I still remember Alex Quigley posing to Twitter the choice of two front covers for this book. After waiting a long time for the book to be released, I jumped at the chance to read it a little bit earlier through downloading the eBook to my Kindle (forgive me father, for I have sinned). Initially, I raced through the book in just two days. However, since then, I’ve read the book again at a much slower pace.

If you take, or want to take, vocabulary seriously, you must buy this book. It’s a steal on Amazon right now: BUY IT HERE. I forbid you to read any more of this review until you’ve bought it.

With this book, Alex has skilfully laid the foundations for all teachers to begin teaching vocabulary, and give it the priority that it deserves. Quigley guides the reader through the range of issues currently surrounding vocabulary, and actively promotes teaching vocabulary directly and explicitly. The crux, for me, of this book is that ‘reading for pleasure’ alone will not be enough to close the gap; words must be taught alongside. This is not to say that Alex plays down the importance of it. In fact, on numerous occasions, he makes it abundantly clear that that is not what he’s advocating.

^^ I don’t want to give too much away, but some interesting reading on James Coady’s ‘Beginner’s Paradox’ can be found here.

Finally on this point, Alex perfectly sums it up with this:

Teaching vocabulary and reading for pleasure should mutually reinforce one another.

The book then moves on to talking in detail about the ‘academic code’. Alex identifies that a ‘structured approach to wider reading, alongside a focus on oracy, with both being wedded to direct instruction of academic vocabulary’ will enable us to start getting nearer to a solution. Quigley calls upon an anecdote where he spends a day following a GCSE student around school (not as sinister as it sounds upon reading). Alex is floored by the sheer amount of different lexicons that the student must process, understand, and apply throughout just a single day at school. Alex puts this down to the student having a solid ‘word consciousness’, which helps every student ‘make the unfamiliar academic vocabulary of school accessible’.

… we must give our students the necessary tools to develop their vocabulary independently.

The book concludes with a host of practical strategies for teachers to begin teaching vocabulary, with inspiration being drawn from a staple book in vocabulary: Bringing Words to Life.

Alex, thank you for this book.

Title inspired by Clare Sealy (@ClareSealy). Blog inspired by Philip Pullman via Tim Roach (@MrTRoach).

Yesterday, it was an honour to lead a session at Primary Rocks Live ’18 (The Presentation). Thank you to everyone who came to watch it.

This blog is a war cry. It is unlikely to be succinct or cohesive, but it is guaranteed to be borne from a coiled spring of passion itching to be unwound.

You’re in a classroom with thirty children in front of you. The attitude and learning behaviour of those children is irrelevant at this moment, so shelve the ‘But my kids won’t do that’ excuse. They are still children. Children who are going to eventually leave your class, progress to the next phase of their education, and ultimately leave education to join the workforce in whatever capacity. You, in this moment, have the power. The power to empower. With words.

Words are humanity’s most valuable tool. They are our daily currency; irrespective of mother tongue, idiolect, sociolect, dialect or accent. They convey our thoughts, emotions, and provide a vessel to describe actions. A word can change the world. And if the words you say can’t / won’t change the world, then make absolutely sure that they change your children’s worlds.

You prepare and cook the ‘food’ in your classroom. You control the learning diet. This diet, much like the one our bodies require to function at a high level, must be rich and varied. And vocabulary is the foundation for a good one.

You control the learning diet.

Control: the power to direct or influence people’s behaviour, or the course of events.

Specifically, this means that you do not bombard children with fruity language. Not least without explicit instruction of what those words actually mean, and how they can be used. The whole reason that you provide a rich, varied diet of words is to empower your children to go deeper, to look beneath the surface. To choose. To select *that* word which fits the sentence they’re writing, or *that* word which perfectly encapsulates what they’re trying to say, or *that* word which describes exactly how they’re feeling in a way that just makes them feel instantly better.

Start teaching individual words. Explicitly explain the links the new word has with other words they know. Create a buzz around words. The only person that can do that is you.

VIVE LA RÉVOLUTION!