Teaching creative writing
teaching english

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  • Affective digital presence: how to free online writing and drawing?

    How freewriting and drawing can have a therapeutic effect when working online. It draws upon the experience of my students and my colleague, Dr Miranda Matthews. It also suggests a methodology for this approach.

  • What’s Next? Ecoliteracies and creative writing

    Creative writing can be used to nurture ecoliteracie, helping people developing an organic, ecological view of language.

  • Teaching Creative Writing Online: Research-Informed Strategies

    A summary of a presentation at NAWE Conference 2021, suggesting some ways of teaching creative writing online, using puppets, stories, drawings and metacognition.

  • Different ways of descending into the crypt: methodologies and methods for researching creative writing

    For all creative writers who wish to explore writing processes further, using established research.

  • Why teach creative writing? Examining the challenges of its pedagogies

    One of the purposes of teaching creative writing is ‘to heal’, in other words, creative writing is taught as a form of therapy, maybe more than is openly stated. Many teachers set therapeutic tasks so the author can learn and grow from the experience of writing about it.

  • Lockdown lessons: Teaching and working during the Covid-19 crisis

    Some of the lessons I learnt during the Covid lockdown, about staying sane, being mindful and engaging with technology

  • Finding a new path: Building affective online learning spaces for creative writing and arts practice

    On Covid-19 related research, for the British Educational Research Association.

  • 8 Ways To Teach spelling, punctuation and grammar

    Abstract or Description For many English teachers, teaching Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) is daunting. The stakes have always been high: if your pupils are not good spellers, struggle to punctuate correctly and have a tendency to use non-standard forms in their writing, then invariably they won’t achieve highly, particularly in exams.Since the beginning of…

  • Teaching 1984 in the surveillance culture of schools

    Abstract or Description PurposeThis paper focuses upon the affordances of and issues surrounding the teaching of George Orwell’s novel 1984 (1949) as a set text for GCSE English and English Literature in an examination-obsessed and heavily surveilled school system. It considers this by focusing on the classroom practice of a beginning teacher tackling the teaching…

  • Mindfulness and Creative Writing

    Abstract or Description An article for NAWE’s peer-reviewed magazine Writing in Education about how mindfulness can be used by creative writers to develop their practice and pedagogy. Reference details: Gilbert, Francis. 2019. Mindfulness and Creative Writing. Writing in Education(77), ISSN 1361-8539 [Article] TextFGilbert_NAWE_magazine_Jan_2019 (2).pdf – Accepted VersionAvailable under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.Download (149kB) | Preview Official URL: https://www.nawe.co.uk/writing-in-education.html You can…

  • The Teachers’ Standards and English Teaching

    Note in 2024: This article contains some interesting ideas about educating English teachers in relation to Teaching Standards set since 2012 for teachers to be measured against. However, these standards could well change and are less emphasized now than they used to be. Gilbert, Francis. 2019. The Teachers’ Standards and English Teaching. Teaching English(19), pp. 33-36.…

  • Riding the Reciprocal Teaching Bus A teacher’s reflections on nurturing collaborative learning in a school culture obsessed by results

    This article examines the author’s interactions with the teaching strategy known as Reciprocal Teaching, sometimes also called Reciprocal Reading, which involves students learning to read collaboratively in small groups. Reciprocal Teaching typically involves students teaching each other by following a rubric of activities that are aimed at primarily improving their comprehension skills. In brief, students…

  • Aesthetic literacy and autobiography

    This article explores how I became ‘aesthetically literate’ in my life; how I used other artistic work to educate and heal myself. It argues that ‘aesthetic literacy’ is just as important, if not more important, than other forms of literacy because of its therapeutic dimensions.

  • Dreaming of a Better World

    An explanation of a creative writing and reading project the author carried out with students at Deptford Green school, which involved putting the principles of Reciprocal Teaching into practice. Reference: Gilbert, Francis. 2017. Dreaming of a Better World. Teaching English, [Article] TextDreaming of a Better World FGilbert NATE Magazine June 2017.docx – Accepted VersionAvailable under License Creative Commons…

  • The Creative Writing Teacher’s Toolkit

    There are certain pedagogical strategies, such as encouraging freewriting, using prompts and fostering flow which can significantly help learners to write creatively.

  • But sir, I lied – The value of autobiographical discourse in the classroom

    This article aims to examine the benefits of teachers using their own autobiographical writing in the classroom. It explores the blurring of truth and fiction in autobiographical writing and argues that teachers can help students if they provide students with the cloak of fiction when writing about their own lives. Furthermore, it puts forward the…

  • Aesthetic Learning, Creative Writing and English Teaching

    ‘Aesthetic learning’ can be helpful for English teachers, because we are all ‘aesthetic learners’: we learn to appreciate the qualities of the worlds we inhabit, whether actual or virtual.

  • My Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Audio Book is now published: free copies available, read more here!

    I am delighted that my new audiobook Analysis & Study Guide: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Complete text & integrated study guide (Creative Study Guide Editions) is now available here on Audible, Amazon and ITunes. The best audio version of the novel there is! I firmly believe that actor and voice artist Richard J. Bunn…

  • Making an audio book of my Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde study guide

    I’m very excited to announce that the marvellous actor and audiobook reader Richard Bunn will be reading my bestselling study guide ‘Analysis and Study Guide: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. The book has proved to be one of my popular books over the years and has continued to sell well. I was impressed by all…

  • Five Ways to Revolutionise Reading in Your School

    These suggestions are based on the points raised at the Reading Revolution Conference held at Goldsmiths, University of London on Saturday 23rd September 2017. ONE: Encourage Reading for Pleasure Read for the sake of reading. Read aloud, read in groups, read in pairs, read silently. Read poems, stories, articles, blogs, relevant social media and so…