Teaching can be tremendously rewarding, but we also know the classroom can be crammed full of complexity, surprises, and problems to solve. ‘Adapting teaching’ is a recently popular – though long-standing – phrase. It captures the subtle and challenging art of teaching expertly so that pupils maximise their learning. The immense skill of effective teaching …
The primary to secondary transition is a topic of annual angst. For school leaders, teachers, and parents, gaining insight to supporting pupils making the leap to ‘big school’ is a crucial topic. Much of the research on transition doesn’t offer easy packaged-up approaches. It does pose areas of promise (curriculum continuity when it comes to …
5 Free Research Reads On… The Primary to Secondary School Transition Read More »
The Internet is a minefield of useless websites, but sometimes you can unearth some gems. New AI applications, like ChatGPT, are making the news, with potential for useful vocabulary learning, applications for writing, the classroom, and more. For those seeking useful vocabulary websites, these 7 may just do the trick: This website can take extracts …
Should the title be ‘sophisticated vocabulary’, or could it be more simply ‘fancy words’? Small but significant language choices like these occur repeatedly in classrooms – and in pupils’ minds – daily. Teaching pupils to use sophisticated vocabulary can go wrong but it is a necessary bump in the road of pupils’ language development. We …
The Problem with Teaching Sophisticated Vocabulary Read More »
A new school year begins, full of old routines and new challenges. It is only natural to seek out novel ideas to start the year afresh, but we should be wary they are not at the expense of long-held priorities and practices. The teaching of academic vocabulary is one of those priorities that still matters. …
How do you teach a tricky new word, or seek to boost the word hoard of the pupils you teach? One of the most common approaches to developing academic vocabulary is to study morphology – breaking words down into their component parts and roots. It can support the development of academic vocabulary in subjects like …
It is vital for our pupils to possess a wealth of academic vocabulary if they are to succeed in school. For most of my teaching career, this issue was tacit and flew beneath my radar. Vocabulary issues were often hidden in plain sight. In the last few years, however, developing academic vocabulary has become talked …
