Thoughts about teaching, literature, and teaching literature
We often think very carefully about what material we want students to retrieve, but of equal importance is how they retrieve it. As with much of teaching, this ‘how’ is probably best filtered through the lens of subject specificity, triangulated of course with the underpinning science of how we learn. Yet, the mechanism by which... Continue Reading →
The Game of Crossing Out is an exceptionally fun retrieval game that is very simple to organise and gets students thinking. Here’s how to play: 1. Students first of all write down everything they can remember about a given text, theme or idea. This really can be anything. You explain that the more they write,... Continue Reading →
I’m currently working my way through an excellent series of Massolit lectures by John McRae that looks at unseen poetry. They’re great, really useful for teachers preparing unseen poetry, with lots of excellent choices and ways of framing an encounter with them. However, I’ve been especially struck by a question John McRae asks across several... Continue Reading →
I’ve used this lesson a few times now for different classes and texts and it always works well. It is super simple and low prep so I thought I would share. Here’s what you need to prepare in advance: 1. A set of mini flashcards or PPT slide with a selection of key images/quotations from... Continue Reading →
Last week, I was fortunate enough to present to a group of PGCE students about some of the key ideas underpinning What How Why. It was a great session and really very fun, with the group asking some really excellent questions about WHW and how we might use it. The future of English teaching is... Continue Reading →
Recently whilst reading an article in NATE’s excellent Teaching English I came across this from TS Eliot: ‘Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood’. I think this is a fascinating idea to contemplate. First, I’m interesting in the qualifier ‘genuine’. Does this therefore imply in Eliot’s mind there is genuine and then disingenuous poetry?... Continue Reading →
If you teach English Literature at GCSE or A Level at some point you will need to teach either a single volume of poetry or a poetry anthology. The typical way to approach this, and the way I do it, is to take a poem or maybe two poems at a time and devote one... Continue Reading →
Live modelling is something I do a lot. I think it is up there with one of the most effective and powerful strategies I use in my classroom. The capacity to expose students not only to an exemplar of excellence, but, crucially, the thought process and rationale that helped us to arrive there is of... Continue Reading →
Students often like to write about enjambment and alliteration, likely because they’re very easy to identify, but they rarely do so well. Often points about these two poetic strategies might align to something related to flow, making the reader want to read on, or the alliteration of ‘a’ somehow and inexplicably mimicking something that the... Continue Reading →
I wanted to share with you a really simple but incredibly effective strategy that I’ve been using for a while now. It has improved the quality of my class discussion, increased student participation, and generally resulted in a better exchange of ideas. Here it is… As you read a text with your class, whatever it... Continue Reading →
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