Clean Language in the Classroom

Julie McCracken

• Publisher: Crown House Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781845908607
• eBook ISBN: 9781845909086
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Written by a real teacher, who puts her ideas to practice in a real classroom, with real children; this book provides a comprehensive selection of step-by-step instructions, case studies, clean questions for SEN and examples of how to effectively introduce Clean Language practice within the classroom. It aims to improve communication and inclusion to develop a productive learning environment for students and teachers alike. It encourages children, teachers and parents to respect the others and their needs. This innovative new book gives teachers the tools on how to include effective clean questions in their lesson planning based on a mini-research project undertaken by Julie in her own classroom with her pupils to discover the benefits of using clean language in the classroom.

Part 1

About Clean Language

Chapter 1

Clean Language in a Nutshell

More effort has to be spent in framing questions that are worth asking: that is, questions which explore issues that are critical to the development of children’s understanding.

Paul Black, Chris Harrison, Clare Lee, Bethan Marshall and Dylan Wiliam, Assessment for Learning: Putting it into Practice (2003)

Have you ever spent more time and effort than you would like sorting out a dispute between bickering youngsters only to find they carry on as soon as your back is turned? Do you ever tell pupils one thing but they do another, leaving you wondering if you are speaking a foreign language? When you are trying to hold a conversation, or assess their understanding, does it ever seem like you are trying to get blood out of a stone?

If your answer to any of these is ‘Yes!’ then you are not alone. The reason I’ve used the clichés above is to illustrate how common these problems are. You may sense an echo of your own teachers, or parents, and realise that they experienced similar difficulties. So how can you shine a light through the fog and connect with children in a way that fosters deep understanding and clear communication in the midst of a busy school day?

In this chapter you will find how you can fine-tune the way you listen to children and how to use clean questions to bring results which will surprise you. Clean Language uses a collection of questions that are as free from assumptions as possible. They will help you to get a clearer idea of a child’s thoughts and feelings without ‘contaminating’ them with your own assumptions or presuppositions.

Clean Language engages children in the kind of thinking which develops their understanding of the external world and their internal world – and it promotes their thinking about thinking. Clean Language questions are definitely questions worth asking.

Clean Language: a practical overview and quick-start guide

Knowing which question to ask is a skill that can be picked up quite quickly and you can develop it into an art over time. Although it requires practice to use the method masterfully, you can achieve results right from the start if you work to a few guidelines. The table below will serve as a navigation aide and as a handy overview.

Clean Language in a nutshell
1	Trust the children. They can solve their problems themselves given your skilled support. Remember the Pygmalion effect? (If you believe they are capable, then they will be – and, conversely, if you believe they won’t, they won’t.) It’s only natural to be sceptical until you see results and it can be difficult to remain open to possibilities, especially in the early stages, but please don’t gloss over this step – it’s important. For most people it requires practice. So persevere and work with light, apparently inconsequential content at first – and prepare to be pleasantly surprised.
2	Listen, absolutely exquisitely (see page 35, ‘What kind of listening?’) to the words the children say and the way in which they say them. Don’t make judgements, give your opinion or try to think of solutions – just focus on what they say.
3	Repeat back to them the words they have said (exactly as they said them).
4	Ask a clean question incorporating their exact words: A good question to start with is, ‘And what kind of (…)?’, infilling the (…) gap with children’s exact words. Practise using it until it’s tripping off your tongue naturally. An extremely handy question is, ‘And is there anything else about (…)?’ Practise asking it until it flows as naturally as the first. Add another question, such as, ‘And where/whereabouts is (…)?’ and practise it as before. Asking ‘whereabouts’ will ascertain the location of objects or aspects of objects (e.g. the paws on a teddy) as well as the location of feelings or thoughts (e.g. joy, excitement, mental maths manipulations – see Chapter 10). Continue adding questions like this (interleaved learning) and you will soon be using more and more of them in your everyday language easily and effortlessly. You will find more questions further along in this chapter. Note: When experienced clean facilitators review the questions they use in action, of all the clean questions, they find they have used those above more than half of the time. In the classroom, you can explore and augment almost anything the children say to you, in whatever domain, using just these questions.

Practice tips

• Ask the questions exactly as they have been presented. The way you ask them is important. The uncommon grammar, syntax, tone and rhythm all contribute to the powerful effects of this questioning (see pages 57–59, ‘Three-part syntax’). Having said that, you will come across examples in the book where I’ve used similar (but not identical) questions – losing focus during a fast-paced day does happen. It’s not the end of the world, but if you don’t ask the questions as presented the effectiveness will be reduced, so try to aim for an element of precision, especially when you are first learning them.
• Ask with a clean intention. T...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Foreword by James Lawley and Penny Tompkins
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1: About Clean Language
• Part 2: Applying Clean Language in the Classroom
• Part 3: Finding Their Own Way
• Conclusion: And What Would You Like to Have Happen Now?
• Appendix A: Pocket-Sized Question Card
• Appendix B: Detail Detective Question Magnifying Glass
• Appendix C: Story Direction Cards
• Appendix D: Detail Detective Question Fan
• Appendix E: Detail Detective Question Dice
• Appendix F: Activities and Games
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Copyright