A question of homework in English

Homework is one of those tricky things in school. The only people that seem to like it are pushy parents, who think every child should be doing at least four hours a night on homework. Students don’t like it, because it gets in the way of things like life, social time, time with one parent as their parents have split up, football training and so on. Teachers hate it, because it is an endless cycle of setting, checking, rechecking, chasing up, emails and so on. A five-minute task can become endless hours of work. Oh and don’t forget the remembering. 

English homework tends to be split into four categories. Reading something. Writing something. Revising something. Something creative. By something creative, I mean ‘think of Mr Birling’s musical playlist as he’s writing a letter sacking someone from his business’ for example. Things have moved on and we have to move with things. For example, any writing can be supported with AI. Therefore, Frankie who barely spells Shakespeare correctly twice in an essay magically starts sounding like an aging university academic in work produced. All written work now needs to be questioned for its authenticity. Only in the classroom can we guarantee authentic writing and work. 

I think we need to move the knowledge and revision aspect of the subject out of the classroom and put it into homework. Reading, speaking and writing all benefit from input during the process and not after it. Teachers can improve writing so much when they stop a child midwrite and make them think. If we make reading and writing about the end product, then we are teaching students to focus on the product rather than the processes. And, those processes are often the things that need to be improved if any product is going to change. From an English point of view, what if we changed homework completely? What if we made all the homework focused on revising English ideas and concepts? What if we shifted the knowledge focus to being the student’s responsibility? 

Since October, we’ve trialled doing that. Thankfully, the Carousel system helped immensely to do this with their study packs. [Follow this link for more information on Carousel.] For years, I have struggled with online platforms for English because they are largely ineffective. They are either too limiting and rigid or they are ineffective in terms of learning. The Carousel system I like because I can be in control. I can control the questions, the marking, the system and I can use it how I want to use it.   

From October 2024, we gave every student a link to all the knowledge related to the year. For English, they had a Carousel study pack which provided them with flashcards for all the key knowledge needed and the ability to quiz themselves on that knowledge. We said that they could do the quizzes when they wanted, but we would track the questions answered throughout the year. They were simply in control of their homework. They knew what they had to do, but they could control when they did it.  

Over the year, we had students answering 94,749 questions at home. Of a school of 600 students, that’s 157 questions each. Some keen students took it on themselves to answer questions in the 1000s. Each month we published a top twenty of the highest scoring students. The beauty of this system is that you are rewarding students with the amount of questions rather than the amount of correct answers. The other great thing is that you can see quite easily those that were motivated and those that lack independence. In the picture, you can see the year groups and their level of engagement. Understandably, Year 11 at the bottom of the list were our highest scorers, but Year 9 and 8 were our weakest scorers. At parents’ evening, we were able to draw attention to the lack of engagement and search for possible ways to help and support.   

The key thing for us was about getting the knowledge right for our context. How we made our study packs was important. We ditched knowledge that had a short shelflife. Knowing the colour of Macbeth’s beard is not going to help in the bigger picture. We focused on the key knowledge or ideas behind a topic. As you can see, we separated things into topics. You might be alarmed with the number of questions next to the topic. Don’t be. Questions were often reworded. They might be given a definition for a term or the opposite and tell me the term based on the given definition. Alongside the topic knowledge, were spellings, core knowledge and vocabulary learnt over lessons. As we went along, we added different areas that we felt they were weak at. For example, we spotted students were struggling with comma usage, grammar and word classes. So, we designed a bank of questions to help with those things. Finally, we included some things for the more able, such as symbolism and Greek myths in Year 7. 

Each year group had their bespoke study pack. And, here is the important thing, each pack had the previous year’s knowledge in it. Year 8 had the topics from Year 7 alongside their own. The reason behind this was gaps in learning. Sadly, absence planned or unplanned happens and students miss out. English is a very tricky subject with this. Miss two lessons and you’ve missed a massive part of the play or novel studied. Having these study packs had another advantage, they supported those missing lessons and also SEND students, who need repeated exposure to the knowledge.  

Of course, we needed something in school to join this up. Therefore, the start of lessons had a quiz based on this pack of questions. And, every so often, we’d have a test on the topic they were focusing on and, finally, we’d have an end of year knowledge test. We advertised the top scorers regularly  

For 2025 and 2026, we have adapted this slightly so we guide them on how many questions they should have done. This is so parents can be part of that process and understand the expectations. For each term, we have said students need to answer 50 questions. As you can see, they have started really well with just one term.  There are some students that haven’t engaged with it and it is my team's job now to unpick what is the issue around that. 

