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EMC CPD Webinar: Classroom Talk in English Classrooms

Availability
Places available
Price
£45 per place
Location
Online
Duration
2-3.30pm

See Booking Details for how to take advantage of our 2 for 1 offer. 

Course details

This session, led by Barbara Bleiman and teacher Lauren Cowan (2024/5 Associate Teacher at EMC). will explore practical approaches and underlying ideas about how to foster really productive talk in KS3 English classrooms. They will draw on current examples from Lauren’s classes and offer opportunities to think about some of the following issues: 

  • How talk supports subject learning
  • Inclusivity and the ways talk can be structured to support all students
  • Balancing pair and group talk with whole class talk and teacher input.

This course will be recorded but attendees will not be audible or visible. 

EMC's Webinar Packages

Online, via Zoom. Details of how to join will be sent before the session.

Download Zoom

  • If relevant, course materials will be sent the day before the course in the email with your joining instructions. Please either print these out or have them available on screen during the session.
  • After the session you will receive the PowerPoint presentation and any resources used on the course.
  • After the session you will receive a link to register to watch a recording of this session on-demand until 30th April 2026. 

How to join this course if your department has bought the webinar package

  • To join the live session, register using the registration link sent to the departmental key contact. You can register to join the live session right up to the start of the webinar. Use the unique link sent by [email protected] to join the webinar on the day.
  • To watch the recording on-demand, register using the on-demand registration link sent to the departmental key contact the day after the live session. This email will also include the PowerPoint presentation and any additional resources. On-demand access expires 30th April 2026.

I found it very informative and useful - particularly watching the videos of how to facilitate and encourage talk among pupils. I thought the statements for discussion re the poems is an excellent idea. Charlotte Ferreira, St Ursula's Convent School, Getting Oracy Right, 2024 

Excellent – thoroughly researched, lots of interesting ideas presented and for me to take away and use in my classroom. Ruth Pringle, Royal Russell School, The Whys and Hows of Great Dialogic Learning in English, 2024

Perfect mixture of 'big picture' thinking about English, what it's for and how it works, as well as practical classroom-based strategies. Can't wait to take these back to my lessons. Andrew Stones, West Kirby Grammar School, The Whys and Hows of Great Dialogic Learning in English, 2023

Photo of Barbara Bleiman

Barbara Bleiman

Barbara Bleiman is an education consultant at EMC, co-editor of emagazine and the author of What Matters in English Teaching. She writes blogs and articles about education and has written or co-written many EMC publications for the classroom, including several resources on poetry, novels and language study. Among these are Doing Close Reading, Studying The Handmaid’s Tale, Sight/Unseen Poetry, KS3 Poetry Plus, as well as Curriculum Conversations: Going on an Odyssey. She takes the lead on EMC’s project on group work, ‘It’s Good to Talk’ and has a strong interest in ideas about the curriculum, developing the idea of ‘cultural conversations’ as a challenge to the notion of cultural capital. In 2019 she was awarded the NATE Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of English. She is also a Fellow of the English Association. Barbara is the author of two novels, Off the Voortrekker Road and Accidents of Love, and has recently published a collection of short stories, Kremlinology of Kisses.

Photo of Lauren Cowan

Lauren Cowan

Lauren is an English teacher and KS5 Coordinator at the lead school in a multi-academy trust in north London. Lauren has previously worked as 2iC and KS3 Coordinator. She has taken a lead role in shaping curriculum, assessment and other department policy, as well as leading school-wide reading and literacy initiatives. 

EMC's Webinar Packages

Booking this course as a 'one-off' purchase

  • Bookings for this course will close at 8am (London, UK) on Monday 9th February, or when capacity is reached, whichever is the sooner.
  • This course is part of our 2 for 1 offer
    • Book a place on this course and you’ll be sent a voucher code entitling you to book a further place on the same course for a colleague at your school. Your code will be emailed to you as soon as we have received your booking.
    • Please note: bookings for this course close at 8am on Monday 9th February. The 2nd free place must be booked before the closing date, so please make sure you give yourself enough time!
    • Your voucher can only be redeemed online and is only eligible against this course.
      (Any issues please email Lucy.)
  • This course must be booked and paid for online. Payment by invoice is not available for this session. Please note: your fee is non-refundable.
  • To book this course you must be signed into one of the following accounts (registering an account first if you need to):
    • UK Trust/Academy – Head Office (purchasing) 
    • UK Educator Admin (purchasing)
    • UK Teacher – Home Address Only
    • UK Private Individual
    • Overseas
  • If you have a UK Educator Standard account you will not be able to book the course. Sign in to your account and add it to your Wishlist. See the list of people able to book courses at your organisation by clicking ‘My Account’, then ‘Our Admin Users’.
  1. Click 'Book now’ (right-hand column).
  2. Add the number of places you need. 
  3. Fill in the names and email addresses of the people attending. To secure your place, please make sure you add the attendee details immediately and checkout within 24 minutes. Otherwise the booking will expire and you will have to begin the process again.
  4. Click submit and then Go to basket.
  5. Checkout. (Payment by invoice is not available for this session.)
  6. IF TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OUR 2 FOR 1 OFFER, PLEASE WAIT TO BE SENT YOUR CODE BEFORE BOOKING YOUR 2ND PLACE.
  7. Once you have booked your place, you will see a screen indicating your order has been successful. You may want to make a note of your order number. The person making the booking and the attendee will receive an automatic acknowledgement of your booking.
  8. Instructions on how to join the course (including Zoom login details) will be sent from [email protected] for the first time on the day bookings close. Reminders, including any course handouts, will be sent the day before and one-hour before the course. Please check your junk or promotions folder. Still no luck? Email us before 1pm on the course day [email protected].

Cancellation and amendments

  • Afternoon and twilight webinars must be paid for by card at the time of booking.
  • The fee is non-refundable.
  • However, the webinars are recorded. Anyone who books a place on the course will be sent a link to register to access the recording of the webinar until 30th April 2026, regardless of whether they attended live.