No Pen Wednesday

No Pens Day WednesdayActivity Pack

No Pens Day Wednesday

Your guide to running the day

9 October 2013

Welcome to your No Pens Day Wednesday activity packNo Pens Day Wednesday encourages schools to put down their pens and pick up their language by spending one day focusing on learning through speaking and listening. Thank you for signing up and getting involved.

ContentsAll about No Pens Day Wednesday _____________ page 3

Why run a No Pens Day Wednesday ____________ page 4

How to make classroom talk more effective _____ page 7

10 principles of effective talk __________________ page 8

Getting ready for the day ____________________ page 10

How to run your No Pens Day Wednesday ______ page 11

Outcomes _________________________________ page 14

Spread the word ____________________________ page 15

Next steps _________________________________ page 17

No Pens Day Wednesday 9 October

2013

Teachers’ Activity Pack

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All about No Pens Day Wednesday

‘A common feature of the most successful schools in the survey was the attention they gave to

developing speaking and listening.’ Ofsted, Removing Barriers to

Literacy survey, 2010


2013

No Pens Day Wednesday is a national speaking and listening event organised by The Communication Trust. The Trust is a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication, who support the children’s workforce to develop the skills of the children they work with.

In its third year, No Pens Day Wednesday was originally developed for the 2011 national year of communication campaign, Hello, which you can find out more about at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/hello.

The aim of the day is to see a positive impact on all pupils and enable speaking and listening to be used as a vehicle for learning across the curriculum.

We provide resources, ideas and guidance on how to run your day, all you have to do is register at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday

Since No Pens Day Wednesday began we’ve had nearly 2,000 schools take part, resulting in nearly 750,000 pupils benefiting from spending at least a day focusing on speaking and listening activities.

Just a note... If Wednesday 9th October doesn’t work for your school, you can run your No Pens Day at any time - the resources will stay on our website.

The Communication Trust is grateful to Pearson Assessment for their support for No Pens Day Wednesday.

Why run a No Pens Day Wednesday?Teachers’ Activity Pack

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2013

Because the importance of speaking and listening in schools is reflected in current national policy...

Of all the skills we develop at school, the ability to communicate effectively is the one that has the most profound and potentially positive impact on our lives. Communication is at the core of what we do: at home, in work, at school and socially. Strong language skills and good communication are key to whole-school improvement, progression and attainment.

The importance of communication is reflected in a number of key national polices:

In December 2011, the Expert Panel for the National Curriculum review called for spoken language to be included in the Curriculum for all subjects and throughout compulsory education.

For the first time in January 2012, ‘communication skills’ became part of the Ofsted Framework both in quality of teaching and in pupil achievement.

The Teachers’ Standards which came into effect in September 2012, requires teachers to ‘demonstrate an understanding of and take responsibility for promoting high standards of articulacy’.

In Ofsted’s Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools survey, April 2013, speaking and listening was cited as a key factor in overall literacy attainment in secondary schools.

No Pens Day Wednesday


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‘No Pens Day Wednesday was great. It was particularly rewarding to see

children who frequently struggled with the written word totally animated

and engaged when forming crisp and concise sentences that elevated the

level of sentence structure.’

‘Thanks for the wonderful resource bank, lesson plans and assembly plans which

made the day so much easier to participate in.’

‘We had NPDW lessons delivered across the curriculum and key stages. This was excellent considering it was

the first time that we’d been involved. The pupils responded well and staff have commented on the day making

them think more creatively about their lessons.’

Because the schools who have taken part before loved it...

‘Thank you so much! Feedback from teachers and children

has been so positive we have decided to have a NPDW

termly!’

‘The whole school was really enthusiastic - staff and children. We

gave the day lots of build up in an assembly the week before we carried

it out and the children were full of excitement.’


2013

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Because the schools who have taken part before have seen improvements and positive changes have taken place...

Three quarters of schools stated that they will do things differently in school around speech, language and communication as a result of No Pens Day Wednesday. This included taking aspects of the activities, lesson plans and approaches and incorporating them into regular planning or even repeating the whole day more often.

Some schools stated that they would look to make more long-term changes to their whole school policy including prioritising within the School Development Plan or introducing a year-long focus on speaking and listening.

Schools benefited from the fact that the day had promoted creativity within teaching and learning. They also enjoyed that the day had promoted the importance of communication and supported schools to provide an inclusive approach.

