English – Teachwire https://www.teachwire.net Wed, 31 May 2023 14:36:51 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://www.teachwire.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/cropped-cropped-tw-small-32x32.png English – Teachwire https://www.teachwire.net 32 32 Women’s World Cup 2023 – Best football lesson plans, resources and ideas for KS1-KS4 https://www.teachwire.net/news/fifa-world-cup-football-lesson-plans-resources-ideas/ https://www.teachwire.net/news/fifa-world-cup-football-lesson-plans-resources-ideas/#respond Wed, 31 May 2023 09:48:40 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?p=375637 If your pupils are in a FIFA frenzy, these lesson plans, activities and ideas offer some excellent educational links...

The post Women’s World Cup 2023 – Best football lesson plans, resources and ideas for KS1-KS4 appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
Where is the Women’s World Cup 2023?

Australia and New Zealand will co-host the ninth FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. 32 teams will compete, up from 24 at France in 2019.

When is the Women’s World Cup 2023?

The Women’s World Cup 2023 takes place between 20th July and 20 August 2023.


Women’s World Cup 2023 reading challenge

Women's World Cup 2023 footballers

Join the National Literacy Trust and Lioness Leah Williamson at a free online Great FIFA World Cup 2023 Reading Challenge event on Thursday 20th July 2023.

Pupils will engage in fun and interactive reading and writing activities and will have the chance to submit questions.


Make World Cup predictions using real-time stats

Girl in school uniform taking part in Women's World Cup 2023 activities

With major sporting events come great opportunities to bring the rich world of statistics into the primary classroom. Football provides vast amounts of data with which many children will already be familiar – top goal scorers, league tables, numbers of passes, red cards.

Maths lessons are the perfect opportunity to harness the enthusiasm for the game in order to challenge mathematical thinking. Download Aidan Severs’ KS2 football statistic maths lesson plan.


Disney Shooting Stars training

Girls outside in colourful bibs, inspired by Women's World Cup 2023

Help girls unlock their inner superheroes and get lost in the magic of Disney storytelling, all while getting physically active.

Designed to be delivered at breakfast club, lunchtime or after school, The Disney inspired Shooting Stars training course from the FA is free for primary school staff and comprises an online training course made of five separate modules:

  • Introduction
  • The fundamentals
  • Put it into practice
  • The Disney experience
  • Bring it to the playground

Free KS1 football poetry resource pack

Harness pupils’ enthusiasm for football by reading the football poem included in this free Plazoom KS1 World Cup resource pack. They’ll look at how verbs are used, before writing their own poems.

The download contains teaching notes and slides, a poem, football images, a poetry planning sheet and themed writing paper.


KS2 World Cup oracy activities and worksheets

This Key Stage 2 World Cup resource pack from Plazoom asks pupils to create an oral commentary to accompany images from football matches, clips of football matches or school football activities.

They’ll explore the language commentators use and identify how they show enthusiasm when speaking, before writing a short sports article that takes into account different viewpoints.


Describe settings with Frank Lampard

Illustrated space scene

Written by Frank Lampard, the Frankie’s Magic Football series is the perfect combination of magic and football to inspire creative writing. With each adventure taking place in a different location (from the prehistoric land of dinosaurs to the jungles of Brazil), the books prompt children to consider the idea of setting in story writing.

This KS1 football literacy lesson plan encourages children to think about the techniques involved in good descriptive writing and how powerful language, adjectives and sensory description can create different effects.


Motivate footy fanatics with pop art

Keith Haring artwork

It’s tempting to think that using the World Cup to engage children’s learning has to involve copious amounts of PE. However, making links between football and other subject areas can be a powerful motivator for children whose main interest is sports.

This KS2 football art lesson plan shows how the movements of favourite footballers, combined with pop art, can inspire an eye-catching art project.


KS2 book topic – Kick by Mitch Johnson

Kick by Mitch Johnson

Kick by Mitch Johnson focuses on young boy Budi who lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. Instead of going to school he has to work at the local factory making football boots.

This special book covers poverty, child labour and crime, while maintaining an undertone of humour, hope and bravery.

Read the book in class and use these cross-curriculular UKS2 activity ideas to extend children’s understanding of the novel.


Develop decision-making in games

Football covered in flags of the world

This KS3/4 PE lesson plan is based around improving students’ decision-making skills no matter how chaotic a game gets.

It helps boost skills, confidence and character, while thinking about game-winning tactics as well as technique.


The physics of football

In 1997, Brazilian football player Roberto Carlos’ free kick hooked dramatically to the left and landed in goal. How did he do it?

Watch the video then answer quiz questions and learn more at TEDEd.


Football School writing resources

These KS2 resources were created for the 2018 World Cup but can easily be adapted.

The authors of the Football School series have set pupils an exciting challenge to write a lesson for their favourite subject, but with a World Cup twist. 

Head to the National Literacy Trust website to get the resource, handouts, a poster and printable certificates.

You can also download a Football School activity kit so children can design their own team kit, mascot, crest, stadium and more.


KS3 maths worksheet – percentage changes

This KS3 maths football worksheet asks students to use calculate percentage changes in footballers’ salaries over time.


More ideas and resources

Football reading lists

Check out the National Literacy Trust’s list of recommended football reads for children aged 0-12. We’ve also got our own list of football book recommendations here.

Using football to improve behaviour

Read about how Chris Baylis used Premier League Primary Stars to improve the behaviour of KS1 boys, focusing on the values of respect, fair play and teamwork.

What England footballer Leah Williamson learnt at school

Arsenal and England defender Leah Williamson looks back on the efforts her school made to help her realise her footballing ambitions.

The post Women’s World Cup 2023 – Best football lesson plans, resources and ideas for KS1-KS4 appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
https://www.teachwire.net/news/fifa-world-cup-football-lesson-plans-resources-ideas/feed/ 0
Oracy in the classroom – Let’s help our students become better speakers https://www.teachwire.net/news/oracy-in-the-classroom/ https://www.teachwire.net/news/oracy-in-the-classroom/#respond Fri, 26 May 2023 15:14:52 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?p=382931 Our students will need to be confident speakers in their professional lives, observes Jenny Hampton – so why don't we teach oracy properly?

The post Oracy in the classroom – Let’s help our students become better speakers appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
Oracy in the classroom is about talk. So why, as a secondary school English teacher, do I want to scream? Why does the Spoken Language Endorsement occur in a vacuum of education policy for talk?

Student:So it’s really important, but not part of our overall GCSE grade?

English teacher:Yes. Presenting to an audience is a highly valuable life skill, and something that you may need to do in a whole range of education and workplace scenarios. It will not contribute to your English Language GCSE grade. You will receive it separately, and not as a numerical grade.

Student: ‘Oh.

I (mostly) love teaching the Spoken Language Endorsement part of the course – that is, a presentation on a specific topic lasting no longer than 10 minutes, including questions from listeners. But there’s always that point where we reach the conversation about it not being part of students’ main GCSE grade.

While students do eventually buy in and work on their presentations, they know that come results day, no one will ask about it. And that when they get to further education, it will be the numerical grades – and not the pass, merit and distinction they received for their SLE presentation – that matter.

A downgraded skill

In 2015, this spoken language component replaced ‘speaking and listening’ in the new GCSE as part of the ‘Govian’ reforms; Ofqual told us that it wouldn’t form part of the final grade. It therefore doesn’t factor into a school’s exam results profile which, in the current accountability structure of our schools, means it was spectacularly downgraded as a skill.

