What connections can you make between these words? Are there any patterns of meaning or word families you notice? Could you even detect the author who penned these words? These disembodied words are drawn from the Charles Dickens classic, ‘A Christmas Carol’. I have used the word cloud as a teaching tool to help students […]
Working Words into Writing Read More »
I wrote this article for the February edition of Teach Secondary magazine. If you are interested in subscribing, take a look HERE. Here is the article in full: The Rosetta Stone is one of the most famous rocks in all of history, providing one of the keys to the history of language as we know it. When
Developing Handwriting Read More »
(Image credit: Jonathan Kim – https://www.flickr.com/photos/jkim1/452830868) If a student can’t write, all eyes turn to the English department. Whether it is a brief in an Art lesson or a write up of a science experiment, if the writing isn’t up to standard then those deemed responsible for creating perfect prose-producers feel the heat. There is major
Teaching Writing Isn’t Just for English Teachers Read More »
After over a decade of teaching English I am still finding new approaches and understanding more about how students learn to write. In the last year or so, my thinking has developed to focus upon the primacy of vocabulary knowledge and also the need for a huge amount of varied repetition of writing skill, particularly
Concise and Precise Micro-writing Read More »
If the path of repeated deliberate practice makes something like perfect, then imitating good models of writing provides solid foundations for the pursuit of writing excellence. ‘Shared writing‘ is one specific strategy that models writing in a highly effective way and is one of my favourite and most effective teaching strategies. ‘Shared writing’ begins with
Shared Writing: Modelling Mastery Read More »
Adaptive teaching may be tricky to define, but we must define it well, and exemplify it, otherwise it will prove an empty buzzword. I’ve tried to characterise it into broadly two types of adaptations: It is helpful to have examples of adaptive teaching, but also to present ‘non-examples’ of what it isn’t too. This is
Adaptive Teaching: Scaffolds, Scale, Structure and Style Read More »
Is oracy the next big thing? Are we destined for interminable arguments about it in the coming months or is there a healthy debate to be had about oracy? I have lots of questions. For me, as a former English teacher, it feels like oracy – or speaking and listening – is just part of
Questions about oracy Read More »
Teachers in England spend hours marking pupils’ work and in the final mile run up to national exams teachers are often exhausted by their efforts. A key challenge appears to be how we ensure pupils work just as hard as their teachers and taking responsibility to manage their own learning. Common issues I hear regularly
Supporting Exam Preparation: The Final Mile Read More »
Teaching and learning can be prone to shifting trends. Some aspects of teaching may suffer from waning popularity, but we cannot lose sight of them because they are so integral for successful learning. Formative assessment is one such aspect that demands our focus – or a refocus – on its central importance. Just before the
4 Reasons to (Re)Focus on Formative Assessment Read More »
There is not a week that goes by without hearing about a new technology tool or AI resource that is going to impact education. But what it is that makes so many experienced teachers and people in education sceptical about the legion of technology promises? It is normally a matter of experience. Robert Conquest, a British
Should we throw the tech out the classroom? Read More »
