This blog post was originally an article, written in 2003 with Craig Morrison for the NATE magazine English, Drama, Media, when we both taught at Parkside Community College in Cambridge. The practice it describes has since been developed further, but it is still all just as applicable now as it was fourteen years ago, as... Continue Reading →
‘In this school, English is about…’
Practical tools for reflecting on the what, why and how of English teaching A friend’s nephew, when in Year 8, remarked to him: “I used to enjoy English, but all we do now is write PEE paragraphs.” If this is a pupil’s view (even an unfair one) of English in their school, then something has... Continue Reading →
Making the investment
Reframing ‘engagement’ in the classroom Any mention of ‘engagement’ in the education Twittersphere or blogosphere will create a flurry of emotive debate. To many, it is now a dirty word, summoning up caricatures of content-free, gimmick-laden teaching, in which the aim is simply to engage so that learning somehow follows. In fact, there is a... Continue Reading →
Being ‘good at English’
Some possible 'qualities' of excellence in English There has been some discussion recently on blogs and Twitter about what it means to be ‘good at English’. Often, this is in the context of thinking about progression – from Key Stage 3 to 4, or from GCSE to A-Level, for example: what should we be aiming... Continue Reading →
Googling for originality
A simple classroom technique, when drafting and editing. Recently, I have been doing quite a bit of drafting and editing of creative writing with Year 5 and 6 pupils, and I have been finding this little game useful. I'm sure it's not original, and I have used it with older students since search engines became a... Continue Reading →
Asking real questions in the classroom
One of the main ways in which teachers ‘give’ feedback to pupils is through follow-up questioning. This is sometimes the case in written feedback, but is particularly the case in oral feedback, as part of dynamic classroom teaching, in which feedback is folded into learning and is indistinguishable from the discussion and exploration of ideas. It... Continue Reading →
From 1994: on coursework and exams
Jim Stewart and I wrote this for the TES in 1994, after the first round of new GCSE exams in English and English Literature, replacing 100% coursework. I wouldn't agree with everything in it now, or with all of the expression, but - as comes across - we were a very angry profession at the... Continue Reading →
A poetry lesson
An account of a poetry lesson, with some thoughts on efficiency, on how we treat texts and on knowledge. When I became an Advanced Skills Teacher, in 2002, the designation was still fairly new. There was quite an intensive appointment process involving a portfolio of documentary evidence, a set of testimonials and a visit by... Continue Reading →
Who is doing what in the classroom? A tool for planning and reflection
It is always risky to discuss something as complex as teaching and learning in terms of any sort of ‘model’. It is always reductive and probably wrong. However, at the moment I am finding it useful to think of classroom teaching working like this. (Click to enlarge) Based on well-rehearsed principles, this schematic might be... Continue Reading →
Differentiation: pitching high, not making easy
A short post about climbing frames: pitch high and support all pupils in reaching for that level. This is a photo of my two children at the ‘Yorkshire Dales Ice Cream Farm’ (not ‘pick-your-own’, sadly) taken about three years ago. They are the oddly gnomic-looking child at the top of the slide and – typically... Continue Reading →
James Durran 