Making Every English Lesson Count

MAKING EVERY ENGLISH LESSON COUNT

by Andy Thurby

(read August 2018)
Chapter One: Challenging Reading

• guidance on choosing texts to read
• begin new novel slowly so students understand
• p.19-20 questions before taking a new text
• praises "Knowledge Organisers" (Joe Kirby, pragmaticreform.wordpress.com)
• p.23-24 summarises Beck et al guidance on teaching vocabulary; essentially:
• vocab taught in context
• given student-friendly explanations
• teach how words work in multiple contexts
• Students should practise using words straight away
• Need multiple exposure (eg use in essay)
• Beck et al use three tier taxonomy of words
• Advises:
  • Create vocabulary list for each unit of work
  • Teach 2-3 words every lesson
  • Model love of words
  • Insist students use precise vocabulary
  • Investigate etymology of words
  • Ban overused words
  • Be fun and playful with words

CHAPTER 2: EXPLAINING AND QUESTIONING READING

• The value of teacher explanation during reading. Requires subtlety and balance. Important not to always tell children what a text means.
• p.29-30: identifies skills of confident and less able readers.
• Breaking up text. Effective teachers present new material in small steps. Gives strategies:
  • double readings (reading challenging sections twice)
  • forward and back (divide schemes of work into paired lessons: one reading, one extending on reading)
  • discuss before writing
  • prime students (spark curiousity, provide something to "stick" new learning):
    • Three Quotations - before reading introduce three quotations that offer a GATEWAY into the play (ensure literal meaning is understood)
    • Themes first - chose one or two and discuss
    • Contextual clues - teach historical context first.
  • Related pairing of fiction and non-fiction - read a non-fiction text before introducing text.
  • Descriptive adjectives - provide a list of abstract nouns or adjectives that describe feelings and atmospheres. Students use these to annotate the text and then should justify their annotations.
  • a question - general questions (eg. What would a writer want to include in a prologue?)
  • Question after (make interesting comments about texts)
    • 2-types of questions: understanding (surface - QU) and analysis (deep - QA)
    • Also: Probing Questions (PQ) and Mini-explanations (ME)
    • Shift between QU and QA especially in whole-class questioning.
    • Sometimes need to abandon questions and take over if class not responding.
• Make it Concrete (bring difficult contexts and questions to life).
• Three approaches: images, diagrams and drama:
  • Images: simultaneous presenting images and verbal material together improves learning. (Irony: Jaws poster; swimmer unaware). Www.joeybagstock.wordpress.com.
  • Graphs and diagrams: help students understand the pattern of a text (plot, character and theme development benefit from simple line graphs). Venn diagrams for comparisons. Pie charts for comparing levels of reader sympathy for characters. Mind-maps for on-going connections. Use for discussion.
  • Drama: recreating scenes from texts.
• Go Intertextual (transfer knowledge from text to text).
• Draw attention to the interconnectedness of texts - 3 ways to do this:
  • Intertextual explanations - refer to texts you have already read
  • Intertextual Questions - compare characters, themes from different texts (Eva Smith/Tiny Tim)
  • Intertextual Tasks

CHAPTER 3: MODELLING READING

• provide simple stepped procedure for reading poems (gives example on p.46)
• Explode It. Teach annotating starting with small extracts. Called "Quote Explosion".
• Gives tick list procedure for annotation (p.49) - teacher model -> class -> pair -> individual
• Gives "annotating the omissions" of a text with questions (p.50)
• Whittle It Down. (Gives examples of writing on walls and then class discriminating between strong and weak interpretations.) List ideas without comment on board and then class choose most insightful. Students learn that the first ideas are not the best.
• Suggest It. (Reading basics: decoding, comprehension, fluency - then: interpretation, inference and insight.) Students need to speak and write in an academic manner. Excellent list of "hedging" starters (p.52-53). Use these phrases purposefully. Stick in books/on walls etc:
  • Perhaps this...
  • The writer might have/may have/could have...
  • This appears to...
  • The writer tends to...
  • It is possible...
  • This seems...
  • The reader is caught between...
  • This suggests/implies...
  • Some might argue that...; however, others might believe that...
  • Notice the way that...
  • It is almost as if...
  • Even though the character usually displays the qualities of decency and compassion...
  • The writer hints that...
• Twin concepts of connotation and association should be prioritised. Students should understand words evoke ideas and feelings in addition to their literal or primary meaning. Positive and negative connotations.
• Difference between telling a student what to think and suggesting what they could consider. Use gesture and body to model contemplative listening.
• Read It Out Loud. Gives tips for reading aloud in lessons. Important.

CHAPTER 4: PRACTISING READING

• Refers to "The Matthew Effect: How Advantage Begets Further Advantage". 60-80% of differences in reading ability attributed to heritable factors. Students need more frequent, better quality reading practice before Year 11.
• Reading Alone. Children who read for pleasure are more likely to become more academically successful.
• Unassisted reading. DEAR. Must consider the benefits of extended silent reading - but can hinder weaker students. Little evidence that silent reading benefits students but shows students how much we value reading. Willingham (Raising Kids Who Read) identifies:
  • Students need 20 minutes minimum.
  • Freely choose material.
  • Access to good number of books.
  • Feel sense of community through reading.
  • Teacher actively teaching (reading?)
  • Gives other guidance (p.62-63). Students need tasks to complete after reading. Need book with them.
  • Shared Oral Reading. Gives advice (p.69)
  • Shared Independent Reading.
  • Process It. "Learning happens when people have to think hard." (Prof Rob Coe, Improving Education - Durham Uni). Deep-processing tasks should follow whole-class reading. Paired discussion, extended writing, categorising info in different forms. Explaining and elaborating crucial for long-term memory.
• Questions most important. Pages 68-70 have question templates.
• Alex Quigley in "The Confident Teacher" gets students to think about characters in a novel by linking them to items in their pencil case.
• Immerse and read widely. Breadth is also important. Foster love of texts. Take de-tours.
• Retain It. Two ways to remember things: spaced out practice and retrieval practice.
• Pause lessons - once a fortnight re-visit what's been taught.
• memory platforms - beginning lessons with review task. Low stakes quizzes work brilliantly.
• selection box questions. Drop in questions from other texts etc.
• quiz apps and online platforms.
• flashcards.
• connection cards. Lists of key words, characters, concepts & create spatial organisers.
• self-quizzing.
• essay plans.
• writing practice.

CHAPTER FIVE: CHALLENGING WRITING

• "Parameters are the things you bounce off to create art." Neil Gaiman
• Ideally, all English lessons should include some form of independent writing, if only for a few minutes.
• Balance Content and Genre. More direct teaching of topic required before writing.
• Link creative writing to the topic being studied.
• Use simple stimuli (photo, short film-clip).
• Start Easy, Finish Hard. (Interestingly, Tharby argues that teachers should avoid setting completely different work for students according to their starting points. Instead, set high level of challenge for all and find the best way to support students to reach goal, regardless of ability.
• Tasks should be easy to start. Gives ideas about how to begin:
  • starter sentences
  • shared writing of start
  • class discussion and notes
  • student examples
• Emulate the Literary Greats. Analyse extract from text and identify the style etc. Get students to write one.
• Go Greek. Teach rhetorical devices to be used by students. Gives short list on p.89-90. (Not sure that all the ones given are the best to use, but certainly a very good idea).