Introducing… Closing the Writing Gap
Writing a book about teaching writing is a daunting prospect. Sharing the reality that I spent years in the classroom struggling to support weaker writers only adds to the trepidation. What if my...
View ArticleClosing the Writing Gap – New Resources
It is crucial that busy teachers are supported with timely and accessible resources to support their work. As a result, to go alongside my new book, ‘Closing the Writing Gap’, I have produced a small...
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The Grammar Gap
There are few topics in education – indeed, English life – that inspire fear, loathing and unfulfilled expectations quite like the subject of grammar. Researchers are quick to challenge notions of...
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Leading Literacy… And Communicating Complexity
This short blog series is targeted at literacy leaders – either Literacy Coordinators, Reading Leads, or Curriculum Deputies – with a key role in leading literacy to ensure that pupils access the...
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Write like the Romans
Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, wine, public order, roads, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Well, they taught us how best to teach writing. Not a week goes by when new...
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Teaching Vocabulary and Mighty Morphemes
How do you teach a tricky new word, or seek to boost the word hoard of the pupils you teach? One of the most common approaches to developing academic vocabulary is to study morphology – breaking words...
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Is teaching writing the ‘Neglected R’?
If you can write well, you can succeed in school. But the impact of being unable to write with confidence can be crippling, in the classroom, as well as far beyond the school gates. The recent White...
View ArticleWhy teaching academic vocabulary matters
A new school year begins, full of old routines and new challenges. It is only natural to seek out novel ideas to start the year afresh, but we should be wary they are not at the expense of long-held...
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Does writing *really* matter in art and design?
What do you assume are the skills of a successful art and design pupil? Perhaps you consider an understanding of perspective and proportion, colour and tone, or knowledge of different media, all...
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Developing Skilled Readers (Knowledge + Strategy)
Take a read of this passage, entitled ‘An Encounter at Sea’, from the 2017 reading comprehension SATs paper. Can you predict what happens next? What did you predict? Did you assume the ‘encounter’ was...
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