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Put down your crystal balls

Jul 03, 2017 | Category: assessment

Many of the schools I visit and work with feel under enormous pressure to predict what their students are likely to achieve in their next set of GCSEs. In the past, this approach sort of made sense. O...

#Ofsted #GCSE #Amanda Spielman #Nicholas Nassim Taleb #predicted grades

Who's to blame for the new English literature GCSEs?

May 30, 2014 | Category: English

The sound and fury surrounding text choices for GCSE English literature just won’t go away. The exam boards got their digs in first with Paul Dodd of OCR claiming Gove wanted to ban US authors because...

#GCSE #English literature #AQA #Michael Gove #Jonathan Bate #OCR

Is there a way to avoid teaching rubbish in English?

Feb 03, 2014 | Category: English

I’ve had an idea!For a while now I’ve been increasingly disgusted at the way English language has been dumbed down as a GCSE subject. Really, what is the point of asking pupils to analyse leaflets for...

#GCSE #English language #English literature #Bethan Marshall

Controlled assessment and why I hate it

Oct 28, 2011 | Category: assessment

Yesterday I took a break from ploughing through my Year 10 controlled assessments to exhort myself to "bloody well get on with it" and stop moaning about my work load. Marking is virtuous. You know it...

#GCSE #Gove #controlled assessment #English language #English literature #iGCSE

Zooming in and out

Jul 11, 2011 | Category: English

For some years now I have been using what I call The Grade Ladder with students to help them understand the skills required to perform at different grades. This isn't particularly original and has bee...

#analysing #bloom's taxonomy #English #evaluating #GCSE #Literature #Of Mice and Men