Talking Points: Discussion Activities in the Primary Classroom

Talking Points: Discussion Activities in the Primary Classroom encourages and supports classroom discussion on a range of topics, enabling children to develop the important life-skill of effective group communication. Children who can explain their own ideas and take account of the points of view and reasons of others are in the process of becoming truly educated. This book offers a straightforward way of teaching children discussion skills within the framework of a creative curriculum. The book provides an introduction on how to help children learn the skills of group discussion, offering six essential Talk Lessons to use in the classroom, alongside suggestions on how teachers can plan their lessons with a talk focus, set learning outcomes and create their own Talking Points to suit topics they are teaching. The main body of the book contains the Talking Points resources which are an excellent, tried and tested way of stimulating and supporting extended talk about a topic. The Talking Points in this book offer model for teachers to create further Talking Points for their own classes. The Talking Points included here offer discussion in several curriculum areas including:- Science Literacy Philosophy and creativity for children History Mathematics Art and Music This invaluable book offers engaging, stimulating and thought provoking ideas for children to pit their wits against, promoting skills in discussion, analysis, reasoning and interaction. It is highly beneficial reading for teachers working in Key Stage 2, head teachers and those responsible for staff development, as well as students on teacher training courses and graduate training programmes.

Table of Contents:
Talking Points Introduction Page 3 Talking Points for Science Page 16 Small creatures Micro-organisms The air and breathing In the garden Problems for the Earth Seeds Force Magnetism Light and Shadow Sound Our Place in Space Solids, Liquids and Gases Finding out about a range of materials Materials and the senses Water Talking Points for History Page 53 The Georgians The Vikings The Incas Lots to Talk About Page 60 Ways of learning Listening Friends Hands Places we like Money Time Play Pets Hedgehogs Recycling Music Works of Art Talking Points: Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso Works of Art Talking Points: The Bedroom at Arles by Vincent Van Gogh Works of Art Talking Points: The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano Works of Art Talking Points: Farbstudie Quadrate by Wassily Kandinski Talking Points: All the Children of the World 5. Talking Points for Poems and Stories Page 80 In the Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound Flanking Sheep in Mosedale by David Scott High Flight (An airman’s ecstasy) by John Gillespie Magee Bruce Ismay’s Soliloquy by Derek Mahon The Door by Richard Edwards The Invisible Beast by Jack Prelutsky The quarrel by Eleanor Farjeon Helping’s Easy by I. Yates Waking at Night by J. Kenward Spring Pools by Robert Frost Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now by A. E. Housman Trout Leaping in the River Arun Where a Juggler was Drowned by Charles Dalman Tall nettles by Edward Thomas The Vixen by John Clare Open all the cages by Richard Edwards Snow by Louis McNeice Why Brownlee Left by Paul Muldoon Gorilla by Martin Honeysett The Pied Piper by Robert Browning The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie The Once and Future King by T. H. White 6. Talking Points: Lists Page 105 List 1. Things that are a waste of time List 2. Things that are always enjoyable List 3. Things that we would like to change List 4. Things that we would like to keep the same List 5. Things that should be round List 6. Things to think of when lying awake in the middle of the night List 7. Things that are going to go wrong in the future List 8. Things about being an adult that are better than being a child List 10. Things that we aim to do 　 7. Talking Points for Mathematics Page 115 2D & 3D shapes About the number 3 About the number 5 Prime Numbers Circles Probability Further Reading Page 123

About the Author :
Lyn Dawes has extensive teaching experience and is currently Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Northampton, UK, and visiting lecturer at Cambridge University, UK. Her previous publications include Creating a Speaking and Listening Classroom: Integrating Talk for Learning at Key Stage 2 and The Essential Speaking and Listening: Talk for Learning at Key Stage 2, both published by David Fulton. Paul Warwick, author of the science information notes which accompany the Talking Points, is Senior Lecturer in Education at Cambridge University, UK, specialising in science education.