Re: challenging an intelligent child

In article <13fti03lcat1461@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Clisby <clisbyw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

(a) public speaking (assuming she didn't have septuplets)

You've mentioned public speaking before. Is this something that
Australian schools do? I have not heard of it before.

They didn't do much public speaking in my day, either, but plainly the
education people in my state have decided to address a lack. There is a whole
strand of the English syllabus called "talking and listening". The idea is to
produce children who can speak in front of a group and who can comprehend oral
as well as written materials. I do not believe any memorisation is required
at this age level.

One Year 1 (=6-7yo) activity I have seen was this: a child gives a short
impromptu talk about something they did on the weekend. One child is asked in
advance to listen for Who was involved, another for Where they went, and so on
-- the usual journalistic questions. After the talk, these children list the
Whos, Wheres etc, while the rest of the class helps when required. The
speakers learn to structure their material and the listeners learn what to
listen for.

I'm very impressed with the existence of this strand. I did debating, public
speaking and mock trials in high school, but they were voluntary activities.
The mandatory public speaking requirement was negligible -- even in our final
year it was a single 10-minute speech, and that was the top level of the
English syllabus!

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/
.

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