A 2021 report produced by The Centre of Education and Youth and Oxford University told us that the term ‘spoken language’ is ‘barely featured’ on Ofsted’s report recommendations. Their analysis highlighted that “Oracy does not feature prominently in Ofsted’s reporting,” but the issue extends beyond the regulator. The same report further found that only 23% of secondary teachers were confident in their understanding of the National Curriculum’s ‘spoken language’ requirements.

A separate report by the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group Inquiry meanwhile found that, “The status and provision of oracy education in England today falls significantly short” of the Group’s vision that, “All children and young people should benefit from high-quality oracy education.”

It’s become increasingly clear that talk, in all its forms, is far from being at the heart of our educational culture.

Widening the gap

Secondary school teachers know that not all students attended, or consistently attended their online lessons. I won’t forget how deeply uncomfortable and quiet some students visibly seemed from our side of screen in those sessions.

The aforementioned Oxford University report noted that, “Teachers working in state-funded settings were more than twice as likely as teachers working in private schools to say online teaching had a ‘significantly negative’ impact on pupils’ oracy.”

This side of COVID 19, how often do all students get to readily contribute in groups, pairs or whole class discussions? Who is struggling the most? Is there a noticeable gender divide? How wide is the gap between those in receipt of Pupil Premium and their peers in terms of vocabulary and talk confidence?

A huge body of evidence tells us that as far as latter is concerned, the gap is wide – but what does it look like in your school? Can students effectively manage exploratory group talk? How many students talk about experiencing fear and anxiety in the run-up to delivering their spoken language GCSE presentation?

A devastating picture

In May 2020, my daughter turned 2 – a crucial time in her language development. We celebrated her birthday as an immediate family unit socially distanced from everyone else in a breezy park. We waved nervously to another family we knew who also happened to be there. She didn’t see any members of her extended family, nor any peers from her childcare setting.

As I write these words, she is now in her final term of reception, and happily celebrated her fifth birthday last month with all of her classmates. However, much of the talk amongst parents there still dwelt on the impact of the pandemic on our lockdown toddlers.

And what about the students with SEND, pre-teens and EAL students? What impact did lockdown have on them? The CFEY and Oxford University report cites polling that paints, “A devastating picture regarding the pandemic’s impact” on children’s oracy skills.

We shouldn’t be surprised. There’s no reason to expect a positive outlook when our students stepped straight from social distancing and back into school cultures that don’t put oracy in the classroom on the same footing as literacy and numeracy.

What should we do about oracy in the classroom?

After screaming in frustration at the ongoing policy vacuum, we can begin to take some meaningful steps towards improving matters as teachers, leaders and advocates for young people.

We can start by a developing a heightened awareness of talk opportunities in our classrooms. Who is speaking, and when can we increase those opportunities? Some strategies might include ‘no hands up’ time, think-pair-share activities and utilising group feedback.

Could your class’ group work activities benefit from guidelines, modelling or sentence starters to facilitate discussion? We can also think about our curriculum. Could we build up students’ confidence in presenting via the gradual introduction of shorter speaking tasks at KS3? This doesn’t have to be just in English, but across our all subjects.

Another step we could take is to analyse the results of our spoken language components for yearly trends. We can probe how well our PP-eligible students are faring in this part of the course. Let’s all demand CPD opportunities and research time, with support from the brilliant organisations and advocates of oracy in the classroom that are among the biggest voices currently clamouring for change, such as Voice 21 and Oracy Cambridge.

We can start the conversation with our colleagues and senior leaders. Let’s seek to involve students more actively in assemblies, and explore other opportunities for public speaking. We can find out what our students think about their oracy development via class surveys, exit slips and questionnaires.

So let’s give up on the idea of simply screaming. Let’s instead get proactive about starting conversations with colleagues and students alike. We need to develop as many speaking opportunities as we can, step by step, to fill the vacuum.


Oracy in the classroom resources

Voice21
Provides case studies, research, CPD opportunities and guidance – the latter of which includes Voice21’s own ‘Oracy Benchmarks’.

Oracy Cambridge
Oracy Cambridge is a helpful source of downloadable resources. This includes self talk and peer reflection tools, as well exemplar discussion guidelines and The Oracy Skills Framework and Glossary.

Education Endowment Foundation
Find detailed impact reports pertaining to oracy studies and related projects in schools at EEF.

The Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group
This is a useful destination for case studies detailing progress in oracy in the classroom in primary and secondary schools.


Jenny Hampton (@brightonteacher) is an English teacher, literacy lead and former SLE (literacy)

The post Oracy in the classroom – Let’s help our students become better speakers appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
https://www.teachwire.net/news/oracy-in-the-classroom/feed/ 0
The Boy at the Back of the Class – KS2 planning https://www.teachwire.net/teaching-resources/the-boy-at-the-back-of-the-class-ks2-planning/ Fri, 26 May 2023 13:40:24 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?post_type=resource&p=382916 This free PDF of activity ideas will explain how to use modern classic The Boy at the Back of the Class to promote empathy and compassion in your KS2 classroom. It’s the perfect book to study during Refugee Week.   The Boy at the Back of the Class summary A mysterious new boy arrives in […]

The post The Boy at the Back of the Class – KS2 planning appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
This free PDF of activity ideas will explain how to use modern classic The Boy at the Back of the Class to promote empathy and compassion in your KS2 classroom. It’s the perfect book to study during Refugee Week.  

The Boy at the Back of the Class summary

A mysterious new boy arrives in Alexa’s classroom. Who is he? Where has he come from? Alexa befriends this stranger and listens to his story of escape from Syria, his dangerous trek across Europe and his longing to be reunited with his family.  

The Boy at the Back of the Class planning

The Boy at the Back of the Classroom by Onjali Q. Raúf will deeply move children and has a place in every KS2 classroom.

It covers themes of prejudice, difference and courage, all explored in ways which will lead children to ask questions, while enabling them to understand the content in an age-appropriate manner.

It will aid you in exploring what are usually considered ‘difficult’ topics in a way which still feels comfortable.  

Written from the convincing perspective of nine-year-old Alexa, pupils will relate to the ‘adult’ concepts and will be encouraged to consider the views of others, promoting empathy and compassion.  

Activity ideas

This PDF contains a wide variety of activity ideas, all based on The Boy at the Back of the Class. These include:

  • Discovering Syria
  • P4C enquiries
  • Figurative language
  • Role play
  • Writing descriptions
  • Using drama
  • Fact vs opinion
  • Reading for pleasure

Sample activity

Give the children a pomegranate so they can evaluate the author’s use of figurative language. Let them try a cup of pomegranate juice. Observe different fruits and write your own poems or descriptions.  


Johanna Howard is LKS2 Y3/4 lead at Weeke Primary in Winchester. Jonathan Rooke is a senior lecturer in education at the University of Winchester. 

The post The Boy at the Back of the Class – KS2 planning appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
Raising attainment in reading – Stop focusing on parental engagement https://www.teachwire.net/news/raising-attainment-in-reading-parental-engagement/ https://www.teachwire.net/news/raising-attainment-in-reading-parental-engagement/#respond Thu, 25 May 2023 14:07:38 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?p=382827 Focusing too heavily on parental engagement (or lack of it) in reading may be worsening the attainment gap. It’s time to move on...

