Speaking & listening

English

Secondary

Condensing six Key Stage 3 subjects into one lesson

A school reduces the number of Key Stage 3 lessons per week, by teaching up to six subjects in a cross-curriculum lesson, under the heading 'Creative Literacy'. Assistant headteacher, Gary Begusch from Archbishop Beck Catholic Sports College in Liverpool, has condensed the subjects so Year 7 and Year 8 students learn through creative literacy and logical thinking. The lessons cover literacy, communication, reading and writing skills, through different themes. In this new curriculum, the core content is being taught and teachers are encouraged to bring in lots of imagination in the way content is delivered. At the heart of the lessons is enjoyment and teachers are able to seek help from creative consultants to ensure they get the balance right.

Creative Literacy in the Classroom

A secondary English teacher gets inclusion advice from Bayley

A secondary English teacher is seeking greater participation from quiet pupils in her Year 9 class. Behaviour management expert John Bayley provides coaching and mentoring assistance in this pedagogy resource. Working with Year 9 on Stone Cold, a novel about a homeless boy, Debra Robinson is trying to get verbal reactions from her literature pupils. But despite her promptings and encouragement she gets few responses, especially from the African-Caribbean boys in her class at Highgate Wood School in north London. John suggests practical classroom strategies designed to build pupils' speaking and listening confidence, but he agrees with Debra that the problems may be more deep-rooted. He shows the classroom footage to Paul Gabriel, who works as learning mentor and is also black. Paul is convinced the pupils are experiencing low self-confidence, caused partly by their lack of meaningful role models as second- and third-generation immigrants. Debra tries some of John's inclusion techniques, which prove successful, but with Paul she embarks on a longer-term teaching strategy to encourage greater participation from the silent boys.

Great Expectations

Year 7 English students construct inspirational speeches

A fun secondary lesson idea, where Year 7 English students construct their own inspirational speeches. Suitable for Key Stage 3. Using key words and clauses from historical and contemporary speeches, English teacher, Karen McWilliam from Dane Court Grammar School, discusses themes and motives for her Year 7 class's speeches. Some students decide to travel back in time, whereas others draw on modern events and news stories for inspiration. The students then mask together their own speeches using the list of key words and clauses given to them, exploring persuasive language as well as using and adapting cliches. At the end of the lesson, students perform their speeches to the class. Karen also uses this lesson with older year groups as a revision exercise.

Inspirational Speeches

English staff take a creative approach to the new KS3 curriculum

An English department embraces the new Key Stage 3 curriculum, using creativity to engage pupils and develop their writing, speaking and listening skills. At Manor College of Technology in Hartlepool, Amy Coates uses a courtroom role-play to help Year 7 pupils develop their ability in writing to argue within a critical reading unit. Jill Bullock encourages creativity in Year 8 by using props and group collaboration to help pupils develop a murder plot as the basis for a piece of imaginative writing. Ashleigh Clark helps a Year 9 class improve their persuasive language, with the students trying to convince their peers that their own made-up words should be included in the dictionary.

KS3 English - Classroom Creativity

Four lesson starters to use in KS3 English speaking and listening

These lesson starters provide KS3 English pupils with four open ended dramas to watch. Consisting of four short dramas; Mum's Birthday, The Noise, Grandma's Junk and The Letter present students with a series of questions, in which they can work in groups to resolve each dilemma. These lesson starters are designed to help pupils discuss, debate and role play, making use of and enhancing speaking and listening skills.

KS3 English Speaking and Listening

A drama encouraging speaking and listening in Key Stage 3 English

This short classroom resource is designed as a lesson starter to inspire a Key Stage 3 English class to discuss how a play might develop, improvising alternative endings while developing speaking-and-listening skills. Two women are pricing donations for sale in a charity shop. An expert from a museum is browsing the shelves when a young man enters, carrying donations from his grandma. One item,a stoneware jug, attracts their attention and the expert thinks it might be worth a great deal. What happens next? At this stage, secondary pupils can decide how the story finishes, with the help of prompting questions.

KS3 English Speaking and Listening - Grandma's Junk

A dilemma arises in this open-ended drama for KS3 English

This classroom resource is designed for developing English speaking and listening skills at Key Stage 3, showing a dramatic scene with an open ending, which allows secondary pupils to decide what happens next. Tom and his friend Courteney are playing with their skateboards when Tom mentions he has to go home for his mum's birthday. Courteney asks to come and meet his parents, but Tom is reluctant. The video ends when Courteney unexpectedly arrives at Tom's house with two presents. Pupils can then discuss what happens next, with the help of prompting questions.

KS3 English Speaking and Listening - Mum's Birthday

An unexpected letter presents many options, for KS3 English

This speaking-and-listening classroom resource for a Key Stage 3 English class is designed to stimulate creative ideas for an ending to this open-ended dramatic situation. Four flatmates are sorting through their post when they discover a letter from their ex-landlord, who has left them £1m in his will. They can only spend the money as a group - buying only one item. How will they decide and what are their reactions? This video finishes with questions to prompt secondary students to devise alternative endings.

KS3 English Speaking and Listening - The Letter

An open-ended drama about a mystery baby, for KS3 English

This short speaking-and-listening classroom resource gives Key Stage 3 English students a scenario for which they can devise creative solutions addressing what happens next... Four young people are talking about their plans for the Christmas holidays, debating whether to visit family or spend it together, when the doorbell rings and they find a baby on the front doorstep. This lesson starter gives secondary pupils the opportunity to think creatively about alternative endings to the drama, with a series of questions to prompt classroom discussions.

KS3 English Speaking and Listening - The Noise

 Drama exercises to get pupils participating in group discussions 

Getting pupils to engage and participate in group and class discussions in the secondary English classroom is a difficult and often undervalued teaching skill. Drama offers obvious opportunities, but Teaching Talking 1 shows that it's not just set-piece performances that can help. A Year 7 class at Swanlea School in east London have been collaborating to devise unscripted pieces as "missing scenes" from a stage version of The Demon Headmaster. Their teacher, Sangeeta Sharma, is a recent PGCE graduate. Key points: <ul> <li> Sangeeta helps them to work logically and methodically to agree criteria for a "good performance" before they finish preparing their pieces </li> <li> The class then use these same criteria to reflect on and evaluate their own and each other's performances. They then vote for best piece </li> <li> Sangeeta and John Yandell, one of her former tutors at the Institute of Education, watch a video recording of the lesson and discuss key moments, opportunities and issues </li> </ul>

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

Subjects

> Secondary English

> Speaking & listening