Josie Sacks
@VersatileVocab1
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English Teacher + National Curriculum Lead - OCL. Lover of vocab instruction, artful sentences + competitive hobby TV shows
Joined February 2021
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We know that writers often explore binary concepts: transient and permanent; concrete and abstract; constant and volatile. Teaching versatile vocabulary in pairs allows students to notice, create and analyse these patterns. This is what we want in their backpacks.
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English H/W: I've been thinking hard about how to make it structured, motivating, genuinely useful and self-assessable. It's also got to reinforce existing grammar / vocabulary instruction. A Big Job! Sharing my ACC H/W booklet: structured essay planning + paragraph practice⬇️
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AIC revision + teaching: we - students + teachers - need easy ways to codify big ideas and patterns. Vocab list, graphics of AIC characters and scripts for teacher exposition ➡️
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AIC booklets! Student booklet:
Teacher booklet with:
✅MCQs (and answers)
💬Comments using MCQ content to support with scripting exposition
🕺Funky graphics for each character
📝 Context notes
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Continuing the English H/W chat: providing structured opportunities for writing practice builds confidence, resilience, a sense of success and helps internalise the what & the how of great writing. Sharing my Macbeth H/W booklet: structured writing practice⬇️
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@joharrop1
@Team_English1
We define 3-4 key quotes / ‘moments’ for each poem + attach them to key images and we teach versatile vocab that they can use to unlock big key concepts. Here’s a booklet w/ knowledge organisers + examples of images + quotes + model essays:
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@_krogg
Here’s the structure we use + some example answers! I have some anonymised student ones too if you’d like?
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This is what it looks like by Y11 - each colour represents a diff year group. Concepts + vocab build on each other, reoccur and develop!
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Booklet:
Completed examples for teachers:
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💭
@bridiemcpherson
and I have been thinking hard about thinking hard in English and across the curriculum - how do we get students to REALLY think? This is what we’ve got so far… here’s how how it could sound in a classroom! 💭
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Revision booklet including writing and planning practice:
Completed examples for teachers:
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@MissLewis202
@Team_English1
Here’s one for lit paper 1 and one for lit paper 2 - all have top mark exemplars in them !
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In lessons, we explicitly instruct this vocabulary:
...and teachers use these 'Most Revealing Moments' to script exposition:
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@charlotteosul
Here’s a booklet with key quotes + example essays! Will message you w/ some student ones too!
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Thinking about why I 🧡 planning + teaching an English curriculum that is founded on versatile, carefully sequenced Tier 2 vocabulary. It’s because the vocabulary unlocks the patterns, concepts, themes that students can then notice + critique in literature + LIFE!
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@HeroicMrT
Made a booklet with extracts from books I really like! + these are definitely *not* boring!
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Paragraph practice booklet:
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Teaching vocabulary is one of most important things we do. We imagine that students start school with an empty backpack. When we deliberately select, instruct & sequence vocabulary and it is repeated and retrieved, the backpack fills. They carry it for life; not just into exams.
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@Xris32
I’ve got extracts in here from nice books I like (rather than GCSE papers) if that helps!
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@MsGHist
Here’s what we use - there are examples here too so you can see what it should look like !
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@fezziwig_mr
@Team_English1
It was me I think! DM me if you want to chat more about it!
This is what it looks like by Y11 - each colour represents a diff year group. Concepts + vocab build on each other, reoccur and develop!
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When we teach carefully chosen versatile vocabulary precisely and repeatedly, we empower students to access complex concepts and articulate nuanced thinking. It's SO exciting to students using these as lenses through which to see texts -- their own + others'
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🕺 Marking Y11 Lang Mocks - extremely exciting to see impact of sequenced, repeated + explicit vocab instruction:
students are talking about 'callous indifference' (from Anita + Me, Y9) / being in a 'liminal space' (from Binti, Y8) / being ‘forthright' (from Antigone, Y7) 🕺
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@Inner_Drive
@BradleyKBusch
@m_chiles
Ooooo this is great! Here’s what I’ve been working on re: ‘I don’t know’ - categorising ‘why’ and then responding accordingly
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Yes!!! Sequencing and building mastery of specific foundational concepts, ideas, sentence construction + vocab at KS3 is 🔑 No GCSE papers!
