In this video lecture, Lucy West of Metamorphosis TLC explains there are five types of talk in classrooms:
rote
recitation
instruction
discussion
dialogue
I agree with her – there’s a place for all five in teaching and learning but we need to get the balance right. In my experience this often means increasing the proportion of dialogue.

Collaboration is much more likely when pupils have to do a shared piece of work
A new in-depth professional learning programme for school leaders, oracy leads and classroom teachers
Give students opportunities to say and apply new vocabulary
Recommended reading for teachers and everyone else too!
Would you rather spend most of your time indoors or outdoors? And more
Learners recall fiction, processes, explanations and more by listening and building on what others have said
How one teacher got everyone thinking, talking, listening and learning
Give pupils the skills and resilience to work with a diverse range of people
Talk prompts and sentence stems to help learners express different types of thinking
Help students to use the language of Maths
My top three strategies to make sure every pupil speaks during whole-class learning
Can they remember what everyone else said?