The post Raising attainment in reading – Stop focusing on parental engagement appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
I try to avoid tweeting when riled. Having witnessed time and again the implications of an ill-conceived or poorly worded tweet, I prefer to post with caution. But, several months ago, frustrated and ill-tempered, I ignored my own advice and threw caution to the wind. I tweeted about raising attainment in reading.

I’m not up for censoring language, but I’d happily ban the phrase: ‘it’s because parents don’t read with them at home’ (as a reason for underattainment of disadv pupils in reading)! It’s irrelevant. The qu remains ‘what can we do to raise attainment during the school day?’ [sic]

Judging by the number of interactions and comments, I was not alone in this sentiment.

Many leaders and teachers responded sharing their belief that this phrase could do with booking a one-way trip to Room 101! 

To be crystal clear from the outset, I am not denying there is some truth to the statement.

Raising attainment in reading

We can make the tremendously difficult job of teaching children to read, and just as importantly, to enjoy reading, a great deal easier when there is an adult at home ready and able to support, guide and enthuse.

However, we must never consider a lack of home support as a deal-breaker to securing success.

If we accept this as fact, we face a reality whereby all children who find themselves in less than advantageous circumstances are condemned to a life of poor educational outcomes. This is simply unacceptable. 

Above all else, it is the futility of the statement that bothers me (hence the addition of the tongue-in-cheek GIF accompanying the tweet: a woman rolling her eyes alongside the caption ‘moving on!’).

Lack of home support

Because, when it comes to the issue of correlating underachievement in reading with lack of home support, that’s what we need to do if we want to keep raising attainment in reading; accept the unpalatable truth that support is not forthcoming and ‘move on’!  

Although we may not wish to admit it, the unspoken, and most likely sub-conscious, message we convey when we utter these words is: ‘The problem here lies outside my control; until the problem ‘out there’ is fixed, there is nothing I can do!’

In saying so, we are effectively outsourcing the problem. And, in turn, denying ourselves the opportunity to explore practices that could lead to improved outcomes for these pupils.  

Thankfully, our understanding of how to support struggling readers has advanced considerably in the last decade or so; there is no shortage of easily accessible, low cost, evidence-informed guidance that we can access.

With this comes the opportunity to turn the lens inwards and to focus on what lies within our control; that being the reflective and progressive advancement of our own pedagogy alongside developing a rock-steady understanding of effective inclusive practices. 

Parental engagement

To return to my initial point of contention: undoubtably, having support from home brings tremendous benefit.

As such, school leaders must continue to focus on engaging all parents in their children’s learning.

This is important work.

But we should acknowledge the challenge and limitations of achieving this aim. Engaging hard-to-reach parents is time-consuming and requires heavy investment of energy and resources over a sustained period.

It also requires the collective endeavour of many stakeholders.

Change of this nature takes time and, regrettably for children at risk of falling behind, time is not on their side.

In order to do right by them, we must accept an uncomfortable truth; that despite our very best efforts, some children won’t receive that help in a timely manner. Those children should not be further disadvantaged as a result.  

Put simply, a lack of home support must never be a reason for a child failing.

Instead, where home support is absent, we should recognise this as an opportunity to harness the power we have.

In this context, the phrase in my tweet becomes less of a conversation stopper, and more of a conversation starter.

Moreover, it becomes a call to action. Those around us with the authority and reach to make a change at a societal level are working hard to leverage the bigger social challenges that may prevent parents from engaging with their children’s education. And we can take solace knowing that in our classrooms, we hold the power.

When we acknowledge that, not only are we ‘moving on’, but we are empowering ourselves to make a difference. 

Penny Slater is education development & partnership lead at HfL education.  Follow her on Twitter @mrspennyslater

The post Raising attainment in reading – Stop focusing on parental engagement appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
https://www.teachwire.net/news/raising-attainment-in-reading-parental-engagement/feed/ 0
WAGOLL – Creating character https://www.teachwire.net/teaching-resources/wagoll-the-rescue-of-ravenwood-characters/ Tue, 23 May 2023 16:04:11 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?post_type=resource&p=382607 Peer inside the mind of the author, and help pupils understand how to write fascinating and believable characters...

The post WAGOLL – Creating character appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
Use this WAGOLL extract and accompanying resource pack to help teach your pupils how they can create engaging and believable characters.

The WAGOLL extract is from Natasha Farrant’s The Rescue of Ravenwood.

On the top of the hill, overlooking the sea, that’s where you’ll find a magical place… To Bea and Raffy, Ravenwood is home.

In its own way, the house rescued them, even if it did have a fallen-down tree taking up most of the kitchen.

So the idea that it could be sold – demolished even – well, that’s unthinkable.

Then again, it’s not like the children get a choice. But the truth is, we can all make our own choices, especially if we care enough… 

Climate change

Every story has a different starting point, and The Rescue of Ravenwood was born of a desire to write about the climate and ecological crisis on a scale that felt manageable for children, and in a way that balanced truth with hope.

It was a difficult book to write, chiefly because I wanted to stay true to the complexity of the issue while delivering not a lecture but a thumping good read. 

In this story, three children band together to save a place they love – a home and garden; a solace for wildlife and for people.

There are stowaways on trains and international police searches, heatwaves and fires, near drownings and swimming with seals, full-blown protests and long-buried secrets, friendship and family.

But of course, it’s those three children who are the key to the story. How can you be swept away, laugh, cry, care, if you don’t love the heroes? Or indeed share their struggle, fear for their lives, and urge them on, if you don’t believe in the villains?   

It’s all very well having an idea as a starting point, but ideas don’t live and breathe.   

The two biggest questions I ask myself when creating new characters are, ‘What do they want?’, and ‘What do they need?’.

These are rarely the same thing. For example, in my book, Noa wants her parents to get back together, but she needs to accept their separation.

These questions, applied to every single character, provide the framework on which the plot will hang, and those twin quests (one conscious, the other subconscious) will drive it forward, making for a satisfying read in which plot and character are completely intertwined.

They will also illuminate all those other questions you will need to ask about your characters’ qualities, flaws, and even their backstory. Here’s how I go about developing my characters… 

Download this WAGOLL resource pack to learn more about how Natasha crafts her characters.

The Rescue of Ravenwood by Natasha Farrant (£7.99, Faber & Faber) is available now.

The post WAGOLL – Creating character appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
Tier 2 vocabulary – How I used this website to save time https://www.teachwire.net/news/tier-2-vocabulary-time-saving/ https://www.teachwire.net/news/tier-2-vocabulary-time-saving/#respond Mon, 22 May 2023 15:27:46 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?p=382480 Streamline your teaching and reduce the anxiety around tier 2 vocab with this handy website, says Dan Smith...

The post Tier 2 vocabulary – How I used this website to save time appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
Even as an experienced teacher, it still made me nervous when I thought about how I taught tier 2 vocabulary.

Am I using the right methods? Should I use the Frayer model? Should I use vocabulary lists? How often should I test pupils?  

Some teachers would rightly argue that even before I got to the methods of teaching vocabulary, I need to correctly identify what words I should be teaching!

Firstly, there are the three tiers of vocabulary: basic, academic and specialist.

Secondly, the words generated by each topic. Thirdly, words that students would find useful in their own reading and writing.

