Last year’s No Pens Wednesday, the first of its kind, was so successful that The Communication Trust are supporting another this year on October 10th.  The day encourages schools to put down their pens and run a day of speaking and listening activities. 

Within Whose Town? in the Teaching ideas section in the Resource Bank, you’ll find a couple of really helpful documents giving hints and ideas about how to introduce and talk about different types of archival material. There’s one called ‘Handling Audio’ which can be used with Whose Town? material or for other activities where children are assessing audio and video material. Watching and listening to the fascinating oral testimonies within Whose Town? can help develop their listening skills and critical literacy. There are downloadable transcripts of all the testimonies to help understanding. There’s even a step by step guide to Creating your own soundscape. Imagine the kind of educational fun your school groups could have with producing their own atmospheric soundtracks – maybe a life in the day of your class or school, or the soundscape that represents your part of town?

Why not take the challenge and see how different life in the classroom can be when everyone puts down their pen and starts to talk.