Are pupils new to secondary school this year prepared for the challenges of academic writing? After a couple of terms of secondary school, it becomes clearer whether pupils are getting to grips with the academic demands. As they write narratives in English, essays in history, notes in science, or annotate in art, pupils are expected […]
Is there a hidden writing problem in secondary schools? Read More »
Benjamin Franklin may be one of the most interesting people in modern history. Born into poverty, leaving school aged 10, he then became a famed president, inventor, thinker, and writer. His story of teaching himself to write may be a little famous too. Franklin, without a teacher, and with very little formal schooling, was determined
Learn to write Like an American President Read More »
What do you assume are the skills of a successful art and design pupil? Perhaps you consider an understanding of perspective and proportion, colour and tone, or knowledge of different media, all deployed with creativity. We know pupils must do some writing in art and design, but it doesn’t *really* matter so much, right? Though
Does writing *really* matter in art and design? Read More »
If you can write well, you can succeed in school. But the impact of being unable to write with confidence can be crippling, in the classroom, as well as far beyond the school gates. The recent White Paper on ‘levelling up’ education by the government, predictably attempts to address writing and the age-old ‘3Rs’. By
Is teaching writing the ‘Neglected R’? Read More »
Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, wine, public order, roads, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Well, they taught us how best to teach writing. Not a week goes by when new apps or AI isn’t promised as the answer to all our educational ills. But what if our contemporary
Write like the Romans Read More »
When I started teaching nearly two decades ago, I was a teacher of reading, writing, vocabulary, academic talk, and more. The problem was that I could do reading and writing, but I had little idea how to systematically teach the development of these vital skills. Yes – I could model some writing and offer some
Five Things I Wish I’d Known About Literacy Read More »
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 »