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@charlotteosul
+ here’s my AIC booklet !
AIC revision + teaching: we - students + teachers - need easy ways to codify big ideas and patterns. Vocab list, graphics of AIC characters and scripts for teacher exposition ➡️
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So proud of our students + our team + our vision + our curriculum!
We’re among these amazing Eng deps with +40% FSM and +1 P8. Looking forward to doing even better for our students next year! We keep it simple with effective T+L: direct vocab instruction, codified + interleaved knowledge, centralised curric from
@VersatileVocab1
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Thank you
@chrisjordanhk
for having
@bridiemcpherson
and I to chat about concept-led curriculum, writing instruction, feedback, why model answers aren’t always the answer & more!
Lots of amazing English work at
@OasisSouthBank
. The chat for this week’s podcast with
@bridiemcpherson
and
@VersatileVocab1
is fantastic for anyone questioning curriculum change or whole class feedback. Available below or wherever you usually get them!
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👋 it’s me! Talking feedback!
🎥Whole class feedback: how to improve writing by identifying patterns
w/ ace
@bridiemcpherson
of
@OasisSouthBank
and
@VersatileVocab1
of
@OasisAcademies
Can't wait!
📅 Tues 25/01
🕕 6pm
RSVP here.
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Come and work with me +
@bridiemcpherson
!!! Centrally planned curriculum, booklets - no worksheets! - bloody good subject CPD, excellent colleagues. All the good stuff!! Message me w/ any Qs!
3/n
Second in Charge, English Faculty
You'd work with the amazing
@bridiemcpherson
who outlines her thinking here. Have a listen and if you like it, come by next Wednesday to say hello.
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@Pads2B
@Team_English1
Here’s what we use! + some examples of how it can work w/ narrative writing
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Explicitly teaching versatile vocabulary & using it, repeatedly, to interrogate texts = modelling & codifying what analytical & critical thinking can look like. We demystify the process, making it accessible & building robust patterns of responses. It works for lit & lang!
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@ESharp79
@Team_English1
@LauraLolder
@FunkyPedagogy
@GoldfinchMiss
@LitdriveUK
@Mathew_Lynch44
Here’s a booklet + Knowledge Organiser + vocab list!
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She’s the drop in 👑 ! Magic magic magic.
We’re big fans of drop ins
@OasisSouthBank
. In the English team, each teacher does an average of 6 drop ins a week. It’s non hierarchical — we all do them, for anyone! This open door culture can feel daunting at first, but when it’s embedded, it’s totally transformative. 🧵
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Building on the work of
@HuntingEnglish
@ClareSealy
@judehunton
@son1bun
@DavidDidau
@margaretmckeow2
@elucymay
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🐐 Such special young people + such a special service! 🐐
🌟Check out this amazing short film made by
@natyouthagency
for
#YouthWorkWeek
, featuring
@OasisWaterloo
@OHWYouth
@OasisFarmSE1
and two brilliant students from
@OasisSouthBank
! Here they are in action during filming! 🌟
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So looking forward to sharing more about the how, why and what of Versatile Vocab - it’s Session 2!
@researchED1
#rED21
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@RachWard
@Team_English1
@LitdriveUK
@FunkyPedagogy
We teach Binti by Nnedi Okorafor! It’s GREAT for those themes! Happy to share resources! Also love Pet by Akwaeke Emezi for the theme of protest + resistance
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@lilmissstace87
The change I’ve found most powerful for this repeated annoyance is a simple ‘because the writer’ - this forces them to link it to structural choices! We also teach ‘conceal / reveal’ and ‘ambiguous / unambiguous’ to support them to make precise comments about effect!
