Teaching

Of all the different forms of writing that we study in English, poetry often seems to be the one with which students feel the least comfortable.  The fact that it simply doesn’t look like prose creates an instant barrier.  It’s unsurprising then that young people find the requirement to explore… Read More

‘If we can only preserve ourselves from growing up, we shall never grow old and the young may love us to the last,’ declared Dickens.  This call to protect the magic and wonder of childhood concluded his New Year’s Day essay, published in his magazine Household Words, almost exactly a… Read More

In recent years, there has been much debate surrounding the best way to support our most disadvantaged students to catch up with their peers. Despite teachers’ best efforts, some pupils still struggle to meet the demands of the new curriculum, and it seems like it is becoming more and more difficult to close the gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged. Where can teachers begin? Teachers, therefore, need low-effort, high-impact strategies to address this. But where to begin? As a teacher, I believe that teaching vocabulary is a good place to start. Words are, after all, the building blocks of understanding and communicating ideas. If we teach a range of high-leverage words thoroughly, we provide children with a springboard for learning across the curriculum. Sadly, time and time again data has shown that children from the poorest backgrounds are least likely to acquire new words in reading or spoken language. The famous and oft-cited Hart and Risley[1] study suggests that children from professional families hear 32 million words more than their disadvantaged peers before the age of 4, and that this – more than anything else – predicts achievement gaps in later life. This highlights just how important having a strong foundational vocabulary is for young people in the classroom and beyond. The word gap in the time of COVID-19 The pandemic has presented schools and young people with a myriad of challenges. Unfortunately, for many pupils, COVID-19 has further entrenched the disadvantages that our poorest and most vulnerable pupils have always faced. After missing out on months of face-to-face teaching, the vocabulary gap has widened further - and with Key Stage 4 fast approaching for many pupils, time is running short. Now that we are back in the classroom, teachers are feeling the impact of school closures on their students’ progress. A recent study found that 92% of teachers have confirmed that school closures and remote learning have contributed towards a widening of the word gap. Our concerns as a profession have prompted many conversations about how best to support young people to catch up in a post-COVID world. Closing the word gap is perhaps one of the most high-leverage approaches we can take to support our most vulnerable with the academic challenges they now face. In the aftermath of a global pandemic, doing everything we can to close this gap has never been more urgent or important. Start at Key Stage 3 At Key Stage 3, you can make a huge difference to your students’ chances of success at GCSE and beyond by embedding regular, systematic vocabulary instruction into their lessons. The renewed focus on rigorous literature in GCSE English Literature and English Language, as well as the increase in complexity of questioning across other subjects, has prompted us to think more strategically about how best to support those with less exposure to a broad vocabulary, and how to help them catch up with their peers. It only takes 15 minutes! Regular 15-minute doses of systematic vocabulary instruction can make big strides to bridging this gap. A practical resource to help you close the word gap A seminal text on vocabulary acquisition and teaching is Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck et al[2]. Beck’s book is a treasure trove of the research on reading and word-acquisition, and provides teachers with a framework for teaching new words effectively. Inspired by the methods laid out in Beck et al’s work, Building Brilliant Vocabulary: 60 lessons to close the vocabulary gap goes some way towards addressing the vocabulary gap. Building Brilliant Vocabulary is a fully-resourced vocabulary programme made up of 60 short, systematic and carefully sequenced 15-minute sessions. Specialist and non-specialists alike have the flexibility to teach each word as a standalone lesson or to integrate the activities carefully into lesson planning. In each lesson, a new word is introduced and taught using a tried and tested approach that: introduces words one at a time in a systematic, coherent fashion provides examples and non-examples to avoid misconceptions gives definitions and examples that provide students with a precise understanding of each word provides students with plenty of opportunities to practise understanding and using these new words in their own writing and speaking. Each lesson is designed to be flexible and intuitive for you to teach, and activities are designed to be accessible and student-friendly. Students see the word in multiple contexts, read about an interesting topic related to the word they are learning, and learn about its origins. They consolidate their learning with a final task that prompts them to practise using the word in their own writing. By introducing students to new words using this rigorous method that is backed by educational research, we can help to address the disadvantages that our children and young people face now more than ever. Inspired? Try some example activities with your class Explore words such as nostalgia, persistence, femininity and compassion. Download a free sample of Building Brilliant Vocabulary here   By Katie Ashford, literacy specialist and Deputy Head at Michaela Community School. Katie is also the author of Building Brilliant Vocabulary: 60 lessons to close the word gap in Key Stage 3   Read More

