Some questions for secondary teachers, English teams and school leaders, which may be helpful Many secondary schools have concerns about how to maintain progress in the core area of literacy from Year 6 to Year 7, perceiving that many students do not make sufficiently-strong progress in Year 7, or that they can even regress in... Continue Reading →
The importance of ‘extended writing’
Some thoughts on task-setting and assessment in English, especially at Key Stage 3 In a well-planned Key Stage 3 course on Of Mice and Men, pupils will be gripped by and immersed in Steinbeck’s novel, will enter imaginatively into the world of the story, will explore its context and significance, will investigate ways in which... 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 →
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 →
Post-Levels: tracking progress in English at Key Stage 3
Thoughts on how schools are assessing progress and attainment in English at Key Stage 3 This post is based very closely on an original article for NATE‘s Teaching English (Issue 8, Summer 2015) Post-levels, it has been left to schools to decide on how to track progress at Key Stage 3. A number of teaching schools […]
Objectives and purpose in English
Thoughts on learning objectives and on the way we frame learning in English
James Durran 