# data[].attributes.body
Videos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
Tweets by explainitagain1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
researchED Home 2020 Alex Quigley: Closing the Reading Gap (inc. in the time of the Coronavirus)

# data[].attributes.headline
"Comprehension Skills or Strategies: Is there a difference and does it matter?"

# data[].attributes.subject
"Comprehension Skills or Strategies: Is there a difference and does it matter?"

# data[].attributes.body
Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Literacy Blog, Blog postings for teachers and parents on teaching and assessing reading, writing, and literacy.

# data[].attributes.body
Book by Alex Quigley

# data[].attributes.body
Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Schools can be hectic places and the work of a teachers is seldom 'done'. When faced with the job of a challenging new curriculum, particularly for our more disadvantaged pupils, tackling such work can feel nigh on insurmountable. Happily, when we shrink the problem down to constituent parts - like the effective teaching of vocabulary - we offer a solution and a start for busy teachers.

I have had the pleasure of speaking to countless teachers about their increased understanding of explicitly teaching vocabulary and being more aware of the 'academic code' of school. Great blogs, articles and headline making teacher surveys from Oxford University have made vocabulary instruction more visible, achievable, with the complexities better understood.

And yet, the typical reality of teacher training and support is sobering. Most teachers have not proved confident in teaching vocabulary much beyond using dictionary definitions, glossaries and the odd 'word list'.

We know that vocabulary instruction and development, like wider reading, is a process that does not produce speedy, magic results. In a world demanding quick fixes, we need to be in it for the long haul, as vocabulary development emerges cumulatively over time.

It is too easy to assume singular strategies and one-off training sessions offer teachers the platform for real, sustained habit changes when it comes to vocabulary instruction.

There is the obvious danger that teachers enjoy some vocabulary INSET training, share some resources, and perhaps try a strategy or two, but the rollercoaster of the school year carries us off once more and our best laid plans, like working 'word walls', are lost and our classroom displays become little more than dulled, tattered wallpaper.

Working with schools, it is clear that addressing the challenges of the curriculum and ensuring communication for every pupil flourishes, requires a whole-school strategy. In my book, and freely available on my website resources page, I pose the following questions for schools when considering a whole-school strategy to address vocabulary at the heart of curriculum:

1. What voca bulary does the children I teach need to know, understand, and use, to be successful in school and beyond?

2. How challenging are the reading texts that I expect children to read and understand in my lessons?

3. How do we best select what words to teach?

4. How do we best teach the words I have selected to teach?

5. Are they any barriers or misconceptions related to the words that I have selected to teach?

6. What strategies will I deploy to overcome those barriers and to correct misconceptions?

7. How do we best foster a culture of reading in my classroom and/or school?

8. How do we encourage children to become avid readers beyond the classroom?

9. How do we best foster a culture of rich academic talk in my classroom and/or school?

10. How will we know whether children in my classroom are successfully growing their vocabulary and that my practice is having a positive impact?

It is clear, and rather unsurprising, that complex problems require complex solutions. Improving our vocabulary instruction will demand more than just word walls.

Please take a look at my free resources page for more ideas regarding vocabulary. I am also running two 'Closing the Vocabulary Gap Masterclass' sessions, in Manchester and London, to offer teachers training to help steer their school strategy for vocabulary instruction. Contact chris@teachology.co.uk directly for a 30% discount!

(Image via Flickr, from Pierre Metivier - available here via Creative Commons: https://www.flickr.com/photos/feuilllu/739173692)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Schools can be hectic places and the work of a teachers is seldom 'done'. When faced with the job of a challenging new curriculum, particularly for our more disadvantaged pupils, tackling such work can feel nigh on insurmountable.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can sign up to my Substack newsletter - The 3Rs - What I'm writing, reading, and research and resources I am interested in HERE.

Below are the free resources created to accompany my 'Closing the Gap' series.

CLOSING THE WRITING GAP RESOURCES

If you want to grab a copy of the book to accompany the resources you can grab a copy at Amazon UK HERE and Routledge

CLOSING THE READING GAP RESOURCES
CTRG Book Club Discussion Questions
If you want to grab a copy of the book to accompany the resources you can grab a copy at Amazon UK HERE and Routledge .

CLOSING THE VOCABULARY GAP RESOURCES

If want to grab a copy of the bestselling Vocabulary book, you can grab a copy from Amazon UK HERE and Routledge . Also, you can now get an audiobook now to - see Amazon UK .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Closing the Gap Resources | The Confident Teacher

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You can sign up to my Substack newsletter - The 3Rs - What I'm writing, reading, and research and resources I am interested in HERE. Below are the free resources created to accompany my 'Closing the Gap' series.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are vast array of brilliant websites about reading that would help teachers of all stripes in their daily work. Some cover useful reading materials, whereas others dig into the science of reading.

There are simply too many websites to do justice to here, but here are five of the websites I have returned to regularly in the last few years:

School Reading List. This website is my go to resource for book lists for all different phases. It helpfully offers an accessible site-map too and is a great start to hunting down reading materials.

