Jean Gross CBE, 2015

 How communication-friendly are your classrooms?  Support for talk: teaching vocabulary, adult language  A reason to talk – at home : working with parents and carers  Intervention programmes for spoken language

A communication-supportive environment Have a look at the tool for auditing the environment

 How communication-friendly are your classrooms?  Support for talk: teaching vocabulary, adult language  Working with parents and carers  Intervention programmes for spoken language

My Dad’s been in one of those....

STAR - Select Too easyGoldilocks wordsToo hard Everyday words- ones a child might use to another child Not too easy and not too hard, but just right Likely to be encountered again Average adult has a good knowledge of this word Average adult does not have much knowledge of this word Highly topic- specific

STAR - Select Too easyGoldilocks wordsToo hard Children Toys Petticoat Hoop Gruel Workhouse

STAR – Select – from Y4 a village in India Put the following into the three categories Country, continent, route, monsoon, river, distance, weather, home, cash crop, family, economic activity, village, landscape, climate, crops, remote, symbol, hill, houses, occupation, nucleated, market town, settlement, city, road, linear, trade, airport, agriculture

Teaching vocabulary Semantic - meaning Phonological Grammatical Motor programme Orthographic (Written form) Orthographic (Written form)

What it sounds like Begins with: Sound: Letter: Rhymes with: Ends with : Sound: Letter: Number of syllables:

Structure of word Prefix, root, suffix, morphemes Unbreakable Three morphemes: un- (a morpheme that means "not"), -break (the root), and -able (a morpheme that means "can be done").

What it means How does it feel? Sign/symb ol What do you do with it? What does it look like? Where do you find it? What category is it?

Put it in a sentence

Words that go with it

 How communication-friendly are your classrooms?  Support for talk: teaching vocabulary, adult language  A reason to talk – at home : working with parents and carers  Intervention programmes for spoken language

Commenting What’s that? I hope.... What noise does it make? What colour is it ? I wonder..... Oooooo....

ContextChildTypical adult response Much better if year old looking at book about sea creatures Look at that whale What else can you see? It’s a giant blue whale, I think. Swimming in the ocean.

ContextChildTypical adult response Much better if Child explaining why she stormed out of class She were going on at me It’s she was going on at you OK, she was going on at you, criticising you... I wonder what that was about?’

Sharing a book Prompts and open ended questions e.g. I wonder why… I wonder what the bear is thinking… I wonder what will happen when he gets home …

Prompts and comments inviting the child to relate the book to their own experience e.g. I don’t think I’d like a bear under my stairs … When I was little I was scared of… Key vocabulary Follow -up opportunities to practise the vocabulary Small world figures and role play props

Language of : Argument Explanation Comparison Opinion Hypothesis Deduction Description Prediction Evaluation Retelling Explanation Sequencing Language functions

ReportWhat happened ? Agree/disagreeWhat do you think about what x just said? JustifyWhat makes you think…how do you know? ExplainTalk me through it…

Language functions Ask questionsWhat will you ask ? Give an opinionWhat do you think? Hypothesise, speculateWhat do you think might ? EvaluateWhat do you think of? DeduceWhat conclusions have you reached?

Language functions PredictWhat do you think will happen? CompareHow are they similar/different? ClassifyHow would you sort these? SequenceWhat comes first…next…?

Language functions DescribeWhat could you say about? PersuadeConvince me that … Give feedbackHow was it, in your opinion? Give instructionsWhat do I/they need to do?

 How communication-friendly are your classrooms?  Support for talk: teaching vocabulary, adult language  A reason to talk – at home : working with parents and carers  Intervention programmes for spoken language

A reason to talk – at home ‘Ask me about’ stickers Chatterboxes

Take-home shoe-boxes Twinkle, twinkle little star The rhyme A card star to thread with wool Star finger puppet Biscuit recipe and star cutter Glow-in-the-dark stars Star kaleidoscope

Reminiscing

Films from The Communication Trust urces/resources/resources-for-parents/through- the-eyes-of-a-child.aspx

Sites for parents- milestones, tips, and activities ICAN’s Talking Point ( National Literacy Trust’s Words for Life site (

Dad’s reading challenge: ‘It can’t be true, can it?’ I really enjoyed coming home from work, knowing that my son had brought a story sack home from pre- school for our bedtime story.

Older children... ‘talk homework ’ Loves and hates When are the times when you get on best as a family...and fall out? Talk about your dream home Can you remember the day that I was born? The best/worst thing that happened to me today was... What cheers you up when you feel down?

 How communication-friendly are your classrooms?  Support for talk: teaching vocabulary, adult language  A reason to talk – at home : working with parents and carers  Intervention programmes for spoken language

Three waves Wave 3 - specialist support for a few pupils Wave 2 Small group interventions for some pupils to help them catch up Wave 1 – Quality first teaching - All pupils need good practice which supports speaking and listening in the classroom

Evidence-based primary Wave 2 interventions Key Stage 1 Narrative, Key Stage 2 Narrative (Black Sheep Press) Languageland (Black Sheep Press) Talk Boost (ICAN) Nuffield Early Language Intervention (ICAN) Language for Thinking (Speechmark) SPIRALS (Routledge) Talking Partners (

Examples of impact Talking Partners : 18 months progress compared to 5 for control group, over 10 weeks Talk Boost : average progress 18 months over four month period

A language delay intervention Talk Boost narrows the gap between 4-7 year olds with language delay and their peers It is a structured and robustly evidenced programme that can boost a child's communication by an average of 18 months after ten weeks of intervention Already being used in over 2,000 primary schools | |

Talk Boost structure Small group intervention work Activities for groups of 4 children, 3 times a week for 10 weeks 30 – 40 minutes each session with a Learning Support Assistant/Teaching Assistant Whole class activities for class teacher Weekly activities linking small group activities to the class and supporting whole class speaking and listening skills Children’s Activity Books Activities for children to take home and share with parents and carers | |

Talk Boost delivery One day training course – delivered by I CAN or I CAN Licensed Tutors TA and teachers are trained in pairs Recommended resources per training pair: – Starter Kit – Intervention Manual, Teacher Manual, Children’s Books, etc. – Optional Talk Boost toolkit with activities and resources for use in small group sessions | |

Talk Boost outcomes Piloted in 30 schools as part of A Chance to Talk: Over 80% of children with delayed language moved into the typical range of language development 90% of these pupils met or exceeded expected progress in reading 69% of these pupils met or exceeded expected progress in writing 76% of these pupils met or exceeded expected progress in numeracy | |