Developing Oral Language

to Support Children’s
Reading and Writing
Shona Willis
Mataura Primary School
Our Context
● Decile 2
● Mixed bag!
○ Grammatical issues
○ Lack of ideas and detail
○ Limited vocabulary
○ Difficulty expressing ideas and feelings in the classroom and playground
● End of National Standards
● Learning across the curriculum
● Oral Language intervention in 2018 - ALL Programme
What Were Our Successes?
● Improvements in targeted students’ e-asTTle vocabulary and sentence
structure scores
● Greater engagement in classroom discussions across the spectrum
● Greater confidence in sharing ideas, opinions, and clarifying meaning
● Increased vocabulary
● Excitement about sharing ideas
Our Starting Point

● Sheena Cameron’s The Oral Language Book

● TKI for oral language assessment
● Learning Through Talk for assessment and direct
acts of teaching
● Oral Language Progress Indicators - Version 1

What we needed:
Structure and purpose for our oral language teaching
Our What & How: A Good Starting Point
What
● First Steps: Oral Language Development Continuum
● Oral Language Progress Indicators - Version 2 (unfinished)
○ Junior Progress Indicators (unfinished)
○ Senior Progress Indicators (unfinished)

How
● School 21 as a model
● Toolkit: Framework and models
Where I Began
Creating a discussion framework for
my students:

● Encouraging greater
participation
● Moving from a monologue to
genuine discussions
● Moving away from
question/response
Sentence Stems
Sentence stems in action…

...they worked well across all

curriculum levels.
Opportunities for Practice
Consistency Across Classrooms
● Discussion guidelines and sentence stems shared with other teachers
● Identified need for using the “6 Ws” across all classrooms - resource created
and shared
Links to Guided Reading
Explicitly incorporating exploration of vocabulary in Guided Reading lessons:

● Prediction
● Visuals
● Multiple texts on the same topic
reinforced new vocabulary
● WALT: Work out the meaning
of new vocabulary
● Increasing confidence
Links to Shared Reading
● Front-loading vocabulary for Writing lessons
● Critical thinking skills taught through discussion
● Use of discussion guidelines and sentence stems

Other Fun Ideas

● Watch YouTube videos
● Interesting photos
● Sheena Cameron activities, e.g. Would
you rather?
Links to Writing
● Rich learning experiences and hands-on activities
● Front-loading vocabulary and ideas

● Explicit planning for

vocabulary and detailed
ideas
● Peer support
● Significant improvements in
e-asTTle for vocabulary and
sentence structure
Rethinking Speeches
● Value in formally presenting ideas and opinions to an audience
● Limited success with the speech competition
● The solution: pecha kucha!
ぺちゃくちゃ (Pecha Kucha)
● A huge success in my class!
● Less intimidating and more relevant to a
modern world
● Reformat depending on ability, e.g. 6 slides
lasting 20 seconds each
● Explicit teaching about speaker’s notes:
○ Model your own pecha kucha
○ Writing groups

● Differentiation:
○ Using learning from the classroom
○ Doing research
My “Take Home Points”
● Who does most of the talking in your class?
● Integration is key!
● Children need to have their confidence built up
○ Multiple exposures, front-loading
○ Classroom supports and models
● Big picture: What oral language skills do children need in the 21st Century?

Please feel free to email me with any questions:

shona@mataura.school.nz