In every lesson, in every subject, there are opportunities to enhance our students’ language skills through the deliberate and planned use of varied verbs. Exposing children to a range of verbs that they understand and use in context is a powerful way to expand and enrich their vocabulary.
A simple yet effective approach is to identify six verbs that you, as a teacher, will use in every activity. Then, use these verbs in your own oral modelling, write them on the board, explain their meanings, and encourage pupils to listen out for them. You can even ask students to track and tally their usage or count on their fingers. In partner work, pupils can be encouraged to compose their own sentences using the highlighted verbs, with partners noticing and celebrating their usage.
Chatta fits perfectly with this approach, as it’s based on teachers modelling language in context and breaking content into manageable chunks. By demonstrating live, in-the-moment sentence composition to suit any outcome, context, purpose, or audience, Chatta seamlessly integrates the power of verbs into everyday teaching.
For example, in a storytelling activity, you might choose verbs like marched, clambered, trembled, muttered, raged, and scuttled. In science, you might select verbs like plateaued, escaped, transferred, attracted, engineered, and conducted. There are thousands of verbs to choose from, and as you place an emphasis on using them, your own language use, sentence structure, and range of vocabulary will also improve alongside your pupils’ progress.
Verbs feature in every sentence we say, read, and write. Building range and proficiency with verbs improves understanding and communication skills, understanding of grammar (such as tenses), and overall command of language for academic, social, and functional applications.
Stride forward with your planned use of verbs in your everyday teaching. Embrace their power of transferability. Imagine how much the language skills of your class will improve. Experience rapid progress and deep understanding. Achieve more, almost effortlessly. Enjoy knowing every single lesson you teach is doubly powerful.
