innovatED Magazine - Issue 4 - Spring 2020

Quite simply, for some pupils (especially lower
attaining ones, who often have social, emotional and
other barriers to learning), such plans and planning
processes can be extremely ineffective, because it’s
just too much information (that may be relatively new
to them, in the form of a new text) for them to process
and hold in their working memory and remember - let
alone write the text.
Why not try simplifying your whole planning process to
a few well-chosen words, that are heavily embedded
in those immersive and engaging dramatic, sketching,
talk and sensory experiences that the pupils can refer
and relate back to, underpinned by vocabulary – with
the simple prompt of a single word? In doing so, you
will save potentially a lesson every week or in every
writing sequence from laborious and often pointless
planning, which can be used to spend more time
immersing the learners in the book, the landscape, the
setting, or in the characters very own shoes and
modelling how to develop aspects of the text
effectively.
Using the precise vocabulary to plan or structure,
allows the pupils to cognitively focus on the task at
hand without the mental overload that the traditional
plan can create. Providing your pupils with the faculty
to retrieve the familiar content of the book or stimulus,
and still be able to focus on the developing and
including the expected grammatical features of the
text.
See the example below for Shackleton’s Journey. Ten
well-chosen words which elicit memories, discussion,
facts, opinions and much more from the text in this
case lots of meaning rich verbs). A simple and effective
way to prompt and structure the writing process!
Simple to prompt pupils’ knowledge and drive adult
questioning. It is however, important to consider, that
for some pupils, ten words may still be a lot to
manage, especially in KS1. The beauty of using
vocabulary to ‘plan’ is that, because you are merely
thinking of a number of well-chosen and thoughtfully
ordered words, the amount of words chosen to drive
the text could quite easily be varied for every pupil to
create personalised and effective plans in very little
time:
Stranded
Ice Pack
Speech
Mutiny
Hunger
Execution (dogs)
Shelter
Farewell
Elephant Island
Rescue
Time Spent Vs Outcomes Produced – Another
concept to consider is the amount of time that
traditional planning can take, definitely one, if not two
lessons – a huge amount of time in school terms,
which often for lots of pupils doesn’t produce the
outcomes we desire. By using vocabulary to plan, that
time could be much better spent, orally rehearsing
ideas, developing phrases, capturing ideas, or even
just a greater amount of time spent writing, rather than
rushing. All of which are much more likely to drive
better writing outcomes.
If you’re not convinced, think about vocabulary in the
following way; consider the importance of water to
human beings. Without water, human beings will very
quickly die, within a matter of days. Vocabulary, much
like water for human beings, is essential for our pupils
writing to flourish. Without understanding the essential
vocabulary, our pupils understanding and subsequent
writing outcomes will also wither and metaphorically
die.
Whichever way you chose to plan your writing,
vocabulary should constitute every stage of the writing
process, especially your own planning stage as the
class teacher. You should always consider the
essential vocabulary that pupils may need to be taught
in the early lessons of a unit, in order to fully
understand a story or topic. Quite quickly, if you are
picky and precise about the language you intend to
teach from the outset of a unit of work, you can see
how this essential vocabulary will ultimately become
the vocabulary you intend to use with the children to
effectively and efficiently plan with •
During the day, Andrew is a serving primary
Assistant Head Teacher, KS2 Leader, English
Lead and Y6 teacher, working in the North-
East of England. At night, he stealthily
transforms into Vocabulary Ninja, writing
books, creating educational apps, developing
educational resources and working to make
vocabulary a worthy priority in schools.
Image from Shackleton’s Journey by Will Grill,
courtesy of Flying Eye Books.
S P R I N G 2 0 2 0 | I N N O V A T E D | I S S U E 4 | P A G E 2 5