Helen Prince and Gaurav Dubay discuss the crucial role vocabulary and oracy strategies play in the Key Stage 3 classroom. They highlight the importance of focusing on talk and vocabulary to help students rehearse written outcomes before taking the next step and moving onto writing. They discuss drama, fluency, modelling and reducing cognitive load with oral rehearsal.

Helen Prince is an English Advisor, author of Oxford University Press’s Get It Right: Boost Your Vocabulary workbooks, and CEO of ChatterStars. Helen tweets at @prince_helen

Gaurav Dubay is Head of English at an inner-city grammar school in Birmingham, one of our Pioneer Schools for Oxford Smart Quest. Gaurav tweets at @GauravDubay3

Further reading and support:

•  Take a look at Helen’s Get It Right: Boost your Vocabulary workbooks
•  Hear more from Gaurav on ‘Vocabulary Teaching: giving students a voice’ on the Oxford Education Blog
•  Find out more about Oxford Smart Quest
•  Get a free Oxford Smart Quest digital taster for your school
•  Visit the Oxford Smart Quest Resource Hub where you’ll find blogs and case studies relating to KS3 English

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