Research School Network: Poles Apart Closing the vocabulary gap in Geography

It has been widely noted that GCSEs are increasingly more challenging, and Geography is no exception. Like all subjects, there has been a significant increase in content and the breadth and depth of knowledge the students are required to possess is significantly more than ever before. Not only that, there has been an increase in the level of mathematical skill required, the addition of a fieldwork paper, and a pre-released issue-based booklet. All of this, in conjunction with the loss of coursework and the shift to terminal exams, made last year a daunting time for many. 

For the majority of geographers, the focus was on delivering the increased subject content and on wondering just how to ​‘get through’ it all. However, with hindsight, content was not the biggest issue: after spending hours scrutinising papers and staring at class data, this became glaringly obvious. It is without a doubt that increased content presents us with issues, however it was not the biggest problem. This turned out to be literacy, with many students being poles apart from where they needed to be in order to confidently access the papers.

The conundrum we faced is what to do in the classroom to ensure the students get the grades they are capable of achieving. As a department, we decided to focus on the following:

1. The explicit teaching of tier 2 and tier 3 words (Beck, et al 2002). We already teach the complex and subject specific terminology but we really needed to focus on the higher level tier 2 words that seemed to be the stumbling blocks for our students. Breaking down the question and explicitly teaching the meaning of the command words wasn’t enough. We needed evidence to see if the students really understood what the words were asking and so taking it a step further and asking them to re-write the questions in the own words or use in completely different sentences. Finding an image that sums up the word has been very useful particularly for the low ability students and indeed eye opening. Including these words on our subject knowledge organisers has been essential and regular low stakes keyword tests have helped students to consolidate their learning.

2. Whole class reading – getting students to read through carefully selected geographic literature, which is specifically chosen to challenge students with an array of terminology. We have adopted the SEEC approach (Select, Explain, Explore and Consolidate, Quigley, 2018) in lessons when exploring new texts. This is then summarised by the students and placed on a graphic organiser. This allows students to be exposed to higher level terminology in context and adopting the SEEC approach ensures we are selecting the right literature and using it to its full affect. The Education Endowment Foundation highlights that reading comprehension approaches average can deliver an additional six months progress for students and so incorporating this into our schemes of work.

3. Developing word consciousness. We are actively taking the time to teach student the morphology and etymology of words. This is twofold, it not only increases the likelihood of students retaining the definition of the work but allows students the tools to break down similar words if they are faced with them in the exam.

References

Beck, I., McKeown, M & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life. New York, NY:Guilford.

Quigley, A (2018). Closing the vocabulary gap. Oxon: Routledge. 139 – 145.

Education Endowment Foundation. (2018). Reading Comprehension Strategies. Available: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/reading-comprehension-strategies/. Last accessed 1^st December 2018.