Key concept
The main theme or keyword of a particular post, maybe with reference to a teaching or national curriculum topic.
-
The National Scandal! Teaching Reading — my correspondence with Susan Godsland at the RRF
Speaking at the Reading Reform Foundation conference has really crystallised my thoughts on the teaching on reading. I found it both positive and depressing. Positive in that the RRF is offering concrete solutions that appear to work, but depressing but they’ve been ignored for too long. Here is my correspondence so far with Susan Godsland. […]
-
Have government policies failed to teach our nation to read?
I spoke at WAVES — the Reading Reform Foundation Conference — today, giving my views on twenty years of teaching — and sometimes failing — to teach reading. I spoke about the changing times: how when I first taught there was no internet, no mobile phones, no social networking sites, and how the class reader was […]
-
Is it harder than ever to be a teacher?
There’s a crisis of identity at the heart of the teaching profession. We don’t know exactly who we are or what our roles should entail. Are we the founts of all knowledge who pour it like milk into the empty vessels of our pupils? Or are we merely facilitators of learning, guiding our pupils through […]
-
Are standards getting worse in our schools? What is education for?
It depends what you mean by standards. Exam pass rates have gone up, but does that mean standards are higher? I argued on Newsnight that teachers like me are now like foreman in factories; supervising, cajoling, bribing, lecturering children to pass exams. The net result is that children are getting better at passing exams, but […]
-
School choice – an overrated concept
As a teacher for 20 years, I can tell parents that with their support children can flourish anywhere The agony of waiting is over. Yesterday was national offer day, when parents learnt if their children had got into their favoured secondary schools. Unfortunately, as many as 100,000 children and their families have been bitterly disappointed. […]
-
Should teachers use force to break up pupils who are fighting?
The question is a tricky one. As a young teacher, I got into trouble for pulling two pupils apart while they were scrapping on the floor. One of the pupils claimed I’d manhandled him and complained to a senior member of staff. Luckily, my manager knew what the child was like and didn’t believe his […]
-
Comparing Poems from Town and Country — mock exam questions
Comparing poem from Town and Country by FGI Comparing The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd. Marlowe’s poem is very passionate. What imagery does the poet use to make the shepherd’s love seem so passionate? What are the delights that the shepherd is offering? In Ralegh’s poem, the […]
-
Comparing Lake Isle of Innisfree and A Dead Harvest In Kensington
How to write a fandaglistic hyperpolished poetry essay in timed conditions. Use this frame to help you! Explore the different ways in which the poets portray nature in ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’’ and ‘A Dead Harvest in Kensington’ Introduction: where you introduce the poems by explaining BRIEFLY what they are about. Remember you get […]
-
Standardisation: presentation ideas and presentation on processes of semantic change, taboo words
Presentation format: On PowerPoint: give some history and a task for pupils to do. All presentations must include some definitions on standardisation. Ask FGI for help if necessary. Devise a presentation on how spelling was standardised, the development of printing, dictionaries, mass education. Devise a presentation on STANDARD ENGLISH and […]
-
War Poetry – analysing and thinking about the poem, improving essays
Learning objective: to learn how to use quotation to develop your criticisms of the poems Key quotes: “German guns” Eyes were wild blindfolded English bullet in his heart Abject fear of death Deserter’s grave Panicked down the trench Mother’s grief The Deserter “To add more sympathy at the end, the poet goes on to say […]
-
Compare in which the poets movingly portray sympathy for the loss of life in wartime in these two poems: The Deserter and The Hero.
Format: Explain poem 1 Explain poem 2 Similarities In imagery and language Structure and themes Differences In imagery and language Structure and themes Conclusion to the question.
-
The Opening of the Novel — True or false questions, analysing the opening
True or false? Gabriel Oak complains about Bathsheba’s vanity in the first chapter. Gabriel Oak is a shepherd NOT a farmer at the beginning of the novel. Oak rescues Bathsheba from dying of suffocation in his hut. Bathsheba doesn’t want to marry Oak because she does not love him. Oak would have been financially […]
-
Review of autobiography
Task: Write a review of an autobiography Summarise briefly why you chose the book and what happened in your person’s life. Explain what interested you about their life, relating it to your life if you can. Explain what were your favourite parts of the book, quoting from your favourite passages and saying WHY the language and […]
-
Re-writing autobiographical extracts, editing and improving them
Read these passages and answer the questions that follow: he looked like a turtle his little bald head with his oversized blazer, it looked like a home on his back! What is effective about this image? we seized every opportunity to get him back we didn’t care, we was going home after this and […]
-
Dramatising your life
Learning objectives: to learn how to dramatise elements of your life Learning outcomes To write in detail about an aspect of your life NOT covered in the autobiography in detail, but dramatised. The question will be: Write an entertaining account which explores in depth moments when you have been alone or lonely in your life. […]
-
The bully — reading an FGI extract and planning your answer
Read this passage, written by me and use it to help you plan your own autobiographical extract. Although I don’t know him at all, a kid, Andrew Mintern, in the year above senses my difference and decides to pick on me. One break-time there’s a massive surge after all the “spazzies” in the school […]
-
What makes a great teacher?
David Cameron thinks a good teacher is all about having a good degree but, says one member of the profession, that couldn’t be further from the truth David Cameron’s proclamation that the Tories will be “brazenly elitist” about the calibre of candidates entering the teaching profession betrays the fact that he doesn’t know anything about […]
-
Don’t judge teachers by their degrees
I’ve seen too many graduates with first-class degrees die in the classroom. David Cameron’s ‘elitist’ policies would be destructive So what makes a good teacher? Suddenly, answering this question properly seems to be of crucial importance. Today, with much fanfare, David Cameron, trumpeted plans to stop graduates with poor degrees from so-called “poor” universities from […]
The Common Entrance Automatons
Wellington College’s head knocks state ‘factory schools’, yet his entrance exams see children being drilled as early as year four Anthony Seldon is one of the most powerful figures in education today, so when he provides 20 recommendations for improving schools we should all take note. Given his ideological closeness with the Conservatives, he […]