Word Aware (Spiral Bind): Teaching vocabulary across the day, across the curriculum

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A hands on practical day in how to carry out therapy with an adult Neuro and community client group Vocabulary levels are strong predictors of later literacy skills. They predict not only how well children will develop reading comprehension, but also their phonological awareness and phonic knowledge. Vocabulary level at age five has been found to be the single best predictor of whether a child brought up in poverty will escape poverty in adult life. Without a good vocabulary, children struggle to understand what they are taught, to express how they feel, to manage social situations and resolve conflicts” – Jean Gross CBE in the Foreword to the Word Aware book. Once a word is taught, it is placed on a word wall. These words then need to be reviewed (repeated) by the class in both their writing or their spoken language (both needed in the right context). In addition, we play games to consolidate our understanding of these words and will send out a list of words (fridge words) we will teach each half term to allow you to discuss and review these words with your child at home. Word Aware allows us, using a whole school approach, to teach all pupils how to understand the relationship between words, how to understand nuances in meaning, and how to develop their understanding of, and ability to use, figurative language. Pupils will be taught how to work out and clarify the meanings of unknown words and words with more than one meaning. Word aware is equally effective for specific classes and groups or individual learners. It builds on the knowledge of the components of a word.

Treasure Hunt– on the way to and from school, look for things you could describe by a particular word like shrivelled or spiky. Categories such as living things, things with circles, things with engines. We can place a therapist trained in Word Aware in your school, to set up whole class approaches, small group and 1;1 Word Aware work. We are working in pertnership with Lift Lessons. They have developed amazing videos on science concepts for 6-14 year olds. A great resource. This approach is full of practical and inspiring ideas that can be easily applied by busy classroom practitioners to develop both spoken and written vocabulary.

Set two: shorter version for families who are home-schooling. Involve the whole family and play the ones you like. At Hobbayne, we understand that words are important. We all need to understand and use a wide range of vocabulary to succeed at school and in life. To progress with reading children need to understand the words they decode. To write well they need a wide and varied use of words. To understand all subjects including maths, science and social studies they need to understand the words that are used. We want to have fun with words. We seek to promote speaking and listening as these are foundation skills for reading and writing. We are all very excited about this new programme and where the approach has been trialled children have enjoyed the experience. Word Aware’ is a whole school approach for developing vocabulary. It is a fun and engaging way to promote word learning for all children across your primary or elementary school. It provides lots of ideas and resources to inspire you. ‘Word Aware 1’ is focussed on the primary years, ‘Word Aware 2’ is specifically for Early Years and Word Aware 3 is for high needs learners. Word Aware 3 is a comprehensive, practical and engaging resource that focuses on teaching vocabulary and word learning skills to children aged6 to 11 years who have vocabulary learning needs.

This course is suitable for Speech and Language Therapists, Class Teachers, curriculum co-ordinators, specialist teachers, Head teachers, SENCOs and Educational Psychologists. Word of the day or week– as a family see how many times you can use your target word in a meaningful way during the week. The only rules are the sentence must make sense and fit into your conversation. If you would like to arrange online training for your school or service go to commissioning training Word Aware continues to have a supportive application in secondary schools as pupils begin to require an understanding of specialist and subject-specific vocabulary.Book 3 is a comprehensive, practical and engaging resource that focuses on teaching vocabulary and word learning skills to children aged 6 to 11 years who have vocabulary learning needs. Ages: 0-5 (Pre-School), Ages: 5-8 (Lower Primary), Ages: 8-10 (Middle Primary), Ages: 10-12 (Upper Primary) Word Aware 2 was published in 2016. It is based on the same principals as Word Aware but it is adapted for the Early Years. It includes the fun and engaging ‘Concept Cat’ method to teach children early verbal concepts such as ‘both, corner, smooth and after’. Word Aware 2: Early Years book is available from Routledge.

Word Aware has been developed by combining up to date research with extensive classroom experience. Stephen Parsons and Anna Branagan have been using this approach and training many practitioners since 2010. The end product is an effective and time efficient method for developing the spoken and written vocabulary of all children. It has been enthusiastically received by class teachers, head teachers, curriculum coordinators, Special Needs co-coordinators, Learning Support Assistants and Speech and Language Therapists / Pathologists. Fantastic. Range of strategies for developing vocabulary across the primary age range. Easily accessible.” As a school we are enhancing the way we teach vocabulary by using the strategies and ideas from the ‘Word Aware’ program. Word Aware is a comprehensive and structured approach to use throughout the school to promote vocabularydevelopment in all children.

Word Aware is a whole school vocabulary approach to promote vocabulary development in children. This method of developing spoken and written vocabulary in all children is evidence-based following extensive research by Anna Branagan and Stephen Parsons. It is of particular value for children with special education needs and for those learning English as an additional language. This is a highly practical, comprehensive resource designed to support Early Years practitioners in the provision of effective vocabulary development in preschool children of all abilities. It is based on the same theory as the ‘Word Aware – Book 1 above but has adapted for Early Years. Teaching vocabulary: Teaching topic related vocabulary using STAR approach. S- Select words from the curriculum Anna Branagan is a Speech and Language Therapist. In Gloucestershire, Anna works within a Youth Support Team supporting vulnerable young people. In Worcestershire, she works within mainstream schools supporting inclusive practice. Anna trained at Leeds Metropolitan University 25 years ago. She is the co-author of bestselling Speechmark resources Language for Thinking (second edition, 2017), Word Aware 1 (second edition, 2022) Word Aware 2 (2017) and Language for Behaviour and Emotions (2020).

Language for Thinking’ and ‘Language for Behaviour and Emotions’ courses require access to the book during the course. Word Aware’ courses require some access after the course. Generally 2 to 4 copies per school for ‘Word Aware 1’ an one copy per school for ‘Word Aware 2’ and ‘Word Aware 3’ is adequate. Hjetland et al (2017), in their systematic review found that spoken vocabulary predicted children’s latter reading development. Vocabulary relates to reading comprehension, but impacts equally on curriculum areas that require specific word knowledge such as mathematics and science. Activate – This is an aspect that it’s easy to forget about, I think. This is where the children explore the word more through practical activities to help them gain a fuller understanding of it. This sounds time-consuming, but it doesn’t actually require a lot of additional activities, but more highlighting the word regularly in the activities already planned as part of the topic. I think the Word Wall would be a great way to keep the new vocabulary in the minds of both staff and pupils so that it is used often and in as many contexts as possible. It’s a bit like putting a note on the fridge to ensure that you see something and remember it!The SENCO role was established nearly thirty years ago in the SEN Code of Practice 1994 where it stated that all mainstream schools must have a SENCO responsible for coordinating services around children with SEN. Children need twelve meaningful encounters of a word before they really know it. Word Aware promotes a method called STAR, which stands for Select, Teach, Activate and Review. This process ensures the children encounter the new words many times and many different ways.