Thoughts about teaching, literature, and teaching literature
I first encountered whole class feedback several years ago and was instantly captivated. And what's not to love? It promises a significant reduction in workload, no longer spending countless hours huddled over a slow burning lamp with pen in hand (forgive the Dickensian rhetorical flourish) whilst simultaneously, even miraculously, improving student outcome. I remember the... Continue Reading →
You would struggle to find a greater advocate for using What How Why, or, for the acronym fiend within all of us, WHW. I use it all the time. I use it as a way to scaffold how we approach or think about a text. I use it as part of retrieval Do Nows. I... Continue Reading →
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about cold reads: how they work, how they maybe don't work, whether they're a good thing, bad thing, or whether they deserve their increasing popularity. I'm not sure how much this post will offer as I suspect, or certainly at the outset, my answer to all of the above... Continue Reading →
I’ve been playing Super Mario Bros 3D on the Nintendo Switch recently with my four year old. This is a game where you can have multiple players so he and I can be playing together as two separate characters on the same screen. Whilst he plays it really well, there are some levels that are... Continue Reading →
There is sometimes, I feel, an assumption that retrieval practice in the English classroom begins and ends with quotation gap fills or basic factual recall. Those making this assumption are often the same people suggesting retrieval practice doesn't work for English. It does, of course. And it's crucial to remind ourselves that you can't think... Continue Reading →
The system of Cornell note taking is a strategy I have used for a long time, since university at least but possibly before (A Level is such a distant memory I can’t quite recall!). I use them now when listening to interesting podcasts, reading especially important articles, completing online courses like with Massolit, or as... Continue Reading →
After re-watching various YouTube videos from behaviour management expert, Bill Rogers, I was struck by just how incredibly valuable and timeless his advice is. It's almost as though he is able to anticipate and script exactly what the student reaction will be, how to navigate it, and the positive outcome the strategy will yield. For... Continue Reading →
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