How to teach vocabulary

As an English teacher I felt added pressure to be the expert in this field. I felt I had to immediately come up with effective strategies to ensure that students improved their vocabulary.

When I discovered Rewordify, it helped in two important ways: it had some amazing tools that helped save me and my department hours of prep time.

But perhaps more importantly, it also made me realise that I knew what I was doing all along; if there was a website that had the option to produce a glossary, matching exercises, and multiple-choice quizzes (all things I was already doing independently), then surely I was doing something right! 

How to use Rewordify

Probably the best thing about Rewordify is how easy it is to use.

Simply copy and paste any piece of text into the box on the home screen, and press the ‘Rewordify text’ button.

The website immediately identifies the tier 2 vocabulary in the text and gives you a range of options.

The default option is a copy of the text with all the difficult words changed into simpler ones, highlighted in yellow.

Pupils can read text fluently without being ‘interrupted’ by words they don’t know and having to check a glossary. 

However, although this option is useful, I find that simply replacing the difficult language with simpler words does not help children tackle more difficult language; it certainly won’t help to embed new words into their long-term memory!

So, instead of sticking with the default option, I click the ‘print/learning activities’ button, which presents a menu of options.

From this menu you can immediately produce a copy of the text with all the tier 2 vocabulary highlighted. You can also create a glossary down the side with those words defined.

This can be printed immediately with or without a space for the pupil’s name.

They are now able to engage with more challenging vocabulary. 

As I have already mentioned, even though a glossary will help a child to understand a piece of text, it will not help them retain that language.

There needs to be more interaction with the new words, including recall, before that language will be learned. 

Thankfully, the learning activities menu contains a range of useful ideas for literacy activities; including matching exercises and quizzes with different levels of difficulty.  

How I use it

Firstly, I can take the piece of text I wish to use and run it through Rewordify.

This will immediately identify and produce a list of the tier 2 vocabulary. I can then decide whether to pre-teach it, or use the text with a glossary and further embed the vocabulary afterwards.

If the vocabulary seems particularly difficult, I usually choose to pre-teach it.

However, if I feel that pupils will be confident and not overwhelmed, I use the extract with a glossary first and then embed the vocabulary in the following lessons. 

For example, in our scheme of work we have an extract from Great Expectations: the extraordinary moment where Pip is confronted by Magwich in the graveyard.

This is for a secondary class, but the approach would work just as well with an extract for KS2.

The description of Magwitch as a villain is vivid and terrifying; however, as a 19th century text there are several words that students wouldn’t understand.

I was able to identify all of the tier 2 vocabulary in the text. Students then had a glossary to use while they were reading.

After this, the matching exercises and word quizzes became literacy starters for the next few lessons.

Students would come into the room and immediately complete a matching exercise or a multiple-choice quiz in silence. You can scaffold this for KS2.

The regular use of multiple-choice quizzes in particular helped to embed the vocabulary from this moment in Dickens’ brilliant novel.  

Another benefit is that once I have created a glossary for an extract, I have it forever.

I can also add comprehension questions myself, thereby creating a powerful resource for my lessons.

I have done this for a range of gothic extracts; stories such as The Red Room and Dracula would not be accessible without sensible scaffolding, But, with the additions I have mentioned, students are able to explore the elements of a gothic story.  

Time-saving ideas

This website of course isn’t perfect; there will be times when you have to edit the glossary as it has either defined a word incorrectly, or it has identified a word that is too easy.

Even in the age of AI and ChatGPT, there still needs to be a professional teacher in charge of the final product or resource.

However, it still saves a huge amount of time to be able to create a glossary and print one in seconds with a couple of tweaks, rather than generate the definitions and the template yourself.

The same is true of the matching exercises and the quizzes.  

There’s an option to store your work on the website, however I download it so it’s stored on my drive.

My department uses a central drive for schemes of work, so I have been able to produce extracts with glossaries and comprehension questions for everyone in my department to use.

This benefits teachers and students alike. They can be used for several years, until we deem it necessary to change our materials.

However, the idea of changing materials and extracts is also less daunting as a result of using these tools. 

I found a time saving tool, but I also found reassurance that the fundamentals of literacy work.  


How to use Rewordify

  1. Copy any piece of text that you want to use 
  1. Open Rewordify.com and paste the piece of text into the box on the home screen and click the ‘rewordify text’ button 
  1. The website will automatically produce the ‘rewordified’ text. However, I think it is better to choose the other options. So, click on the ‘print/learning activities’ button, as simply replacing the difficult words won’t help much with vocab development 
  1. If you want the original text with a glossary on the side, you choose the ‘text with vocabulary option’  
  1. If you want a ‘matching’ exercise or quiz, simply choose these options from the same activities menu 
  1. You can either immediately print the resource you have created, or you can copy and save it to a Word document (I prefer this option).

Dan Smith has been an English teacher for 12 years, and shares a variety of resources online. Follow Dan on Twitter @teach_smith and see more of his work at linktr.ee/TeachSmith

The post Tier 2 vocabulary – How I used this website to save time appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
https://www.teachwire.net/news/tier-2-vocabulary-time-saving/feed/ 0
GCSE English Language revision – Best resources and ideas for teachers https://www.teachwire.net/news/5-of-the-best-last-minute-gcse-english-language-revision-resources/ https://www.teachwire.net/news/5-of-the-best-last-minute-gcse-english-language-revision-resources/#respond Mon, 22 May 2023 14:26:12 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/5-of-the-best-last-minute-gcse-english-language-revision-resources Help prepare your Year 11s as best as possible by easing any exam pressure with helpful study tools...

The post GCSE English Language revision – Best resources and ideas for teachers appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
It’s that time of year again. You want to help students with their GCSE English Language revision, without piling on the pressure.

If you can help them to revise in a way that doesn’t feel like a non-stop conveyor belt of information passing in one ear and out the other, you’ve made a decent start.

We’ve rounded up a selection of tips, tricks, games, worksheets to help with this year’s English language GCSE paper. Check them out to see if anything might help your class study more effectively and efficiently.


Past papers for GCSE English Language revision

Past exam paper to use for GCSE English Language revision

Just as we included them in our roundup of GCSE English literature revision resources it makes sense to start here with past papers.

Whichever exam board your school uses, you’ll find old papers at Revision World.


GCSE English Language revision worksheet

GCSE English Language revision worksheet

This two-page worksheet activity will encourage your GCSE pupils to focus on close analysis at word level.

First you need to read an extract from The Invisible Man by HG Wells, before picking out certain word classes. Then you fill in some incomplete sentences, analysing the author’s language choices.


Getting students to revise

Girl yawning at thought of GCSE English Language revision

English teacher and author Chris Curtis explains how to get your English students past the old ‘I can already read and write’ fallacy when the time comes for them to revise…

English can be a problematic subject to revise because it is so rich. The most highly motivated and driven students will attend revision sessions, complete practice papers and succeed. However, students in the middle can be very ‘middling’ in their attitude towards revision.

They are the students who, with just a few small changes, could make huge strides in their progress, if only we could get them to revise.

Booklets

What should students revise? How should they revise? These were the two questions we asked ourselves when addressing revision.

Having decided that practice and spaced practice were more important than copious notes, we produced a termly booklet of tasks that made the students practise a skill, or directed students to revise a particular aspect.

