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Reading for School
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Book Review: Brick Lane: Multicultural Ennui
Brick Lane is a seminal text of modern London and the multicultural experience. It positions itself in the surprisingly rich perception of an uneducated woman who works hard and just wants the best for her children, and ultimately her chosen husband. Ali presents us...
Book Review: Hard Times: A Cold Utilitarian Heart
Hard Times is the shortest of Dickens' adult novels and a recommended read. His melodramatic style still resounds today, although there are some quirks in characterization – I was expecting something more politically meaty. Still, as a Dickensian melodrama, you need...
Book Review: Circe: Grecian Culture
Circe was recommended by a friend and trusted teacher: it is a great read and a feminist experience. In the spirit of Carol Ann Duffy, it retells classical Grecian narrative from a relatively sidelined female figure, Circe. Like I’ve said in previous reviews, people...
Book Review: The Good Terrorist: Life in an 80s Commune
The Good Terrorist is my first Doris Lessing and has been on my shelf for far too long. It kept my interest from start to end, evoking the banality of communism's reactive culture. Learning more about Lessing's history, especially her experience in communist groups...
Whole-School Metacognition CPD: Evidence-Based Practice
My first module in my MA was on metacognition. As with many things I took it far too earnestly and read the field of metacognition. The result was a whole-school CPD on metacognition delivered as a carousel activity. Of course, by metacognition we mean assessment for...
Book Review: Elective Affinities: Biological Fate?
Elective Affinities is a delightful read, well-translated (not that I can read high-German…) and an artefact of 1800s European thought. It balances some stock archetypes who are finely fleshed out with wider philosophical ideas of love and nature. The narrative is...
An example Markbook: using Formative Data to analyse trends
In 2018 my school uses Go4Schools that sees us data put online for ease of analysis from our data manager. In this video I show a Markbook I developed in the UK that analysed formative data to indicate possible teaching opportunities. It also contained a self-updating...
Weekly Lesson Planning ideas: (my practice five years ago)
This is a video detailing how I planned my lessons five years ago. I am more pragmatic now, and more focused on wider teaching arcs than specifying week-by-week detail. This, however, is useful nevertheless.
Book Review: The Woman in Black: Emulating Victorian Horror
Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black is a well-constructed example of the Gothic genre. Its style pays homage to high Victorian fiction yet operates at a manageable length, especially for burgeoning readers, making it a good introduction to the genre. The heart of horror...
To Pre-Read or Not to Pre-Read in the English Classroom? A Lunchtime Read.
This year I discussed with colleagues old and new whether to pre-read texts with students prior to study. The status quo of my training was to read the entirety of the text with the students in-class. Any pre-reading would be set as homework a chapter at a time. If...