Question: I’d like to make better use of technology in my classroom to facilitate speaking and listening but I’m not sure where to start. Any ideas?

Answer:

Speaking and listening skills are often overlooked in comparison to written language skills and yet, to succeed in education and in life beyond the classroom, we need to be able to use language for a whole range of purposes – to share jokes and experiences, to talk about feelings, to strengthen friendships, to gather information and for learning. Use of technology in the classroom can provide a wealth of exciting opportunities to support and develop language and communication skills.

Here are a few ideas for how technology can be used as part of collaborative learning opportunities to capture and share thoughts, ideas and experiences.

Retelling a story:

Ask pupils to sequence pictures and tell their story, recording it on an audio device. You could even create a digital photo album story by taking photos of learners acting out key scenes of a topic book, giving them the opportunity to re-tell the story using this.

Recording instructions for others to follow:

Task pupils to create video or audio instructions for how to complete a task or play a game. The recording can then be passed on to another group, who then complete the task following the instructions given.

Capturing an experience or memory:

Support pupils to prepare a video or audio record of an experience or memory. For example, get them to reflect on a school trip. What did they learn? Did anything unusual or exciting happen? How did the experience make them feel? Smaller recording devices, e.g., Talking Tins (devices which record short bursts of audio; played back at the push of a button) could be attached to a display of photographs of the experience.

Recording a podcast to share learning:

Recording a podcast is a great way for pupils to share their ideas and learning, without having to write things down to prove what they know. Podcasts could be created for a whole host of reasons. For example, to explain the outcome of an experiment or the method used, as a how-to guide, or record an interview with a well-known fictional character.

Making a news report to summarise a key event:

Support pupils to work together to film a news report, capturing a historical event. There are lots of lovely collaborative working opportunities here as the group will need to agree their roles, agree on the content of the report and work together to film it. Ensure that opportunities are built-in so that children of all abilities can join in – perhaps some pupils can help to draw and find images to create the storyboard, or make props, act as ‘extras’, or take on the role of camera operator.

Sharing learning with others:

Arrange a video call with another class to share learning on a topic they have been working on. Or perhaps make a video for sharing in assembly.

Supporting listening ideas could include:

👍 Play a short YouTube video (Simon’s Cat are fun and short) and students have to answer questions about them.

👍 Record sets of increasingly long instructions on a recording device and play them back and ask students questions about them, e.g., “Find me a pen and a green book,” to “Place a red pencil on top of the table at the back left of the room and then jump in the air!”

👍 Record sets of increasingly long instructions on a recording device and play them back and ask students questions about them, e.g., “Find me a pen and a green book,” to “Place a red pencil on top of the table at the back left of the room and then jump in the air!”