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Academic Language and the Phrases that Matter
Teachers and professionals who work in education typically draw upon a wealth of academic vocabulary in their every interaction. We have easy access to this word richness, and it becomes part of who we are and how we communicate. What we recognise when we closely scrutinise the patterns of academic
Feedback: Improve the learner, not the work
“The main role of feedback, at least in schools, is to improve the learner, not the work. The idea is that, after feedback, students will be able to do better at some point in the future on tasks they have not yet attempted.” Dylan Wiliam Giving some pupils timely and
What should we do with word lists?
A question I get asked a lot from teachers and school leaders is ‘what is the word list that best helps pupils grasp the academic language of school?’ The regular – perhaps unsatisfactory – answer I offer is that word lists don’t quite do the job we’d hope. There is
Mighty Morphology - 5 Resources
One of the most enduring teaching strategies, for almost every classroom at every key stage, is the explicit teaching of morphology: the structure of words and their meanings. Teaching word parts, including the history of the word (etymology), can prove much more than a mere curiosity. It can be vital
Adaptive teaching: What is it anyway?
“Sir, I don’t know where to start with this Scrooge essay!” “Neither do I…” “How many paragraphs do I need to do again?” “What does redemption mean?” Even the best laid lesson plans of expert teachers go awry. Regardless of deftly planned schemes of learning, teaching is not merely
Reflections on PISA 2022 Results
“All international assessment data like this is a starting point for discussion, though people tend to use it as an end point.” Professor Christian Bokhove, in TES article, ‘UK’s PISA scores fall in maths, science and reading’ It is difficult for a busy school teacher or leader to process
