For a long time now I have been reading about vocabulary development. After teaching English Language and English Literature for over a decade and a half (including child language acquisition), …
Teaching ‘A Christmas Carol’
Illustrated by Ronald Searle, in Life Magazine, 1960. Reading a classic novella like ‘A Christmas Carol’ is tricky for our teenage students. Yes, they have likely heard of Scrooge …
Authentic Assessment: Assessing Speaking and Listening
Does public speaking matter? What do the Houses of Parliament, the Oxford Union, big business board rooms, assembly halls and court chambers have in common? They are the seats of …
Reading Fast and Slow
Reading too slowly? The movement towards a ‘slow education‘, encompassing deeper, richer learning experiences, is surely the antidote to our assessment driven, checkpoint laden curriculum. In my previous post I …
Reading with Michael Gove
“I thought I’d begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine.” Spike Milligan My usual attitude closely resembles …