“We produced a termly booklet of tasks that made the students practise a skill”

Its contents related to the forthcoming mock exams and consisted of the following (5 of each):

  • Romeo and Juliet exam questions
  • A Christmas Carol exam questions
  • Pages for collecting key quotations
  • Tasks related to the reading section of GCSE English Language Paper 1
  • Photographs for planning Question 5 on Paper 1
  • Sentence structures to copy, imitate and practice
  • Banks of words to learn and practise in a sentence
  • Mind maps to create
  • Spaces for making notes from viewed YouTube videos
  • Spaces for the pupils’ own revision notes

We distributed the booklet towards the start of the term, and we didn’t give out any other homework. We explained to students that this booklet was designed to help build good habits in terms of revision and promote the strategy of ‘A little, often’.

On the front of each booklet was a grid, and for each task they completed they ticked off a square. We tracked their work across the term and monitored their progress towards achieving the goal of completing all 50 tasks by the end of the term.

The tasks themselves were largely short activities that didn’t involve the student having to write lengthy pieces or marking on the part of teachers.

We were looking for evidence that the students had engaged with the tasks, rather than producing the swathes of copied-out notes and highlighting that are often a poor proxy of revision.

“We were looking for evidence that the students had engaged with the tasks”

This approach transformed our approach to setting homework and monitoring engagement in the subject. It was particularly helpful for our weakest students, providing a supported, structured approach to revision that generated some excellent results.

Place the emphasis on students

We also changed the way we structured our curriculum.

Previously, in the run-up to the exams we would dedicate entire lessons to specific set texts or elements of the paper. We would break down the lesson schedule and produce a formula to cover what we felt was important:

‘Right, we have ten lessons left – so that’s three lessons for Macbeth, four for A Christmas Carol and two for the language papers…’

We abandoned this approach completely, in favour of placing the emphasis on students from an early stage.

Teachers are naturally kind, and in our kindness we’ll give students safety blankets. It used to be that if they didn’t revise, they would have at least had these last few lessons to help plug the gaps.

From the start of Y10, we made it clear that there was to be no more plugging of gaps or quick solutions. All students were given a cheap copy of the texts. They were responsible for making annotations in their books and keeping them safe.

“We made it clear that there was to be no more plugging of gaps or quick solutions”

We opted to now focus on the importance of all lessons, since there wouldn’t be another lesson going over the same things again at a later date. If they didn’t take in the material during this lesson, they’d just have to do more work later.

Things also changed in Year 11. Lessons now start with regular questions on all the texts, which serve to highlight gaps and areas for the students to work on – ‘Tom, you need to work on Macbeth; Jasmine, you need to work on your poetry.’

We were working to highlight gaps and direct students towards what they should focus on.

Keep parents in the loop

Do parents know what their children’s revision looks like? Schools throw the word ‘revision’ around with aplomb, but don’t spell out what revision should be and what it should look like to those people best placed to see it in action.

We therefore started regularly emailing parents about revision, beginning with a short email spelling out what students should be revising at that point and what they had been given to help them.

Later, I’d email parents telling them about the mock after the holiday, what it was on and where they could find some supporting resources.

This soon became a regular thing, and made sure that the same messages got home.

It also helped to ensure that some students weren’t pulling the wool over their parents’ eyes. I did have one student tell his mother that ‘revision homework was optional.’ Parents want to help their child, but we need to communicate what things should look like in practice.

“I did have one student tell his mother that ‘revision homework was optional”

Homework and revision are two external factors that are largely out of our control. Turning revision into a public relations event has really helped us and our students.

We are now much clearer about our expectations and what, for us, revision looks like.

Changing attitudes to revision means having a clear vision of revision. All too often, we leave things to chance.

Chris Curtis is author of the book How to Teach English, published by Crown House Publishing. Visit his website at learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com.

What parents need to know about revision
  • The date of each exam or mock
  • The texts students should be revising or rereading at that time
  • Where students can find resources
  • What materials you have given students to help them revise
  • What revision sessions are available for students
  • Details of any revision guides you recommend

Kray twins lessons

Krays lesson plan for GCSE English Language revision


Use this Kray twins Powerpoint, two reading extracts, worksheet and example answer to explore and practise skills for both Paper 1 and Paper 2. There’s enough materials here for three lessons.


Key terminology recap

Illustrated board game to use for GCSE English Language revision

This bundle of resources from TeachIt helps students recap key words and terminology for GCSE English Language. Go over important skills for the exam by playing some tried-and-tested games and activities, like this printable language board game.


Run a ‘lecture-style’ intervention programme

When Rainham Mark Grammar School head of English Mark McDowell decided to implement mini revision lectures in his school, he had no idea how well they would be received…

At my school we decided to offer 12 bespoke lectures for students to attend every Thursday afternoon, from January onwards. They were unashamedly academic in tone.

Two lectures would run, for between 30 and 40 minutes – one for English Literature and one for English Language. They would drill into a facet of the exam paper or area of a text.

All attendees would leave with a concrete skill or piece of knowledge that they could take with them into the examination. For example:

  • The Didactic Tone of Dickens: Exploring the Moral Messages of the Novel
  • Develop your understanding of Dickens’ intentions in writing the novel. This will help with context and exploration of authorial intent.
  • Apples and Oranges? Comparing Non-fiction Texts across the Centuries
    Develop your ability to compare two non-fiction texts 100 plus years apart. This is ideal for Paper 2, Question 4.

Of course, these could be tailored to the context of any particular school.

Planning and preparation

Teacher workload was a key consideration. Six teachers would plan two lectures each; that was it.

I had a wealth of experience in my department (76 years of English teaching experience – including two GCSE examiners, which I was at pains to let the Year 11 cohort know!) and this felt like a logical way to utilise that experience effectively.

In a department meeting, we discussed the areas we felt students needed help with. This is what informed the titles and content of the lectures. Teachers would deliver each lecture twice.

That meant I had 12 weeks of high-quality additional provision planned that could accommodate 60+ students a week. I also gave over one hour of directed department time to the planning of these lectures.

“I had 12 weeks of high-quality additional provision planned that could accommodate 60+ students a week”

How better could I use that time than allowing my department to plan – in some cases collaboratively – a suite of lectures to enhance the subject knowledge and skills of our students? It certainly beat going over data.

The lecture schedule was printed out and given to all Year 11 students as well as being emailed to parents. Posters were put up around the department and I also pushed it at assembly.

Additionally, guidelines on lecture etiquette were typed up on the sheet. The students needed to know that rocking up with a bag of Doritos and an energy drink was not going to happen. They were to arrive on time, and behave accordingly.

A flying start

I waited with bated breath. Would they really come in January for revision? Well, yes, they would. It’s early days, but so far the programme seems to have been a real success.

“Would they really come in January for revision?”

We had a full house on the first session. So, a third of our cohort had an additional lecture on either the presentation of women in Macbeth or how to compare two non-fiction texts. I was over the moon.

I’ll hand over the last words to one of our students, Christopher Key (Y11):

“The English Lectures have been a very positive contribution to revision. It is clear from my position as a student that a lot of effort has been put into organising the timetable. The English department has managed to fit in two lectures a week and they will be repeated so you can go to both before the exam.

“The lectures have attracted all levels of ability in the year and even the ‘cool’ students are making an effort to go. What more could you wish for?”

I’ll take that.


