The new Literature exams often ask students to analyse an extract and then to refer to texts as a whole. OCR uses the term ‘moments’: for example, ‘Explore at least two moments from… to support your ideas.’ I like this idea of selecting moments. My interpretation of this is that it designed to develop interpretation […]
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Once upon a time, many many years ago, I was subjected to my first Ofsted. I was terrified and, worse still, I was teaching Treasure Island. I remember a wonderfully helpful Learning Support teacher spending hours with me cutting out bits of paper, making some kind of treasure game or something. It was so convoluted […]
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‘Boldness be my friend’ Cymbeline Recently I was asked to undertake some work with students who were studying Shakespeare for a Literature essay. I asked for a copy of their key scenes and was handed a wad of photocopies. This took me straight back to my early teaching career in the 1990s. I’m all for […]
Read moreOur Year 10 classes are now embarking on the new GCSE English Language and Literature syllabi. As we can never know what the government will do to English next, we cannot possibly know what kind of shelf life the current new specifications will have but we might have five years if we’re lucky (I feel […]
Read moreTextbooks – the wheel already invented I recently responded to a tweet asking if anyone knew of any decent textbooks to use at KS3. When I tweeted ‘Ignite English from OUP’, one reply seemed surprised that textbooks meeting the new curriculum requirements existed. Ignite English was written to coincide with and support the new curriculum […]
Read moreOn the 5th March, it is World Book Day. I’m waiting for my son to come home with the usual, “We can dress up as a character from a book.” Most teachers I know will already be filled with dread and searching the charity shops for something they can use to make Skellig’s wings or […]
Read moreThe traditional whiteboard (or even blackboard) used to take centre stage in the classroom. It has been pushed to one side (where most pupils can’t see), reduced in size or eliminated altogether. The other day I had a conversation with a talented young teacher who declared that she was going to request a traditional whiteboard […]
Read moreHow many English departments have had the time to scrutinize the new specifications or to think about what they really mean for our teaching, both at KS4 and, perhaps even more importantly, at KS3? Let’s start with some of the basics of the new exam requirements: 100% exam 2 exams, each of approximately two hours […]
Read moreIt is 2015. This is it – the year in which we have to start teaching the new GCSEs. Exam only. Linear. Untiered. No coursework. No controlled assessments. How many English teachers out there are rejoicing secretly (or perhaps openly) at the prospect of an end to controlled assessments? When I was a Leader of […]
Read moreby Jill Carter The new KS3 curriculum – why two Shakespeare plays? I love Shakespeare. My colleagues mostly love Shakespeare. My family can’t stand him. Most of the students I have ever taught couldn’t stand him – at first. A lot of people pretend to think he is the bees’ knees (probably a phrase he invented) but […]
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