There is lots to know about the brilliantly complex act of teaching and learning. Here is my list of 10 things to know in the plainest terms possible: 1. Pupils knowing stuff helps them to learn more stuff (background knowledge). 2. It is effective and efficient to explicitly teach pupils the stuff (explicit instruction). 3. […]
10 things to know about teaching and learning Read More »
As a young boy, little more than a toddler, Magnus Carlson possessed the ability to remember complex patterns and to play chess like an aged master. His proud parents recount when given a vast array of national flags, with facts like national population and more, how Magnus quickly remembered the facts and began to make connections and
Seeing the ‘Big Picture’ (On Expertise) Read More »
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 have modelled hundreds of essays. I have likely set and assessed thousands of the blighters. My go-to strategy has always been to model the essay
How to Train a GCSE Essay Writer Read More »
Each year we are all faced with the nerve-shredding, tolerance-stretching spell that is revision. It never seems to get any easier. Each group of students proves a unique, gnarly challenge as we go about training, convincing, supporting, and more. It has proven a consistent topic for me to write about, and has drew a lot
The Revision ‘Collection’ Read More »
I don’t think there are many English teachers who haven’t asked the following question in the last year: ‘how do I help my class better remember quotations?’ It is an age-old question, but it is a very good one. It is not about producing unthinking parrots that squawk out quotations and exhibit little understanding of
Remembering Quotations – 10 Strategies Read More »
We can all imagine our own personal hell of terminal exams, stacked on top of one another, with acres of knowledge to remember. It is the stuff of sleepless nights, for teachers and for our students. And yet, if we teach with memory in mind all the time, we can mitigate our students’ stresses (and our
Memory for Learning: 10 Top Tips Read More »
As Christiano Ronaldo stares lovingly at his reflection in the European Football Championship trophy, we may do well to reflect on the most interesting story of the tournament. Of course, it was little ol’ Iceland, outperforming all reasonable expectations given a population roughly the size of the city of Coventry. So why were they a success
The New Teachers’ Professional Development Standard Read More »
