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

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If you would like to arrange online training for your school or service go to commissioning training In September 2014, I trialled the use of Word Aware with my Year 5 class. These children had particularly poor language skills and found it difficult to understand the books they were reading. They also used quite basic language in their own writing. After such a positive trial with this class, we held a Word Aware staff meeting to get the whole school involved in using these approaches. This then became a target on our Raising Achievement Plan for Writing. 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! The Word Aware early years approach is based on the same theory as the original Word Aware resource but is adapted for the Early Years. Fun with words: Big Brain (I think with my big brain something that is (meaning clue) and it starts with a (letter clue)

Select – This is the first hurdle and the one that I’ve always found the most difficult. We were encouraged to identify the key vocabulary involved in a particular topic being taught and then divide this into 3 different levels.:-Anna Branagan is a Speech and Language Therapist. In Gloucestershire, Anna works within a Youth Support Team supporting vulnerable young people. In Worcestershire, she works within mainstream schools supporting inclusive practice. Anna trained at Leeds Metropolitan University 25 years ago. She is the co-author of bestselling Speechmark resources Language for Thinking (second edition, 2017), Word Aware 1 (second edition, 2022) Word Aware 2 (2017) and Language for Behaviour and Emotions (2020). Waldfogel and Washbrook, (2010) found a two year gap at aged 5 years between the wealthiest and the poorest. And as Ford-Connors and Paratore (2015) highlight ‘students who enter classrooms with a low store of vocabulary knowledge are unlikely to acquire complex knowledge through simple exposure’. 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.

This free chapter will guide teachers on how they can support vocabulary development in all children. It introduces a structured framework called Word Aware, explaining the theory behind the approach, the key principles of effective vocabulary teaching and how it can be implemented in the classroom. It also includes activities that can be put into practice immediately. This free resource includes a series of visual summaries that provide an overview of the Word Aware Approach for Early Years Practitioners. It also includes several teaching concepts that will promote children's natural word learning. 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. Word Aware has been developed by combining up to date research with extensive classroom experience. Stephen Parsons and Anna Branagan have been using this approach and training many practitioners since 2010. The end product is an effective and time efficient method for developing the spoken and written vocabulary of all children. It has been enthusiastically received by class teachers, head teachers, curriculum coordinators, Special Needs co-coordinators, Learning Support Assistants and Speech and Language Therapists / Pathologists.This approach is full of practical and inspiring ideas that can be easily applied by busy classroom practitioners to develop both spoken and written vocabulary. 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 Aware continues to have a supportive application in secondary schools as pupils begin to require an understanding of specialist and subject-specific vocabulary. Ages: 0-5 (Pre-School), Ages: 5-8 (Lower Primary), Ages: 8-10 (Middle Primary), Ages: 10-12 (Upper Primary) It is taken from Word Aware 2: Teaching Vocabulary in the Early Years by Stephen Parsons and Anna Brannigan and provides you with a chance to take a look inside this much loved resource.

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 Thinking’ and ‘Language for Behaviour and Emotions’ courses require access to the book during the course.This is a highly practical, comprehensive resource designed to support Early Years practitioners in the provision of effective vocabulary development in preschool children of all abilities. It is based on the same theory as the existing 'Word Aware' resource (9780863889554) but is adapted for Early Years. Vocabulary is important the world over. In the US, the Common Core has brought vocabulary to the fore whilst in England the curriculum specifically highlights the importance of vocabulary. Vocabulary is important from Early Years right through to secondary / high schooling as a result of the vast explosion of topic specific information.

Word of the day or week– as a family see how many times you can use your target word in a meaningful way during the week. The only rules are the sentence must make sense and fit into your conversation. Find it- before or even after reading a book with your child identify words they might not understand, write them down and ask them to find it in the story, can they then use the clues and their reading skills to work out what it means. They could use a dictionary to find the meaning or look in a thesaurus to find words with similar meanings. Touch, taste and smell– take every opportunity to describe sensory experiences. Ask them to describe it to you, try to encourage them to use more detailed words than nice or bad, such as rough or sweet. Understand concepts in subjects such as maths and science • Develop reading comprehension • Write expressively • Succeed academically and in life. Word Aware can be delivered as a whole-school INSET training day or as a series of twilight sessions. Choose your main focus:

Treasure Hunt– on the way to and from school, look for things you could describe by a particular word like shrivelled or spiky. Categories such as living things, things with circles, things with engines. English–Arabic English–Bengali English–Catalan English–Czech English–Danish English–Hindi English–Korean English–Malay English–Marathi English–Russian English–Tamil English–Telugu English–Thai English–Turkish English–Ukrainian English–Vietnamese Consultative support, including coaching and class demonstrations, can be arranged following your training to help you get off to a flying start!