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Being able to understand and use a range of adjectives can help learners to communicate successfully. Adjectives are essential for adding information or interest to their spoken or written language. They also enable learners to differentiate between items.
Tip or Idea: Play ‘I spy…’ but with an adjective twist! Select an item in the classroom and choose an adjective to describe it E.g. “I spy with my little eye something fluffy!” Learners take it in turns to see if they can guess the item. If they need more support, you can add an additional adjective “I spy with my little eye something fluffy and blue”. For more confident learners try a less common adjective to challenge them.
Free resource to help you with this activity: Use our Adjective Flashcards to support learners to be the leader and choose their own item for an ‘I spy’ game.
Understanding the needs of your learners is essential. Learners who use English as an additional language may also have additional learning needs, and sometimes separating language needs from learning needs can be challenging. Assessment results and classroom work offer some insight; however, taking the time to carefully observe your learners’ behaviours can provide a deeper appreciation of their needs. This can help you consider necessary adjustments or interventions, or support further assessments of specific SEND needs.
As well as being interesting and engaging, non-fiction texts help to develop learners’ academic vocabulary and support learning across the curriculum. Learners can use non-fiction texts to develop knowledge, retrieval, and comprehension skills, and this can be developed even further with higher level skills such as analysis and evaluation. Learners with SEND may find the bite-sized facts, clear sections and subheadings, and accompanying diagrams or illustrations in non-fiction texts less overwhelming than a longer narrative text.
Non-verbal communication such as body language, facial expressions and tone of voice convey information beyond words alone. It is an integral part of communication, building relationships and developing shared understanding. For some learners interpreting non-verbal communication is not always simple.
Tip or Idea: Understanding non-verbal communication can depend on many factors including cultural norms, situational context and the unique combination of words, actions and expressions used. Try to put communication in context and focus on more than simply the words used.