Nearly two years ago, I began researching and writing ‘Closing the Reading Gap’. After writing my book on vocabulary, I knew that reading was the natural next step. I knew that every teacher understands the tremendous value of reading – for school success and so much more – but not every teacher is trained equally …
Reading by the beach normally evokes glossy scenes of lying on the beach, amidst the heady scent of suncream and sea air, along with a good ol’ story. Well, this blog isn’t about such a sunny scene…
As March begins, we should expect daffodils to be emerging and the warm weather of spring to be gently cooking our cockles. And yet, the reality is that we are being covered in freezing snow. Is it actually a cruel cosmic plan to cancel ‘World Book Day’? For a few years now, I have been …
Just over five million adults in England are functionally illiterate, with the literacy skills equivalent to an eleven year old. Not only that, around half of the adults in prison are illiterate too. Such statistics can quickly stack up to portray a grim social picture. For teachers, well – the challenges that attend this problem …
Have you ever considered the shape of a story? Perhaps it is a tale that undulates and dips, before rising to a finish. Or it is a story that is jagged, with stiff cliff faces. Within most of us, since childhood, is an individual wealth of stories from which we can form shapes and sense. …
There are memories and moments that form who we are and what we become. I cannot recall exactly when reading for pleasure became a part of me, and what I would become – a teacher, dear reader – but it happened before I’d ever realised. Perhaps it was my father perched at my bedside reading …
New words are coined each year. In our age of the Internet, new words pour into the English language at a prolific rate. Many, tagged to technology, are shortcut abbreviations and initialisms reflecting our centuries old tradition of quick and easy communication. One such abbreviation is TL;DR – a handy short for ‘Too Long; Don’t …
