For anyone who doesn't know, VCOP stands for Vocabulary, Connectives, sentence Openers and Punctuation. It's actually a simple but brilliant concept that will help a child's writing mature (and it will help with SATs scores!). I find that I need to introduce a couple of things at a time to allow them to master their use and experiment with their new skills.
One way I've tried to encourage children to use 'wow words' (ambitious vocabulary) is to record exciting words for all the class to see when a child has used one. We discuss the word and its meaning and at the end of the lesson we make up sentences together so that we can see how the word is used. The children loves to have their word on show for all. We also have a tally to record when other children have used it too.
The children love to see how many words they can use each day. I've seen a big improvement in descriptive writing. It's also really encouraged children to try to think of new words and to have a go at coming up with something different!
With connectives I tend to teach a few connectives at a time so that the children are really clear about how to use them. As many connectives can also be sentence openers, it helps to spend a little time teaching how they are used to extend sentences.
But whilst we only look at a few connectives at a time, many words are displayed on the classroom wall and I encourage the children to listen out for their use by adults. It really helps them to understand how they are used and it provides a good context for each word. Again, the words are displayed on the classroom wall and it is fun to discuss which words have been spotted and remember how they were used. We also use the opportunity to put them into new sentences and situations.A quick search on Google will bring up tonnes of VCOP resources. I'd love to hear how others use the skills with their class.
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