As a parent, I have seen how pointless homework can get. If homework focuses on knowledge and making that knowledge stick, then that’s brilliant. The problem with a lot of homework is that it is largely surplus to requirements. It isn’t going to change what is in their brain. Add to that problem, students often don’t know how to revise. These Carousel study packs narrow the focus of learning but also guide students in the process of revising. The more we can make students take control of their own learning and be independent the better. 

As I said before, if we take the knowledge part out of the English classroom, we can focus on the reading, writing, speaking and the ideas and experiences. We can work on teaching and applying that knowledge in the classroom in different contexts. 

Thanks for reading, 

Xris 

What word is missing? Knowledge retrieval in English is ______________ and it isn’t all about quotations.

 “The sweetest honey is loathsome in its own deliciousness. And in the taste destroys the appetite.” 

Let’s be clear: English has a funny relationship with knowledge and knowledge retrieval. Pick any two English textbooks and you’ll see what I mean. They are never alike. They don’t have the same topics, terminology or even approaches to the subject. The knowledge taught will be vastly different. That’s why schools rarely teach English through textbooks. We cherry pick aspects because the rest of the book doesn’t do it how we see fit. 

Look at how Knowledge Organisers were used by English departments, when they were all the rage. They focused on plot, key characters and some contextual background. They were useful to ensure that everybody knew the plot, but I’d argue you aren’t teaching the text properly if the students can’t recall the plot or the key characters. That is the beauty of narratives. They are instantly stored in memory. I can remember films I watched decades ago. The same applies to books. Our brains are stored for retaining narratives. It is just the rest of it that is the problem. My Year 11 can recall the plot of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Mostly the rude bits and the death scenes. But, nonetheless, they can remember it. What they lack, like most students, is the knowledge of subtle aspects in the play such as the writer’s intent, the audience’s reaction to certain moments, less dramatic moments, characters with only one line, and  the reasons behind choices. Yet, we boil knowledge in English to quotations. If they can remember quotations from the text, they can write well. 

Now, the knowledge monster has developed a new head: knowledge retrieval at the start of a lesson. Across the land, leaders are insisting that lessons start, including English, with some knowledge retrieval. English teachers across the land are responding with comments akin to Harry Enfield’s ‘Kevin the Teenager’: WHAT? THIS IS SO UNFAIR! English doesn’t lead itself naturally to knowledge retrieval. Mainly, because we pull on lots of knowledge domains that don’t actually appear in English curriculums. I’d use a student's understanding of fishing to explore a poem. I’d use a student’s knowledge of plants to understand what an image means in a play. I’d use a student’s knowledge of Brighton when reading a piece of nonfiction. We don’t read texts in isolation. We knit threads, connections and webs between things. If we taught things in isolation, then my SOW for Romeo and Juliet might run something like this: 

Lesson 1 - Learn about Italy. 

Lesson 2 - Learn about Verona. 

Lesson 3 - Learn about the culture of Italy. 

Lesson 4 - Learn about England's attitude towards Italy in Elizabethan times.  

We don’t work that way. Texts don’t work in neat, pretty ways. They work like spider webs. They sit in the middle and we look at how they connect. We work from the centre to the outside. Not from the outside to the middle, which is what other subjects do. To know A, we need to cover X,Y and Z. Instead it is messy. 

The other problem with English is the transient nature of the things we teach. Yes, we teach novels, but that isn’t really ‘powerful knowledge’ (copyright Ofsted). The knowledge of Long John Silver having one leg is of limited value. It’s of use when studying the novel in Year 7, but will they be able to use that knowledge when looking at another text in Year 8? Not really. That knowledge does not have longevity as it is only needed for that text. It ‘might’ be of use if there is direct reference to the character in another book. This is what makes knowledge retrieval problematic in English. Yes, I could make some knowledge retrieval questions at the start of a lesson on the text we are studying, but it serves very little value in the wider picture of learning.

Everybody loves terminology and it seems that knowledge has got its own set of words around knowledge.  The problem is that these only over complicate things. For me, there are three areas of knowledge in English - knowledge / skills / experience. Now, I think it is important that we see English in three areas. The webby nature of it means that everything is connected, but they can stand on their own occasionally. The ‘knowledge’ is a large part. That might be the knowledge of what a simile is and what not a simile is. The ‘skill’ is the ability to replicate a simile in their own writing, which will demonstrate their knowledge but also their ability to manipulate it. The ‘experience’ is the area that is always missing, I think. That is the experience of seeing multiple examples in various contexts. The ‘experience’ is the key element of this triangle, which I think has been missing for a long time from discussions. Everything has been clumped together and ‘experience’ has been neglected. 

