#oracy

[bradleyjamesisdaman]

Bradley is the guest on episode 8 of the Oracy podcast. Definitely well worth a listen!  

LINK HERE

[dykepuffs]

I come from a culture that is absolutely not a literate one, historically, and the more that I see those smug posts of "If you want to be an effective leftist/ally/queer/Good Person you have to READ!!!!! WHOLE!!!!!! BOOKS!!!!" the more that I want to give up on any kind of movement-building and live in a tent in the woods like my ancestors before me.

Long thoughts under the cut

When someone says that learning your theory by listening to what the people around you say is lesser and bad, and that only by reading the words written by far-away or dead Authors and Scholars will you ever become Useful, I wonder how much they can really believe that oral history is a real and valuable thing, or do they secretly sniff that cultures with a long tradition of centralised paper recordkeeping are better than ones which just trusted in storytellers?

I know that I use a lot of words that are very regional and concepts that are often dramatically different to Proper Theory - But they are the words that I learnt from the communities that I really live in, which were really used for decades and which all really developed from needing to name real people and real phenomena that we encountered. You could say "Oh but those words aren't universally understood so why use them" but there is nothing that stops anyone on earth from understanding them: they just have to ask "What does that mean?" And then to really listen to the answer, not to cut it off and say "Oh so ACTUALLY those are just the equivalent of (some other similar phenomena from somewhere else)"

But hey, that requires having a relationship with a person - To actually pay attention to the culture of the person who is telling you something, rather than just trying to absorb the information without the human.

Which is why I keep coming back to storytelling I think - Because the spoken story of a people contains so much more than a written version - Because the nature of HOW the story is told to you-the-audience is as much a part of the message as the words are.

Taking a totally apolitical (ha!) example: here's the story of Dog Bites Man.

If I tell the story to my friend who lives across the road from where it happened, it might be:

"Old Mr Fowler's dog got off the lead and ran down the back of Chucky's nightclub, where it bit one of the tradies"

If I tell it to someone who doesn't live nearby:

"A loose dog ran down a blind alley, and bit a guy who couldn't get away because all the fire doors were locked"

If I tell it to someone who I know really understands their dog breeds:

"This border collie was stressed and bored, so slipped the lead and tried to herd pedestrians, it ended up biting a guy who was digging up a road in the town centre because he couldn't move fast enough."

So if I was writing the story down I'd probably omit some of the information- Some of it is only important if you know about dogs (It's a sheepdog), some only matters if you live locally (Whose dog it was, the name of the club), some only needs to be told if you aren't already aware of the local area (everyone knows where Chuckys Club is, so I don't need to describe the alley) - And for that matter, I might add even more details (Maybe Mr Fowler is a bad dog owner, and I want to emphasise that to push for muzzle and leash laws. Maybe I want to have the building which closes the alley knocked down, so I'm emphasising that it was unsafe. Maybe I want to say that tradies need better training to deal with stray animals on the roadworks, or maybe I'm emphasising that they have a hard job so should be paid more). But, I'd need to be selective, and even if I didn't realise that I was being selective, I'd miss things out based on who I expected the audience to be.

(There is much discussion of this when talking about writing as a minoritised writer - why do I have to put a glossary note or italics when I say chavvi or chingering or ladged up, but not cafe or pasta or tycoon? Who is assumed to be the audience, and who is the afterthought?)

But if I'm telling the story, I will tailor it naturally to the immediate person that I'm speaking to - Which requires a relationship, even if that relationship is as superficial as "I know you know that in England there aren't many feral dogs, so I don't have to explain that this isn't a wild animal, it's a pet or a recent stray".

And why is that a worse way to learn about your culture or your politics, than reading a book about it? Why is it better to learn from someone that you usually don't have a relationship with, than someone that you do?

[litnumscienceposters]

Practicing Oracy

Although a scientific poster may initially capture people's attention, conversations are what keep people interested in projects. Thus, projects centred on scientific posters provide an opportunity to practise another aspect of literacy – oracy (Nature Education, 2014). Because poster presentations are so brief, presenters must focus on the most important aspects of their research. This necessitates frequent modifications, and peer dialogues are a fantastic way to receive feedback on the clarity of a message and opportunities for improvement (O’Brien et al., 1995). Students, like at a science conference, are communicating knowledge to individuals who are as scientifically literate as they are.

This table made by Grant et al. (2012) prompts students to compare their thoughts about designing an experiment and evaluating the success of their investigation with a partner.

Sentence starters placed in visible locations could further facilitate this discussion. They familiarise students with the language typical of science academia and guide thinking with cognitive verbs.

[teacherscrapbook]

Talking in Class

Strategies for developing confident speakers who can share their thoughts and learning.

[afrotumble]

[teacherscrapbook]

Mount Street Primary School on Twitter

“This week’s Oracy challenge: Would you rather be a giant towering above everyone else for a week or a tiny person, no bigger than a blade of grass? Why? Use the sentence stems to discuss this with your family or friends via video chat. @voice21oracy @OracyProject @talkthetalkUK”

[radiophd]

oracy -- the weight don’t make things no lighter

[teacherscrapbook]