Two of the schools that participated in No Pens Day Wednesday in 2012 had their Ofsted inspections at the same time but found the experience useful for their inspections, with one school saying that they got better feedback on their quality of teaching during No Pens Day Wednesday.


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Talk is at the heart of education - teachers use talk as the main tool of their trade. The amount and quality of talk that children experience in the early years is a good predictor of how well they’ll do in school.

And we now know that teaching children and young people how to use talk to think together can improve their commitment to learning and to their educational attainment. Key components of communication, such as a good vocabulary, can make a big difference to a child’s achievement.

No Pens Day Wednesday will enable teachers to give pupils opportunities throughout the day to develop their communication skills and use them to support their learning.

We know from a range of research that pupils are more likely to get enthusiastically involved in their education, and learn best from it, when teachers support and enable effective use of speaking and listening to support learning. And don’t forget - no pens means no marking!

We have therefore suggested the following ten key principles for effective use of speaking and listening. >>

How to make classroom talk more effective

‘Schools which ‘turn the dial’ on language and communication are able

to ‘turn the dial’ on a number of key school improvement priorities, from

raising attainment to narrowing the gap and improving behaviour’. Jean Gross,

Communication Champion (2011)‘Spoken language is central to learning, culture and life, and

is much more prominent in the curricula of many other countries.’

Cambridge Primary Review


2013

1. Allow pupils time to think about information given, refine what they want to say, express their thoughts and identify their misunderstandings

2. Give opportunities for pupils to talk to a partner or in a group, to encourage pupils to test understanding, put new knowledge into their own words and/or to clarify thoughts before they’re asked to produce a piece of writing

3. Support vocabulary development by using strategies to explicitly teach the meaning and use of key words for learning (words like compare, analyse and define) and for subject specific vocabulary

4. Demonstrate ways of using language so that children learn by example, use language that enables collaborative working, discussion, rational argument and negotiation. For example “I see your point, though let’s try this way too and we can decide which works best”

5. Encourage thinking by asking open questions to explore pupils’ ideas, supporting pupils to elaborate and justify their views, for example ‘How did you know that?’ Just asking ‘Why...’ can really develop pupils’ thinking

6. Listen as well as talk by holding back demonstrations or explanations until the ideas of some students have been heard, by allowing pupils’ comments to shift the direction of a discussion (and even, perhaps, of a lesson!)

7. Set the context by using whole class discussions to help pupils see where their study of a topic is coming from and where it’s going, for example, using a learning journey model

8. Support independent learning by asking pupils to think ‘how am I going to remember this?’ Give them opportunities to practise with a partner

9. Use ground rules of dialogue for class or group discussions to support thinking and learning. A typical set of such ground rules might include:• Discuss things together• Ask everyone for their opinion• Ask for reasons why

• Listen to people• Be prepared to change your mind• Think before you speak• Respect other people’s ideas –

don’t just use your own• Share all the ideas and

information you have• Make sure the group agrees after

talking• Research has shown that

displaying these rules can make a real difference to pupils

10. Encourage children and young people to say when they’ve not understood – acknowledge the importance of making mistakes and of seeking clarification when unsure

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10 key principles of effective talk

Use the 10 second rule – wait around 10

seconds after asking a question before prompting

pupils for an answer


2013

Following through with the ten principles overleaf may not be easy, so do prepare yourself for challenges along the way. As any teacher will testify, if you try asking open questions, or waiting for extended answers with a class who have had only a very traditional experience of classroom talk, you’ll probably only hear (at best) a suspicious silence. It all depends on the teacher establishing the right classroom climate for talk, and that takes time.

Some teachers are naturally brilliant at doing this. Their students come to appreciate the educational value of talk themselves, and will not feel embarrassed to express tentative ideas or reasonable disagreements.

Teachers need to be good models for children and young people on how to use talk for thinking.

Research has shown that when children are helped to understand talk as a problem-solving and learning tool, and given guidance in developing skills in using it, the quality of their talk and group work improves and so do the individual learning outcomes.

For children whose out-of-school lives give them little exposure to reasoned discussion, this can be a life-changing experience.

‘Good communication is one of the most important skills anyone could

have’ Chris Pike, Young Person with Aspergers Syndrome


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2013

Here’s some information to help you prepare for No Pens Day Wednesday or Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday if another day suits you better!

