Questions for subject leaders and teams Subject leaders and subject teams are already working hard on planning for September – for what they will teach, in what order and in what way – in order to meet the challenges of a return to full-time school. It will not be possible just to switch the curriculum... Continue Reading →
The piece below was written many years ago by a Year 9 pupil, Kanika, for a colleague of mine (@craigbmorrison) at Parkside Community College, Cambridge. It illustrates, I think, some features of what might be termed ‘exploratory’ writing – developing response, understanding and expression without recourse to P.E.E or P.E.T.A.L. or other formulae, and without... Continue Reading →
A brief post on getting pupils to pay attention Pupils do a lot of listening in classrooms – to explanations, information, narratives, arguments, model answers, feedback, dialogues, other pupils’ contributions and interactions, instructions, advice or guidance, and so on. Listening as behaviour Interestingly, listening is often framed as simply something which pupils are either doing... Continue Reading →
Classroom strategies for the explicit teaching of spoken expression When we think about how to develop pupils’ talk in the classroom, it is natural to focus on the ‘opportunities’ we're providing for pupils to practise speaking. We also know that developing vocabulary and subject knowledge, the raw material for talk, is key. These are essential,... Continue Reading →
A notoriously unhelpful piece of lesson observation feedback is that there was insufficient ‘pace’. Of course, in discussion this might be teased out and made sense of, but sometimes it is left unclear, or (worse) it can reflect a misunderstanding of what the teacher was doing, or of how a subject works. The difficulty, of... Continue Reading →
Short-burst pair or group talk activities which can be woven into reading lessons In other posts, I've suggested that the most effective whole-class reading sessions allow for seamless weaving together of whole-class discussion, individual thinking time and pair or small group talk. below are some examples of typical, short pair or group talk activities (30 seconds... Continue Reading →
This is an example of an approach to a text, which is designed specifically to help all pupils to develop their writing of literary narrative without recourse to the ‘features of descriptive writing’ or to checklists of literary devices. Over a series of sessions, it integrates whole-class reading practice with the planning and drafting of... Continue Reading →
Colleagues and I have been working with primary schools to develop an alternative to listed ‘success criteria’ for writing, which we call ‘boxed’ or ‘expanding success criteria' (or often just 'the rectangles thing.') It is very easy to adopt, and teachers have been finding that it can transform how writing is talked about and approached... Continue Reading →
See also Whole-class reading: an example lesson and a menu of approaches and Whole-class reading: another example lesson Recently, colleagues and I have been working hard with schools to develop whole-class reading practice which is both challenging and inclusive. This is a particularly current issue in primary schools, but is - of course - also pertinent to... Continue Reading →
Recently, as part of our work with English subject leaders from across the county, the North Yorkshire English Advisory Team have been looking at how the subject is led differently in primary schools. English or literacy subject leaders tend to be talked about as a group, yet we know that what they actually do varies... Continue Reading →
James Durran 