One Step at a Time: Presentation 2 TEACHING SPOKEN LANGUAGE: Teaching Systematically Background Systematic Teaching Curriculum Framework Initial Assessment Differentiated Intervention Learning Objectives Incremental Teaching Lesson Planning Teaching Method Assessment of Progress Consolidation Vocabulary Work Links to Literacy First Steps 1

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically BACKGROUND This session:  sets out the requirements for systematic teaching of any sort  describes how One Step at a Time enables the systematic teaching of spoken language  and makes language teaching manageable in the mainstream classroom 2

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically BACKGROUND One Step at a Time is:  a structured teaching programme for developing children’s spoken language in the early years and primary school through the active use of spoken language in the classroom  a whole-school programme for children aged 3 and 9, but can also be used with single classes and/or older children  an all-needs programme, providing differentiated teaching for all children in mainstream education 3

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically BACKGROUND Schools and staff need something that will:  guide them in what to teach, when to teach it, how to teach it and how to assess children’s development and progress  embody the expertise that teachers need to teach spoken language  and enable them to develop that expertise for themselves through active experience in the classroom but above all:  be easy to implement and manage in the mainstream classroom 4

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically BACKGROUND Spoken language can be made more accessible to schools through a teaching programme that:  identifies the skills most needed for progress in school  and provides  explicit teaching and learning objectives  appropriate teaching techniques  simple ways of assessing development and reviewing progress 5

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically BACKGROUND But a teaching programme must also be:  flexible: adaptable to the needs of different schools, different teachers and different children  easily manageable in the classroom:  reflecting and supporting the wider curriculum  building on existing classroom practice and activities  without adding significantly to teachers’ workloads, or requiring additional resources or special expertise This is what One Step at a Time aims to do. 6

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING Systematic teaching (of any sort) requires:  a curriculum structure or framework  initial assessment  differentiated intervention  learning objectives  incremental teaching  lesson planning  teaching methods  assessment of progress  consolidation of learning 7

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING One Step at a Time provides:  initial screens for assessing children’s competence in the relevant skills  skills checklists for guiding intervention and monitoring progress  guidance on lesson planning, classroom intervention and teaching method  wordlists of essential vocabulary  guidance on monitoring progress and moving on  discussion of the links to literacy 8

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Curriculum Framework Systematic teaching requires a curriculum structure or framework that will guide staff in:  what to teach  and when to teach it (at what ages, and in what order) One Step at a Time derives its curriculum framework from an educational model for teaching spoken language. 9

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Curriculum Framework 10

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Curriculum Framework Vocabulary is vast, too extensive to be taught systematically or in detail. Grammar is complex, difficult to assess, and probably impossible to teach directly. But the four uses of language:  are fundamental to the development of literacy and other skills  can be used to develop vocabulary, sentence structure and fluency 11

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Curriculum Framework  Conversation is crucial for communication and social development, is used for teaching and learning, and underpins most other language skills  Listening is crucial for learning, understanding, and the development of reading  Narrative or extended talk is crucial for coherent thought and expression, and for the development of writing  Discussion is crucial for the development of thinking skills, social understanding and emotional literacy 12

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Curriculum Framework One Step at a Time has five levels of intervention, including a preliminary level:  Getting Started: for children who are not ready for systematic work on conversation  Conversation Skills: for children aged 3 to 4 (or older)  Listening Skills: for children aged 4 to 5 (or older)  Narrative Skills: for children aged 5 to 7 (or older)  Discussion Skills: for children aged 7 to 9 and older 13

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Curriculum Framework Classes may vary in how long they need to work at each level, but in general:  Getting Started runs in parallel with Conversation Skills and is expected to last less than a year  Conversation Skills is expected to last a year  Listening Skills is expected to last a year  Narrative Skills is expected to last a couple of years but will still benefit children if it can only be used for a single year  Discussion Skills is expected to last at least two years but will still benefit children if it can only be used for a single year. 14

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Initial Assessment Systematic teaching needs to include assessment for learning, as distinct from assessment of learning.  Staff also need to develop a different way of listening to children:  not what they say but how they say it  and how individual children differ  Simple assessment tools can help staff develop these skills. 15

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Initial Assessment In One Step at a Time initial screens enable staff to:  tune-in’ to the relevant skills at each level of the programme  identify children’s current level of development  determine the amount of support they are likely to need 16

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Differentiated Intervention Systematic teaching needs to identify children who are:  likely to need a lot of support  likely to need some support  not likely to need much support and provide the appropriate amounts of intervention. 17

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Differentiated Intervention The One Step at a Time initial screens identify children as:  Competent: they seem to be acquiring the relevant skills without too much difficulty and are not expected to need special attention  Developing: they seem to be slower in acquiring the relevant skills and are likely to need some support and attention  Delayed: they seem to be having difficulty in acquiring the relevant skills and are likely to need more intensive support and attention This identification is flexible and likely to change in the course of a term or year. 18

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Learning Objectives Systematic teaching requires specific teaching and learning objectives that:  make it clear what staff need to teach, what children need to learn, and what behaviours they need to demonstrate to show they have learnt it  make it easier to monitor individual learning, and ensure that the relevant skills are learnt by all children, not just by some  help teaching staff become more aware of the nature of the skills, how they develop in different children, and the impact this can have on other learning 19