2. Reading Rockets. Reading Rockets is perhaps the most comprehensive literacy website you will find. It has a wealth of reading-specific information that would be useful for every teacher. There is lots of distilled reading research too and an array of expert blogs.

3. Shanahan On Literacy. Professor Tim Shanahan is a reading expert and a prolific blogger. There is not an aspect of reading that is not explored on his blog and Shanahan's skill for clearly communicating complex research is enviable. Follow him on Twitter here.

4. Read Oxford. Based at Oxford University, the ReadOxford website is a collaboration from the 'Language and Cognitive Development' department, which mediates cutting edge research on reading. Issues like dyslexia, vocabulary, comprehension, and much more, are communicated skilfully.

5. Research Rich Pedagogies - Open University. This website, brought to you by the OU team, including Professor Teresa Cremin, shares a wealth of research and blogs on the specific area of 'reading for pleasure'. It shares interesting research on issues like teacher knowledge of children's literature.

There are countless reading researchers, bloggers, websites, guidance reports and books, that this blog couldn't possibly do justice to - but do add any of your favourites in the comments.

Related reading:

Do search out my ' Closing the Reading Gap' Reading List tool on my Resources page .

If you want to pick up my ' Closing the Reading Gap' book, you can get it on Amazon , or Routledge . Routledge have also produced a free Book Club Questions resource .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Helpful Websites on Reading for Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are vast array of brilliant websites about reading that would help teachers of all stripes in their daily work. Some cover useful reading materials, whereas others dig into the science of reading. There are simply too many websites to do justice to here, but here are five of the websites I have returned to regularly in the last few years: School Reading List .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Issue 1 - Parts of Speech - (English) - Dekko Comics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Back Decide which language feature is shown in the orange box and drag the relevant answer across before hitting Check to see if you got it right Drag the correct grey box into the yellow box.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Back Decide which language feature is shown in the orange box and drag the relevant answer across before hitting Check to see if you got it right Drag the correct grey box into the yellow box.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As the title of the paper suggests, there are three core skills being tested in this exam:

You will have to complete the RUAE exam. The paper is marked out of 30 and is therefore worth of your overall grade.

The RUAE passage

Often, reading and understanding the passage is the trickiest bit for candidates. Sometimes the passage can include quite demanding vocabulary. At other times, it can be quite challenging to follow the writer's line of thought.

There is no way to guess which passage has been selected for the RUAE exam; but chances are the examination team have drawn this article from a piece of journalism in a quality broadsheet newspaper. Therefore, a good habit to get into would be to read one piece of quality journalism every week:

select an article relevant to your interests (a review of a football match, concert or film perhaps)

highlight any difficult words you encounter

use the context of the paragraph to help you work out meaning or use a dictionary

The questions

It is perhaps helpful to think about the three question areas in this paper in the following way:

Working out whether a question is a U or an A or an E can be tricky. But looking for certain trigger words in each question will help:

Understanding questions

Analysis questions

With reference to the features of language used by the writer show how...

Analyse how techniques used by the writer...

How does the word choice/imagery used by the writer...

How is tone created...

Evaluative questions

Once you have figured out what type of question you are dealing with, you should then look at the mark allocation. For example:

a 4-mark analysis question , for example, will require you to structure your answer like this: 2 x Quotation/Technique/Analysis (with link to question)

an answer to a 5-mark understanding question , for example, might be best bullet pointed for clarity.

Language features

It is important that you know how to analyse a range of language features. Typically, the following language features crop up in National 5 RUAE papers:

Your teacher might suggest a particular answer formula or structure for each language feature. Try not to analyse out of context. Always think about what job these techniques are doing in the passage in front of you.

You can read more about analysing language here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation - Exam skills - National 5 English Revision - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As the title of the paper suggests, there are three core skills being tested in this exam: You will have to complete the RUAE exam. The paper is marked out of 30 and is therefore worth of your overall grade. Often, reading and understanding the passage is the trickiest bit for candidates.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Reading is like any other skill - the more time you spend reading the better a reader you are likely to become. You should choose to read things you find interesting and enjoy. But it is also good to challenge yourself by picking different types of texts. If you normally read biographies and magazine articles, you could try some short stories, poems or novels.

You can help improve your understanding of what you read by asking yourself a number of questions before, during and after reading.

Before you read

Can you predict what it is about from the title?

Do you know anything already about the topic?

What would you like to find out?

Do you have any questions you would like answered?

While you are reading

Is the content what you expected?

Do you need to change your predictions?

Does the text answer your questions?

Is there anything you don't understand?

After you have read

What were the main points?

Can you summarise what you read?

Could you tell someone else your opinion of what you read?

Did you stay interested as you were reading?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reading - understanding and inference - Understanding and inference - National 5 English Revision - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Reading is like any other skill - the more time you spend reading the better a reader you are likely to become. You should choose to read things you find interesting and enjoy. But it is also good to challenge yourself by picking different types of texts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Analysing language - Analysing language in Critical Reading - National 5 English Revision - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In National 5 English revise language techniques such as figures of speech, sentence structure, tone and word choice, for the Critical Reading exam.