Oracy at St John's

“THROUGH INTERACTIONS WITH THE YOUNG CHILD THAT INCLUDE QUALITY CONVERSATIONS AND PLAY, THE CHILD’S LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT WILL BE STRENGTHENED, RESULTING IN GREATER FOUNDATION FOR LITERACY LEARNING.

This is vital for the social and emotional circuitry of a child’s brain which learns from contact and conversation.”

The Importance of Oral Language Development in Young Literacy Learners: Children Need to be Seen and Heard by Jolene Reed and Elizabeth Lee

Spending time on screens takes children away from face-to-face time with people. It is in interactions in real-life settings that children learn how to communicate appropriately, how to ‘read’ facial expressions, tone of voice and body language and develop an understanding of vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar and more. All of which are vital for developing strong oral language and communication skills.

ORACY AND YOUR CHILD

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Why is Oral Language So Important?

SIMPLE TIPS TO FOLLOW

1. Talk to your children all day. Tell them what you are doing and why and ask them questions. For example, I’m going to make a salad for dinner tonight. Let’s get the lettuce. Look how the lettuce is a different colour in the middle. What colour is it? What else do we need for our salad?

WHY ORAL LANGUAGE IS SO IMPORTANT

Parents and carers play a vital role in a child's language development. Research has shown that children who are read to and join in meaningful conversations with adults every day, during their early years, will have larger vocabularies and better grammar than those who are not read to. They are better prepared for learning at school and are more likely to experience greater success with early reading and writing.

Through talking, children learn new vocabulary, how to pronounce words and gain an understanding of sentence structure. It also allows them to be curious and learn about their world.

2. Read every day. A good predictor of future reading success is the amount of time children listen to stories being read to them. It is never too early to read to your baby. Start when they are only a few months old.

5. Praise their efforts. Don’t criticise your child's articulation or speech patterns. Instead, repeat their statements back to them with the correct pronunciation or word usage. Give your child lots of praise for their efforts.

6. Limit screen time. It is recommended that children younger than two do not watch television at all and that children two and older view no more than two hours of quality screen time a day. While some educational programs can be beneficial, TV shows don't interact with or respond to children, which are the two catalysts children need to learn language. Computer games are interactive, but they aren't responsive to a child's ideas and imagination.

3. Sing together. Young children love music and movement. When they listen to songs, like "Old McDonald Had a Farm" and nursery rhymes, they learn about word patterns, sounds in words and the world around them.

4. Make-up stories. Think of elaborate stories with characters, conflict, adventure, and a happy ending. Be sure that the stories fit your child's interests and aren't too scary.

HOW ST JOHN’S BUILDS ORACY SKILLS

Phonemic Awareness In-Class Program in the Early Years; Talking Partners Small Group Program; Big Talk for Writing; Student Voice within PYP Units of Inquiry; a Focus on Talk Activities within the Classroom; Drama Lessons; TalkTime Keys

TRY A BLOSSOM BAG TODAY!

Each bag has a book plus materials for parents to use to have deeper conversations about the book with their child. The bags can be borrowed from the St John’s library at any time. We invite you to share your experience with us.

UNDERSTANDING ORACY

Oracy is listening, speaking clearly and with confidence, using the correct grammar and a wide vocabulary. Strong foundations in oral language lead to better outcomes in all future learning, build confidence and resilience, and prepares children with the skills they need in adult life.

Many parents and carers believe that once their child starts talking, the oracy milestone has been reached but this isn’t the case.

ORACY ASSESSMENT RESULTS

INITIAL ASSESSMENTS CONDUCTED AT ST JOHN’S SHOWED:

65% of Prep students were below the age-appropriate benchmark for grammar 36.5% of Prep students were below the age-appropriate benchmark for information Other testing showed weaknesses in sentence structure, vocabulary and pronunciation

Similar results are being found in schools around the world.

At St John’s, survey results have demonstrated that many parents feel their children have good oral language skills and they should now focus on developing other skills such as reading and writing.

However, building upon early oracy skills leads to improved self-confidence, self-awareness, resilience, and overall wellbeing, all of which positively influence academic performance.

“Oracy is to speech, what literacy is to reading and writing and what numeracy is to maths….. more importantly it is key to the development of reading and writing skills.” Voice21

THE TALKING PARTNERS PROGRAM

Talking Partners is a successful program that gives children basic life skills in how to be good communicators. It allows them to develop the skills to listen attentively, talk confidently and in sentences and to develop a wide vocabulary.

Strong early foundations in oracy flow into all areas of literacy. Many assume that children enter school with the ability to speak and therefore they have developed their oral language skills. However, oral language involves more than just the ability to speak clearly.

THE BENEFITS OF TALKING PARTNERS

Talking Partners can achieve observable progress in children’s speaking and listening, develop their confidence, self-esteem and enjoyment of learning, promote risk-taking and independence, foster interactive listening and an awareness of audience, and support greater success in all curriculum areas, particularly literacy, by encouraging children to make links across their learning.

