />
Mark Crossley, English teacher<br />
Pupils agree that class-based talk<br />
can make them feel embarrassed.<br />
Comparing debating outside the<br />
classroom with talk-based activities<br />
in the classroom, one pupil says:<br />
“Debating helps more than it does in the classroom….<br />
I find it much harder if a teacher calls on you to speak in a<br />
classroom…. In a classroom almost if you express an opinion,<br />
it’s not the coolest thing to do, so it’s a completely different<br />
atmosphere in terms of speaking and listening. Teachers help<br />
it, but I don’t always think it’s the best for the under confident<br />
kids in the class”<br />
Olivia, year 13 pupil<br />
59