Oracy

The term ‘oracy’ was coined in the 1960s by Andrew Wilkinson. His notion was that oracy – the ability to express oneself fluently in speech – should be given equal status to numeracy and literacy in school curriculums, yet over 50 years later that does not seem to be the case in the majority of schools.

Exposure to a rich vocabulary

Pupils will be exposed to vocabulary through the rich, high-quality texts we share will them. The principles of Talk for Writing are based upon pupils being able to talk a text before even attempting to write. “You cannot write it if you cannot say it; you cannot say it if you haven’t heard it.” Pie Corbett, 2005

New vocabulary is introduced over time and taught explicitly.

Why is vocabulary so important to explicitly teach? 

• Highest attaining readers have an average of 7,100 root words
• Weakest have 3,000 root words
• 70-80% of vocabulary comes from reading
• In almost all cases, stumbling blocks to comprehension come from either:
•    Problems with decoding and therefore fluency
•    Poor vocabulary and lack of world knowledge
•    From research, it’s shown that it’s rare for students to struggle with reading comprehension if their decoding and vocabulary are well developed.

Words for Life | National Literacy Trust | Words for Life

Learning new words is a cumulative task that takes place gradually over time. (Nagy and Scott 2000) Our school progression document ensures that vocabulary is taught in chunks. It is developed over time through revisiting words taught and applying the words in different language games.

At Coton, we have a progression of vocabulary document that highlights vocabulary that will be explicitly taught as part of the curriculum.

Tiered vocabulary in the classroom | Bedrock Learning