In this 'Commission Conversation' Geoff Barton, Chair of the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England, talks to Carol Atherton about how books can spark conversations with students about pertinent issues and why teaching students to challenge accepted ideas, put forward alternative viewpoints and sustain a line of argument confidently is important in the English classroom.

Carol Atherton is the author of Reading Lessons: the Books we Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter. She is currently Head of English at a secondary school in Lincolnshire. She is a Fellow of the English Association and a member of the National Association for the Teaching of English.