Revision tool archive

At getrevising.co.uk you can filter through the hefty bank of resources and narrow it down by level, subject, examining body and curriculum area. This means you can get exactly what your class needs.


More GCSE English revision techniques

English advisor Zoe Enser sets out the practices and strategies that will see your students triumph on exam day…

I’m always quick to move students away from busy and inefficient revision practices, like reading over the text, or using heavy streaks of highlighting without consideration of what said highlighting is for.

Instead, I use regular, short sessions to complete the below activities:

Revision clocks

This involves giving students an outline of a clock, divided into 12 blank segments (A3 size works well). They then add information to the segments, taking five minutes to complete each one (out of the 60 minutes represented by the clock).

This breaks their revision down into manageable chunks.

This activity can work well in any subject, though for English I’ll get the students to complete revision clocks based on key themes, concepts and characters.

It’s important to not cover too wide a topic, or else the completed segments can end up being rather superficial.

I’ll get them to practise doing this in class after modelling the process, so that they can see how it works. I’ll insist that they spend their full allocation of time really thinking hard about the concept, rather than moving on to another topic too quickly.

This is done ‘closed book’, so that they’re encouraged to retrieve as much as possible. Since they’re the ones selecting the information they want to include, they’re drawing on a generative learning process.

Having spent time focusing on the concept, we’ll then look at an exemplar, perhaps developed as part of the learning process, and note where the gaps are.

Flash cards

Similarly useful across a range of different subjects, these are especially handy for internalising bodies of knowledge and key English terminology.

Writing flashcards for specific texts that contain key quotes relating to, say, certain themes and ideas can be a powerful revision process in itself.

You can then couple this with the principles of spaced or distributed practice, getting students to organise the cards into different piles they can return to on different days.

If you can ensure that the information on the cards is indeed stored, you’ll have the makings of something really powerful.

Remember that it’s important for students to see where they’re struggling and where their knowledge gaps are. Allow them to decide which chapters in a text to return to, or what vocabulary they may need to revisit.

“Remember that it’s important for students to see where they’re struggling and where their knowledge gaps are”

Cornell notes

This note-taking system can be a really useful way of helping students organise their revision notes, while also providing them with opportunities to self-test.

It can work particularly well when reading through chapters of a text, watching a Shakespeare play or listening to a lecture.

Students simply divide a page into three sections – notes in a larger main section, key questions or revision topics down one side and an optional space at the bottom for summing up.

The main notes might comprise bullet points, sentences, diagrams and maps or some other generative activity that’s reliant on selecting, organising and integrating information into their schema.

The space at the bottom is there to provide a quick summary that students can use to review key topic information.

If, for example, students were to produce a page of Cornell notes for each poem in a series, chapter of a book or character in a play, they would eventually have their very own home-grown revision booklet, complete with quiz questions at the side of every page for ‘check and answer’ purposes.

Doing this will also let teachers quickly check if there are any misconceptions.

English Language tips

The above revision techniques are easy to apply to literature topics, where there’s a clear body of knowledge to accompany each text, but they can seem less practical for the largely unseen texts and tasks of English language study.

However, language still involves learning specific vocabulary – the structural or rhetorical devices specific to non-fiction texts, for example.

There are also processes when approaching language questions that are quite distinct from essay-style literature responses, which students need to be familiar with.

Self-testing techniques are still very much relevant when it comes to achieving the fluency and agility demanded by language papers in the exam room.

Students should get used to completing deliberate practise tasks for both language and literature topics. They should take the opportunity to read and annotate, plan their responses and answer longer questions as part of their revision.

“Students should get used to completing deliberate practise tasks for both language and literature topics”

It can be useful to turn these into distinct homework tasks and encourage the systematic approaches above, so that they’re able to focus on knowledge and retrieval. This will help them considerably when they come to attempt those longer exam responses that are designed bring their knowledge together.

Whatever they end up doing, your students need to be making sure that information is being retrieved, reconsidered and then stored all over again.

The more they do this, the more they’ll ultimately retain. The more intricate their schema, the more the new information will adhere to the old.

Metacognition

More importantly, good revision relies on elements of metacognition. Students need to be aware of what they have available to them in relation to a text and the knowledge they possess.

They then need to be clear where they may have gaps, and ensure they have the materials – be it lesson notes or revision materials you’ve provided – they need to restudy.

Above all, they must be clear that they’ll need to test themselves repeatedly to ensure this information remains available to them when they need it. Not just tomorrow, or next week, but during the mock, the actual exam in summer and any time after that.

This calls for a careful and systematic approach, and will involve hard work. There are no shortcuts.

“There are no shortcuts”

It doesn’t matter if their revision materials look pretty (unless that makes it more likely that they’ll actually use them). But they will need to be focused, designed for regular practice and able to get the relevant information stored in their heads for life.

Zoe Enser is a specialist advisor for English at The Education People.


Study guide

Here’s a handy 17-page PDF guide that takes you through each of the questions on both papers.


Geoff Barton resources

This page from Geoff Barton contains various resources for GCSE English that he has put together from his own teaching over the years. The revision archive includes Handy Revision Hints, ‘Interestingness’ and more.


Online GCSE English Language revision tips

This concise and well-presented revision guide should be well suited to young people’s tastes.


BBC Bitesize

One of the many benefits of the BBC Bitesize site is how well it is laid out. It’s so easy to find everything you need. And you know that it will all be formatted in a way that’s, as the site name suggests, easily digestible.

One of the other benefits is the the wealth of high-quality videos. These can be a great means of digesting information rather than students trying to cram in every note they’ve made, work they’ve done and handout you’ve created over the last year.

So, this video, for example, and its accompanying guide, takes pupils through the influence of poetry and rhyme on modern rap music.


Englishbiz

This set of skills-focused resources lets pupils test their skills at analysing poems, pieces of writing and more. They can also create their own piece.

The post GCSE English Language revision – Best resources and ideas for teachers appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
https://www.teachwire.net/news/5-of-the-best-last-minute-gcse-english-language-revision-resources/feed/ 0
5 reasons to try… FFT Success for All Phonics https://www.teachwire.net/products/fft-success-for-all-phonics/ Fri, 19 May 2023 07:22:00 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?post_type=product&p=381446 1. Pupils make great progress Our Unique Co-operative Learning pedagogy ensures that all your children are fully engaged and interact for the whole lesson. Pioneered by the Success for All foundation, the teaching method is proven to have a dynamic effect on children’s progress and attainment that is positive and long-lasting. “Children are relishing reading, […]

The post 5 reasons to try… FFT Success for All Phonics appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
30 Second Briefing

Success for All Phonics is a complete systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme that has been validated by the Department for Education.

Aimed at nursery children upwards and pioneered by the Success for All Foundation, it’s the perfect package to support primary school pupils from Early Years right through to Year 2.

FFT Education’s not-for-profit status means we can offer primary schools this highly comprehensive offering at a very affordable price.

1. Pupils make great progress

Our Unique Co-operative Learning pedagogy ensures that all your children are fully engaged and interact for the whole lesson. Pioneered by the Success for All foundation, the teaching method is proven to have a dynamic effect on children’s progress and attainment that is positive and long-lasting.

“Children are relishing reading, enjoying every minute of their lessons and making amazing progress.”

