Writing a book about teaching writing is a daunting prospect. Sharing the reality that I spent years in the classroom struggling to support weaker writers only adds to the trepidation. What if my teacher knowledge gap wasn’t the norm? What if my attempts to translate practical strategies fell flat? I was delighted and relieved then …
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 the issue of the ‘word gap’ in our classrooms. Again and again, I am faced with the glaring examples of the problem that many of …
‘‘We know too much to say we know too little, and we know too little to say that we know enough. Indeed, language is difficult to put into words.’’ Baumann, J. F. & Kameenui, E. J. (1991). ‘Research on vocabulary instruction: Ode to Voltaire’ We know a huge amount about literacy. For decades, teachers have …
Literacy is dead…long live ‘disciplinary literacy’! Read More »
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), I came to the stark realisation that I didn’t know enough about how children not only learnt to read, but went on to read to …
In a couple of weeks, my new book, ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap‘, is released. Happily, I wanted to alert those people who may be interested in picking up the book that there is a great deal currently on Amazon, with the book reduced from £16.99 to a mere £11.55! I don’t know how long this …
As the year comes to the end, my envy at the legion of best book lists of the year drove home to me how little time I’ve devoted to reading books. My next best attempt is to list and share my favourite educational articles from 2017 that I squeezed into the corners of evening and …
Every English teacher has a student like Natalie. Whether she is in year 7 or 11, she is a walking grade 9 waiting to happen. You can see it shine through everything she writes. The stark truth is that students like Natalie enact a self-fulfilling prophecy almost regardless of the quality of her English teachers. …
GCSE English Language & Literature – Planning for Success Read More »
