Vocab & Oral Language Inquiry

Having had PD with Dr Rebecca Jesson and Dr Jannie van Hees my Term 3 inquiry has been about developing student's vocabulary and oral language. To develop vocab I experimented with concept circles which saw the students link words within a text to a topic. This activity was effective as in order to connect the words to the topic students need to understand the context of the word. To develop oral language I experimented with 'talking points'. Students were given statements about something they had read and had to discuss the statements with others in their group stating if the agreed/disagreed with the statement and why. Students were encouraged to ask questions of each other with limited teacher intervention. At first this exercise was met with a lot of awkward silences but after a while students began to grow in confidence and some great discussions were had. Some of the student's reflections are in the above presentation.