How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019

Vocabulary
How to teach novels

Sir, I would say that Piggy is a masochistic character who, in a way, contrasts with the sadistic Jack.

This one comment signalled a massive shift in understanding for a student in my class. Without the words ’masochistic’ and ’sadistic’, they would probably have said something along the lines of:

Sir, I would say that Piggy is a weak character who, in a way, contrasts with the cruel Jack.

One comment shows an insightful understanding of the characters and the other a superficial one. I’d like to say it took hours of teaching; it didn’t. The table that follows helped the individual make the comment. The student then gave me examples of how Piggy provided opportunities for people to be cruel to him and how Jack let slip his enjoyment at being cruel to others.

Example vocabulary sheet

Source: Definitions adapted from www.dictionary.com

The format for using a vocabulary sheet is quite simple:

1 Give students the sheet.

2 Students draw the definitions of all twenty words in a simple, Pictionary-style sketch.

3 The whole class play a game of Pictionary.

4 The class play a game of Blockbusters to recall the definitions. What C is an adjective to describe something natural, blunt or underdeveloped?

5 Students learn the words for homework.

6 In the next lesson, students complete a multiple-choice test on the definitions.

7 In the following lesson, students complete a further test on definitions. What F is having the characteristics of a wild animal?

8 In a further lesson, students write a paragraph using as many of the words as possible.

I might vary the format, but in any case there is a lot of repetition and I am asking students for definitions. I keep going back to the new words. Who is the most feral character in Lord of the Flies? Remind me again, what does feral mean?

What I like about this is that I have now developed a kind of sociolect: a way of speaking that the class and I share. When I speak with another teacher we use what must seem to the students the equivalent of Parseltongue. This approach ensures we have a common language. At the core is repetition using different contexts. Drawing helps students to visualise the idea and convert it from the concrete to the abstract. The definitions allow students to attach the word to the meaning and identify how each word differs. Discussion helps students to secure the pronunciation of the word and see how they can fit it into a sentence. Writing helps students to secure how to use the words for meaning in their own work.

In the past, I’d say that my vocabulary as a teacher has concentrated chiefly on clarity. I might have punctuated my speech with high-level vocabulary, but for the most part my language was Standard English and was neither that varied nor that complex. I was too concerned with having everyone understand me. Having used this bank of twenty words, I can get to complex and challenging ideas with a class far quicker than before.

Imagine giving directions to the city centre, but you can only use the words ’right’ and ’left’. It would take a long time and be very vague; there’s a strong chance that the person would not get there. Add words like ’roundabout’, ’junction’ and ’traffic lights’ and they’ll stand a better chance. Add specific street names and you add precision. We often use limited direction in the classroom, like ’left’ or ’right’, when actually we need precise names and prepositions such as ’onto Bridge Street’. When I think of how vocabulary is taught, I worry. Look at how we use phrases like ’word of the week’ and ’wow words’. We concentrate on the individual meanings of words or on a bank of randomly selected vocabulary. We rarely look at the context and rarely do we spend enough time looking at the vocabulary and register associated with certain topics. We make endless lists of words. Lists for analysis. Lists for talking about poems. Lists for talking about photosynthesis. Maybe we need to look at the language we naturally use and how to get students to translate this into academic Parseltongue. We only have to look at modern foreign language departments to see this in place.

Of course, words are only part of it; there’s grammar and syntax too. How often do we look at the language in a lesson to check whether it is focused on clarity and on all students making progress? Perhaps we are being counterproductive. Starting with the basics isn’t always the best principle. To learn a language, you need to immerse yourself. Surely we should be exposing students to rich worlds of vocabulary rather than a trickling brook of the odd word here and there. Complex, precise vocabulary should be used all the time and that starts and ends with the teacher. We should be working harder to get students to speak our language, but first we must identify it. We must be adding to the class vocabulary daily, weekly and monthly. Our common tongue is standard, generic and imprecise for the job we need it to do. It is helpful at times, but it will not lift up students’ souls with the beauty of words nor raise their academic success through understanding.

So what does this look like in the classroom? In mine, it is usually done through vocabulary lists and constantly exploring new words or revising familiar ones. Every lesson and every task is an opportunity to look at words: I praise students when they use a new word in their writing and I use explanation to further their vocabulary. If students don’t have the words, then they can’t explain the idea fully, accurately or appropriately.

In a typical week, all my classes will be engaging with words. This has looked like the following:

Year 7 — Collected synonyms for the word ’vulnerable’ linked to the opening of Jane Eyre.

Year 8 — Explored the precise meaning of words in Macbeth.

Year 9 — Explored the different meanings of the word ’exposure’, linked to the poem of the same name by Wilfred Owen.

Year 10 — Revised ten words associated with villains.

Year 11 — Researched words they are unfamiliar with in Romeo and Juliet for homework.

On top of that, I will routinely do the following:

✵ Select students to offer definitions of words. Ready recall of definitions is something students need to get better at; we need it to become a common occurrence rather than an occasional surprise when they find a word they don’t know.

✵ Ask students to select words they don’t understand in a text and look them up in a dictionary.

✵ Give students lists of words when writing or exploring a text so that they can articulate ideas clearly.

✵ Collect words from students to create new lists. This one is a great homework. Find four words to describe Macbeth’s personality. Collate them together and students have a great starting point for an essay.

✵ Use literary vocabulary tests to reinforce the terminology needed to discuss texts.

✵ Test students on definitions. Give them ten words (all taken from a GCSE text) and ask them to select the correct definition from a list of options.

✵ Use weekly spelling tests to reinforce vocabulary.

✵ Use a new words board. Every time a new word is introduced in class, a student writes it on the board.

As a department, we look at past papers and select words which might be unfamiliar to students. Plus, there is the reading of texts. I am a big believer in giving students complex texts and discovering what they do and don’t know. For more ideas on how to develop vocabulary use, I’d highly recommend Alex Quigley’s Closing the Vocabulary Gap.⁵

1 Dickens, A Christmas Carol, p. 21.

2 See https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-imagery/theories-memory.html.

3 This is an issue that is close to my heart as one of my daughters has cerebral palsy.

4 Dickens, A Christmas Carol, p. 76.

5 A. Quigley, Closing the Vocabulary Gap (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018).