My rather delirious thoughts (sorry not feeling 100%, bed is calling...)

1.a) To encourage students to record information in a format that they feel helps them.
b) To ask students to take on different roles and characters. I feel that it is beneficial for them to carry out roles that stretch them and take them out of their comfort zone.
c) To ensure groups of students contain a good mix of abilities, so that they can support each other.
d) That it is often more advantageous for the students to listen to the teacher read an extract. Not only to enable the students to hear the ‘correct’ pronunciation and intonation, but also to give the something to focus their attention on so that they do not get distracted.
e) That moving and active tasks can be hugely affective in motivating students.

2. I have already voiced my feelings on the ‘Listening to Alice’ task, so I won’t bore you with that again! I found the task of reading to someone whilst being questioned fairly difficult, and I can see that it could be extremely useful if you are trying to show students that noise interference can be distracting. I thought the more active tasks could be a great way of reviving students who may be losing concentration and also good for getting them to use their imaginations. The ‘Lend me £50’ task is a good way to encourage students to use their powers of persuasion (although I’m not sure that’s necessary always a good thing!) but I did find it difficult to ascertain the true reason for Alice needing the money, and I wasn’t totally sure what the objective of this exercise was for the ‘interrogator’. ‘Navigating robots’ could be a great way to promoting concise communication between pairs – and it was pretty good fun too! Although I enjoyed the initial character portrayal in the ‘Street party’ task, and I can see its cross-curricular benefits, I didn’t really think it was necessary to do quite so many character changes. The ‘Auction’ task was great fun and I definitely intend to use it when I’m let loose on my own class!

3. The listening task at the beginning of today’s session re-emphasised the point that we all have very different learning styles, and therefore benefit from different memory techniques. When we were carrying out the ‘Street party’ tasks, I found that each group I became a member of naturally sought out a leader, and this leader tended to ‘dish out’ the roles. I think this made things more efficient considering the time constraints.

4.b) & c) Speaking: We met the Year 6 goal of presenting persuasive arguments, with the ‘Lend me £50’ task.
Glove puppets could be used to get children to tell stories. Children could use photos to retell stories using their own language. ‘Talk partners’ sounds like a useful device to help children to experiment with new words.

Listening and Responding: The ‘Navigating robots’ task helped us to lisetnen to and follow instructions accurately, and the activities we had to carry out whilst listening to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ helped us to listen with sustained concentration. These latter activities also helped with making notes when listeing for a sustained period and we discussed how note-taking varies depending on context and purpose. To evaluate how speakers present points effectively through use of language you could held ‘telephone conversations’.

Group Discussion and Interaction: The activity we did which when we repeated each word we said was a good example of turn taking, if a little bizarre and frustrating! Unfortunately, I can’t read the ‘useful classroom techniques’ on group discussion, so I’m not sure how I’d meet the other criteria.

Drama: The WW1 activities we did enabled us to explore familiar thems and characters through improvisation and role-play. I think ‘Conscience alley’ would be a useful way to explore themes such as hopes, fears and desires.

Prize for first response and setting up the forum. Claim your sweet when next we meet.

i found your point about every group seeking a leader in the street party bit very thought provoking!

I agree about the frequent character changes in The Street Party - I liked trying to imagine how someone might have felt, but would have liked to have explored one character further, perhaps in relation to other characters more.