Curriculum Content
Teachers to consider the following:
- Are Speech and Language skills are incorporated in the school’s curriculum and reflected across all subjects?
- Are teaching and learning opportunities appropriately differentiated to take into account language levels?
- Are there appropriate levels of intellectual challenge and support available what ever the language level is?
- Are tasks planned so that young people are encouraged to talk through ideas with peers and adults, for example Diologic Teaching
- Is the language demand of the subject area adjusted, when necessary, in order to improve access through:
- Identifying sequential skills that are explicitly linked to prior learning
- Identifying target vocabulary and using pre and/or post tutoring if needed
- Differentiating by task, outcome or teaching materials
- Opportunities for distributed practice and interleaved learning
- Explicitly teaching language and communication skills, for example:
- Listening skills
- Participation in groups
- Turn taking
- Figurative speech, (please see the book ‘It's Raining Cats and Dogs’)
- Non-verbal communication?
- Is vocabulary explicitly taught? For example by the following methods:
- Linking new vocabulary to prior learning.
- Adults using new vocabulary
- Using pictures/photos
- Using definitions
- Using actions
- Using synonyms
- Using direct instruction
- Recognising when new vocabulary is used by the young people
- Word Aware: Teaching Vocabulary across the day, across the curriculum is a good resource to use as a framework for teaching vocabulary in the classroom. For information on the 3 tiers of vocabulary see the Mable website and for whole school approach to teaching vocabulary see the National Literacy Trust website.
Other resources for teaching vocabulary include:
- Closing the Vocabulary Gap by Alex Quigley
- Bringing Words to Life by Beck, McKeown and Kucan
- and the Vocabulary Ninja Andrew Jennings
- Time to Talk is a programme for 4-6 year old and can be used in the whole class, in groups or individually with young people to develop language skills
- Talk for Writing is a recommended writing programme for in the classroom
- Language for Learning, Language for Thinking and Language for Writing are also an evidence-based language curriculum to use in the classroom that use Direct Instruction
- ‘Vocabulary Enrichment’ by Victoria Joffe for Secondary young people
Please refer to the Communication Trust website for more ideas for a communication curriculum.