Bridging Literacy and Oracy in Junior School

In today's educational landscape, the ability to communicate effectively is paramount. Literacy and Oracy form the twin pillars that support a child's academic journey and personal development. By integrating both powerful written literacy strategies with comprehensive oracy development, educators can provide pupils with a rich and balanced foundation, ensuring they are equipped to succeed in and out of the classroom. In this article, we will explore " From Words to Wisdom: Integrating Oracy in Everyday Education."

What is Oracy?

The Role of Oracy in Education

Increasing Confidence: Oracy helps pupils believe that their voice has value. It equips them with the skills needed to develop their thoughts and communicate in a way that others will listen and respect.

Improving Academic Outcomes: The ability to think critically, reason together, and use a rich vocabulary to express knowledge and understanding is paramount. Oracy contributes significantly to academic success by fostering these abilities in pupils.

Fostering Wellbeing: Through effective communication, pupils can build and maintain relationships, resolve conflicts, and express their feelings. This, in turn, supports their overall mental and emotional wellbeing.

Narrowing Attainment Gaps: By promoting oracy, schools can help close academic gaps among pupils, leading to longer-term social equity and creating a more inclusive environment for all learners.

Everyday Oracy in Schools

Effective Strategies to Build Oracy

Linguistic: This includes the choice of vocabulary and the explicit teaching of subject-specific language.

Physical: Elements such as tone of voice, body language, and physical presence are crucial.

Cognitive: Developing reasoning skills, the ability to decide how and why to say something, and understanding the rationale behind it.

Social and Emotional: Engaging with peers, having the right to speak, and listening actively to others.

Here are some strategies that we utilize to effectively build oracy in the classroom:

Pupil Participation in Setting Discussion Norms: Allowing pupils to decide what they think is essential for class discussions fosters ownership and engagement. Each class forms a tailored set of discussion guidelines that they will use and build on throughout the year.

Encouraging Specific Language Use: Prompting pupils to use subject-specific language helps them think more deeply about their statements and discussions. Teachers may provide pupils with oracy roles or pupil talk tactics, where pupils are given a specific role and are provided with prompts to help structure a group discussion.

Using Sentence Starters: Providing sentence starters under various themes assists pupils in structuring their discussions. Over time, with consistent use, this becomes a natural part of classroom interaction.

Talking Points: Teachers plan carefully to include provocative, or higher-level questions which engage pupils to think more critically, rather than a yes/ no question.

Sticky High-Fives: Implementing fun and engaging activities like sticky high-fives can encourage active participation and mutual support among pupils, as well as giving pupils the opportunity to interact with a wider audience.