'The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.' These words do feature in the Book Of Matthew in the bible, hence the term, 'The Matthew Effect.' Becoming word rich is essential to all of our students as they will need to become more and more word rich to survive in the digital world which is completely centred around the written word. ( EU Report on Literacy September 2012)
We're continually promoting word richness at Hodgson Academy, as it's something we are very passionate about. The vocabulary of a teenager will diminish if they do not read and use new words as well as revisit old words. At the age of 7, children in the top quartile have 7 100 words and children in the lower quartile, 3 000. Here's the shocker: at the age of 16, 1 in 12 young people have a working vocabulary of 800 words. (DofE Research Unit)
Who is accountable for that?
So, the solution: literacy across the whole academy, the whole curriculum; literacy as a transferable skill from subject to subject, from classroom to classroom. This is an evolving and growing process that feeds the needs of young people so they can leave Hodgson Academy with a decent chance of being able to communicate effectively in the world that awaits them.
Encouraging all of our students to use dictionaries in all of our subjects, in all of our classrooms may sound insignificant, yet it's part of the key that unlocks the literacy door. Every classroom has dictionaries and students are becoming increasingly aware that they have to become word rich. This isn't some fad; this is real life. They are getting very switched on to the fact that their GCSE examinations in many subjects will incur up to a 10% penalty if their spelling, punctuation and grammar is not accurate.
Don't let your word poor students become poorer. Activate students as the owners of their own learning. Empower them and hand over the controls. Using dictionaries may seem a drop in the ocean but it's joining up literacy expectations and standards across our academy in a simple but effective way.
Keep it simple. Make it happen.
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