Want to create interactive content? It’s easy in Genially!

Get started free

Word-rich classrooms

Sara Green

Created on February 22, 2022

Start designing with a free template

Discover more than 1500 professional designs like these:

Smart Presentation

Practical Presentation

Essential Presentation

Akihabara Presentation

Pastel Color Presentation

Terrazzo Presentation

Visual Presentation

Transcript

Creating a word-rich classroom

Academic talk

Making connections and categorising

Regular reading with purpose and for pleasure

Word exploration and play

Adapted from MTC's notes on Alex Quigley's book "Closing the Vocabulary Gap"

Ways to develop a positive culture for reading...

Regular reading with purpose and for pleasure

Set reading challenges

Make reading sociable

Provide access

Create reading environments

Once your reading culture is in place, complement it with high-quality reading instruction with an emphasis on vocabulary development:

Word lists

Reading practice

Note taking

Dictionary use

Adapted from MTC's notes on Alex Quigley's book "Closing the Vocabulary Gap"

Academic talk

Teacher talk is one of the main sources of exposure to high quality vocablary. Model academic talk, and talk like an expert, using the appropriate tier 2 and 3 vocabulary. Though it may feel unnatural, craft your explanations carefully. Use written-style discourse markers, employ clear emphasis and contrast, order and link ideas, and use pre-selected vocabulary central to the learning objective. Once in place, the focus needs to shift onto promoting quality pupil talk. Take a look at some of these ideas...

Jigsaw reading

Just a minute

Twenty questions

Pupil explanations

ABC feedback

Waiting

Nudging

Let's talk about teacher talk...

Adapted from MTC's notes on Alex Quigley's book "Closing the Vocabulary Gap"

Making connections and categorising

Use graphic organisers to give structure to the sense-making process

Instead of just listing words, graphic organisers give us a framework for categorising and organising words.

The Frayer model

Venn diagrams

Word maps

Word ladders

Meaning lines

Prefix / suffix building

Adapted from MTC's notes on Alex Quigley's book "Closing the Vocabulary Gap"

word of the week

spelling bees

Word exploration and play

Stimulate curiosity with...

jokes and puns

online word games

play with prefixes and suffixes to create possible and impossible words

Nurture a culture of fascination with words

Highlight and unpick...*

collocations

catchphrases

anagrams

demonyms

euphemisms

eponyms

metaphors

oxymorons

idioms

portmanteaux

palindromes

proverbs

slogans

similies

pseudonyms

* Not sure on what some of these mean? Click on a tile to follow a link to Wikipedia.

toponyms

Adapted from MTC's notes on Alex Quigley's book "Closing the Vocabulary Gap"