Visit the website and register

On our website at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday you can register to access all the resources we’ve developed to help you run your No Pens Day Wednesday.

You’ll find lesson plans, activity templates, a sample letter you can send to parents, vocabulary templates and much more.

You may find it useful to have a brief staff meeting with your colleagues to share information

about No Pens Day Wednesday and to start planning for the day. We’ve also provided a presentation

which you may want to use for this.

Lesson plans and activitytemplates

There are a large number of lesson plans and activity templates for you to use.

The lesson plans and activity templates have been created by practising teachers, specialist teachers and speech and language therapists.

Lesson plans – these were developed by taking example plans for September from one school’s planning as a starting point. As all schools will be covering different topics and have different ways of planning, the lesson plans provide an example for schools to adapt.

Plans are available for Key Stage 1 and 2, across the year groups. For secondary schools, lesson plans are available for year 7 across all subject areas and a number of plans for year 9, this is not to limit your No Pens Day Wednesday to

year 7 and 9 only, but to provide an example across all subject areas, which you can use and adapt for different year groups.

Activity templates – in addition to lesson plans, we’ve provided activity templates, which are more generic and can be adapted to any lesson. There are a range of activities with information about each, including how it can be implemented, highlighting any resources / links that might be useful to support that activity. These activities can be used within any element of a lesson - as a starter activity, main activity, plenary or as methods of recording learning.

Download the plans and templates at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday

Getting ready for the dayTeachers’ Activity Pack

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How to run your No Pens Day WednesdayTeachers’ Activity Pack

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Confirm who’ll lead on plans for the day

Book in a staff meeting to inform other teachers about the No Pens Day Wednesday

Download the activity pack and other resources at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday

Familiarise yourself with the documents and consider whether you want to use or adapt the lesson plans provided or plan your own lessons using the ideas on the templates

Decide on who’ll run the assembly for pupils

Consider whether you’ll have competitions / presentations in school to encourage the pupils to get involved

If you would like to let your local newspaper or local T.V. news channel know you’re running a No Pens Day Wednesday then you can download press templates and a media advice toolkit from www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday

If you would like to take pictures to go on school notice boards, in newsletters etc, check if you have permissions from parents for children and young people to be photographed. If not, plan this in

Plan in reflection after the day to look at lessons learned, next steps and if you would like to run another No Pens Day Wednesday

Three weeks before your No Pens Day Wednesday:


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Ensure all teachers have discussed with their pupils the plans to participate in No Pens Day Wednesday, including seeking their views on taking part and asking their ideas on how the day should be run

Ensure all staff are aware of the day

Identify ‘a budding photographer’ in your school or community who can take pictures of your No Pens Day Wednesday activity

Send a letter to parents – use the template provided on page 15; you may decide to invite parents into the school assembly or to see what’s happening in the classrooms

Prepare your own certificates for the day (if using)

Plan the lessons you’ll run using the examples provided at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday, ensure any additional resources you need are prepared

Put information in your newsletter for parents and in the news section of your website

Consider ideas and options for recording learning on the day, suggestions are available on www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday

Plan where and when you’ll gather pupil views on the day; see our suggestions on how to do this on page 14

Set up a blog that the teachers and pupils can access. Use this to share ideas about what you and other teachers are planning to do on the day, get the pupils’ views, share with other schools and look at ways to continue this work

Two weeks before your No Pens Day Wednesday: One week before your No Pens Day Wednesday:

Teachers’ Activity PackNo Pens Day Wednesday 9 October

2013

Begin with the assembly explaining to pupils what will happen on the day; you can download examples from www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday

Use the materials provided on our website to run your exciting No Pens Day Wednesday

If you have invited your local newspaper or T.V. news channel along for part of the day, have one person, who leads on liaising with local media, speak to them about what they need. For example, they may want to set up a specific photo with staff and children or talk to a child/teacher/parent about their views on the day

Note the impact on pupils’ engagement and learning

Ask pupils’ views during the day; discuss the benefits of not using pens, alternative activities used and places where it would be useful to write things down

Plan a follow up assembly / sharing pupils’ work – you might chose to do this on another day / invite parents etc

We’d love to see any photos or videos that you take on the day so we can show others how successful your No Pens Day Wednesday was. Please send to [email protected]

Present results / certificates at end of week in an assembly or relevant alternative

