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. 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. As a school we are enhancing the way we teach vocabulary by using the strategies and ideas from the ‘Word Aware’ program. Word Aware is a comprehensive and structured approach to use throughout the school to promote vocabularydevelopment in all children.

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. We began by introducing the STAR literacy approach. The Select, Teach, Activate, Review process meant that we chose words from the class text, we then taught and activated them using a range of Word Aware strategies and then built in review time to enable the children to develop a secure understanding of these words.

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. 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.

Set two: shorter version for families who are home-schooling. Involve the whole family and play the ones you like. 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. A hands on practical day in how to carry out therapy with an adult Neuro and community client group

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.:- We are working in pertnership with Lift Lessons. They have developed amazing videos on science concepts for 6-14 year olds. A great resource. Teaching covers phonological sound, syntactic grammar and semantic meaning. In other words, we will be teaching the sound and initial letters of the word; what word class it is (for example, a noun, adjective, adverb, verb) including how the word is structured in a sentence; and what the word means. Children will have access to dictionaries to look up the word, they will consider synonyms and will create their own sentences with the word to consolidate meaning. Other activities used include: word raps, word songs, acting out the word, discussing prefixes and suffixes, symbols or pictures, spelling of the word, syllables, rhyme, physically experiencing the word (where possible), using objects, links to what the children already know and identifying related situations that the word does not apply to. 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. 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.

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. Consultative support, including coaching and class demonstrations, can be arranged following your training to help you get off to a flying start! Set one: Longer version for schools which are still open for selected children. These activities may also be adapted and sent home. It is a known fact that children with good vocabulary go on to become good readers. Orally tested vocabulary at the end of first grade is a significant prediction of reading comprehension 10 years later (Cunningham and Stanovich,1997). However, children do not always come into schools with a basic vocabulary. Although vocabulary development is crucial for school success, it has not received the attention and interest that work on identifying printed words and spellings have received (Biemiller and Slonim, 2001). The evidence is clear – we can make a difference by providing consistent attention to vocabulary growth, which in turn would improve literacy growth. 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.

Word Aware continues to have a supportive application in secondary schools as pupils begin to require an understanding of specialist and subject-specific vocabulary.

Fun with words: Big Brain (I think with my big brain something that is (meaning clue) and it starts with a (letter clue) We have used many ideas from the resource book such as the Word Bag and Vocabulator. These support the essential Review process and can be used whenever you have a few spare minutes! 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 Ages: 0-5 (Pre-School), Ages: 5-8 (Lower Primary), Ages: 8-10 (Middle Primary), Ages: 10-12 (Upper Primary) If you would like to arrange online training for your school or service go to commissioning training

For many children, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) or those whose home language isn’t English (ELL or EAL learners), the vocabulary of the classroom can be a barrier to learning. This book outlines how to best support these children who require extra help, offering concrete, easy-to-implement activities and resources for use in small groups, to maximise the impact on learning and open up access to the curriculum. Once a word is taught, it is placed on a word wall. These words then need to be reviewed (repeated) by the class in both their writing or their spoken language (both needed in the right context). In addition, we play games to consolidate our understanding of these words and will send out a list of words (fridge words) we will teach each half term to allow you to discuss and review these words with your child at home. 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. Teaching vocabulary: Teaching topic related vocabulary using STAR approach. S- Select words from the curriculum