“This porridge is too hot!” she exclaimed. So, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl. “This porridge is too cold,” she said So, she tasted the last bowl of …
10 Tricky Questions for Teachers
What if we were faced with uncomfortable questions about some of our brightest and best teaching and learning ideas? It would be uncomfortable and challenging, no doubt. Perhaps, though, such …
Why Whole-School Literacy Fails!
There is no more important act in education than helping children to learn to read. I am sure we can agree that developing our students as confident readers, writers and …
Rethinking Assessment
It is decades since Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam opened up the ‘Black Box’ to reveal the crucial importance of assessment as learning, but it would appear the messages from …
How to Train A GCSE Essay Writer – Part 2
Thinking about better assessment is not always at the forefront of the mind of a busy English teacher. We are so hassled by marking, planning and well, teaching lots, that …
How to Train a GCSE Essay Writer
I have written a countless number of essays. At school, university, and back at school again, showing my students how to do it. In my fourteen years teaching I must …
The Problem with Past Exam Papers
Over the weekend I had the joy of watching my little boy, Noah, play one of his football matches (there was a little pain too – just don’t mention the …
Blog Update
(Image via Pixabay) A few short weeks ago I consigned my old HuntingEnglish blog to the electronic dustbin and emerged phoenix-like with my new blog – www.theconfidentteacher.com. Unfortunately, not …
Learning (and Assessment) First
(Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt) We so often get assessment wrong in schools. Under perennial accountability pressures, assessment often loses it chief purpose: aiding learning. Today, in Sheffield, hundreds of teachers are …
Testing Times
We live in testing times. As a parent of two young primary age children, and a secondary school teacher, I have a great interest in the debate around testing and …
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