We can also train Teachers and Teaching Assistants in using Word Aware. The next training date is the 27th March 2018 at the RCSLT in London – follow this link to Eventbrite to book your place 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. This rigorously tried-and-tested approach is an outstanding resource that will be an essential addition to any early years’ setting or preschool classroom. It is also an important addition to the materials used by speech and language therapists. It is particularly suitable for ages 3 to 5+

It is based on a system called STAR (Blachowicz and Fisher, 2010) and I think this process is a really helpful way to think of vocabulary teaching. You can’t teach a word one day and then forget about it – it needs to be a much more systematic approach. STAR stands for Select Teach Activate Review. It obviously isn’t realistic to sum up the whole of the approach in one blog post, but I thought I would talk today about each of these 4 aspects a little bit. In the book, Stephen and Anna apply this to topics, literacy, concepts and emotions, but the principles are the same and I’ll talk about topic vocabulary here. 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. Set two: shorter version for families who are home-schooling. Involve the whole family and play the ones you like. 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).

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 existing 'Word Aware' resource (9780863889554) but is adapted for Early Years. Vocabulary is important the world over. In the US, the Common Core has brought vocabulary to the fore whilst in England the curriculum specifically highlights the importance of vocabulary. Vocabulary is important from Early Years right through to secondary / high schooling as a result of the vast explosion of topic specific information. The Word Aware early years approach is based on the same theory as the original Word Aware resource but is adapted for the Early Years. 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.

Understand concepts in subjects such as maths and science • Develop reading comprehension • Write expressively • Succeed academically and in life. 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. 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.Find it- before or even after reading a book with your child identify words they might not understand, write them down and ask them to find it in the story, can they then use the clues and their reading skills to work out what it means. They could use a dictionary to find the meaning or look in a thesaurus to find words with similar meanings. Word Aware is a fast-paced, fun and interactive workshop style day, which will leave participants well equipped to start Word Aware in their schools or with individual students. You will leave the day with lots of practical ideas on how to develop vocabulary in your school or caseload. Fun with words: Big Brain (I think with my big brain something that is (meaning clue) and it starts with a (letter clue) Ages: 0-5 (Pre-School), Ages: 5-8 (Lower Primary), Ages: 8-10 (Middle Primary), Ages: 10-12 (Upper Primary) Language for Thinking’ is a targeted intervention for developing a child’s ability to understand questions, starting from the most concrete (e.g. Who? Where?) and moving on to the more abstract (e.g. Why? How?). ‘Language for Thinking’ is widely used because it is effective and easy to implement.

This free resource includes a series of visual summaries that provide an overview of the Word Aware Approach for Early Years Practitioners. It also includes several teaching concepts that will promote children's natural word learning. At Thinking Talking we are dedicated to improving children and young people’s language and communication skills, but we understand that time is precious, so we develop time efficient interventions that work. 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. 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.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. Book 1: Teaching Vocabulary across the Day, across the Curriculum (age suitability: 5-11+) – Second Edition – Sep 2021

Teaching covers phonological sound, syntactic grammar and semantic meaning. In other words, we will be teaching the sound and initial letters of the word; what word class it is (for example, a noun, adjective, adverb, verb) including how the word is structured in a sentence; and what the word means. Children will have access to dictionaries to look up the word, they will consider synonyms and will create their own sentences with the word to consolidate meaning. Other activities used include: word raps, word songs, acting out the word, discussing prefixes and suffixes, symbols or pictures, spelling of the word, syllables, rhyme, physically experiencing the word (where possible), using objects, links to what the children already know and identifying related situations that the word does not apply to. Review – There are many, many fun ways to review taught vocabulary in the Word Aware book. There are great ideas of questions to ask at the end of the lesson as well, which are more interesting and useful than “what does x word mean?” For example, “when do you think you might use this word again?” or “how do you think you will remember this word”. As with anything, I think the key is to keep it fun, varied and engaging – no-one learns well when they’re bored! 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. We are working in pertnership with Lift Lessons. They have developed amazing videos on science concepts for 6-14 year olds. A great resource. Takes a highly practical, evidence-based and curriculum-focused approach to vocabulary learning that supports a broad range of learnersSet one: Longer version for schools which are still open for selected children. These activities may also be adapted and sent home. 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. When reviewing progress within our school, we felt that many of our children had poor language skills and limited understanding of vocabulary. This was particularly evident when children moved into Key Stage 2 when it became clear that, although they could read and decode well, they couldn’t explain word meanings. Consequently this had an impact on their ability to understand more complex texts.