ox•y•mo•ron
noun
a figure of speech in which apparently
contradictory terms appear in conjunction
eg “assessment without levels”

As teachers, we all think about ways in which we can make what our students are learning in the classroom more relevant to their real lives. One of the ways we can do this is by inviting external speakers to come and give presentations for our students. For example, last year I invited a researcher from a local university to come and talk to my Year 13 students about the evolution of drug resistant malaria on the Thai-Cambodian border.

Asking pupils to create presentations to demonstrate their learning has long been a common tool for assessment. In today’s classroom learners have access to a range of tools that allow them to create effective presentations, and these can often be a great way of letting those pupils who struggle to write their ideas down on paper communicate what they know.

There are many voice recording tools around. Simple gadgets like Talking Tins, Talking Postcards or the Easi-Speak microphone are great for young children to record short segments of information. With these simple pieces of hardware, children can easily listen back to their recordings, enabling them to practice and perfect their speaking skills as well as the content of what they are saying.