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Effective group work

2013-11-27T19:42:46+00:00January 12th, 2013|behaviour, Featured, learning|

Just another example of effective groupwork OK. I have 3 points to make: Group work does not make us more creative and it does not make us work harder. Learning is social and effective group work (apparently) doubles the speed of students' learning. Almost all teaching in schools depends on a teacher's ability to create effective groups because, wait for it, classes are just large groups. Let's deal with each of these in a bit more detail. Firstly, as I've discussed before, when we try to work together to work towards a collective goal we get, what is known [...]

Building anticipation… How to get kids to look forward to your lessons without dumbing down

2014-06-03T18:56:55+01:00January 11th, 2013|English, Featured|

One of the banes of every teachers' life is that endless, whining chorus of, "Can we do something fun today?" The correct answer to this pitiful plea is of course that learning is always fun and that today's lesson, along with every other lesson, will contain the gift of knowledge. What could be more fun than that? But this isn't what they mean or what they want, is it? Sometimes, especially at the end of term, they're less subtle and straight for the jugular by asking if they can watch a film. (And they're not clamouring for Herzog or Kieślowski, are [...]

A review of 2012 on The Learning Spy

2012-12-17T20:59:34+00:00December 17th, 2012|Featured|

It wasn't THAT bad! Well, it's the end of another year and as the past month has seen me too drained to write anything even vaguely coherent, I've decided in true cheap TV style to round up the year's most popular posts. I've written 59 of the buggers in 2012 (not including this one) and obviously some of them have chimed with an audience much more than others. This isn't a list of my personal favourites or of the posts I think are the most powerful or best written, they're merely the most read.   So, in reverse order [...]

A Room Of One's Own – the thin end of the staff room wedge

2012-10-08T21:14:59+01:00October 8th, 2012|Featured|

On the rare occasions I ever had cause to knock on the staff room door as the timid little chap I was back in the early 80s, a disgruntled teacher would throw it open, grumble about being disturbed, and demand what it was I had the temerity to be asking. It was a place of place mystery and unguessable wonder: what went on in there was essentially unknowable and dreadful. Even in the furtive fleeting snatches I had through the thick, yellow clouds of billowing smoke, you could see the place was packed: a humming sanctuary where teachers went to plot and laugh and moan. [...]

The role of the form tutor – the importance of WHY

2012-07-22T11:26:28+01:00July 22nd, 2012|Featured|

Today’s post is that rare beast – a guest blog by someone other than me. This should come as a welcome and refreshing change. Not only that, it’s a post on a pastoral issue which is something I’ve always shied away from as someone who is largely bemused by such things. Thankfully, there are those among us qualified to pontificate on such matters. Sarah Ledger, Head of KS4 in a secondary school and known to Twitter as @sezl, thoughtfully explores the role of the form tutor in a manner which chimes happily with my own stubborn determination to root out unthinking [...]

How should we teach reading?

2015-10-23T20:58:41+01:00February 29th, 2012|English, Featured, literacy, reading|

A few months ago I posted a piece in which Roy Blatchford (founder of The National Education Trust) outlined his manifesto for ensuring that every child gets at least a C grade in English. But, reading is complex. So how exactly should we teach children to read? This vexing question is utmost in many teachers' minds and is tangled up in three separate issues: Decoding - the process of turning symbols into sounds - generally taught using synthetic phonics Understanding - actually comprehending what's been read after it's been decoded Enjoyment - it's World Book Day tomorrow and getting kids to enjoy [...]

Who inspects the inspectors?

2013-07-21T08:17:33+01:00February 5th, 2012|Featured|

Are Ofsted fit for purpose? This week Dylan Wiliam threw a wet leather gauntlet in the face of monsieur d'Ofsted, saying, "Ofsted do not know good teaching when they see it”. If this is true (and how would we know because obviously no one ever bovvers to check up on Ofsted, do they?) it casts HMCI Sir Michael Wilshaw's assertion that teachers' pay progression should depend on them teaching 'good' lessons into serious doubt. Wilshaw says “The thing that irritates good teachers, people who work hard and go the extra mile is seeing people that don’t do that being rewarded." No. The [...]

How to subvert target grades

2014-07-23T15:27:05+01:00January 15th, 2012|assessment, Featured|

Target grades are good aren't they? They must be otherwise why would Ofsted be so damn keen on them. Consider this: how would Monsieur d'Ofsted respond when asking an unsuspecting student in your class whether they're achieving their target grade only to be told that their teacher didn't let them know what their target grade was? Doesn't bode well, does it? Here’s a somewhat contentious piece of information: if you grade (or level) students' work you are actively preventing that piece of work being used formatively. That's not right, you may be thinking, I can provide formative feedback on a piece [...]

11 from 11

2011-12-10T12:09:25+00:00December 10th, 2011|Featured|

  2011 has been a good year. Starting the blog has been life changing and after reading A Year in the Life of an English Teacher I've decided to take up the challenge and provide you with a smattering of what's been happening for me over the year. Also, it provides a useful shop window to garner votes in the Best New Blog category of the Edublog Awards. If at any point whilst reading this you are overcome with a powerful urge to vote for me, just click the link on the right. Even though I've only been blogging since July (which leaves [...]

Election Fever

2011-12-06T19:40:04+00:00December 6th, 2011|Featured|

The last time I canvassed for votes was back in my school mock election in 1987. In typically awkward bugger fashion, I ran as a Trotskyite candidate. As I recall I did rather well and came in third which has got to be some kind of record for any kind of communist in a British election. For the last 25 years I've managed to stay out of any kind of election but now I find myself nominated for an Edublog Award in the Best New Blog category. Which is nice. But I'm not entirely sure how to react. Obviously [...]

What is it exactly that we are supposed to be preparing pupils for?

2017-03-29T08:58:13+01:00December 1st, 2011|Featured|

As with anything, the answer to the above question depends entirely on who you ask. And, also depending on who you ask the answer may well be anything from strident soundbites to mumbled confusion. I've recently finished reading Ken Robinson's Out of Our Minds and it's pretty obvious, despite the enthusiasm of his legions of fans that SKR is no clearer than anyone else. After a shockingly lengthy introduction (8 chapters) he finally arrives at some sort of conclusion in his ninth (and last) chapter. So, what does he conclude? That we, er, should er, like, be sort of creative, or [...]

To set or not to set?

2014-07-05T12:39:00+01:00November 26th, 2011|Featured|

I feel genuinely torn about this. On the one hand I am aware that there really isn't any solid research evidence that setting (or streaming) has much effect on students' attainment and some evidence which seems to suggest it might be actually detrimental. On the other I want my student to have the best possible chance of success in their GCSE exam in January and some sort of setting appears to be the best way of accomplishing this aim. Here's an overview of the different types of selection that goes on in schools: Banding - putting pupils into broad ability bands Streaming - [...]

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