Research School Network: Structured Oracy – ​‘Say it properly in the first place’ Etone College uses structured oracy and sentence stems to develop confidence and improve literacy across the curriculum.

Lots of teachers are familiar with the idea of ​‘say it again better’: ask a pupil a question, deepen and expand their thinking with rich questions, weaving in key vocabulary and supporting the linking together of ideas, then ask them to ​‘say it again better’. But let’s consider how the quality of oral responses would be impacted if pupils’ initial responses were of a higher quality.

The EEF states, ​“while all students benefit from classroom discussion activities, talk also appears to be particularly beneficial for low attaining students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.” (Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools EEF,2018:26) showing the importance of teachers building structured, planned oracy opportunities into their teaching.

A whole school high-quality, structured, sequenced approach to oracy supports pupils to ​‘say it properly in the first place’, enabling deeper thinking and clearer expression. In turn, this contributes to achievement, deepening confidence and improving written responses.

The forthcoming ​‘Oracy Framework’ is a direct response to our knowledge that ​‘Reading and writing float on a sea of talk’ (Britton, 1970:29). It is, however, our interpretation of ​‘talk’ here that is critical: it must be as meaningful, and purposeful as reading and writing.

​“Talk is a powerful tool for learning and literacy. It can improve reading and writing outcomes, enhance communication skills, and increase students’ understanding across the curriculum.” (Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools EEF,2018:26)

High quality, carefully crafted sentence stems underpin pupils’ evolving talk, developing the acquisition of both tier 2 and 3 vocabulary, increasing their ability to recall ideas and concepts, therefore improving reading and writing.

To this end, oracy deserves to be more than ​‘turn and talk’. It needs the same priority and level of planning and attention as reading and writing in order to maximise impact. It must be a feature of both careful curriculum planning and effective implementation to ensure that it is embedded in the same way that reading and writing is.

A common approach, adapted to different disciplines but underpinned by key principles, reduces cognitive load and creates replicable routines. ​“Using sentence starters and prompts to help students to structure and extend their responses” (Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools EEF,2018:29) alongside a common cue is at the core of Etone College’s approach. A strong example is how we have created a specific oracy module in our Personal Development programme to set expectations; this has enabled both teacher and pupil understanding to develop rapidly.

Our form time oracy work follows a highly structured approach focused on school values and a ​‘Theme of the Week’: pupils are directly assigned appropriate talk partners to facilitate oracy too:

** Think – respond to the accessible stimulus to generate three key words;
** Pair – with a partner, develop these initial words into a question;
** Share – share questions across the class and vote for a question to structure the debate.

At Etone, pupils are given booklets of carefully crafted sentence stems which utilise high-quality tier 2 vocabulary enabling them to agree (for example, ‘… and I are coming from the same position because …’), build (​‘Yes, and furthermore …’), and respectfully disagree with each other (​‘The evidence I’ve seen suggests something different, I think …’) before moving on to more sophisticated stems to clarify, include opinions and reasons, argue a point and also reflect.

Subject leads and classroom teachers have embraced this approach simultaneously embedding the EEF’s Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools recommendation 2, ​“provide targeted vocabulary instruction in every subject” (EEF, 2019) and recommendation 6​“provide opportunities for structured talk” (EEF,2019). Directors of subjects meet with our Literacy Lead termly to action plan and ensure a minimum standard, which is how an expectation of high-quality oracy at Etone has grown and flourished. Some examples of how these approaches are applied across various disciplines are below:

- applying parallel processing to real world contexts in computing
- defining and applying pace to track events in sport
- comparing poems’ presentation of key themes in English
- debating whether an image is vandalism or art
- weighing whether nature or nurture have the biggest influence on brain development in social sciences
- and giving focused peer feedback on pentatonic pieces in music.

The potential is endless. When oracy is preceded with reading, it deepens understanding; when followed with writing, it generates ideas, creates structure and ensures clarity.

Common cues support staff school-wide to embed oracy into their lessons giving ​‘turn and talk’ a key role. At Etone, this is a recognised instruction accompanied by a consistently used visual. Pupils expect to be given a structured task within a defined time limit where they are expected to speak to a peer, then feedback using stems and target vocabulary. Regular CPD, accompanied by centrally produced resources, and recorded exemplar videos modelling good practice, link to the core purpose and ensure consistency. During activities, staff actively circulate ​“hunting not fishing” (Lemov, 2021:95) for ideas and contributions to be disseminated. In our recent OFSTED inspection, our approach to oracy was noted: ​“Leaders continue to promote and develop pupils’ oracy across the curriculum. Consequently, pupils’ verbal responses become rich and deep.” In essence, Etone pupils, ​‘say it properly in the first place’ enabling them to progress faster.

Do you say things aloud to help you to remember? There is science behind this which further supports oracy as a learning tool! Research has shown that speaking aloud creates two memories increasing the probability of learning and retrieval. The ​‘production effect’ was named by MacLeod, Gopie, Hourihan, Neary, and Ozubko (2010) in a series of experiments in which the mere act of reading words aloud resulted in substantially better memory than reading them silently. (Macleod & Bodner, 2017:390). The ​‘production effect,’ ultimately determines that the dual action of speaking and hearing oneself has the most beneficial impact on memory.​So, oracy has yet another benefit. If pupils say it: they are more likely to remember it, and if they say it well then they will remember it well.

• Create an environment of respect
• Embed talk routines across all classrooms to reduce cognitive load
• Ensure that talk has clearly defined outcomes and application
• Start with short tasks to make pupils accountable
• Deliver CPD with examples to give staff the skills they need to be confident in developing oracy in their lessons
• Allow subjects to co-construct what works and is useful for them

• Britton, J. (1970). The role of talk in literacy learning, Routledge
  
  
• EEF (2018) Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools
  
  
• Lemov, D (2021) Teach like a Champion, Jossey-Bass
  
  
• MacLeod, C and Bodner, G, University of Waterloo and University of Calgary (2017) The Production Effect in Memory