Sarah Hopkins, KS1 assistant headteacher, Cavendish Primary School

2. Includes our new Year 2 spelling and reading programme

Our new Year 2 offering consists of two elements: Spelling with the Jungle Club, our brand-new spelling programme, together with Routes to Reading, our second-generation reading programme.

Existing Success for All Phonics schools have access included in their subscription. Non-subscribing schools can also access these resources as a stand-alone package.

3. It’s simple to teach

Success for All Phonics is based on the Letters and Sounds progression and provides all your teachers with a complete print and digital package for whole-class phonics teaching.

Engaging daily lesson plans support easy teaching and effective progression through a clear structure based on the six phases of Letters and Sounds, including reading, writing and spelling.

4. Features access to our digital catch-up programme & online Reading Assessment platform

Our standard DfE-accredited phonics package includes free access to a range of other exciting FFT reading products to ensure that your pupils make the best possible start.

Our reading catch-up platform, Tutoring with the Lightning Squad, improves reading skills for pupils in Years 1 to 6. Our Unique Reading Assessment Programme is also included – a simple and effective online assessment tool designed to assess pupils on their GPC accuracy, decoding accuracy and fluency levels.

5. Getting started is straightforward

Experienced phonics experts provide initial training and ongoing support to teachers and schools, ensuring effective implementation and best practice. The training is available on-demand, live online or face to face.

Schools also have access to a wide range of further free professional development.

Find out more at fftedu.org/SFA5R or email our team at phonics@fft.org.uk

Need to know

The post 5 reasons to try… FFT Success for All Phonics appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
Tier 2 vocabulary – How it builds precision https://www.teachwire.net/news/tier-2-vocabulary-precision/ https://www.teachwire.net/news/tier-2-vocabulary-precision/#respond Mon, 15 May 2023 16:12:00 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?p=381355 Subject-specific vocabulary is important, concedes Matt MacGuire – but we neglect that crucial tier 2 vocabulary at our peril…

The post Tier 2 vocabulary – How it builds precision appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
When starting to think about tier 2 vocabulary, consider the following sentence:

The food dye will eventually turn all of the water blue, because the fluid molecules will continually move from areas of high concentration to areas of lower concentration, across the concentration gradient, until the fluid molecules are evenly distributed across the body of water.

And now consider this sentence:

Through the process of diffusion, the food dye will turn all of the water blue.

The difference between these two sentences is that the latter uses the expert word ‘diffusion’. This word, with its precise definition (the net movement of molecules from an area where they are at a higher concentration, to areas where they are at a lower concentration) obviates the need for a longer and clunkier explanation.

Of course, this second, much shorter sentence contains an element of assumed knowledge with its use of the word ‘diffusion’. Words carry knowledge, which is drawn from the precise definition associated with the signifier.

Words are, essentially, shorthand for their respective definitions. The correct deployment of expert words demonstrates expert understanding.

A laborious struggle

Consider another pair of example sentences. This…

The repetition of the consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words in the sentence, ‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past’ establishes the rhythmic and inescapable power of the tide and the past.

And then this…

The alliteration in the sentence ‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past’ establishes the rhythmic and inescapable power of the tide and the past.

Once again, expert language allows for concision and precision – albeit with the shorter sentence relying upon shared understanding of expert vocabulary. It only works if everyone understands, and agrees upon, the definition of ‘alliteration’.

In order to use expert vocabulary confidently, students must develop automaticity. If the process of writing involves a laborious struggle to call to mind the right words, then the student will have little remaining cognitive capacity to think about the bigger concepts they’re exploring, or the exam question they’re answering.

Automatised actions

When you drive a car, you don’t consciously think about performing the actions of changing gears, adjusting your foot on the clutch, holding the steering wheel in the right position or flicking the indicator switch because you don’t need to. Those actions have become automatic for you, the expert driver.

Having these automatised actions at your disposal helps you enormously with the task of driving to work. If someone steps into the road unexpectedly, you can instantly respond with the correct, automatised action – namely hitting the brakes.

Similarly, we need our students to be able to quickly and effortlessly draw upon the best vocabulary for getting the job done. If they can’t, their only recourse is to produce laborious, imprecise and long-winded sentences. There simply isn’t time for this in public examinations or academic university interviews.

Specialist language

As we strive to develop automaticity in our students’ use of vocabulary, it’s become popular in education to refer to the specialist language of academic subjects as ‘tier 3 vocabulary’. These are the words most strongly associated with a particular discipline.

English, for example, has ‘metaphor’. Geography has ‘tectonic’; history has ‘anachronistic’; biology has ‘peristalsis’; ICT has ‘algorithm’. These words amount to a subject’s jargon, forming an ‘in-language’ for those in the know. Once you’ve internalised this secret code, you can better understand the subject and communicate your expertise much more efficiently.

The importance of tier 3 vocabulary is widely recognised. Teachers give due emphasis to instructing students in its proper usage. It’s long been obvious to secondary school teachers that students need these tier 3 words in order to succeed.

But increasingly, teachers have also been turning their attention to tier 2 vocabulary.

Tier 2 vocabulary

Tier 2 vocabulary isn’t as specialist as tier 3 vocabulary, but nor is it as simplistic as tier 1 vocabulary. It’s not ‘cat’, ‘dog’, ‘mum’ or ‘keys’, and isn’t ‘longshore drift’, ‘pathetic fallacy’, ‘nucleus’, ‘leverage’ or ‘ratio’. It’s the language in between; the kind of intelligent and sophisticated vocabulary that’s useful across all subject domains.

Tier 2 vocabulary consists of words like ‘pragmatic’, ‘façade’ and ‘interconnected’. These are the words of The Guardian, BBC Radio 4 and educational documentaries. Some families will transmit these words to their children by osmosis when speaking at the dinner table or around the house.

“Increasingly, teachers have also been turning their attention to tier 2 vocabulary”

These are the words that will be missing for some disadvantaged children. This is possibly because their parents don’t have those words themselves, or lack the time to sit with them at mealtimes.

Tier 2 words are the words that create the vocabulary gap. They leave underprivileged students without the words they’ll need to understand new content, or express their ideas convincingly and with nuance.

Consequently, these students fall further behind every year because words are sticky, just like knowledge itself. When a student knows the word ‘implicit’, it’s easier for them to then learn ‘imply’, ‘implied’, ‘implication’, ‘implicitly’ and ‘implicated’. From there, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to ‘explicit’, ‘explicitly’ and ‘explication’.

Lazy assertions

Words work in family groups, and it’s far easier to learn a new word if you already have a related word in your vocabulary. For more advantaged children, the massive web of more sophisticated vocabulary endowed upon them by their position of relative privilege makes language acquisition an almost automatic process.

For those with the most restricted vocabularies, on the other hand, learning new words is a hugely demanding task that impacts upon cognitive load. If you don’t understand the words, you’ll have little chance of grasping the meaning of the sentence.

Please don’t believe the lazy, ill-informed assertion that you can work out the meaning of a word from the context of the sentence, because you can’t. Disadvantaged students certainly can’t. At best, you can work out the function of the word – whether it’s an adjective, verb and so on – from its position in relation to other words. Beyond that, it’s guesswork.

Combatting inequality

Our students deserve better than the mere opportunity to try and guess the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary. They need proper, robust vocabulary instruction.

