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.

Poetry annotation tracker for poetry anthologies.

I've designed this poetry annotation tracker as I've always wanted to have a quick way of monitoring the quality of my students' anthology annotations! It's like a bookmark. Students need to stick this next to each poem they've annotated in their anthologies. They'll then ask themselves if they've considered the poem's use of each literary term. The question mark option is to be ticked by a student if they don't know the meaning of a specified literary term.


Click on the tracker below to get your copy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzOKbcWyKF4kNFFhVWVJMEthdHc/view?usp=sharing