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Oracy Across the Curriculum

In this blog, Michael Gardner explores a range of strategies that integrate oracy into different subjects. From science to geography, read on to find out how purposeful talk can form a central part of your teaching practice.

Posted on Tuesday 14th January 2025

When considering oracy, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking it resides mainly within English lessons. However, if we want our learners to develop strong language skills, it is crucial to view oracy as an overarching strategy across the curriculum.

Oracy is omnipresent (or should be!)

 A commonly held, and easy to believe, misconception is that oracy is predominantly a skill developed and used in English lessons. This couldn’t be further from the truth as any form of learning with language removed becomes very challenging to grasp. Oracy should be evident in all areas of the curriculum.

As educators begin to unravel the mysteries of oracy, thanks to the work of organisations such as the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and Voice 21, many are beginning to realise that oracy is a crucial part of every teacher’s toolkit, whether you are a secondary physics teacher or an Early Years specialist.

There are countless strategies for boosting oracy across the curriculum. In this blog, we have picked a few of our favourites to share with you.

Oracy in Science: Concept cartoons 

What is it?

An image and possibly a statement or question is shared on a particular topic. Alongside this are the opinions of 3 to 4 very different personalities. These are deliberately quite contrasting and stereotypical. For example, the cartoon or image may have three to four children saying what they think will happen if you put seeds in a dark cupboard. The varying comments could include:

How is it used?

Ask small groups to discuss the various statements, debating the ones they agree and/or disagree with. Encourage them to build upon each others’ ideas with evidence or examples. You may follow up with the pupils setting up their own investigations to test the theories.

Impact on Oracy in this curriculum area

  • Promotes scientific discussion: pupils have to use their schema (past experiences) to justify their views and connect their ideas to their peers
  • Develops critical thinking: pupils have to evaluate opinions and evidence in order to articulate their own reasoning
  • Develops scientific vocabulary: this is a great opportunity to apply tier 3 scientific terminology, demonstrating how well the pupils understand the meaning behind key language

Oracy in Art: Peer critique

What is it?

A collaborative approach to sharing feedback peer-to-peer, through which all pupils share specific reviews of their peers’ works of art.

How is it used?

The artwork is displayed around the room and pupils use a critique template to write down (or record on a recordable device such as a recordable peg) constructive feedback for their peers’ outcomes. They need to form feedback that is non-judgemental but is focused on analysis, description and interpretation. Once done, the teacher facilitates a whole class discussion, where individuals share some selected feedback on a chosen piece. This continues, with the teacher modelling sentence stems to support articulation and expansion of details.

The owner of the artwork then has the option to provide comments on the feedback in this safe space. Finally, someone may be chosen to summarise the process.

Impact on oracy in this curriculum area

  • Develops descriptive language: using artistic vocabulary, pupils learn and rehearse effective ways of providing feedback (like an art critic)
  • Enhances listening and responding skills: all pupils need to actively listen and build upon the feedback of others
  • Builds reflective thinking: pupils practice reviewing, evaluating and then articulating their opinions through a structured process of feedback

Oracy in PE: Team strategising 

What is it?

Small teams work together to plan tactics for achieving a shared goal in a game or task.Team strategising in PE involves groups of students working collaboratively to plan and implement tactics for achieving a shared goal in physical activities or sports. It fosters skills such as communication, problem-solving, leadership, and critical thinking. By strategising together, students learn to assess their strengths and weaknesses, understand the rules of the game, and devise effective gameplay or movement sequences. This process develops not just physical abilities but also teamwork and decision-making skills.

How is it used?

Once teams have been given the assignment/ task, they are allowed time to strategise together. They may have an assigned (or self selected) facilitator or leader, but every member is expected to contribute ideas. This might be considering approaches to win a dodgeball game, assign set plays for a corner in football or delegation of skills for a mini-olympics.

After implementing the tactics, teams reconvene to reflect and adapt their approaches; this builds in a problem solving and resilience element to the lesson.

Impact on oracy in this curriculum area

  • Develops collaborative communication: pupils learn to express ideas, listen to others and find consensus
  • Enhances problem solving skills: collectively, pupils will need to identify and overcome challenges by articulating strategies and finding solutions
  • Improves instructional language: building the capacity to use concise, clear instructions as well as the ability to comprehend and follow them
  • Builds confidence and leadership: an opportunity to practise taking the lead, providing feedback and motivating peers

Oracy in Geography: Role play scenarios 

What is it?

Pupils adopt roles to explore a real-world scenario related to a geography topic. By acting out their perspectives, they develop a deeper understanding of the geographical issues and how they impact a range of stakeholders. Example scenarios include: planning for natural disasters, climate change or urban planning.

How is it used?

Pupils adopt roles such as: government officials, farmers, activists and other roles that have an interest in the chosen scenario. Each group researches their role and prepares their arguments and supporting evidence. Then, they participate in a collective debate, facilitated by the teacher, in which they put their cases forward, challenge and argue opposing points of view.

At the end, pupils step out of their roles to reflect on the discussion. They share lessons learnt and try and come to a class consensus by summarising key takeaways. The aim of this approach is to reinforce geographical concepts in the curriculum through real-life application.

Impact on oracy in this curriculum area

  • Develops subject-specific vocabulary: to effectively argue and reason their points, pupils need to confidently understand and use geographic language
  • Encourages debate and discussion: role playing contentious issues in a safe environment allows pupils to practise their persuasive and argumentative language, engaging constructive dialogue
  • Promotes critical thinking: by analysing diverse arguments, pupils learn to digest, evaluate and ask probing questions to their peers

Oracy in History: Hot Seating

What is it?

Pupils have the opportunity to create and ask open questions to a historical figure, whether it is King Henry VIII, Mary Seacole or Isaac Newton.

How is it used?

There are several options for choosing the person(s) to be the selected figure.

  • An adult (not necessarily the class teacher) dresses up and acts in role
  • A child is chosen and prepared to act in role
  • In pairs, one child acts as the journalist and the other is in role

The pupils are given sufficient time to write questions, with question openers shared and modelled by the teacher to increase the quality. Once written, the teacher facilitates the Q&A forum, ensuring a range of children (including those less confident) have the opportunity to ask. During the session, children (or a selected scribe) can take notes of the response – this is especially useful as an input for an upcoming written outcome.

Impact on oracy in this curriculum area

  • Develops expression and prosody: in character, pupils have the chance to consider how they use their voice (tone, prosody, expression, accent) and body language to portray the relevant character
  • Improves questioning skills: pupils develop their ability to ask insightful questions that help dig deeper into historical content
  • Promotes active listening: the ‘journalists’ are not simply asking questions, they also need to listen and recall key details from the responses

Further blog posts on oracy

If you have enjoyed reading this blog on oracy and would like to find out more, then why not click on the link below to take a look at some of our other blogs written by Michael Gardner, Sal McKeown and other teachers and practitioners from a range of nurseries and settings. Click here for further blog posts on oracy.

Explore resources to support oracy across the curriculum

Written by Michael Gardner, who is the founder of ‘The Oracy Shift’ [theoracyshift.co.uk]. Michael has over 13 years experience teaching and leading across Primary, from Nursery through to Year 6. If you’re curious about making oracy central to your school’s pedagogy, get in touch with Michael at www.theoracyshift.co.uk [theoracyshift.co.uk] or find The Oracy Shift on LinkedIn.