Teach Early Years - Issue 14.2

use their voice, body language and speech to teach and model skills from the Oracy Framework. Why not try out these engaging activities inspired by the Oracy Framework in your own setting? Read stories with your whole body: sit, stand, play with your tone, volume, and pitch and incorporate gestures. Introduce new vocabulary in fun, engaging ways to make it memorable; sing songs, use actions and images, and create repetition by incorporating the words across the provision. Stretch children’s imagination with talk in different contexts, for different purposes and to varied audiences. Encourage curiosity with sentences such as, “I wonder what would happen if...?” Encourage self-expression by making space for personality to shine through their talk. INTERACTIONS WITH ADULTS It’s easy to think that great early years provision is dependent on an abundance of resources or exciting activities. But it is responsive, attuned adults who make the biggest difference in helping children develop strong oracy skills. Children enter our settings having had exposure to a range of experiences and opportunities that develop language and communication. To support all pupils, adults can create opportunities for oracy by intentionally planning meaningful contexts for back-and- forth interactions. These early conversations lay the groundwork for thinking, language, and learning. One way to generate dialogue is through Sustained Shared Thinking (tinyurl.com/TEYV212 ) where adults and children solve problems or explore ideas together. This can happen during everyday moments like finding a lost jumper or planning snack time and turns routine tasks into valuable oracy opportunities. For example, if a child wants to eat their snack outside but the adult notices it is likely to rain, the adult could model their thinking out loud and invite the child to help find a solution: “What a fantastic idea! Have you thought about how we can stay warm and dry while we’re outside?” FURTHER READING Hear from our Voice 21 Oracy schools: tinyurl.com/TEYV213 Read our Ten Years of Impact report: tinyurl.com/TEYV214 Listen to the Oracy Education Commission’s podcast: tinyurl.com/TEYV215 X, can I play with you? What an amazing waterslide you’ve made for your cars! I’m sending them down the slide quick. I wonder if the slide with more bubbles will make the car go faster or slower. Faster! You were right, the higher slide with more bubbles was a lot quicker. The car went very fast. It’s because it’s really slippy. Do you think the higher slide will be quicker than the lower slide? Yeah, we can put more bubbles on it. What would happen if we made the slide higher? Then cars would zoom down the slide really quickly. You said it would go faster, but what would happen if we used the dry slide? Yeah, but I like the bubbles because it makes them really fast. I’d like to know more about how you made them go so fast. Here we see how practitioner A is responsive and attuned. Physically , they get down on the child’s level to make eye contact and actively listen, creating a meaningful interaction. Linguistically , they comment rather than question, and repeat new vocabulary. Cognitively , the practitioner challenges their thinking by using the talk tactics of build, challenge, stretch and speculate. Socially and emotionally , they ensure they have the child’s attention, follow their lead and model turn-taking. What could high-quality oracy look like in your provision? Stretch children’s imaginationwith talk in different contexts DELIBERATE TALK To make sustained shared thinking effective, identify a problem, encourage ideas and solutions, stretch and encourage children’s thinking when challenges arise, and celebrate their efforts. Voice 21’s Talk Tactics for Early Language Development were designed as a scaffold to support practitioners to help deepen thinking and expand talking. Children, particularly those with additional needs, thrive when vocabulary and sentence structures are repeated by all staff throughout the provision. The resource is designed to be used in spontaneous conversations as well as structured areas of the timetable. Ensure that your staff understand why the different tactics are useful for enhancing oracy and that they are confident applying them in practice. This way children are treated like capable thinkers, and they will grow in confidence and independence through meaningful conversations in a safe, supportive space. Modelling and planning oracy intentionally can and should happen in all areas of the provision. When opportunities are authentic to the child, it supports them to develop not only language but also the ability to think deeply and reflect. The following oracy-rich interaction was recorded at a Voice 21 Oracy School in a Reception classroom where the children were in free play in the outdoor area. Practitioner A joins the child at the water tray, crouches next to the child and uses gestures to point and indicate motion. Teachearlyyears.com 21