Teaching sociology is a collective action. It is important to recognise that we are equipping the next generation with critical skills and insights that can possibly lead to social change. We should not turn away from addressing controversial or sensitive issues and events, but teach our students how to examine… Read More

Teaching sociology is a collective action. It is important to recognise that we are equipping the next generation with critical skills and insights that can possibly lead to social change. We should not turn away from addressing controversial or sensitive issues and events, but teach our students how to examine… Read More

Jo Heathcote is a teacher, coach, former AQA principal examiner for GCSE English/English Language, and author of  multiple Collins English resources, including the new Reimagine Key Stage 3 English. In this article, Jo explores why it’s time to re-think KS3 English and how you can use her nine knowledge-rich… Read More

One of the core difficulties when teaching Shakespeare is taking it off the printed page – turning it from a flat, some might say dead text into a living, breathing work of drama.  To do this, we need to make the language physical in some way. Most obviously, exploring the… Read More

Persuasion's protagonist Anne Elliot is perhaps the one character who critics describe as closest to Austen herself, going as far as to suggest that this novel is in fact part autobiographical. It is a novel that shows Austen at her wittiest. Although Anne, ‘the only one with any sense’ is taken for granted by her family, her strong sense of self and righteousness can be heard throughout in her authorial voice. She is no fool, yet acted foolishly in her youth. Like all novels by Austen, the tale spun here is of failed romance, human error and ultimately reconciliation. The following creative activities will bring Persuasion to life; they are designed to be funny and lively – much like the elaborate dinner parties in the 1880s that Jane attended. Agony Aunt Activity There is nothing Lady Russell likes more than subtly telling Anne how to run her life. Now it’s your turn to be controlling in the name of ‘proper society’. Students should imagine they are an agony aunt in the 1800s, what advice would they give in the following situations? a) Dear Lady Agony, my beloved father and sister Elizabeth fritter away our family inheritance on materialistic possessions. My dear Papa is concerned with the society of ‘gentleman not working men’ and old money and titles. I orchestrated a move to a smaller house in Bath to save money but discover them spending copious amounts of pounds on society in the assembly rooms. What would you suggest I do? Anne b)  Dear Lady Agony, I used to be engaged to the finest of men, but it was an ill-advised match due to his lack of money and my family’s ease at spending it.  I saw him again recently, ‘the worst is over, I have seen him, we have been once more in the same room’. He clearly despises me yet my heart remains his. He has money now, what amends can I make? Anne c) Dear Lady Agony, my dearest goddaughter was engaged at 19 to ‘a young naval officer who had no fortune or expectations’. Thankfully, she broke off the engagement at the time but now I discover her wish to reconcile. How can I remove her from this situation without scandal that may be reflected on me? Lady Russell Can they now create their own problems in the guise of a character and have other members of the class solve them? Could you turn this into a Drama activity with the characters coming alive from the page? What about a modern interpretation with the characters being contestants on Love Island? 2. Dating App You have received an application from Captain Frederick Wentworth who wishes to set up his dating profile. He was quite withdrawn and quiet so you may need to find some additional information about him in order to make him sound appealing to the highest quality social ladies. We do have the quote: ‘what I desire above all in a wife is a firmness of character; a woman who knows her own mind’. We also have it on good authority that he is the ‘most handsomest man in the Navy and quite unattached’. It shouldn’t be difficult to make a sound social match. We will of course need to know his income and his family lineage. Which ladies’ profiles would we match him with? 3. Character Top Trumps  Show the class a pack of Top Trumps before starting this activity. Ask students to spend 15 minutes collecting all the characters they can think of in the novel (this activity will work better with main characters so they can then choose 10). They then need to make a Top Trump card for their chosen character with a picture. I would suggest some of the following criteria for the cards with a mark out of 100: occupation, money, stupidity, secrets, honesty and importance to the novel. This should cause some lively discussion – is Mr Elliot the stupidest character and what makes him this way? What about Anne’s sisters? Where would they rank? Could they create a limited edition villain and who would that be? Is Anne the Top Trump or Frederick?   By Joanna Fliski Joanna Fliski is a freelance writer, secondary English teacher and primary school teacher in Bristol. Read More

