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Using grammar to make meaning

Jan 19, 2021 | Category: English
As a writer I know that I must select studiously the nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, etcetera, and by a careful syntactical arrangement make readers laugh, reflect or riot.Maya Angelou, Conversations...

The glamour of grammar: in context or not?

Feb 13, 2014 | Category: English
It's something of an understatement to say that glamour and grammar are not usually closely associated in many people's minds. One of the 100 words David Crystal uses to tell The Story of English is ‘...

Principled curriculum design: the English curriculum

Dec 16, 2013 | Category: English
The tragedy of life is that one can only understand life backwards, but one must live it forwards Søren Kierkegaard Back in March 2013, I wrote about the principles underlying my redesign of a Keys St...

Redesigning a curriculum

Mar 25, 2013 | Category: English
Effective reform must start with the understanding that the curriculum is the central focus and the central business of schools. Effective curricula are the sina que non of the system that is capable...

The mathematics of writing

Oct 30, 2012 | Category: English
A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns… The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit t...

Creativity, analysis and comparison

Feb 11, 2012 | Category: English
English teachers have a tough gig. We need to constantly hone the hard-edged skill of analysis whilst simultaneously encouraging the fluffy stuff of creativity. There’s a lot said and written about cr...

Does creativity need rules?

Nov 20, 2011 | Category: English
[caption id="attachment_4643" align="alignleft" width="300"] Grammar for toast?[/caption]Last week's #ukedchat was titled, How can we build children’s imaginations so that they have more to choose fro...

Is grammar glamorous?

Nov 16, 2011 | Category: English
Well, no it's not is it. Grammar's that dull stuff what kids got taught in the 60s. And then enlightened educationalists decided it was unfashionable for children to know how to parse sentences and wo...