What do you include in an Oral Language scheme for your class for the year? A couple of years ago, I put together some oral language resources/ideas for the classes in my school. It included some oral language resources which we’ve gathered up over the years, but it also included some resources that are available on this site. We have them all printed out, laminated and stored in folders which are shared among the relevant teachers
The resources were grouped for Infant Classes; 1st/2nd Classes; 3rd/4th Classes and 5th/6th Classes. These are just suggestions of some things that you could include for your Oral Language lessons.
Suggestions
♦ If you happen to have in your school 20 Steps Towards Language Development (Drumcondra Education Centre still has it on its website for sale), there are useful oral language lessons for each group. We included these at all levels.
♦ PDST has some nice suggestions for Oral Language including the 5 Components for effective Oral Language Instruction, Assessment, Oral Language videos and links to some other downloads that could be useful to include in your own Oral Language Scheme. You can access these resources HERE
♦ On this site there are some free resources including Language Development Ideas; Drama and Language Development; Language Development Topics; Using Story for Oral Language Development.
♦ Some of the links below are to our sister site Nollaig Shona, where there are free Christmas-themed resources.
♦ Rory’s Story Cubes is a great app for the development of oral language. You can also get physical versions of these games which would also be useful. Check out the Rory’s Story Cubes website for more details.
♦ There’s lots of crossover with Oral Language and Drama and you will find some nice drama lessons (especially some new ones with other new ones still to be published) in the Drama section of the website.
These are my suggestions for oral language lessons in various classes:
Infant Classes
♦ Speaking & Listening Activities
♦ Drama Lessons
♦ Speech Rhymes (“Speech Rhymes” by Clive Sansom is a great book for these)
♦ 20 Steps Towards Language Development Lessons
♦ PDST Language Development Ideas
♦ Tell-A-Story 01 (use half the pack)
1st/2nd Classes
♦ Speaking & Listening Activities
♦ Drama Lessons
♦ Speech Rhymes (“Speech Rhymes” by Clive Sansom is a great book for these)
♦ 20 Steps Towards Language Development Lessons
♦ PDST Language Development Ideas
♦ Tell-A-Story 01 (use other half of the pack)
3rd/4th Classes
♦ Speaking & Listening Activities
♦ Listening Memory Skills
♦ Drama Lessons
♦ 20 Steps Towards Language Development Lessons
♦ PDST Language Development Ideas
♦ Tell-A-Story 02 (use half the pack)
5th/6th Classes
♦ Speaking & Listening Activities
♦ Listening Memory Skills
♦ Drama Lessons
♦ 20 Steps Towards Language Development Lessons
♦ PDST Language Development Ideas
♦ Tell-A-Story 02 (use the other half of the pack)
♦ Storybox
♦ Debates
These are just suggestions for oral lessons that could be done in each class. There’s nothing to stop you taking one of the 5th/6th class suggestions and moving it into the 3rd/4th class category, for example.
As relevant new resources are published on the site, I’ll add links to them here as further suggestions.
If you have any other suggestions for Oral Language lessons or links to some great online resources, please make a comment below.
