Talking Points instead of questions

Lyn Dawes from Oracy Cambridge has done a lot of extremely useful work on Talking Points. In this approach, instead of asking questions, students are given a series of statements, and then decide whether they agree, disagree, or are unsure.

Lyn’s book Talking Points: Discussion activities in the primary classroom (2012) shows you how to use Talking Points across the curriculum. Examples include getting your pupils to explain how they know certain statements are true in Maths, and how to use Talking Points to deepen their understanding of stories and poems.

(I’ve included a photo below of some Talking Points I used recently in a discussion based on the story of Goldilocks.)

Do make sure that your class have good discussion habits; if not they may need to first spend some time working out what makes a good discussion, and developing some ground rules.