If you're reading this and you're a parent, it's likely because your child's school is already investing in developing your child's oracy by putting more opportunities to talk into lessons.
If you're reading this and you're a teacher in a school, why not pass it on via your school newsletter?
1. Would you rather…
Would you rather be...
...chased by a bear?
...slithered on by a snake?
...kissed by a monkey
Would you rather......play snap with a crocodile?
...swim with a shark?
...lie down with a lion?
Would you prefer to...
...be sat on by a spider?
...sit on a pin?
...be pecked by a parrot?
Would you rather be...
...king or queen for one day?
...rich for your whole life?
...a superhero for a week?
Would you rather hear
...the world’s funniest joke?
...the most surprising fact?
...the world’s best story?
2. Strategic stupidity
Put your child in the position of being the sensible, knowledgeable one while you take on the role of being a complete idiot!
- Use a colander as a hat, and have them talk you out of it.
- Make a preposterous proposal, such as, “Schools should open at night instead of during the day” and have them prove you wrong.
- Ask them why you shouldn't spend hours reading the Terms and Conditions of the video game they want to download.
By reversing the normal position of the adult being the one with the grown-up ideas, you inject a lot of humour and give your child some extra power behind their talk.
3. 59 Questions
You’ll probably have played the game, “20 questions” at some point, where one person thinks of something and the other has twenty question to guess what it is. All questions have to be answered “yes” or “no” - if I have to “maybe” or “sometimes” a question, they get that as a bonus question. With 59 questions and a bit of experience at asking good questions for narrowing down the possibilities - ‘Is it alive?”, “Is it bigger than me?” you can get to things as obscure as David Attenborough’s left big toe…
Before they start the questions, encourage them to work out the best strategy for a game like this. It’s long been known that the best players (including computers!) of traditional 20 questions are those who can eliminate roughly half of the possibilities each time. As logician Charlies Sanders Pierce said in 1901: “Thus twenty skilful hypotheses will ascertain what two hundred thousand stupid ones might fail to do.
Great for building memory and inference skills.
4. "Not to worry"
5. Playfighting with words
Interested in our online classes?
At our sister organisation, P4HE, we run live Zoom sessions on philosophy, debating, improv, Shakespeare, Art, Dungeons and Dragons, creative writing, "Breaking History", even a panel games mash-up called Meet the Teams.
There are classes for various age groups from 6-8s to teens. The same principles of lively, playful, thoughtful dialogue of P4C are at the heart of these sessions for home educators and schoolschoolers.
We also run quarterly "Weekenders" or "Weekers" where everyone who can get there meets in person to do similar stuff but "IRL"! Like our online classes, they're open to anyone who has a curious mind and wants something a bit different.
“I just wanted to, once again, send my most honest and heartfelt gratitude to you all for all your hard loving work and giving M such a wonderful experience. She was definitely nerxcited as she would say, nervous+excited, but this experience for her was so much more. She is still giggling and smiling thinking of the play and all her learnings, experience and kindness she has experienced. She absolutely loves her Improv and Writers Room online classes with Charlie but this in person experience has been one that will also accompany her in her heart for her years to come, and that makes me infinitely happy because as her mother, to know she has been inspired and will carry good people in her heart means everything. So for so much, my most heartfelt thank you and looking forward for her to keep enjoying in person camps with you all.”
Feedback from recent training. Can you spot the buzzword?
"I cannot describe the buzz and vibe from the staff, all down to you."
"You really did create a huge buzz in school, which is a difficult shout on the first day back! You covered everything we wanted out of the training and gave us mountains of material to use in class. I loved the fact you gave each phase some planning time to discuss ideas and plan sessions and then trial them out of colleagues. You have definitely given us some inspiration and I am very excited to see what happens next."
"There was a buzz during the staff meeting, which for any member of staff attending a staff meeting knows this is a rare thing! All the staff said how enthused and excited they felt to get back into their classrooms and try out the methods they had been shown."
"The questions raised interested everyone and there was a real buzz in the room. Our training was full of practical activities and games, with the just the right amount of discussion about teaching techniques interspersed. What an inspiring day!"
"It is us who would like to thank you. It was such an inspirational INSET and the staff were truly excited. The enthusiasm and buzz is palpable!"