Tag: Vocabulary

32. Vocabulary and oracy strategies for the KS3 classroom

32. Vocabulary and oracy strategies for the KS3 classroom

Helen Prince
Helen Prince
Gurav Dubay

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:

View transcript

5. How can the Word Gap affect communication in pupils with SEND?

5. How can the Word Gap affect communication in pupils with SEND?

Louise Pennington

Helen Prince talks to Louise Pennington about communication in children with special educational needs.  Louise outlines the challenges some children with SEND face from early years through to secondary education and how the Word Gap can affect this, before offering strategies to help support teachers and pupils. 

Louise Pennington is the Professional Development Lead for maths and Numicon at Oxford University Press. She is a founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and previous Primary Teacher, SENCO and Local Authority SEND Team Leader.  Louise tweets at @pdLouiseP

Further reading and support:

2. How to engage children with reading to expand their vocabulary

2. How to engage children with reading to expand their vocabulary

Shareen Wilkinson

The link between extensive reading and a broad vocabulary is well known, but how can teachers expand children’s vocabulary when they’re reluctant to read?  

Helen Prince and Shareen Wilkinson talk about children’s literature, early memories, reading and poetry. Shareen discusses the different strategies she uses to engage children with reading; including dance, music and drama. Shareen also shares stories from her best lessons and why they’ve been so successful.  A lovely conversation looking at the link between vocabulary and reading in primary schools. 

Shareen Wilkinson is a primary school senior leader, former LA lead Primary English advisor, and an established educational author and series editorShareen advises at national level, including as a DfE grammar and reading (KS1 and KS2) subject specialist. She tweets at @ShareenAdvice

Further reading and support:

  • Shareen offers practical strategies to teach vocabulary in the classroom in this blog.
  • Shareen’s popular webinar on ‘Closing the vocabulary gap in primary schools’ is available to watch on demand.
  • Find out more about Word Sparks, fully decodable books that tackle the word gap, developed with series editors Shareen Wilkinson and James Clements.