Blog Post by Lisa Clenaghan
I have a love/hate relationship with research. On the one hand I am a true advocate for it; research informed initiatives have undeniably changed my practice over the years from when I first started my GTP year, ranging from Bloom’s taxonomy, Gardner’s theories of emotional intelligence, VAK learning styles, Learning to Learn, Brain Gym (!) Black and Williams’ Formative Assessment as well as other various coaching principles. All of which have crafted my teaching and learning and have provided me with my toolkit foundation. Now, it seems, everyone is basing their practice on Rosenshine, and quite rightly, too. Where my frustrations lie, is that this then fuels (often) sanctimonious cycles of trends that offer too much theory and not enough practical based solutions to teachers who are overworked and overloaded with new initiatives. It is this that then forces me to select the research I rely on to open me to new practical solutions.
I have followed the work of Alex Quigley for a couple of years now, and after the EEF published it’s guide: Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools, noticed he was one of the key authors. Much of the work at Meden on disciplinary literacy is a result of the research included in this publication. What excited me most, is that finally I had research AND practical strategies grounded in reading development and vocabulary acquisition.
We’ve all familiarised ourselves with tiered vocabulary and continue to grapple with the demands of ensuring our students can access terms to decipher, decode and apply subject specific terminology, but HOW DO WE TEACH A WORD? WHAT EVEN IS VOCAUBLARY INSTRUCTION? We all teach new words, but how many of us can articulate the methods we use to do so? As a school, this is what needs to develop to secure our understanding of tiered vocabulary.
For too long, I spent years telling students to ‘grab a dictionary’ or ‘try the thesaurus’ but quickly found that in ALL of the departments I have worked in, this meant trying to source such an elusive tatty object in the first place that actually presented more problems than solutions.
For me, the SEEC model is the answer. In order to explicitly teach vocabulary, we have to define a method to do so that is simple, effective and does what it says on the tin. In order to ensure children develop an understanding of important words, a teacher must follow through phases of instruction:
SELECT – Preview reading material and word choice before the lesson. It is imperative to focus on Tier 2 words in order to cement Tier 3 words.
EXPLAIN – Explain the word (there are quick and effective ways of doing this that do not detract from the content of your lesson)
EXPLORE – This isn’t always practical, but it should be an important consideration when exploring words that are integral to understanding.
CONSOLIDATE – In order to understand a word, we need to be exposed to it repeatedly. This goes beyond knowledge organisers!
Some of you may have heard of The Frayer Model, a graphic organiser for building student vocabulary created by Dorothy Frayer in the 60s! This is an alternative to that, which in my opinion, cements vocab instruction over time without detracting from subject content. It is this that unlocks students’ word consciousness to develop word rich classrooms.
On Wednesday 4th March, I am meeting representatives from English, Humanities and Science to discuss ways of implementing some methods for each element of the SEEC model. I have also included other dates if you wish to find out more so please get in touch. This method has truly developed my practice, and as a result, has equipped my students with terms that allowed them to speak and write academically which manifests itself it better outcomes for them.
