Closing the Vocabulary Gap

✍ Scribed by Alex Quigley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 217
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

As teachers grapple with the challenge of a new, bigger and more challenging school curriculum, at every key stage and phase, success can feel beyond our reach. But what if there were 50,000 small solutions to help us bridge that gap?

In Closing the Vocabulary Gap, the author explores the increased demands of an academic curriculum and how closing the vocabulary gap between our ‘word poor’ and ‘word rich’ students could prove the vital difference between school failure and success.

This must-read book presents the case for teacher-led efforts to develop students' vocabulary and provides practical solutions for teachers across the curriculum, incorporating easy-to-use tools, resources and classroom activities.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Endorsement Page
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Closing the vocabulary gap: Problems and solutions
More than just words
The vocabulary gap and the academic curriculum
Remember the ‘dead dodo’ text!
Solutions for closing the vocabulary gap
Just get them reading more!
Notes
Chapter 2: What every teacher needs to know about reading
The trouble with reading
What we know about the teaching of reading
The ‘Big Five’
What do good readers do?
Notes
Chapter 3: What is in a word? Know your roots
More than just 50,000 words: The importance of ‘word depth’
Etymology for every teacher
The power of morphology
Notes
Chapter 4: Wot d’ya mean by academic vocabulary?
Cracking the academic code
The difference between the words we say and the words we read
What academic words should we choose to teach?
Everyone loves a list
Notes
Chapter 5: Developing vocabulary and ‘disciplinary literacy’
What is disciplinary literacy and why is it important to every teacher?
Improving Literacy in Key Stage Two, by the Education Endowment Foundation3
Notes
Chapter 6: We need to talk about spelling
Beyond ‘spelling by rote’ and towards ‘spelling by reason’
The problem with spelling rules
Towards a spelling strategy
Notes
Chapter 7: Practical strategies for closing the vocabulary gap
Select
Explain
Explore
Consolidate
Developing ‘word rich classrooms’
Reading with purpose and pleasure … to close the vocabulary gap
Academic talk … to close the vocabulary gap
Making connections and categorising … to close the vocabulary gap
Word play … to close the vocabulary gap
Some final questions
Notes
Chapter 8: Next steps
How will we know we are having a positive impact in the classroom?
Whole school strategies for closing the vocabulary gap
Breaking beyond the postcode prophesy
Notes
Appendix 1: A list of common Latin loan words, or words with Latin roots, in the English language
A list of common Latin loan words, or words with Latin roots, in the English language
Appendix 2: Latin roots related to the human body, people and groups
Latin roots related to the human body, people and groups
Appendix 3: The 100 most commonly used words in the English language (from the 2.1 billion words in the Oxford English Corpus)
Appendix 4: Avril Coxhead’s full 570-word ‘Academic Word List’
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8
Group 9
Group 10
Bibliography
Index