Speaking and listening homework

Five things I’ll try to remember when in the classroom from these sessions are:
• That not all children know how to actively listen and engage with stories.
• Getting people moving around the room can be really good.
• Listening is an active skill, not just something that happens automatically.
• Drawing or making notes of key points can be a good way to focus listeners.
• Explaining things clearly and succinctly is important.


I really enjoyed the Listening to Alice task. Some of us easily got distracted which made me think about how much harder it would be if you weren’t so good at listening.

I loved the slightly silly drama activities – I surprised myself, I used to hate this kind of thing. Getting up and moving around really changed the feeling in the group but I think that the decision to do this once we had got to know each other made these activities more successful.

I was impressed by Angela, Jon and Pratiksha for getting up and having a go at teaching. I know it is important to try things out to be able to do them and I need to overcome my reluctance to do things I think I might not be very good at.

Teaching is hard; although Angela did well, The Street Party activity made it apparent that planning makes the lesson better and less time can be spent on moving around etc. It seems that lots of things will come up that the teacher might not have thought about (like defining the rules in the Auction activity), so the ability to think quickly is important.

Our group is very cooperative! We have been working really well together as a group, which makes the lessons very enjoyable and productive. It doesn’t give us experience of dealing with less cooperative behaviour from children who don’t want to be there.

The Robot and The Street Party activities made me aware that giving instructions is much harder that it seems.

Jo is good at lying and I would definitely lend her £50.

We didn’t meet all of the objectives for speaking, such as retelling of stories.
We did tell stories from our own experience (and in an audible voice!) but not directly – this was only in the Questioned While Reading activity and How How Are Are.

We did meet nearly all of the listening and responding criteria – except for analysing and evaluating how speakers present points.

We met the Year 1 Group Discussion and Interaction criteria – we demonstrated that we can take turns to speak and listen to each other during the Auction activity. This included asking questions and making relevant contributions etc. In the Street Party activity we explained our views to a small group and then communicated that back to the whole class.

The Year 6 criteria in this area were not met by our activities. We did not explore conflict and resolution or do any work involving criticism.

Street Party and High Tide/Low Tide covered the Drama Year 1 objectives and improvising - from the Year 6 objectives. We did not devise a performance for a specific audience or fully consider the impact of a live or recorded performance.

We could have extended the Listening to Alice activity to include retelling the story to each other in pairs. If we then evaluated the retelling, and considered what it told us about the different methods of active listening we would have met all the Speaking objectives as well as the Listening and Responding objectives.

One further activity, or series of activities, could meet the remaining objectives. We could start by talking about situations where conflicts occur – an argument with a friend or relative, a dispute at a shop over a faulty product etc, identifying in each situation who the different people involved are.

We then do a role play activity, taking on these different people as characters. The teacher would then freeze the argument at critical points and instigate a class discussion on what the character is thinking – the Thought Tracking activity.

At this point we would watch a video of conflict resolution techniques.

Splitting up into small groups we would, through a group discussion, develop a short sketch based on some of the ideas of conflict already talked about, aimed at encouraging younger children to resolve conflicts amicably.

The groups would perform these back to the class. We would discuss the differences between the video we watched and the class performances. Each group would then need to say one thing they liked and one thing they think could be better about their own and the other group’s performance.

I agree our group is so co operative somtimes you forget what it is like to be met with obstacles in participation. Also the importance of clear and succinct instruction is key I feel even more so when you are met with reluctant pupils.

I agree with you on the robot game, it is so much harder to give instructions than it seems! Increasing the volume of your voice only works to a point and is an unsustainable technique.