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From Scared Straight to Reading Wrong

2015-10-24T10:56:16+01:00October 24th, 2015|reading, research|

He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alters things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end? Francis Bacon In 1978, Scared Straight! won the Academy Award for the best documentary film. It followed a group of teenagers from the wrong side of the tracks who, as part of a new crime reduction programme, were taken to a maximum security prison to be threatened, humiliated and intimidated by a bunch of murderers and rapists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri7G7xHj5LE The premise [...]

Reading is a rebel act: on the role of school libraries

2015-07-13T18:24:44+01:00July 13th, 2015|reading|

"My library was dukedom large enough" The Tempest, Shakespeare "The act of poetry is a rebel act." Farewell to English, Michael Harnett Some people are never happy. After writing my last post on how it might be possible to get students to read more, one commentator criticised that there was no mention of school librarians. Well, it was a blog post: the list of things which went unmentioned dwarfed what was written about. This post seeks to rectify that omission. Changing the culture of a school is a big ask. By the time they reach secondary school, many children are aware that reading isn't [...]

Reading ability: nature or nurture?

2016-10-16T10:43:07+01:00July 14th, 2014|literacy|

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Matthew, 13:12 The Matthew Effect has become something of a truism. Those with find it easy to acquire more, whereas those without are trapped into a vicious cycle of poverty and disadvantage. Clearly this is a matter of social injustice: if only we could ensure that all were treated equally then we could do away with such asymmetry. This is something I've been particularly interested in ever since hearing Geoff Barton refer to Daniel Rigney's [...]

Some thoughts on silent reading

2012-07-01T16:21:23+01:00July 1st, 2012|English, literacy, reading|

Is silence is golden? "And Johnny, what makes you think that is suitable for silent reading?"  "Because Sir, you really would not want me to read it out loud" Jim Smith, The Lazy Teacher's Handbook Apparently silent reading hasn't been around as long as you might think. The 4th Century church leader Saint Ambrose's reading habits were unusual enough for Saint Augustine to note in Book 6, chapter 3 of his Confessions that: When [Ambrose] read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone [...]

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 [...]

Reading List

2012-02-16T15:00:11+00:00February 16th, 2012|reading|

Am in the process of trying to digest a number of education texts at the moment. Here is my current stack of reading courtesy of the lovely people at Crown House: My thoughts so far: The Little Book of Music in the Classroom by Nina Jackson The effect of music on students isn't something I've put much thought into before. Yes, I know playing Bach is meant to be good for brainwaves or something, but to my shame, this is an area of my practice which has been sadly neglected. A colleague of mine makes a point of playing deliberately cheesy, [...]

Reading List

2018-03-23T14:33:46+00:00February 16th, 2012|

Books Obviously, I'd be a fool not to recommend my own books, but these are some of the works which have inspired me to become a more thoughtful teacher: (sorted alphabetically by author last name) Philip Adey & Justin Dillon (ed) Bad Education: Debunking Myths in Education Kathryn Asbury & Robert Plomin G is for Genes: The Impact of Genetics on Education and Achievement   Isabelle Beck, Margaret G. McKeown and Linda Kucan Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction Tom Bennett Teacher Proof: Why research in education doesn’t always mean what it claims, and what you can do about it Ron Berger An Ethic of Excellence: Building a [...]

Reading should be our top priority

2011-09-28T20:55:52+01:00September 28th, 2011|English, literacy|

I've just read a sobering piece on reading in UK schools from Mike Baker's website written by Roy Blatchford, a former headteacher and Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools, and Director of the National Education Trust. Here it is: Provisional figures for 2011 indicate that, in England, one child in five reaches age 11 unable to read confidently. Confident, that is, to access the secondary school curriculum they are embarking on this month. History suggests that those same children will struggle over five years of secondary schooling to achieve an English grade C at 16+. The latest GCSE tables indicate that thirty [...]

Messy markbooks: monitoring participation in (and across) lessons

2024-01-28T17:21:51+00:00January 20th, 2024|Featured|

Since taking the plunge with mini-whiteboards (see this post) over the past few years my ability to know whether students are paying attention, thinking and practising has dramatically increased. Because I'm usually teaching groups of children I've not met before, I always draw out a seating plan and make sure I have everyone's names recorded. With access to MWBs, it made sense to jot this information onto a whiteboard rather than a piece of paper. I'd then find myself ticking students off as I asked them questions or got them to participate in some other way to ensure I had [...]

Earned autonomy and shared responsibility

2024-01-06T09:24:14+00:00January 5th, 2024|Featured, leadership|

Having just gotten around to reading Matthew Evans' blog, The Earned Autonomy Trap, I feel moved to break my blogging silence of the past few months. In my book, Intelligent Accountability, I present earned autonomy as one of the principles required to balance trust and accountability and help create the conditions for teachers to thrive. In it, I argue the following: What if, no matter how hard a teacher works, no matter how successful their efforts are, they are still expected to follow the same constraints designed to support the least effective teachers? These problems are avoided if teachers are [...]

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