Teaching is a job filled with joy, excitement, curiosity, love and lots of stress. At the beginning of the summer term in 2018 Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman commissioned research into teacher wellbeing. They wanted to find out what the current levels of teacher wellbeing looked like and what factors impacted the most. They  found that the word ‘lack’ was often cited including: lack of support to manage behaviour lack of time lack of money/budget/funding lack of resources lack of communication lack of a work/life balance More teachers than senior leaders reported low wellbeing and a quarter of all respondents had taken time off work because of health problems caused or made worse by work. Mental health was commonly reported as being the thing that suffers the most. This mirrors what the Education Support Partnership found in their Teacher Wellbeing Index 2018 which found 67% of teachers are stressed at work 29% work more than 51 hours a week - approximately 14 hours more per week than the national average of 37.4 hours (Office for National Statistics) 74% say the inability to switch off from work is the major contributing factor to a negative work-life balance 31% experienced a mental health issue in the past year Teacher Mental Health Teachers that look after their emotional and psychological well-being can serve the whole school community with gusto, insight and joy. But this is no easy task when there is so much outside of our control. The good news is, there is plenty we can do to take control and enjoy better mental health. We know all about eating healthily and taking regular exercise. We know all about establishing links with sympathetic friends and family members but what else can we do to look after our mind, body and soul? The following 22 tips are some of the things you can do to avoid anxiety, emotional exhaustion and burnout. Mental health – what it isn’t A good place to start is by saying what mental health isn’t. It isn’t fake news, a sign of weakness, something to be embarrassed about, or something you can ‘snap out of’. Mental health isn’t ‘all in the mind’, something you decide to have or something about feeling great all the time. Mental health – what it is Mental health is important, it changes, it’s something we all have and it is part of being human. Mental health exists on a continuum, it’s linked to our physical health and something we all need to look after.  It’s multi-dimensional, normal, positive and negative. Stress is bad….and good! Everyone is stressed. Some of us are knee-deep in the stuff, others up to our necks. The point is stress is a normal part of living and sometimes necessary. Yes, stress can even be good for us when we need to rise to a challenge and perform well. We can’t, therefore, eliminate every drop of stress because we need some of it. Accept It’s easy to get overwhelmed with mounting responsibilities and shrinking time but accept that you will always have stuff to do. Accept there will always be more to do than you can achieve. Draw the line in the sand and set sensible boundaries that will preserve your wellbeing, e.g. not answering emails after 7pm, not taking any marking home, having Sunday as a school-free day. You cannot be a 24/7 teacher. Stop saying ‘busy’ We all have plenty to do but by telling others that we are busy all the time creates a culture of being snowed under. By removing the word busy from our narrative we don’t have to put ourselves under so much pressure. What gets done, gets done and what doesn’t, doesn’t! Busyness leads to overwork. Eat the frog Teachers always have 101 things to do but there will be plenty that can be put on the back-burner. You have to prioritise and that means ‘eating the frog’ or doing the biggest and ugliest thing that needs to be done. Learn to practise the four Ds for prioritising tasks: do, delegate, ditch and delay. Make lists, separate the wheat from the chaff and focus on what matters. Things that take top spot are those that will have a direct impact on children’s learning -  our core activity. Set a limit of 50 If you are working 12 hours a day then you are probably doing something wrong. You need to be in control of your working hours not the other way round. A 50 hour week is more than enough for anyone in order to avoid collapse. When you hit 50 hours, stop because you won’t be productive after that. Leaving work ‘on time’ is not the sign of a shirker but an indication of professionalism. Don’t be a marking martyr Marking and over-marking can be the enemy of wellbeing because it adds to our workload. But no one says you have to mark everything. You can do ‘live’ marking in class and feedback verbally to pupils. Set sensible limits on how much physical marking you actually do and remember that Ofsted  does not expect to see a particular frequency or quantity of work in pupils’ books. Leave school… well, at least for a few minutes every day.  