Use a staff meeting to reflect on the best and most challenging elements of the day; see our suggestions on how to do this on page 14

Share pupils’ views with the other teachers during a staff meeting

Decide on what you’ll continue with - whether that be run more No Pens Day Wednesday activities, run certain lessons again, or look at focusing more closely on communication throughout the school

Send a press release with a couple of the best pictures (if you have them) to your local media and any other important contacts. It would be really helpful if you could also send it to us at [email protected] as it will help us keep track of the media activity

Share your story / experiences / anecdotes with us by uploading your story onto the website at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/your-stories

Update your blog if you started one with your thoughts about the day, how well the activities went, what you learnt and what the pupils thought

On the day: After the day :

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Teachers’ Activity PackNo Pens Day Wednesday 9 October

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OutcomesTeachers’ Activity Pack

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One of the most important parts of the day is the reflection it will prompt, from both pupils and teachers, about what worked for them and what didn’t.

For pupils, we suggest opportunities are built into the day to ask their views about different lessons and activities.

You could use the questions here for discussion on the day and to evaluate the day.

Pupil Voice

1. Which were the best activities during No Pens Day and why? You could use examples and traffic lights/smiley faces to encourage pupils to judge which were best.

2. Which were the best lessons...and why?

3. Were there times when you wanted to write things down? If so when would that have been useful?

4. What do you think of this way of learning? Would you like your teachers to do more activities like this or less? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

For teaching staff, we suggest some time is given after the day to work through the following questions, both to evaluate and support positive practice and to determine next steps for supporting speaking and listening in school.

Reflections on the day1. What were the most challenging

elements of the day?

2. What worked well – what activities, principles, lessons?

3. What were pupils’ views on the day?

4. What was the impact on learning?

5. Did the day give you any new insights into particular pupils?

6. Any surprises?

Choose elements of the day you’ll use again, for example

1. Try one new activity from the activity templates per half term until it’s embedded in your teaching

2. Support colleagues to do the same

3. Include discussion on ‘speaking and listening’ across the curriculum in staff meetings to maintain momentum

This may be your second or third No Pens Day Wednesday or it may be the first of many! If you have any suggestions for ways we can improve No Pens Day Wednesday please let us know at [email protected]


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Spread the wordTeachers’ Activity Pack

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You may wish to share with parents that your school is participating in No Pens Day Wednesday.

If so, you can download a template letter to let them know what’s happening from www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday

Alternatively, you may want to send out a newsletter to parents and other local contacts.

Dear Parent/Carer, [Your school name] has signed up to an exciting one day event, which schools across the country

are getting involved in called No Pens Day Wednesday. What is No Pens Day Wednesday? The aim of the day is to encourage speaking and listening skills, which is a part of your child’s

national curriculum. For one day, children in the school will put down their pens and all lessons and activities will have

a focus on speaking and listening skills rather than writing skills. Teachers will assess what children

in their class have learnt about the lesson by listening to what they say about it. Why are we taking part? Reading and writing are very important and valuable skills but people are often not aware of how

important speaking and listening skills are too. Schools that include speaking and listening in a

planned and structured way for children in their lessons see improvement in their classroom

involvement. Ofsted inspectors (who check standards in all schools in the country) are noticing

more and more that speaking and listening is a really important factor for good teaching and child

performance in successful schools. How will your child benefit? No Pens Day Wednesday gives your child a chance to practice their speaking and listening skills for

a whole school day. The day will allow all pupils in your child’s class to become involved in a whole

school event, and to contribute to class activities, getting a chance to talk. If you want to know more about this day, then speak to your child’s class teacher or form tutor.

No Pens Day Wednesday is run by The Communication Trust For more information please visit www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk


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No Pens Day Wednesday 9 October 2013


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Read all about itWe hope you’ll join our efforts in getting media interest in your No Pens Day Wednesday.

A template photo-call and press release are available from www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdaywednesday

We’ll also share with you a toolkit, called Bring the Noise, which is about local media work and includes how to talk to journalists, tips on e-mailing them and how to take great pictures.

Press Release

For Immediate Release

PUTTING A FOCU

S ON SPEAKING AND LISTENING

FOR ALL PUPILS AT (Insert schoo

l name)

On 9th October (amend date if necessary), children / yo

ung people (delete as applicable) aged

……………from ………………(insert school / college/ group) in …………….(insert region) put down thei

r

pens and picked up language in s

upport of No Pens Day Wednesday; a nati

onal speaking and

listening event organised by The

Communication Trust.

