Closing the Vocabulary Gap

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This book brings together research evidence and teaching experience to provide practical knowledge and resources for primary and secondary teachers. Quigley draws on research to distinguish academic from everyday words; and cross-curricular words (for example, “analyse”) from subject-specific words (for example, “photosynthesis”). Vocabulary knowledge involves information about spoken words and their meanings. Achieving consistency takes relentless effort but we take staff workload seriously, and the goal is to improve literacy via vocabulary in a way that works for our students and staff. We’re still on our journey to achieving that. What impact have you seen so far?

Word consciousness’ is an “awareness and interest in words and their meanings” (put a little more interestingly, it is pupils “bumping into spicy, tasty words that catch your tongue”). This love of language and continual curiosity about what words mean, where they are from, and their legion of connections, feels like the end-game of great vocabulary teaching. With careful cultivation, this curiosity can be fostered and it can help fuel our pupils’ school success. And evidence from England has shown that, alongside socioeconomic status, vocabulary was one of the significant factors that proved relevant to children achieving an A* to C grade in mathematics, English language and English literature GCSEs. Attention to developing vocabulary should become a part of school planning. We can take the following steps:

The key to effective vocabulary instruction is to get creative and find ways to bring words to life. The use of interactive mini-games can be used with word lists to do so. The OUP Word Sparks decodable books programme is fully aligned to Letters and Sounds and supports children with exploring vocabulary and reading comprehension, as well as enabling them to apply their phonic knowledge. It also contains generic activities for children to explore the words in more depth. Children begin by seeing the word being used in context so they can view examples. Uniquely, the selected Tier 2 words are repeated across the programme so that they can see words being used differently. These books can be used by parents, teachers, or support staff for group/guided, one-to-one reading, or whole class shared reading sessions as schools can access online versions. Explore it (synonyms, antonyms, homophones and/or etymology, e.g. Greek or Latin roots, where appropriate). Etymonline.com.

Connections between words are at the heart of this book. In English, despite many exceptions, there is a systematic relationship between letters and sounds, and, therefore, between spoken and written words. In contrast, relations between word forms and their meanings appear arbitrary. However, with more knowledge about words, morphology and etymology, it is clear that there are, in fact, regularities here, too. The word gap – or vocabulary gap as it is also known – is having an enormous impact on our students’ futures.A primary goal of Explicit Vocabulary Instruction is to model for students the depth of knowledge that is involved in mastering words: to own a word is to know not just its definition but its different forms, its multiple meanings, its connotations, and the situations in which its normally applied.’ Here, she explains her rationale, the challenges of implementation and the impact that the programme has had on the young people of her inner-city secondary. Tes: What inspired you to introduce whole-school vocabulary teaching? Stretch and challenge – children could write the word through applying their grammar knowledge and identifying word class(es).

Grappling with how to support students to meet the increased demands of the curriculum was beginning to feel like an insurmountable task, when suddenly, the solution became clear.

Our Research

A key strength of this book is that it summarises research evidence for teachers, providing a primer on vocabulary, morphology, etymology, phonics, reading comprehension strategies and much more. In addition to being instructive, it provides flexible frameworks so teachers can develop materials, activities and assessments that will meet their needs, and those of their students. Reardon, Sean F. “The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor: New evidence and possible explanations” in R. Murnane & G. Duncan (Eds.), Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality and the Uncertain Life Chances of Low-Income Children, New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2011

All words are not valued equally. Instead, what we want children to learn is the language of school. For many children, this is a foreign language.” (p. 68). Stahl and Stahl (2004) It is the core business of every teacher not just to understand how children learn to read, but also how they read to learn. CTVG – Exploring Etymology PPT– this PPT offers a starter resources for exploring the etymology of individual words.

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So I *might* have mentioned this already, but I have gone and written a book – published officially this Friday! ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’ has proven a labour of love for the last eighteen months of my life and I’m proud to get a hold of it and send it out into the world. Promote vocabulary that’s relevant for developing disciplinary knowledge across the entire curriculum I wanted to ensure that this book offered insights and practical solutions for teachers at every key stage and phase.To support this, I have added free resources to my blog to run alongside the book – making it more user friendly. I will surely add to the resources, but you can now access the following at RESOURCES available on the main menu: