Vocabulary is the key.

If a new written word has a corresponding word in a person’s existing visual and oral vocabulary, that written word is connected to that oral word and understood immediately. After a few exposures, it is integrated into the written vocabulary. If no oral equivalent exists for a word, the word means nothing.

Consider ‘The cat sat on the mat’ then, ‘The cat sat on the Axminster carpet.’

Most young people would not know the word ‘Axminster’ but might know ‘carpet’ so they can assume that ‘Axminster’ is a type of carpet and move on. But if they see a sample of ‘Axminster’, and form a new visual and oral equivalent, the understanding is complete and retained.

To anyone who worries that a word might be too long or difficult for a young person, I say that most kids can say ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’. They have some idea what it means, and some might make a good attempt to spell it, so ‘Axminster’ is not all that hard to understand, say or spell.

In plays, particularly plays presented using the Model Lesson Plan included with these plays, every student in the group gets to say, act, hear, read, emote, move and handle props associated with every word. There is no glossing over any word, no matter how new or complex. All learning styles are catered for, and it is all high energy, meaning they enjoy it and they retain the vocabulary in phrases for use in their everyday communications. Plays provide the Macro of Literacy. They do not replace other approaches, such as phonics, but they do a quick and efficient job of expanding understood and usable vocabulary.

This set of plays was designed to be both a literacy resource and an entertainment. By following the Model Lesson Plan, every student has an absorbing job to do all of the time, and every student gets the opportunity to play a major role, so every student’s vocabulary is equally and fully enriched by the vocabulary of the play. Every student also gets to show off a bit and bask in a bit of success and applause. That can’t be a bad thing.

A passing comment:

All these plays were workshopped in a small school, so every cast had the full range of ages from K to 6. We think that was a factor in the extraordinary levels of literacy the school enjoyed. I leave you to work that one out, but those who were in Kindie when we started the project had acted in over a dozen of these plays by the time they went on to high school. From that group and the one that followed we had two dux of the school, and many went on to enjoy outstanding success in higher education.

Stafford Ray,

Educator, Author, Musician and Enthusiast.