Helping pupils learn the curriculum through vocabulary

Hello Colleague

In the last update I talked about the importance of concepts because they are the ‘big ideas’ that help our pupils to make sense of the subjects.

As it happens, the concepts tend to be tier 3 vocabulary, the subject specific vocabulary. If we can help our pupils to really get to know these and feel confident using them, we are well on the way to helping them learn better.

It also turns out that many of the tier 3 words have roots in other languages, often Latin and Greek!

This means we have an opportunity to go into the roots or origins of the words. When I talk about this, colleagues often say ‘It’s too difficult!’

If you’d like to find out why pupils enjoy doing this work you can watch this short film on helping pupils learn the curriculum through vocabulary here!

I hope you find it helpful.

Until next time

Mary