What it is. Two words can both fit a sentence, and one of them fits better.
Why our test works. Register is not about hard words; it is about a reader. Asking who is reading turns an abstract judgment into a concrete one a nine-year-old can actually make — a note to a friend, a report for the class, a letter to someone you have not met.
Leans on. Grade 1 met these words; Grade 2 used them. This year is choosing.
Watch for. A child who always picks the longer word has learned vocabulary, not register. Praise the child who argues for the plain word — that is the target, not an objection to it.
Use 5 school words in sentences of your own, and choose which version suits who is reading. The worked example is built on Our method was to measure each day., ringing method. The class reads the teaching page printed at the top of the sheet — our own writing, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per piece: the word method alone first, and you wait — let them look at it before you give them the meaning. Then the way to do it arrives beside it, and you point from one to the other with your hand. Then the sentence underneath: Our method was to measure each day.. Three clicks, three things said. Do not let the whole slide arrive at once — a slide that arrives whole gives the answer before the question is asked.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class rewrites two everyday sentences into school-word, then judges one case where the everyday version is BETTER. Discuss in pairs using the frames. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on the printed sheet instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They read the teaching page — printed at the top of today's sheet — with you, either read-aloud or FASE, never round robin. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone through the five steps — match, choose, frame, write their own. The frames stay on screen while they write: Only one of yours may use the frame. Choose which one needs it. Say both halves of that — the frame is there if they need it, and it is better writing without it. Walk and note who used it; that is your group for tomorrow, not a mark against them today.
You close on the exit direction — Say one sentence using method. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: One exact noun beats three vague ones.
A child who always picks the longer word has learned vocabulary, not register. Praise the child who argues for the plain word — that is the target, not an objection to it.