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Talking Partners and Your Child

“Communication skills are the most important employability skills.” Sir Michael Rake

ABOUT TALKING PARTNERS

Talking Partners is a short-term intervention program. It is run over three sessions of 30 minutes each week and delivered in a small group of three students and a St John’s staff member as the Talking Partner. It aims to increase student learning, resulting in increased independence in speaking, listening and group interaction, and has an emphasis on a positive environment with praise and specific prompts to extend learning.

KEY ELEMENTS OF TALKING PARTNERS

· Supportive environment to encourage risk-taking and confidence

· Adaptive program to support growing independence

· Awareness of speaking and listening conventions in groups

· Building active listening skills

· Opportunities for extended speech in small groups

· Opportunities to hear and use the same language on several occasions

· Use of frameworks to organise oral thought processes

ORACY PROGRAMS AT ST JOHN’S

At St John’s, Talking Partners is just one of the oracy programs being used within the classroom to support the curriculum and learning of our students. It works alongside:

· In-class Phonemic Awareness Program

· Student Voice within PYP Units of Inquiry

· Talk Activities within the Year-Level Curriculum

· Drama Lessons

· St John’s Blossom Bags

· Big Talk for Writing

“ Talking Partners can play a key role...in developing children’s confidence, independence and learning potential alongside their language skills.” Jean Gross

Books are an amazing opportunity to discover new things, amazing places, knowledge, imagination and so much more. It is like treasure...you just never know what you will find inside the pages.

Books provide us with opportunities to talk with our child about words, pictures, why things happened the way they did and of course what it may have left us wondering about or what might happen next.

READY TO GO BEYOND THE BOOK?

Help your child to think Beyond the Book and enjoy an adventure together.

A simple book is a journey that can be explored and discovered many times over with new excitement each and every time. Some books become favourites simply because we revisit them over and over again.

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Beyond the Book

“The best way to teach people is by telling a story” Kenneth Blanchard

TAKING STORY TIME BEYOND THE BOOK

Taking story time beyond the book—and even putting the book aside altogether—can be easy and fun with these Speech and Drama activities for parents and children.

1. Sentence at a time story. Retell a favourite story, or create your own, with each person in turn adding one sentence. It usually starts with ‘Once— upon—a—time’. The challenge is to keep an open mind and accept others’ ideas as the story develops. Older children can be challenged to ensure the story has a beginning, middle and end.

2. Roleplay. Choose an important moment within a story. Imagine and improvise a dialogue between the characters at this moment — what would they say to one another? You may even wish to act it out, using expressive character voices and movements.

3. Act it out. The storyteller/reader acts as a ‘narrator’ while the listener becomes an actor miming the actions of the story. The actor may also want to speak aloud any direct speech using the characters’ voices.

4. Word tennis. Take turns naming items in a category related to a story. You may wish to add a time limit to increase the challenge.

E.g. for ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, name as many famous monsters as you can in 20 seconds; for ‘Where is the Green Sheep?’, name as many farm animals as you can in 30 seconds.

5. Hotseat. Choose a character in a story whose perspective you would like to explore. One person takes the role of this character, answering a series of questions posed by the other person who acts as the interviewer. We can learn so much by putting a character in the ‘hotseat’.

6. Dressing up. Use items from around the house to dress up and become one of the characters from the story. Remember a teatowel doesn’t look like much but it can become a super cape or a pirate hat—endless possibilities! Act out your favourite parts from the story.

7. Yes, and … Have a conversation by reflecting on a story you’ve just read or know well. Begin with the words: ‘Do you remember when …?’ Take turns retelling the story, beginning every subsequent line with, ‘Yes, and …’.

ABOUT BLOSSOM BAGS

St John’s Blossom Bags contain a children’s book, hands-on activities and suggestions for encouraging deeper conversations and a love of reading.

Books have been carefully chosen and age-appropriate activities, recipes and further ideas are included with the aim of expanding understanding, comprehension, and communication.

Blossom Bags can be used at home and school and are fun and engaging.

READY TO TRY A BLOSSOM BAG?

Blossom Bags are available from the St John’s Junior Campus Information and Research Centre. Pop in and have a look with your child today! There are so many different titles to choose from.

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Blossom Bags and Your Child

THE BENEFITS OF BLOSSOM BAGS

Blossom Bags can improve your child’s oracy skills and offer a range of benefits, including:

· Fun quality time together

· Fostering a love of reading

· Opportunities for deeper conversations

· Improved vocabulary

· Increased confidence to ask and answer questions

· Strong connections between home and school

WHY BLOSSOM BAGS ARE IMPORTANT

Blossom Bags link to and support oracy learning in all Early Years classrooms. They complement the phonemic awareness and Talking Partners programs used in the classroom.

Research around the world indicates that children entering school lack the foundational oracy skills necessary for future learning. Teachers have identified:

1. Students don’t know how to start talking about a given task

2. They are reluctant to share ideas

3. When students get stuck, they are unable to advance their ideas and their talking

4. Many students have poor vocabulary

The Blossom Bag initiative has grown out of the action research conducted by teachers of St John’s, which aims to improve children's oracy skills in the early years of school.

Blossom Bags are a beginning for you and your child to explore concepts and themes. Enjoy spending time together and discover the journey that lies behind the story.

