This academic year, over at Teach Secondary, I have the great pleasure of sharing a ‘Vocabulary Clinic’ article each month. It is a quick burst of vocabulary ideas and insights. You …
More than Just ‘Word Walls’
Schools can be hectic places and the work of a teachers is seldom ‘done’. When faced with the job of a challenging new curriculum, particularly for our more disadvantaged pupils, …
The Power of (Pushy?) Parents
Family comes first. With a heady mix of love and selfishness, ambition and hope, parents guard and support their children. It is no real surprise then to read in the …
Spelling: Avoiding Ignorance and Negligence
A version of this article was originally published in the excellent ‘Teach Secondary‘ magazine – you can subscribe HERE. It is well worth a read! Controversies and complaints about …
When Incoherence and Compliance Trump Curriculum
How do children learn best? It is a complex question isn’t it. It is striking that as teachers we may be knee-deep in our pupils learning for most of the …
The Makings of Metacognition
In a couple of weeks, year 6 pupils will be sitting down to SATs examinations and in secondary schools, A Level and GCSE exams will start in earnest. Teachers everywhere …
Unwrapping the Mystery of Metacognition
Today the Education Endowment Foundation has released their latest guidance report on ‘Metacognition and Self-regulation‘. I have been delighted to be one of the co-writers of this exciting report, alongside …
5 Vocabulary Teaching Myths
Words are all around us. They are legion, ubiquitous and omnipresent in our daily lives. They live in families, possess histories, slide and break into parts, and connect across worlds, …
Why Closing the Word Gap Matters
As a teacher who writes about the importance of literacy and vocabulary – and one who works with countless teachers across the country – I find myself talking repeatedly about …
Vocabulary Knowledge and the ‘Frayer Model’
The ‘Frayer model‘ is a long-standing graphic organiser that has been deployed in classrooms with success for decades (it was first conceived Dorothy Frayer and her colleagues at the University …