One Step at a Time : Presentation 3 A QUICK GUIDE TO ONE STEP at a TIME

1. One Step at a Time: Presentation 3A QUICK GUIDE TO ONE STEP at a TIME Why Spoken Language Matters Making Language Teaching Manageable One Step at a Time What to Teach How to Teach Links to Literacy First Steps

2. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeWHY SPOKEN LANGUAGE MATTERS Spoken language matters for: • communication • teaching • learning • literacy • thinking • social and emotional development

3. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeWHY SPOKEN LANGUAGE MATTERS Inadequate spoken language is increasingly a problem in schools: • more and more children are coming into school lacking basic spoken language skills  • the demands on children’s understanding and use of spoken language increase as they progress through school • children who start behind are likely to fall further behind Competent spoken language needs to be: • the main educational priority at ages 3 to 5 • a joint priority, with literacy, from 5 onwards • for all children

4. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeMAKING LANGUAGE TEACHING MANAGEABLE But spoken language is a complex system • not fully understood • seldom included in teacher training • difficult to teach in classroom settings • because of the quantity and complexity of the language that children need to know • and because the normal conditions of language learning are difficult to reproduce in a mainstream classroom

5. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeMAKING LANGUAGE TEACHING MANAGEABLE Schools and staff need something that will: • take the difficulty and uncertainty out of language teaching • 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 needed to teach spoken language • and enable staff to develop that expertise themselves through active experience in the classroom but above all • be easy to implement and manage in mainstream classrooms

6. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeMAKING LANGUAGE TEACHING MANAGEABLE Spoken language can be made more accessible to schools by using 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

7. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeMAKING LANGUAGE TEACHING MANAGEABLE 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.

8. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeONE STEP at a TIME One Step at a Time is • a structured teaching programme for developing 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 to 9, which can also be used with single classes and/or older children • an all needs programme, providing differentiated teaching for all children in mainstream education

9. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeONE STEP at a TIME One Step at a Time: • concentrates on the spoken language skills that are most critical for educational progress, year by year • breaks them down into sub-skills that can be worked on year by year, term by term, and week by week • and ensures that all these skills are established by all children

10. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeWHAT TO TEACH

11. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeWHAT TO TEACH 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

12. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeWHAT TO TEACH • 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

13. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeWHAT TO TEACH One Step at a Time develops these four uses of language in sequence: • 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 There is also a preliminary step – Getting Started – for children who are not ready for systematic work on conversation.

14. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH Eachmain level of the programme includes: • an initial screen for assessing children’s competence in the relevant skills • three skills checklists for guiding intervention and monitoring progress • guidance on lesson planning, classroom intervention and teaching method • a vocabulary wordlist of 100 essential words • guidance on monitoring progress and moving on • discussion of the links to literacy The content and procedure for Getting Started is slightly different from the other levels.

15. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Initial Screening The initial screens help staff: • ‘tune-in’ to the relevant skills at each level of the programme • identify children’s current level of development • determine the amount of support each child is likely to need

16. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Initial Screening Theinitial 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.

17. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Skills Checklists Each main level of the programme includes three skills checklists (two in the case of Getting Started). • The checklists are used to focus and guide intervention, and monitor children’s progress • Each checklist consists of a number of distinct behaviours or sub-skills grouped together into 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

18. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Classroom Intervention 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

19. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Teaching Method Parents normally teach their children spoken language (usually without realising they are doing it) by: • Highlighting: drawing attention to a 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 an appropriate response • Rewarding: rewarding any appropriate response with praise and further encouragement One Step at a Time uses the same techniques, but uses them explicitly and systematically.

20. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Vocabulary Work • Vocabulary work is optional, except for Getting Started and Discussion Skills • Each level of the programme includes a list of 100 key 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

21. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Monitoring Progress • Children or groups work through the checklists at their own pace and with varying degrees of support, one skill at a time and one checklist at a time • The checklists provide a quick and simple way of reviewing and recording individual progress • Staff should also ensure that each behaviour has been properly consolidated, and return to any items that have proved difficult to check they have been retained

22. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Moving On Classes may vary in how long they need to work on each checklist and 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 and Listening Skills are each expected to last a year, each checklist taking about a term. • Narrative Skills and Discussion Skills are each expected to extend across a couple of years but will still benefit all children if it can only be used for a single year. Each checklist is expected to take more than a term. • It is more important that children consolidate the basic skills than that they complete any particular level

23. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Creating a Context Schools need to create a language-learning environment, where • children’s talk, including spontaneous talk, is valued, not just allowed but actively encouraged • children feel secure, comfortable and confident, willing and able to express themselves in whatever way they can

24. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Creating a Context A language-learning environment can be created by: • developing a more interactive, conversational style of teaching • using children’s talk as a way of teaching and learning, e.g. • classroom discussion • partner work and independent discussion groups • maximising opportunities for informal conversation with individual children • making the most of those that exist • creating new ones where we can • and involving everyone

25. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: Creating a Context Everyone includes parents. Schools should explain to parents: • the importance of spoken language for their children’s education • what they can do at home to help develop it • how One Step at a Time works and what it is trying to achieve, • how parents can help their children with specific skills at home and provide opportunities for them to work with children in the classroom under staff guidance, where possible

26. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeHOW TO TEACH: 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

27. A Quick Guide to One Step at a TimeFIRST STEPS The first year should be a learning year for staff and the school as much as children: • Staff need time to familiarise themselves with the programme, adapt it to their needs, and identify 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.

28. A Quick Guide to One Step at a Timeand 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.