Did you know that much of our talk with children is directional? Directional talk is giving them instructions and asking them to do things such as eat their dinner and clean their teeth.

To successfully develop strong oral language skills, children need to hear and engage in conversational talk. This is talking that allows the child to listen and respond, answer questions and ask their own. It is talk that involves wondering about things and exploring ‘what if’ ideas.

Blossom Bags encourage conversational talk and questioning. They provide tips and suggestions that can enhance talking time with your child and help them build their confidence, curiosity and vocabulary.

Blossom Bags can improve your child’s oracy skills

THE ORIGIN OF TONGUE TWISTERS

These deliberately difficult expressions were popular in the 19th century. The term ‘tongue twister’ was first applied to these kinds of expressions in 1892. One of the first tongue twisters was: “Miss Smith's fish-sauce shop.”

The well-known ‘She sells seashells’ tongue twister was originally published in 1850 as a diction exercise.

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore. The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure. For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells.

The most famous Tongue Twister is ‘Peter Piper’, first published in Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation by John Harris:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

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Tongue Twisters

ABOUT TONGUE TWISTERS

Tongue Twisters are an important speech development tool. They help to strengthen and stretch the muscles involved in speech. This muscle exercise leads to clearer pronunciation and speech patterns.

Tongue Twisters help to highlight difficult sounds for different speakers. Children enjoy the alliteration and playful content, engaging them in oral language practice.

WHY TONGUE TWISTERS?

Tongue Twisters are used to:

· Help students warm up the muscles used in speech

· Reinforce correct pronunciation of letter sounds as taught in the classroom

· Identify difficult sounds for students

· Stimulate speaking, listening and repeating exercises

· Create opportunities for character development and roleplay

· Create opportunities for confidence building through presenting to an audience

TONGUE TWISTERS AT HOME

Parents are encouraged to support their child’s engagement with Tongue Twisters at home by:

· Listening to them read and reading the tongue twister to them

· Asking them to show you how to make the letter sounds correctly

· Seeing how many times they can say the tongue twister without making a mistake

· Timing them saying the tongue twister 10 times

· Encouraging them to speak clearly, not just quickly

· Challenging them to say the tongue twister with expression, with different voices, or with different emotions in their voice

Not just for kids, tongue twisters are also used by actors, politicians and public speakers who want to improve the clarity of their speech.

“Take advantage of every opportunity to practise your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.” Jim Rohn

· Encouraging them to add actions to go with the tongue twister

· Having a go yourself—and laughing at your ‘mistakes’

ABOUT TALKTIME KEYS

TalkTime Keys are a series of coloured keys containing questions that promote deeper, more meaningful conversations with your child providing an opportunity for answers that assist in stimulating your child’s cognitive development. The questions are based on different topics, such as wellbeing and those ‘Big’ Questions to expand children's curiosity and ability to reason, their creativity, thinking ability and independence.

TalkTime Keys also enrich comprehension, grammar, and overall communication skills. These keys have been translated into Vietnamese and Chinese to facilitate discussions in a child’s first language. These keys can be used at home and school and are engaging and fun.

READY TO TRY TALKTIME KEYS ?

TalkTime Keys are available from St John’s Junior Campus Reception, or by emailing your child’s teacher. Ask for a set today! There are several different keys available in different languages and with various topics to enrich discussions with your child.

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Key into Talk Time

PRAISE FOR TALKTIME KEYS

“These keys are fantastic. They sparked such amazing conversations with our daughter. I wish we had these keys earlier they are a really good idea.”

“The conversations that are happening around the dinner table are so constructive, healthy and helpful all thanks to the sets of keys you have given to our children's minds! It beats talking about bottom burps and mouth burps and who spends the most time on the thinking chair which is what dominated our conversations previously.“

WHY TALKTIME KEYS ARE SO IMPORTANT

Our TalkTime Keys link to, and support, oracy learning in all Early Years classrooms. Whilst they complement the work of the teachers at school, they are designed to increase deeper conversations at home. Research indicates that children entering school lack the foundational oracy skills that are necessary for future learning. Teachers have identified that many students are often unsure how to hold a proper two-way conversation. The open-ended questions on the set of keys encourage children to think about their answers and provide more than just a simple yes or no. This in turn develops a child’s capacity to effectively engage in a full conversation.

THE BENEFITS OF ASKING QUESTIONS

To successfully develop strong oral language skills, children need to hear and engage in conversational talk, rather than just replying to instructions. This is talking that allows the child to listen and respond, answer questions and ask their own. It is talk that involves wondering about things and exploring ideas.

By asking open-ended questions we encourage conversational talk and questioning. Our TalkTime Keys with their open-ended questions have no right or wrong answers, instead, they help to broaden children’s thinking processes, develop their speech and language skills, and build confidence in their ability to express themselves more succinctly.

The TalkTime Keys initiative has grown out of the action research being conducted by teachers at St John’s, with the aim of improving the oracy skills of children in the early years of school. Often, the most interesting conversations with children are those that result from a string of open-ended questions that begin then move the discussion forward and possibly reveal responses that you would never have imagined!