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Learning Objectives One Step at a Time:  takes the four key uses of language  breaks them down into component skills and sub-skills  to provide distinct teaching and learning objectives 20

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Incremental Teaching Systematic teaching needs to be incremental teaching that builds one skill on top of another, one step at a time. In One Step at a Time:  each main level has three skills checklists (two in the case of Getting Started) to focus and guide intervention, and monitor children’s progress  each checklist consists of a number of distinct behaviours or sub-skills grouped together under a few broad types of skill  skills and behaviours are listed in rough developmental order as a guide to intervention  children work through each checklist in sequence, a few behaviours at a time, but usually only one broad skill at a time 21

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Lesson Planning Systematic teaching requires lesson planning, including setting objectives, selecting activities and preparing materials. However:  spoken language is an essential cross-curricular skill; it is needed for every subject and can be taught with any subject  language work can be used to teach curriculum topics, and curriculum topics can be used to teach language skills  activities and materials will mostly be available already, in the existing timetable and the current classroom So, for One Step at a Time it should not usually be necessary to plan separate language lessons; language work can instead be integrated with the rest of the curriculum. 22

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Teaching Method Parents normally teach their children spoken language (usually without realising they are doing it) by:  Highlighting: drawing attention to the word or behaviour by indicating or emphasising it  Modelling: providing an example for the child to copy  Prompting: encouraging him to respond, directing him towards the appropriate behaviour  Rewarding: rewarding any appropriate response with praise and further encouragement Schools can use the same techniques, but use them explicitly and systematically. 23

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Teaching Method One Step at a Time uses a mixture of whole-class work, small-group work, partner work and informal interaction with individual children. The balance varies, but the primary intervention is:  Getting Started: informal interaction with individual children  Conversation Skills: staff-led small-group work and informal interaction  Listening Skills: whole-class and staff-led small-group work  Narrative Skills: whole-class, small-group, and partner work  Discussion Skills: whole-class and independent small-group discussion work 24

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Assessment of Progress Systematic teaching needs to include assessment of children’s progress. Assessment:  is essential to effective teaching  needs to be continual, on-going assessment, an integral part of day-to-day teaching (assessment for learning, not assessment of learning)  needs to be individual assessment: whole-class assessment is inadequate and inaccurate In One Step at a Time, the skills checklists provide a quick and simple way of reviewing and recording individual progress. 25

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Consolidation Systematic teaching needs to ensure that children consolidate and generalise basic skills (fluency), so they can use them without trying or having to think about them. They need to establish fluency in spoken language, to free up capacity for learning and thinking as well as for reading and writing. But:  consolidation needs practice  practice means repetition  repetition takes time Children who are slow to establish a skill are also likely to take longer to consolidate it. 26

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Consolidation Schools are increasingly under pressure to keep moving everyone on, but teaching of basic skills needs to be geared to the slowest, not the fastest, learners. Children who have not consolidated a basic skill:  are likely to have greater difficulty later on with more advanced skills  and may even forget the earlier skills they seemed to have acquired It is more important that all children:  acquire basic skills properly before being expected to develop more advanced ones, than that they reach a certain standard by a certain time or a certain age. 27

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Consolidation In One Step at a Time  Children work through the checklists (usually in groups) at their own pace and with varying degrees of support, one skill at a time and one checklist at a time  Staff should ensure that each behaviour has been properly consolidated and return later to any items that have proved difficult, to check they have been retained 28

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically SYSTEMATIC TEACHING: Vocabulary Work One Step at a Time also provides vocabulary work:  Vocabulary work is optional, except for Getting Started and Discussion Skills  Each level of the programme includes a list of 100 essential words chosen from early vocabulary, the vocabulary of properties and relations, and/or the vocabulary of feelings and emotion  These wordlists are intended to be supplemented with essential topic vocabulary  But, except for Getting Started and Discussion Skills, systematic vocabulary work need not be introduced until children and staff are thoroughly familiar with skills teaching 29

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically LINKS TO LITERACY Spoken language is the crucial pre-literacy and literacy-support skill. Each main level of One Step at a Time includes:  information on how the relevant language skills underpin literacy  advice on four other pre-literacy and literacy-support skills:  awareness, understanding and use of reading  auditory and phonic skills  visual-motor skills  awareness, understanding and use of writing 30

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically FIRST STEPS The first year using One Step at a Time should be a learning year for staff and school as much as children:  Staff need time to familiarise themselves with the programme, adapt it to their needs, and build up suitable teaching activities and resources  They should not proceed any faster than is comfortable for themselves or their children  They need not try to include all aspects of the programme, especially in the first year  All procedures should be interpreted flexibly, in whatever way suits the school, staff and children 31

Teaching Spoken Language: Teaching Systematically and finally Confidence enables:  children to learn  and teachers to teach Confidence is:  the first of the ‘first four C’s’ (confidence, curiosity, concentration, communication) which eventually lead to the fifth C, conversation  what children need to demonstrate in their learning (they need to be using a skill confidently, competently and consistently) And confidence in language learning is what One Step at a Time provides, for children and for staff. 32