Accountable talk - supporting speaking and listening

Accountable talk adds greater structure and rigour to discussion activities. It breaks skills into four areas : Stating opinions, clarifying ideas, active listening and respectful disagreement. These cards and prompts are designed to help pupils master these four areas of talk skills. They can be introduced slowly over the year by using the wide variety of materials provided here. The range of materials also means that pupils in different year groups can make use of the resources. It helps pupils to develop their skills.

This extensive collection of accountable talk files includes:
11 pages of starter stems, over 80 questions, 4 powerpoints, 6 menu cards, 4 anchor prompt sheets for younger pupils and more. Editable.

What's included:
11 pages of starter stems and questions. These can be cut up and put into key rings, spread out loose on tables or stuck onto lolly sticks for pupils to handle. There are over 80 questions in total. This is a word file and a PDF.

There are 4 powerpoint files. Each has over 20 slides. There is one for state your opinion, one for active listening, one for clarifying ideas, one for respectful disagreement. These are also saved as PDF. These can be displayed on screen or printed to make classroom displays.

There are 4 'menu cards' A4 size for laminating and putting on tables or giving to individual students. One for each of 'state your opinion, active listening, clarifying ideas and respectful disagreement'. These are also good for other adults working in the classroom.

There are also 2 menu cards for 'maths talk', one for the explainer and one for the questioner.

In addition there is a menu card for 'prove it' a list of useful evidence based prompts.

I have also added 4 pages of questions aimed at younger children. This means that the resource bundle can be used flexibly across the school. Share the resources with other teachers in your school.

All of the menus are in word and PDF formats. They make great table resources, help cards for individuals, reminders for adults in the classroom and great displays.

There is are some evaluation sheets to helps students reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement across the four areas of accountable talk and feedback sheets for teachers.

As not everyone will have the fonts I have used, the word and powerpoint files may not look exactly like they do on my screen. I have therefore provided PDF formats of each file for easy printing. The word and powerpoint files give you the extra benefit of being able to add to, edit and delete questions. I think it is important to be able to customise resources to meet the needs of your class, their experience with accountable talk and their language skills.

I hope you enjoy using these resources. There are many ways that you could use them in the classroom.