A key part of our approach to improving our students’ vocabulary is to have a ‘Word of the Week’. The reason for this is to attempt to narrow the ‘vocabulary gap’ that exists between those students who have access to a wide vocabulary, and those who do not. The ‘Word of the Week’ is explicitly taught to students each week as well as being published in the Sandprint. As teachers, we know that part of our job is teach our students the language of academic success. The words that are chosen are words that students are likely to encounter across all subjects and topics at school, but may not be words that are part of their everyday vocabulary. The words also feature in articles from ‘The Day’ that students are reading as part of the Personal Development curriculum. Our approach draws upon the best practice in teaching vocabulary: as well as introducing students to these words, we define the words, look at words with similar and opposite meanings and explore where the word derives from.
The link to a recent teaching tip with further explanation is here and for further reading of Alex Quigley’s work on vocabulary look here.
