Page 40 - The East Sussex Way

Appendix 1: Strategies to Encourage High-quality Peer-to-
peer Exploratory Talk

All chip in (talk tokens)

Each member of the group has a set number of tokens. In order to
share an idea or respond to somebody else in the group, they need
to use a token. Expectations are set that a certain number of tokens
must be used by each member within the time (e.g. all tokens, three
tokens, etc).

If a pupil runs out of tokens, they cannot share further ideas until
everybody in the group has used up their tokens. If all tokens are
used up then group can reclaim their tokens and repeat.

This encourages pupils to be active listeners as well as share

reasoned, detailed ideas.

Always, sometimes, never

This idea is taken from the Oracy Imperative (Stott & Gaunt, 2018).
Provide pupils with a series of statements related to a particular topic.

They need to discuss them in pairs or groups and decide whether
they are always, sometimes or never true.

Consensus circle

This idea also comes from the Oracy Imperative. Ask pupils to draw
a circle on a large piece of paper. Provide them with a series of
statement cards related to a particular topic. Pupils discuss each
statement and only those statements which they are able to reach
a consensus on (either positive or negative) are placed inside the
circle.

Often the statements about which no consensus can be reached
are the most interesting to include in a class discussion!

Decision makers

This activity is a staple in the history classroom. Pupils are given a
historical context such as being a commander at the Battle of
Hastings or Francis Drake during the Spanish Armada. They are then
provided with several scenarios and options for how the historical
person could respond to each scenario. Pupils must work in a group
or pair to decide what they would do in each case. This provokes
often lively discussion as they weigh up the advantages and

35 disadvantages of each option.