Thinking and Speaking

This resource book provides many different ways for teachers to give the whole class challenging practice in thinking, speaking, discussing, debating and listening skills.

Subjects have been chosen to extend thinking skills, general knowledge, awareness of current affairs and social issues.

They are designed to make students think, not to simply rehash information. The aim is to have every student speak as many times as possible, to build confidence and resilience. The oral work can be followed with class discussion, writing tasks or research projects.

Each section includes:

• Teacher pages suggesting ways to guide students in the required skills
• Lists of up to 30 topics at two levels - lower primary and upper primary
• Posters for display which can be enlarged and put at the front of the room for reference or placed within sight of a speaker if needed as a prompt
• Student worksheets, to be copied and given for individual student use as needed