How can we use strategies to encourage engagement, alongside the explicit teaching of vocabulary, in order to support disadvantaged, SEND pupils to improve their descriptive writing?

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on an intervention in a London school with boys with special educational needs and a lack of motivation to write descriptively. They displayed inconsistency in their written outcomes and a repetitive, limited range of vocabulary. While these issues were intertwined, the strategies described in this paper sought firstly to tackle the motivation and engagement of these pupils with descriptive writing and secondly to address vocabulary acquisition in relation to writing. The sequence of lessons outlined in this paper addressed issues of self-confidence, self-efficacy and the specific needs of the group, alongside tackling the vocabulary gap and the need for in-depth scaffolding of writing. The combination of strategies outlined made an impact in both areas. However, pupils became more confident in their capacity to write, and there was a notable move away from a negative “bottom set” mentality.

KEYWORDS:

• Engagement
• vocabulary
• disadvantage
• writing
• descriptive
• confidence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here (https://doi.org/10.1080/04250494.2020.1794810).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Thomas

Laura Thomas is currently working as an English teacher at a school in East London. A participant on the 2018-2020 Teach First training programme, Laura originally completed this research for the Institute of Education, University College London.