Teach Secondary - Issue 13.2

1 SEIZE EVERY OPPORTUNITY Enourage your students to always question their base-level understanding of words or vocabulary they already know, and apply this to the challenge or query they’re facing. We need them to grapple with reading discovery, and be presented with opportunities for vocabulary development every day, across all classes and school settings. 2 CONNECT, QUESTION, CROSS-CHECK Improving students’ reading will require them to improve their vocabulary, so be a champion for connecting, questioning, and cross-checking. If, for example, students know the word ‘chronology’ refers to the study of time, ask them what’s meant by ‘chronic pain.’ If they say, ‘bad pain’, query this – “How can it be ‘bad pain’ if we know ‘chron’ is linked to time?” We need students to experience ‘desirable difficulty’ because it’s during struggle that we learn. 3 EXPLORE MORPHEMIC ANALYSIS The majority of the English Language is made up of morphemes – small units within words that hold their own meaning. If we can increase our knowledge of morphemes, then it follows that we can decode the meaning of any word . This is where Lexonik Vocabulary Plus (bit.ly/ ts132-Lex1) is especially effective. 4 INVOLVE STUDENTS IN SELECTING CORE WORDS In any subject or topic, there will be certain pivotal keywords. What are they, and what level of comprehension is required to understand them? Involve students in listing these ‘priority words’, and get them comfortable with analysing their own knowledge gaps. Ensure that your students can interpret specialist vocabulary early on in the unit, curriculum or Key Stage, as this will allow for further exploration related to synonyms and inferences. Lexonik’s Sarah Ledger explains how to successfully implement vocabulary instruction and ensure it becomes a ‘classroom habit’ At a glance School-wide Vocabulary Instruction ASK THE EXPERT • Get students questioning and connecting • Bring vocabulary learning into everything • Identify solutions to empower teaching For more information, visit lexonik.co.uk or email enquiries@lexonik.co.uk PA R T N E R C O N T E N T 56 teachwire.net/secondary