Vocabulary Knowledge Checklist
Speaking and Listening:

Our students communicate ideas and experiences fluently and clearly using an expansive
vocabulary
Reading:

Our students can read and understand a growing bank of vocabulary including subject specific
and cross curricular vocabulary

Our students make use of independent word learning strategies to work out the meanings of
unknown words
Writing:

Our students use expansive and subject-specific vocabulary to express ideas and experiences
in their subjects

Our students write with an appropriate standard of spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation
Actions
Are teachers supporting the development of vocabulary knowledge?
At a whole school level:

Our teachers have high expectation with regard to students’ understanding and use of crosscurricular and subject specific vocabulary

Our teachers demonstrate an interest in and love of words
At a subject department level:

Subject-specific and individual teacher plans reflect the school’s literacy strategy and action
plans for improving students’ vocabulary knowledge

Agreed approaches to support the development of students’ vocabulary knowledge that are
relevant to the individual subject
At individual teacher level:

Our teachers understand the different goals of vocabulary instruction

Our teachers make informed choices of which words to teach and which strategies to use

Our teachers model effective use of language

Our teachers provide repeated exposure to and use (by students) of new vocabulary

Our teachers use the explicit instruction model to demonstrate the use of independent word
learning strategies