ABSTRACT
Introduction Promoting and developing creativity in all areas of the curriculum should be the goal of all primary classroom practitioners. In terms of literacy teaching, today’s teachers are encouraged to provide varied and imaginative classroom scenarios in which pupils can become proficient and confident speakers and listeners. We are therefore familiar with the need to provide opportunities for pupils at Key Stage 2 to contribute constructively to shared discussion about literature, responding to and building on the views of others. Discussion is encouraged at all levels – partnered, paired, grouped, whole-class, collective, child-led, teacher-led. This emphasis on oral activity links with what we have always known about teaching and learning – that we learn best by Doing: ‘I do, so I understand.’ We learn to be readers by reading, to be writers by writing and to be speakers and listeners by being engaged in a purposeful way with those activities. Sharing responses to literature is one of the most meaningful ways in which good listening and good talking can be achieved.
