Teach-Secondary-Issue-14.5

Winning words Students can often struggle with subject-specific vocabulary, writes Meera Chudasama – which is why it’s worth trying to inject a little fun into the process… M ore often than not, we’ll ask students to guess the meaning of a word, or generate words for a particular idea. This often takes up a lot of time, and disadvantages those students who don’t come from word-rich backgrounds. So why not give students words in smaller, bite-size chunks and then provide themwith opportunities to use those newwords while experimenting with other words in your subject area? Here, I want to outline a few literacy strategies that can support students in the classrooms of some very different lessons. Before tackling a new concept or topic, consider the differing degrees of literacy your students are going to have, and think about how you can tackle the fears and difficulties some may experience when learning tricky words. The games and activities outlined below can all help students become familiar with new, subject- specific vocabulary in an engaging way, and discover how they can use said vocabulary in their work. Literacy starters The first 10 minutes of a lesson provide a great opportunity to revise prior learning, highlight any misconceptions and introduce any new terminology you want your students to learn. One way of ensuring more needs are met is to use a starter selection of four short literacy activities that students can choose from. These activities can change and alternate across the topics you’ll be teaching throughout the academic year. An example of what this might look like for a geography lesson can be seen in fig 1. The activities in the grid are designed to test students’ prior knowledge, understand new terms and help them become more critically engaged with the wider world. The keyword task will support students in developing their writing with newwords, or terms that are especially tricky. The anagrams, on the other hand, will be useful practice for students who might be struggling to remember and recall words they should already be familiar with. The aim of the ‘In the news’ activity is to get students making links between the course and the wider world to develop their skills of interpretation, while the ‘Quiz it!’ activity serves as a tool for gauging what students have retained and understood from previous topics. Reading aloud and audiobooks Whilst it may be great to hear students reading aloud, don’t forget how beneficial it can be for students to also hear their teacher reading. As well as learning the correct pronunciation of words, they’ll be able to interpret meanings more accurately and likely gain a better understanding of the text itself. Dedicating a good proportion of your week’s lesson to reading a new text aloud will enable students to understand more difficult words in context. Consider using written texts from a range of different sources – be it a news article, blogpost or book extract. Exposing students to a variety of texts will be particularly helpful for those lacking access to a breadth of literature at home. You could even try listening to an audiobook together, playing and pausing the audio at key moments to let students extract important information, explore their own interpretations of what they’re “We’ve usedgames tobuild resilience,boost confidence andcreateacommunitybuilt around sharingwords” KEYWORD Superpower, when used in a geographical context, typically refers to a country able to wield considerable influence and dominance over other nations. Use this word in a sentence, and then in a paragraph, giving examples of BRIC nations that are developing into superpowers. INTHE NEWS ‘Will MINT nations supersede BRIC nations?’ Write the opening paragraph to this headline, including key terms from previous lessons. ANAGRAMS • adtre • upsrewoerp • limtrayi • woper QUIZ IT! Write a 10-question quiz about the features of a superpower nation. fig 1 34 teachwire.net/secondary