Debbie Newman has been involved in oracy education for 18 years, firstly as the Head of the Centre for Speech and Debate at the English-Speaking Union and then as a secondary English teacher and whole-school lead on the spoken word. She was the coach of the England Schools Debating Team from 2006 to 2009, winning the World Schools Debating Championships in 2008. Debbie founded and developed The Noisy Classroom, an organisation that trains teachers, produces resources and runs workshops and programmes for students in debate and critical oracy.

Foreword

Introduction

Part one: The case for critical oracy

1. What is critical oracy, and what is the state of oracy in our schools at the moment?

2. Why is critical oracy important?

3. Overcoming barriers to using critical oracy in the classroom.

4. The role of senior leaders and teachers in a school of noisy classrooms

5. Troubleshooting

Part two: What to do in your classroom: the activities

6. Parliamentary debate

7. Other forms of debate

• Balloon debates
• Boxing match debates
• Table debates
• Public meetings
• Conscience alley

8. Shorter activities

• Rebuttal tennis
• I couldn't disagree more
• Where do you stand?
• Hat debates

9. In character

• Hot seating
• Mock trials
• Question time
• Chat show
• News broadcast

10. Structures for critical group or whole-class work

• On that point
• Dragon's den
• Fishbowl discussion
• Expert groups
• Argument stations

11. Formats for critical pair discussion

• Teacher-Pupil Pairs
• Rotating Circles
• Quiz and Switch
• Question and answer pair up.

12. Activities to build oracy skills

• The um-er game
• Defending the indefensible
• Giving and following instructions
• How are you feeling?
• Expand-contract

Appendices

• The Noisy Manifesto
• Key vocabulary for debates
• Sentence starters and connectives for critical oracy
• Argument and speech structure
• Examples of topic-based vocabulary for pre-teaching
• Assessment
• List of topics for debate and discussion
• Debate speech scaffold sheets

• Oracy in the National Curriculum

Bibliography and useful links