Word Aware (Spiral Bind): Teaching vocabulary across the day, across the curriculum

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We can also train Teachers and Teaching Assistants in using Word Aware. The next training date is the 27th March 2018 at the RCSLT in London – follow this link to Eventbrite to book your place Word group spinner– as demonstrated when the computer failed you don’t really need anything fancy, just something to point with or a pot to hold the cards. On one side have 4 letters and on the other 4 categories such as noun, verb, adjective, living thing, food etc. then choose one from both sides and see if you can find 5 words to fit the sound and category. Either do it together or turn it into fastest wins! Word Aware is a whole school vocabulary approach to promote vocabulary development in children. This method of developing spoken and written vocabulary in all children is evidence-based following extensive research by Anna Branagan and Stephen Parsons. It is of particular value for children with special education needs and for those learning English as an additional language. Activate – This is an aspect that it’s easy to forget about, I think. This is where the children explore the word more through practical activities to help them gain a fuller understanding of it. This sounds time-consuming, but it doesn’t actually require a lot of additional activities, but more highlighting the word regularly in the activities already planned as part of the topic. I think the Word Wall would be a great way to keep the new vocabulary in the minds of both staff and pupils so that it is used often and in as many contexts as possible. It’s a bit like putting a note on the fridge to ensure that you see something and remember it!

Set one: Longer version for schools which are still open for selected children. These activities may also be adapted and sent home. Word Aware’ is a whole school approach for developing vocabulary. It is a fun and engaging way to promote word learning for all children across your primary or elementary school. It provides lots of ideas and resources to inspire you. ‘Word Aware 1’ is focussed on the primary years, ‘Word Aware 2’ is specifically for Early Years and Word Aware 3 is for high needs learners. Word Aware is a fast-paced, fun and interactive workshop style day, which will leave participants well equipped to start Word Aware in their schools or with individual students. You will leave the day with lots of practical ideas on how to develop vocabulary in your school or caseload.It is based on a system called STAR (Blachowicz and Fisher, 2010) and I think this process is a really helpful way to think of vocabulary teaching. You can’t teach a word one day and then forget about it – it needs to be a much more systematic approach. STAR stands for Select Teach Activate Review. It obviously isn’t realistic to sum up the whole of the approach in one blog post, but I thought I would talk today about each of these 4 aspects a little bit. In the book, Stephen and Anna apply this to topics, literacy, concepts and emotions, but the principles are the same and I’ll talk about topic vocabulary here. A practical session on administrating formal and informal assessments with Paediatric and adult client groups Word Aware 2 was published in 2016. It is based on the same principals as Word Aware but it is adapted for the Early Years. It includes the fun and engaging ‘Concept Cat’ method to teach children early verbal concepts such as ‘both, corner, smooth and after’. Word Aware 2: Early Years book is available from Routledge. Language for Behaviour and Emotions’ has been developed with Melanie Cross. This practical, interactive resource is designed to be used by professionals who work with children and young people who have Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs and Speech,Language and Communication needs.

Vocabulary levels are strong predictors of later literacy skills. They predict not only how well children will develop reading comprehension, but also their phonological awareness and phonic knowledge. Vocabulary level at age five has been found to be the single best predictor of whether a child brought up in poverty will escape poverty in adult life. Without a good vocabulary, children struggle to understand what they are taught, to express how they feel, to manage social situations and resolve conflicts” – Jean Gross CBE in the Foreword to the Word Aware book.Word Aware’ courses require some access after the course. Generally 2 to 4 copies per school for ‘Word Aware 1’ an one copy per school for ‘Word Aware 2’ and ‘Word Aware 3’ is adequate. Articulate– describe a word without using key words, you can buy this or make your own version with your child’s topic words.

Language for Thinking’ is a targeted intervention for developing a child’s ability to understand questions, starting from the most concrete (e.g. Who? Where?) and moving on to the more abstract (e.g. Why? How?). ‘Language for Thinking’ is widely used because it is effective and easy to implement. Word Aware 1 is an invaluable tool for teachers and other professionals looking to support children as they broaden their vocabulary. It is particularly suited to children aged 5–11 years but can easily be adapted for older children. Step-on words – these are words that are very specific to the topic but are not so important for understanding the topic and are less likely to come up frequently. The SENCO role was established nearly thirty years ago in the SEN Code of Practice 1994 where it stated that all mainstream schools must have a SENCO responsible for coordinating services around children with SEN.This course is suitable for Speech and Language Therapists, Class Teachers, curriculum co-ordinators, specialist teachers, Head teachers, SENCOs and Educational Psychologists. The teacher will select the appropriate words to teach using the Word Aware approach. These will be really useful words which are likely to be encountered again in spoken language or reading. The average adult will have a good level of knowledge of the word. Topic words will be taught where they are core to topic learning. Anchor words – these are words which would be expected to be known by the majority of children of this age and which come up in everyday life.