Words are power. When we build our students’ tier 3 vocabulary, we’re doing the bare minimum by equipping them with subject knowledge. Once we expand this into the realm of tier 2 vocabulary, we’re suddenly doing much more. We’re combatting inequality by bridging the vocabulary gap.

Teachers and subject leaders should give careful thought to the words that will be taught to students during each unit or scheme of work. Vocabulary acquisition in tier 2 and tier 3 should be carefully mapped out in advance, rather than left to chance. That way, all our students stand a better chance of understanding nuance and communicating with precision.

Matt MacGuire is an assistant headteacher; this article is based on a post originally published at his blog, Ten Rules for Teaching

The post Tier 2 vocabulary – How it builds precision appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
https://www.teachwire.net/news/tier-2-vocabulary-precision/feed/ 0
Handwriting practice – How to roll, skip and stir your way to improved longhand https://www.teachwire.net/news/handwriting-practice-practical-idea/ https://www.teachwire.net/news/handwriting-practice-practical-idea/#respond Fri, 12 May 2023 16:15:59 +0000 https://www.teachwire.net/?p=381026 Handwriting is still a necessary skill, so follow these top ideas for keeping on top of it in your class...

The post Handwriting practice – How to roll, skip and stir your way to improved longhand appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
Handwriting can be like a fingerprint – unique to its owner and an expression of identity – and plenty of handwriting practice is essential.

At the start of a new academic year, how long does it take us to be able to distinguish the child belonging to an unnamed piece of work?

Probably just a couple of weeks – days even – before we can identify the owner based on their handwriting alone.

If handwriting is a piece of us on a page, often for others to see, it’s understandable that some feel their handwriting is a representation of their self.  

Struggling with handwriting can cause frustration over time: some even find it embarrassing.

Someone brimming with ideas but unable to record them legibly could become disengaged with writing as a whole. 

Is handwriting practice important?

There’s plenty of emphasis on handwriting in the EYFS profile, and throughout the KS1 and KS2 English national curriculum.

Yet it splits opinion in terms of its purpose in the digital age. While some would posit that it is not a skill worth pursuing these days, recent research suggests that writing by hand, rather than typing on a device, activates the brain. It creates ‘much more activity in the sensorimotor parts of the brain’ (van der Meer, 2020). This helps us to both learn and remember more effectively.

Fluent handwriting will support writing stamina too.  

Once pupils have achieved fluent handwriting, cognitive capacity is freed up to concentrate on the higher-level writing skills. Expending all energy on thinking about the shapes that represent sounds leaves little room for coming up with something interesting to say.

Furthermore, research suggests that practising words in fluent handwriting over and over can help us spell, using muscle memory.

With increased automaticity in spelling too, children can focus on composition when transcription is no longer a chore.  

How to teach handwriting

With their gross and fine motor skills developed, children will be better prepared for the demands of accurate and consistent letter formation. (For ideas on how to do this, try the activities listed at the end of this article).

While it can be tempting to teach handwriting along with phonics as children learn each grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC), teaching children groups of letters based on their formation makes independent writing easier.

If a child has mastered formation of the letter ‘l’, working on the letters ‘i’, ‘u’, ‘t’, ‘j’ and ‘y’ will be easier; each starts with a vertical, downwards stroke. Likewise, forming ‘c’ correctly will greatly support writing ‘a’, ‘d’, ‘g’, and so on.  

The National Handwriting Association sets out great guidance in their ‘Good Practice for Handwriting’ toolkit.

This fabulous, free resource explores the four ‘P’ checks: posture, pencil, paper, pressure and the eight ‘S’ factors: shape, space, size, sitting, stringing, slant, speed, style required for the process and product of handwriting.

Understanding each of the four Ps and eight Ss of handwriting will allow direct teaching of each aspect. This supports children in ‘getting it right’ to begin with.

Diagnostically assessing pupils, using these criteria, will allow you understand the barriers children are facing.

Set a short writing task for your class and take time to monitor each child. How are they sitting? What is their pencil grip like?

You can then tailor the support offered based on your assessments. When we identify the ‘tricky bit’, it is easier to make specific interventions to address and overcome the challenge.  

Classroom strategies

The ‘gold standard’ 

Work with a child to identify a piece of work they are proud of in terms of handwriting and presentation (not handwriting practice).

Photocopy and stick it into the cover of the child’s book as a pull-out flap. The child can then open this up whenever they start a new piece of work.

This is their own ‘gold standard’ below which they would not wish to drop.  

Small steps pathway 

Supporting pupils to improve letter by letter will have a snowball effect. Identify one or two letters that the child is consistently writing incorrectly.

Model the letter formation explaining what you are looking out for.

Then, get the pupil to practise with you, and give them feedback. Challenge the child to start each piece of work with a row of these letters.

Which ones are they proud of? Continue each week with a new letter, recording the previously addressed letters on a bookmark. 

Building stamina 

Build stamina gradually. Can pupils give you one line of their ‘gold standard’ (possibly joined) handwriting today before they drop back to a more relaxed script? What about two great lines tomorrow and a short paragraph next week?

Could they choose a short section of a written activity to edit and publish in polished form?

This technique is particularly useful when you have children who can’t sustain a joined script when writing at speed. They can write in a joined hand for a while, then revert to print if they find that easier or quicker until they have developed the skill.  

Writing at speed 

Consider if you need to introduce an element of writing at speed into handwriting practice.

Set out the expectations for a lesson at the beginning, e.g: “These notes are for you, so make sure you can read them at the end,” versus “This poem is going on display so do your best joined script today and take your time with presentation.”  

A two-pronged approach 

If children struggle with handwriting so much that it is a genuine barrier to their learning, take a two-pronged approach.

Whilst some activities and lessons are dedicated to developing the skill of communicating in handwritten form, ensure others remove that barrier so pupils can concentrate on the task at hand.

Can the child use the speech-to-text function in Word to dictate their ideas? Can you build the child’s typing skills? The final point looks ahead to skills for life.  


Practical activities for handwriting practice

Children who have had plenty of opportunities to develop motor skills through play and exploration in their early years are more likely to have developed foundations for writing. Try these activities to build these skills: 

  • Rolling, climbing and skipping will not only support children to develop their arm and shoulder strength, core strength and flexibility, but it will also prepare them for using tools such as pencils more confidently.  
  • The variety of motion in activities such as threading, stirring, doing up buttons, using spray bottles and making models with clay lays the foundation for the directional movements necessary for letter formation.  
  • Children require the ability to cross their midline. Take note of whether they can they paint or draw a long horizontal line across a large piece of paper/on the floor from their left to right or vice versa without swapping hands. Can they use one hand to roll a car along a track from their left to their right? If not, you could try playing hand clapping games, kicking a ball, rotating the upper body, or creating big art with large circular motions. How about getting out the gymnastics ribbons to trace large shapes and letters in the air?  
  • Some older children will benefit from revisiting gross and fine motor activities to strengthen the muscles and develop the dexterity required for writing. Once ready to put pen to paper, mark making and pre-writing shapes can continue to build fine motor skills and develop hand strength and co-ordination, alongside a rich diet of ‘busy fingers’-style activities. 

Juliet McCullion is primary English teaching and learning adviser at HfL Education. See more on Twitter @HfL_Education 

The post Handwriting practice – How to roll, skip and stir your way to improved longhand appeared first on Teachwire.

]]>
https://www.teachwire.net/news/handwriting-practice-practical-idea/feed/ 0