Oracy by Phoebe Mohammed

To consider...

pmohammed3 — 2025-10-13 20:18:35 UTC

How was oracy scaffolded for the children?

Was there a balance between teacher-talk and pupil talk?

What was the intention for oracy, how did this play out?

What impact did the structured talk have on pupil confidence, vocabulary or reasoning?

How did pupils access the talk opportunities?

Were there any surprises?

How did pupils show the 'talk guidelines'?

What oracy routines or roles were visible?

What would you like to try next in your classroom?

What barriers do you anticipate/ would like help with?

2025-10-14 14:53:30 UTC

Talk was modelled before the activity.

Eyes to eyes

Shoulders to shoulders

Knees to knees.

Talk was based around a concept in history. They explored the concept and used stories in history to understand revenge.

2025-10-14 14:55:00 UTC

Really effective use of sentence stems - high expectations of all pupils using these and rephrasing when needed

2025-10-14 14:55:02 UTC

Build up of nesting and paired work.
Def balance
For the children to discuss what they knew in history.
They move position and eye contact.

2025-10-14 14:55:19 UTC

Really enjoyed coming to watch.

All the children were engaged and were discussing the question prompt.

Good balance between teacher talk and pupil talk.

Liked the symbols/visual cues you used on your slides.

Thank you ☺️

2025-10-14 14:55:25 UTC

Talk guidelines

Stem sentences

More children talk than teacher

More confident at talking and how to structure it by modelling by the teacher.

Varied vocabulary

2025-10-14 14:55:32 UTC

Great ideas to engage children, loved the knees to knees, shoulders to shoulders, eyes to eyes. I have tried this in the classroom and the children love it! Really liked the instigate action to start a discussion. Tried the say what your partner has said but children found it tricky to remember, this is our next step!

Using the instigate and build symbols on slide decks and actions within the classroom. Try the traverse groupings next. Use grouping symbols on slides so children know how they will be working.

2025-10-14 14:55:39 UTC

Loved it. Wasn’t sure how well this would work in my class, but….i went straight back and did it and saw some fabulous oracy in action. They rehearsed by nesting and told their ‘knee’ partner. Very useful tool to ensure that they used the given stem sentence too.

We did the stem sentence of I CAN SEE…………IN THE SKY/SEA.

2025-10-14 14:56:10 UTC

Eyes to eyes, shoulders to shoulders, knees to knees.

Hands on head when finished.

Discussion guidelines.

Nesting

2025-10-14 14:56:33 UTC

Children were disciplined - I do, You do with turn taking

Children shared what their partner said to respond

Teacher modelled how to be an active listener

Knees together etc (can’t remember)

Children led the discussions with teacher facilitating and probing - why?!

2025-10-14 14:57:31 UTC

Teacher modelled talk 1st before children had similar discussions themselves

Surprised by comments from some children as low achievers were prepared to speak out about ideas.

Barriers, my class seem to be quite shy and reluctant to share ideas in discussions

2025-10-14 14:58:05 UTC

Pupils were confident when talking and knew what they were doing. Stem sentences were used well. Good balance of teacher talk and pupil talk. Good reference to talking guidelines. Barriers - children who are reluctant talkers. What scaffolding could be put in place for these children? Knees to me, eyes to me, shoulders to me - brought the children back together quickly.

2025-10-14 15:07:07 UTC

Also, I was completely surprised that (although difficult for most), some children were able to tell me what their partner had said. I can see this improving as their listening skills improve.

2025-10-14 15:11:51 UTC

I would like to try nesting..

However, I’d love more training as i seem to have missed the first training sessions.

2025-10-14 15:12:07 UTC

Add symbols to slides.

Having a child to ‘Check oracy’ around the class.

Use trios

2025-10-14 15:12:10 UTC

I would like to try trios and will try this next. I will also ensure I use instigate, build and challenge further into my teaching. Barriers are for those reluctant talkers who often don’t share their ideas.

2025-10-14 15:13:01 UTC

Using discussion guidelines to help instigate children’s conversations.

Make more use of nesting and trios and look for opportunities to transverse in lessons

2025-10-14 15:13:14 UTC

Trios - will be good to get children moving around the classroom for this. Clear focus on a specific skill and build on. Someone to be a ‘teacher’ and look out for this for more complex skills. Referring to discussion guidelines and adapting stems dependent on subject

2025-10-14 15:13:31 UTC

I would like to use the actions with my class.

Adapting some oak lessons to incorporate targeted talk guided by an adult so they stay on the desired talking point.

2025-10-14 15:13:59 UTC

Barriers - Children struggle to actively listen to each other.

Not confident with talk due to SaLT

Lots of adult modelling needed.

Struggle to retain.

2025-10-14 15:14:57 UTC

Next steps - try to implement trios as a form of children instigating/challenging/building. Actions and symbols to help children understand how they will ‘talk’.

Barriers - children who find it tricky to work with others in any number of groupings. Active listening could be better, so that needs nailing alongside discussion guidelines.

2025-10-14 15:16:29 UTC

Using the discussion guidelines so they follow them naturally.

Include actions of instigate, build and challenge.

Listening wheel

Try the trio idea.

Use oracy symbols in power points.

2025-10-14 15:16:43 UTC

Did pairing but ended up with a ‘trio’. Didn’t do anything different for them, than I did for the pairs. Even though 2 of the trio were higher ability, their abilities to say what another person said was really not great. Pairing was more effective than trios.