X (insert name of school/college/group) has successful

ly organised a day for X pupils (insert number)

where all learning and assessment took place th

rough speaking and listening, rath

er than writing.

…………………………

…. (insert name/job title) from ……………………………(insert school/ college/ group)

says: ““At (insert school name) we believe that speech, languag

e and communication skills underpin

everything and directly affect life

chances. We were delighted to support The C

ommunication Trust

by taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday. This unique eve

nt focused on speaking and listen

ing

activities and we have seen pupil

s and teachers taking part in deba

ting, maths games and story-‐

telling (amend activities to highlight the most interesting things your school did).”

Anne Fox, Direct

or of The Communication Trust, said: "A huge tha

nks goes to all the pupils, staff an

d

parents at (insert school name) for taking part in No Pens Day W

ednesday. This fantastic initiative

highlights the importance of spea

king and listening in the classroo

m and has been shown to increase

confidence and engagement in activities.

This is really important because communication skills a

re

now part of national policy and th

e Ofsted Framework. We hope more schools will follow X’s (insert

school name) lead and put down their pens in

support of children’s / young peo

ple’s (delete as

necessary) communication.”

No Pens Day Wednesday was developed b

y The Communication Trust, a coalition of nea

rly 50

voluntary organisations with exp

ertise in speech, language and co

mmunication, in partnership with

Jean Gross, formerly the Governm

ent’s Communication Champion for children.

For more information, visit www

.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/nopensdayw

ednesday

-‐ends-‐

Bring the Noise The Communication Trust guide to media work


2013

Next stepsTeachers’ Activity Pack

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Tell us about your No Pens Day Wednesday!

Thank you for taking part in No Pens Day Wednesday, we hope your pupils and colleagues enjoyed taking part and will plan lots more similar days. We’d love to hear how No Pens Day Wednesday worked in your school.

Please send any comments, photos and videos to [email protected].

Get further information and advice

We are a Consortium of 47 charities who provide specialist expert support around speech, language and communication. To find out more about the charities we work with go to www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/partners

You can also download our Catalogue of products and services available from our Consortium members and search by age, stage and wave. Please go to www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/consortiumcatalogue to view.

‘All staff are going to choose one action that came out of the day and implement it as

part of their planning’. School that took part in 2012


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Our other work to support you in your schoolTeachers’ Activity Pack

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We have a wide range of resources to support you in school to identify typical language development and support those who

are struggling.

We also have specific resources for trainee teachers and NQTs, those working with children using alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) and those undertaking the phonics screening check.

To download and order our resources please go to www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/resources

We have worked with the academics at the Better Communication

Research Programme to develop the What Works database of evidenced approaches and programmes.

For the first time in the sector, a website brings together the evidence base for speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) interventions to help you find the most appropriate support for the children and young people you work with.

To find out more please go to www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/whatworks

Talk of the Town (TOTT) is an

integrated, community led approach to supporting speech, language and communication.

By responding to the needs of the local community, TOTT follows a systematic process to embed strategies and achieve measurable positive outcomes for children and young people. This community-led programme includes consultation, workforce development, provision and sustainability planning.

Contact us to discuss how this can benefit your school.

For more information please go to www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/talkofthetown

We are a Consortium of nearly 50 charities who provide specialist expert support around speech, language and

communication. Download our Catalogue which lists the products and services available from our Consortium. To download please go to www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/consortiumcatalogue

Talk Boost is a targeted and evidence-based intervention, which

supports language delayed children to make significant progress with their language and communication skills. During the pilot of the project, some children were found to improve their communication by 12-18 months in a ten week period. To find out more please go to www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/talkboostFind out about more about our work with schools at

www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/schools


2013

The Communication Trust is a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary and community organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication. We harness our collective expertise to support the children’s workforce and commissioners to support all children and young people’s communication skills, particularly those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

We do this by raising awareness, providing information and workforce development opportunities, influencing policy, promoting best practice among the children’s workforce and commissioning work from our members.

The Trust was founded in 2007 by children’s charities Afasic and I CAN together with BT and the Council for Disabled Children.

www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

Published July 2013

Design and photography: deborahripley.com

No Pen Wednesday

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