Going off-site for a short while can help you gain perspective and step outside of your bubble. A new environment can refresh your mind, boost your morale, inspire your creativity and increase your productivity. Focus on hygge Hygge is a Scandanavian word that translates as wellness and is associated with connectedness, cosiness, family, simplicity, fellowship and hope. You can create this in your classrooms, corridors and staffroom by making these spaces into places of belonging and developing a sense of empathy and togetherness. Create cosy areas with lights, plants and calming music and make your classrooms clever by thinking about decorations, light and ventilation. Surround yourself with positive pedagogues Negative people suck the life out of you. They are mood hoovers. Avoid toxic relationships and environments by gravitating towards people that are enthusiastic, ooze positivity, inspire you and have fun. Avoid like the plague getting pulled into petty politics, toxic cliques and the bitter attitudes of disillusioned colleagues. Instead, focus on the positive aspects of your school and be the member of the staff that has a reputation for NOT moaning. Surround yourself with positive, caring and hard-working colleagues as they will be there for you when the going gets tough. Have a laugh You have to get your laughs where you can but as a teacher you have to make them too. Teachers with classrooms full of laughs have fun themselves by finding ways to bring learning to life. They have a sense of humour, share jokes and stories, enjoy their work and smile – a lot! Visit your colleagues Teaching in our own little worlds can be isolating so make time to nip into other classrooms and say hello to a colleague. Just a few words here and there can make a difference to how someone feels and that includes you. Being sociable strengthens connections and builds up a support system of colleagues. It’s also a great way to share ideas, teaching tips, resources and initiate a few random acts of kindness. Break bread together Some teachers don’t even make it to the staffroom at lunchtime because they are ‘too busy’. They end up demolishing a bowl of pasta in under 2 minutes and keep on going. Mistake. Teachers need to bond and lunch is a shared experience that can fuel conversations, break down barriers and help us understand our colleagues as people, not just ‘teachers’. Make sure you come first Teachers are good at putting children first but they really shouldn’t. Healthy teachers prioritise themselves and remember to put their own oxygen masks on first. There are no medals for being a superhero so don’t try to be one. Children need their teachers in class not off work sick so self-care is a priority. Take some deep breaths When we are stressed we forget to breathe, well breathe in a way that helps. Its deep breaths we need to build into our daily routine to recentre, refocus, get a good supply of oxygen to our brains and stay in control. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude We can easily forget all the great things we have in our lives. When we start to think about it there are plenty of things to be grateful for. Keeping a gratitude journal, counting your blessings and writing down what you’re thankful for at the end of the day can lower your stress levels, calm you down, and help you sleep better. Sleep A teacher’s secret weapon and key skill is sleep and that means going to bed early. The sheer power and value of a good night’s sleep will impact positively on our competence, performance, effectiveness, and basic functions. Say “No!” One thing we all need to do is hesitate before agreeing to a request or volunteering. Sometimes you just have to say no. If you don’t need to be in a meeting then tell your line manager that your time will be better spent elsewhere. If you are holding a meeting yourself think whether what you want to say can be done by email and cancel the meeting! Be hardy Some teachers don’t see their jobs as stressful because they have developed ‘hardiness’. Stress-hardy people perceive difficulties as challenges rather than threats, they learn to control how they react and respond to things they can’t change and find meaning in their work. You are good enough If you are chasing perfection and aiming for outstanding then you are wasting your time. Sometimes a job only has to be done well enough. Good is good enough. Don’t talk shop Teachers are their own worst enemies and can be pretty good at sabotaging their own wellbeing by talking shop at home, at the shops, in the park, at the gym…everywhere. It’s good to get things off your chest but park the school chat and talk about other things! And finally…. At the centre of all these emotional hygiene tips is being organised, making your load feel more manageable, being mindful of your mental health and avoiding that sense of inner chaos by adopting daily habits to sustain control. Seek help If life gets too much then seek help. The Education Support Partnership is the UK's only charity providing mental health and wellbeing support services to all education staff and organisations. They offer free telephone support and counselling 24/7 365 days a year. Tel: 08000 562 561 Schools can arrange for a staff wellbeing consultant to visit by clicking here. By John Dabell John Dabell is an experienced teacher, former school inspector for Ofsted, project manager, writer and editor: @John_Dabell Read More

Did you know that October 5th 2018 is World Smile Day? If there is one thing that needs to go viral in a school then it’s smiling. Smiling is good for the wellbeing of a school community as it fuels happiness and acts as a catalyst for building rapport and… Read More