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@cgkedu
@HeptonMrs
@Team_English1
Agree! We find a simple ‘establish the focus’ + therefore the reader +because the writer can be really powerful! Here’s a booklet with some examples:
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@LisaJayneHobson
@Team_English1
Love Pet by Akwaeke Emezi, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engel, Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
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!!!!!
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@HelenHinde3
‘Power’ cluster:
‘Conflict’ cluster:
Revision booklet w/ 6 key poems + model paragraphs + essays:
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@_krogg
@Team_English1
try giving short, whole class feedback on a sentence-level after writing in class, followed by green pen amendments so that they are familiar with what it looks like to make focus edits rather than big crossings out
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@Josie_thomas1
@FunkyPedagogy
We get them to look at beginning, middle and end of the poem - to notice a key image in each part and 'zoom in' on that image. This leads to three paragraphs that also notice something about structural shifts. Here's a lesson on London Thoroughfare:
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@nellymarieeng
@TeamEnglish1
@FunkyPedagogy
@LauraLolder
We teach specific sentence structures + sequence this across KS3 - really helps teachers to give specific feedback + students to self-assess in a productive way
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@Chrisj30
@GCSE_Macbeth
We also teach two Zora Neale Hurston short stories in Y9 - she’s one of my favourite ever writers!
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@bentleykarl
@MrCJDean
I love ‘synthetic’ + ‘eerie’! Once students understand opposites, we can really explore the shades of nuance in between!
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@bentleykarl
@MrCJDean
100% agree! Liminal + liminality useful to explicitly teach to empower students to explore the ‘in between’
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@awdenglish
@bridiemcpherson
@OasisSouthBank
As above from
@bridiemcpherson
- thank you so much for your ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reflections + involvement (+ book look feedback!!)
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@LoicMnzs
Agree! That comparison with LA non disadv. is RUBBISH. I downloaded the data and worked out P8 gap for each school, comparing disadv. P8 with non-disadv. P8 for each school, which might get you closer to what you’re looking for - it’s column BI
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@nellymarieeng
@joharrop1
@Team_English1
Omg so coooool wowowow!!!!!! 🤯 !!!!!! Would love to hear more about how it’s going!! DM me!!
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@awdenglish
@GCSE_Macbeth
@Team_English1
Absolutely! DM me if you want to chat more! Here’s version 1 - and version 2 -
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I’m Gromit!
@NiallAlcock
@joe__kirby
@VallanceTeach
@AnansiRyans
@RossWertjes
@Mr_Raichura
@MrPTse
This looks great! Thinking of what great historic duo
@bridiemcpherson
&
@VersatileVocab1
are the equivalent of…
The Bonnie & Clyde of feedback?
The Mulder & Scully of checking for understanding?
The Ant ‘n’ Dec of twilight CPD?
The Wallace & Gromit of writing?
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@missradders
Ladivine, Marie NDiaye + My Work, Olga Ravn + everything Claudia Piñeiro has ever written!!!
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@Chrisj30
@GCSE_Macbeth
Love Claude McKay SO much! Have you read Romance in Marseille? Recently-ish republished and it’s amazing!!!
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@BarbaraBleiman
If students don’t know what Tier 2 words like sympathy + empathy mean, when + where *should* we explicitly teach them?
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@MsBLit
@Team_English1
@englishteachers
A Wrinkle In Time (+Greek Myths, Antigone, Folk Tales, Beowulf)
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@engteacherabro2
@Team_English1
Here’s what we use: - we sequence the sentence structures across KS3 + teach them explicitly!
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StepLab is extremely EXTREMELY good!
Interested in learning more about instructional coaching?
Steplab are hosting a summer conference at
@OasisSouthBank
on the 9th July. Information on speakers to follow.
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@FreyaMariaO
there are links to some discussions about writing instruction in the chat
@WeAreInBetaPod
!!
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@bennewmark
@PepsMccrea
+great for teacher workload reduction but a booklet is - obviously - only as good as what’s inside it!
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