Great for building consistency across lessons

Vocabulary of the lesson

• Choose a word or term that is appropriate for the lesson

• Ask students to guess the definition of the word, and write a sentence or answer a prompt using the word or term

• Once complete, provide students with an official definition, which they will use to fix up their crafted definition

• Word of the day - spelling, definition, put it in a sentence

• At the end of the week, ask students to write a sentence (or several) using all of the vocabulary words they learned over the week to solidify understanding

Frayer model vocabulary

• Students explore a keyword or concept by completing four boxes:

  • Definition – Students write a clear, concise definition of the word or concept in their own words.

  • Characteristics – Students list the key features or attributes that describe the word or concept.

  • Examples – Students give real-life or lesson-based examples that fit the concept.

  • Non-examples – Students identify what does not fit the concept to clarify understanding and prevent confusion.

• Why it works: Engages students actively, deepens understanding, and helps teachers spot misconceptions.

• Here is a template to use in your classes

Turn this into academic language

• Take a very basic sentence that relates to the unit, topic or subject, and ask students to rewrite it in academic language

• For example, "The business did badly" could become "The business performed poorly" or "The business failed to meet its expected financial targets for 2026."

Great for teaching paraphrasing/rephrasing

The “Cover and Write” Method

• • Students read a short passage.

  • They cover it up (no peeking!) and write it again in their own words.

  • Then compare with the original — what’s too close? What’s genuinely rephrased?

Chunk and Summarise

• • Break text into small sections.

  • Ask students to summarise each in one short sentence.

  • Then link the sentences back together for a paraphrased version.

Change the Structure, Not Just Words

• • Explicitly teach ways to restructure:

    • Change order of information.

    • Combine two sentences into one (or split one into two).

    • Switch from passive → active voice.

    • Use synonyms carefully but focus on clarity, not word swaps.

Paraphrase Races

• • Give students a short text. They must paraphrase in:

    • 5 words

    • 10 words

    • A tweet-length sentence (25 words)

    • A full rephrase.

  • Shows them how to flexibly work with meaning.

“Explain It to a Friend”

• • Students imagine they’re explaining the passage to a younger sibling or a friend who knows nothing about the topic. This shifts their focus from copying words to communicating ideas.

Great for analysing sources

Make big readings more approachable

• When approaching a lengthy or complex text, students can break it down into manageable steps:

  • Look at the structure – Note headings, subheadings, images, graphs, and other visual features.

  • Make predictions – Based on the title and visuals, what do you think the text will be about?

  • Consider the author’s purpose – Is the text meant to inform, persuade, entertain, or something else?

  • Skim for key terms – Identify new, unfamiliar, or topic-specific words before reading in detail.

  • Identify evidence and facts – Look for supporting information that backs up main ideas.

  • Write a question – What do you want to learn or understand better from this text?

• Breaking the reading down this way helps students focus, build comprehension, and feel more confident tackling complex material.

Notetaking strategies

• Analysing and evaluating - what to leave out, add in, substitute, change words

• Rule-based strategy - delete information not needed, remove repeats, combine information as lists, write a topic sentence

• One-sentence paraphrase - synthesise what you have learnt into one sentence

• Reciprocal teaching - summarise the info taught, what do you understand and need help with, what words didn't you understand, predict what this means for the world. Encourages metacognition

What evidence would you need?

•  Give students a statement and ask them to consider three things that they could find to back this up.

  • For example, in business, if you told students Woolworths made $20 million last year, they could find news articles, statistics, ASX reports, etc

  • For another example, in history, if you told students The Treaty of Versailles created resentment in Germany, they could find propaganda, journal entries, news reports, etc

Great for when you need to fill 10 or 15 minutes

Email your parents (or a trusted adult)

• Once a week, get students to email their parents with an update of what they are doing in class

• It could also be a teacher, a trusted adult or a sibling

• Give them sentence stems and prompts

• Ensure the email is professional and mature

Imaginative narrative

• Get students to write a story to put themselves in the shoes of someone you are trying to imagine (like a soldier in WWII, or someone living in the slums of Mumbai)

Summarise in 10 words

• At the end of a task, students summarise the concept in exactly 10 words.

Write a story

• If a student is late or disengaged, ask them to write a story as to why they were late or disengaged. 

• The story doesn't necessarily need to be true, but if the story is creative and well-written, they can be excused.