Retrieval of prior learning and the development of oracy skills

Noticing a remarkable difference (of confidence, structure and poise) between some of our students' presentations skills, I decided to dedicate my end of term lessons on developing our students' speaking and listening skills. Naturally, I couldn't help but add a Literature revision element to their lessons with respect to the number of quotes and set texts that they're expected to know very well. As a result, you'll find below a selection of some of the resources I developed with these objectives in mind.

Please click on the image in order to download the resources for yourselves. I would be grateful if you could tweet how your students have responded to these materials in future lessons (@3dimension1) in the new academic year.

The start of the lesson involved getting students to make a series of random links connected to current affairs.

Then links between characters from the same Literature set text.

 I decided to get our students thinking about links between different set texts so that they could get an  understanding of overlapping themes to help them with their revision.

Students were given the choice to write their speech (with the support of the template below) or to improvise their speech.

All in all, I can see how this strategy can be easily adapted to promote students' higher level thinking skills across all departments with the aim of simultaneously developing their oracy skills.

Please find the link to these resources here.

Book Check

Book Checks are aimed at considering the quality of teacher marking/feedback and the level of progress over time. In particular, we use Purple Pen time to allow students to work on their target areas for improvement.


Some students need to recognise that their books are a representation of their potential target grades and areas of strength. Before Parents' Evening, most students decide to complete their work a little bit neater or to give that extra 10% effort but by then it's usually too late. Students need to consider the quality of their notes and their presentation standards every lesson (and for their homework too).


Thinking in respect of ways to communicate the importance of their Purple Pen work and presentation, I've decided to use the following sticker to award students with a pride number...5 being the best! Let's see if it improves the level of care shown towards their books.

10 day, random acts of writing, challenge!

10 DAY CHALLENGE

I've been seeing quite a number of 30 day challenges on the internet lately (thanks to Pinterest). Wouldn't it be great to create a 30 day writing skills challenge for our students? Perhaps we could create a 10 day random acts of writing challenge list. Well then, no time like the present! So here's a challenge list I made earlier. It will grow into a 30 day one soon. I intend to hand it out to my students before the summer holidays.

Download your copy of the 10 day challenge here!

#markingdirt

Dirt stands for:

• Directed/dedicated 
• Improvement/Independent
• Reflection 
• Time

We very much value our students completing their D.I.R.T work (as a result of good marking).

However,there's another area we could improve on:

The marking of our students' D.I.R.T responses.

 I believe that it's important to promote student self-reflection and peer assessment as it goes along with the cherished motto of: brain, book, buddy and boss.

As a result, I've created a D.I.R.T marking sticker/hand-out for my students. It's still in its draft stage and I intend to gather feedback on how best to adapt it for my students' learning.

It's a D.I.R.T Check up:

It encourages the student to evaluate their D.I.R.T effort and level of understanding for the D.I.R.T task as some students don't actually understand what the D.I.R.T task is or how completion of the DIRT would develop their learning. By ensuring that the students are able to answer the why questions (what's the point of completing this D.I.R.T task?) we're one step closer towards a higher standard of progress.

Feel free to download your own copy, of the D.I.R.T check up, here!