An Introduction to Oracy in the Classroom

Take the next steps in your teaching career with McGraw Hill

Ready to unlock the potential of oracy in your classroom? This introductory five-week course from McGraw Hill will help you enhance communication skills in the classroom.

You’ll learn foundational concepts in classroom talk, using real examples across diverse schools and age groups. By the end, you’ll have the knowledge to make informed choices about integrating oracy in your classroom.

Use classroom talk to elevate your teaching skills

Each week, you’ll explore key aspects of oracy in the classroom, gradually building your expertise.

You’ll learn to explain and evaluate various perspectives on the importance of classroom talk, enabling you to articulate the value of oracy in fostering student engagement.

Next, you’ll identify and address motivations and challenges in creating talk-focused lessons, equipping you with the tools to enhance student interactions.

Help support academic development in your students

Purposeful classroom talk, or oracy, is increasingly recognised as fundamental for supporting both personal and academic development and for enhancing genuine participation in learning. Based on classroom observations and interviews, this course offers an analysis of schools’ responses to improving the quality of both learning to talk and talking to learn.

You’ll learn to identify various contexts where classroom talk can thrive, allowing you to provide students with opportunities to practise oracy.

Grow in your role as a teacher

Finally, you’ll learn to develop both whole-class and peer-to-peer talk in your classroom.

By the end, you’ll have the tools to transform your classroom through purposeful communication.

After completing this course, take your learning further with Classroom Oracy in Action.

This course is designed for those already in the teaching profession as well as those on a teacher education course or other education related course (undergraduate or postgraduate). You might be a graduate looking at teaching as a first career, or exploring a potential career change.

This introductory course is the first of two McGraw Hill courses on classroom talk and we encourage learners to continue with our accompanying course Classroom Oracy in Action.

The course will help you to explore classroom talk through the analysis and comparison of examples drawn from diverse schools and age groups, across primary and secondary education settings. Alongside a wealth of practical strategies, this holistic and accessible course offers an insight into teachers’ thinking and the realities of implementation, helping teachers to make well-informed judgments about developing classroom talk within their own schools.

This course is designed for those already in the teaching profession as well as those on a teacher education course or other education related course (undergraduate or postgraduate). You might be a graduate looking at teaching as a first career, or exploring a potential career change.

This introductory course is the first of two McGraw Hill courses on classroom talk and we encourage learners to continue with our accompanying course Classroom Oracy in Action.

The course will help you to explore classroom talk through the analysis and comparison of examples drawn from diverse schools and age groups, across primary and secondary education settings. Alongside a wealth of practical strategies, this holistic and accessible course offers an insight into teachers’ thinking and the realities of implementation, helping teachers to make well-informed judgments about developing classroom talk within their own schools.

• Explain different arguments for a focus on classroom talk.
• Explore lessons involving talk from different perspectives.
• Evaluate the concept of oracy in relation to talk more broadly.
• Reflect on a variety of questions about talk practices.
• Identify some typologies of talk to analyse talk experienced in classrooms.
• Reflect on motivations and challenges involved in a focus on classroom talk.
• Identify a wide range of contexts and opportunities for talk.
• Explore how to scaffold pupils’ talk in a variety of ways.
• Assess the value of a wide range of talk registers.
• Create the conditions for productive whole-class talk.
• Develop pupil participation in whole-class talk.
• Explore how to work with pupils’ responses to maximise learning.
• Explain how to use talk to support pupils’ writing.
• Identify exploratory talk.
• Create the conditions for productive peer-peer talk.
• Identify your role as the teacher to facilitate peer talk.