Speaking and Listening Sessions - Amanda

Speaking and Listening Sessions

1) 5 things I’ll try to remember when in the classroom from these sessions

a) To give pupils questions to be thinking about when they are listening to something to keep them focussed. (Alice in Wonderland exercise).
b) To ensure pupils do not always work with the same people (by using numbering or lettering to divide people up like Angela did for the street party exercise)
c) To give everybody a role in the group (e.g. one person was bidder, one treasurer etc in the auction)
d) To make sure everybody in the class is involved in activities (e.g. ‘What are you doing?’ improvisation
e) To make sure everyone has fun and has the chance to express themselves (e.g. high tide/ low tide story)

2) How I felt myself doing the speaking and listening

I was given instructions to make notes on whatever I saw fit for the Alice in Wonderland extract. I found this beneficial as I sometimes find that my mind wanders if I cannot follow the story in a book and I have a bad memory for re-telling stories. However, I also have a tendency to write too much as well, so I found that I didn’t engage as much as I would have done in my attempt not to miss anything out! I think to narrow the focus a little would help me personally. (e.g. making notes on character or setting specifically.)

I enjoyed all the class activities and learnt something from them all. The “How how are are” activity where one person read and the other questioned was a good exercise to show us how important it is to read in a quiet setting to enable us to concentrate. It was really frustrating to try and concentrate on reading while anticipating questions being asked on an unrelated subject and I can imagine how difficult it is to read a book as a class if children are being disruptive.

I felt quite self-conscious at the beginning of the “High tide/low tide story” and the “What are you doing?” mimes because we had to think of actions on the spot and I’m not a very quick thinker but it reminded me of my drama classes at school and I enjoyed it once we had got into it a bit.

I worked with Mel for the “Lend me £50” role-play. She was good at thinking on the spot and was very believable. I think drama is brilliant for getting people to be creative!

I found it quite easy to direct Jo in the robot exercise but when I was blind-folded myself I felt quite apprehensive and felt like I couldn’t balance very well even when just walking in a straight line!

I enjoyed the street party role play and found Angela really focussed us and heightened our enjoyment by setting so many different tasks and getting us to change groups and move around a lot. Putting ourselves in the place of other people is a great way to learn empathy.

The auction at the end was fun although our group was discovered to be bluffing and did worst!

3) What it taught me about others/group dynamics etc

I learnt how using drama in the classroom helps us to work in groups as a team and that everybody is good at different things. Everyone has a contribution to make.


4b) Look carefully at the handout - the objectives and then the extracts from the primary strategy: go through and see which, if any of these aims today’s activities would ‘hit’, which weren’t hit?

Hit
Y1 Speaking - Interpret a text by reading aloud. (How, how are are…)
Y6 Speaking - Use a range of oral techniques to present persuasive techniques. (Lend me £50 role play)
Y1 Listening and Responding - Listen with sustained concentration. (Alice in Wonderland and High tide/low tide)
Y1 Listening and Responding - Listen to and follow instructions accurately. (All activities)
Y1 Listening and Responding - Listen to tapes or video… (Alice in Wonderland)
Y6 Listening and Responding - Make notes when listening for a sustained period. (Alice in Wonderland).
Y1 Group Discussion and Interaction - all points (Street Party)
Y1 Drama - Explore familiar themes and characters through improvisation and role-play (Street party, what are you doing?)
Y6 Drama - Improvise using a range of drama strategies and conventions to explore themes… (Street party - creating tableaux)




4c) What activities can you come up with to ‘hit’ some of the aims we haven’t ‘hit’? Refer to the booklet of useful techniques.

Here are some things I have come up in reference to activities for objectives not hit. I have mainly used my own ideas because it’s difficult to read the handout.

Speaking:

Describe incidents from their own experience - groups could talk about times when they have felt worried etc

Experiment and build new stores of words - groups could create stories with a mixture of random words chosen by the teacher or pulled out of a hat.

Whole class debate - the class could divide into two groups (for and against) and discuss arguments relating to anything such as laws, moral decisions etc.

Listening and Responding:

The teacher could divide pupils into two groups - Group A could be given a boring speech to read out and told they are not allowed to use gesture and the group B could be given the same thing but told to change the words used to make it sound stronger and use gesture. Group A then have to point out how Group B changed the speech and the effect of the changes.

Group discussion and interaction:

Groups could role-play an argument or misunderstanding using their own ideas with respect to characters and settings

Drama:

Groups of 4/5 could come up with ideas of explaining a serious topic to children (e.g. war) or how to use a mobile phone to an elderly person.

Good work - showing good commitment!

I forgot a bout the £50 activity, that's perfect for developing persuasive language.

Explaining how to use a mobile phone to an elderly person is an excellent idea - it would really highlight how you need to adapt your language for specific purposes. I have tried with my parents - it is unbelievably difficult!

I really like the idea of pulling word out of a hat so that children can make sentences for a speaking exercise.