PDC Group 5 – Three Tier Vocabulary | Learning and Teaching at Abbot Beyne

In our December meeting, we explored the idea of ‘Three Tiered Vocabulary’, linking this in to the Knowledge Organisers that we have all been piloting.

Nicola Sutcliffe has been using tiered vocabulary in maths and has integrated this into her knowledge organisers.

“The students were provided with a knowledge mat on area as it contained the basic facts they needed and definitions for subject specific vocab which may appear in questions.

This was used to facilitate the lesson on Volume which is a more complex idea. The idea was to enable them to focus on the new learning rather than recall of the basic facts (which they may not be able to do!)”

See attached Knowledge Organiser.

Jackie Wood has also shared her use of vocabulary in lessons.

“Three tier vocabulary brought up some interesting questions about PP students, their general knowledge and understanding of key words and vocabulary. Some students do not have an understanding of words we maybe would expect them to be able to use. As such the use of knowledge mats and key words in lessons is important with all students particularly PP. I have been trialling repetition of key words in set 5, asking the same question to different students. Focusing on confidence in pronunciation and understanding of key words. Key words for the lesson are always on the board and available for students. I have also used the testing of key words in different lessons to try and focus on key word understanding.”

Bev Downes focused on keywords in her science lessons and has been embedding them with her students.

“Students have keywords every lesson but do not always think to use them in their written work. I gave them an independent written task to complete and if they used a keyword correctly they needed to highlight it.”

See attached photos of examples of students’ work.