English is largely about experience. We give students multiple experiences - novels, plays, similes, images, sentences, words used in different contexts - and this is what makes the subject so rich and beautiful. We are about the experience and the danger with emphasis on knowledge is that it neglects skill and experience. The reading of ‘Treasure Island’ is an experience that I want students to use when faced with another text. There may be something small that resonates, echoes or contrasts with ‘Great Expectation’ in Year 8. I don’t want them to recall everything about the plot, characters or quotations for retesting in following years because it doesn’t have that much value. The knowledge of the experience is the important thing. That knowledge isn’t testable. You cannot test it. It is an experience. Part of that experience is building knowledge, but it is a snowball effect rather than a discrete thing that can be tested and retested. 

Our relationship with knowledge needs to be reasserted for English. Yes, do knowledge retrieval at the start of the lesson, but it needs to be integrated into the skill or experience elements within English. We don’t just do knowledge; we do other things that are reliant on some form of knowledge. The retrieval should be about building webs or connections and not reliant on spurious knowledge that isn’t connected. I think that there are some people who think that everything has become about knowledge in English and I don’t think that is the case. It is a part of the lesson but it doesn’t dominate the lesson - and that’s what we need to be mindful of. The sweetest honey is loathsome in its own deliciousness.  We need to work on building a healthy relationship around knowledge and developing an appropriate balance. Other subjects can bathe in knowledge, but we in English sprinkle it around like holy water. It is part of the ceremony, but we use it sparingly, because it is blessed.  

We’ve been using Carousel to help with our knowledge retrieval in English and in particular KS3. The great thing about the Carousel system is it allows for a lot of freedom from an English teaching perspective. Unlike other systems, it allows for students to write free text, which means that multiple interpretations can be accepted or explored. There’s no expectation that English has to fit down a simplistic binary ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ route. In responding, students can provide different examples and they can be assessed as correct. English is a subject where there are several right answers and not simply one.  

Plus, as with the new questions for GCSE Literature texts they have released, there is scope to work on the ‘webbiness’ of knowledge in English. The questions are not simply about recalling answers parrot fashion, but about connecting parts of texts with each other or effect with techniques. A lethal mutation I have seen with knowledge retrieval in English is a complete focus on quotations to the point that students are reciting quotations and just that. English is the subject of thinking and not recalling. If we make all the knowledge about quotations, then we are not arming them to think. Most GCSE essays need ‘several’ quotations or references to the text. Only ‘several’. If we make knowledge retrieval just about quotations, we are just filling up buckets. We need to make knowledge retrieval around quotations draw attention to the webbed nature of English, as Carousel has done with their questions. See more about Carousel here.

As a school, we’ve been looking at how we can use Carousel in other ways. So, for each year group, we have a bundle of questions related to the powerful knowledge taught in previous years and that year so that we can revisit, revise, and connect different bits of knowledge together. When visiting Macbeth in Year 8, we can use the questions from Year 7 on Shakespeare’s theatre as part of our knowledge retrieval. We have even used it for the knowledge around exam papers. See below. 

 

But, on a day-to-day basis, you don’t always want to have clear knowledge questions. You might want to have skills or experience based questioning. That’s why we have played around with knowledge retrieval. Are there things that I can do with knowledge retrieval that is less so much about the knowledge aspect and more about the skill or the experience? 

Retrieval around word meaning 

We have a bank of words and we can start with students defining the words. Students are then primed for doing this on a text they haven’t read before. Gets them thinking about word meaning from the start.  Or, they look at creating a sentence based on these words. Or, if you are studying a text, see if they can use them to describe aspects of the text. 

Retrieval around syllables 

We’ve placed emphasis on students’ knowledge of syllables, alongside work on phonemes too, so we have a bank of words. Students are testing their knowledge of what a syllable is, but also working on the skill to identify the syllables in a word. Yes, I could have created questions around ‘what is a syllable?’ but that doesn’t address the ‘webbiness’ of English. Here we prime students so they can look at rhythm in a line of poetry or a line from Shakespeare. Or, their own poetry writing. We also mix it up with knowledge around stressed and unstressed syllables. 

Retrieval around techniques 

Students never need to repeat a definition of a simile, metaphor or personification in their writing for English, yet we constantly ask them to define them. Here, we present examples for students to identify. They have a one in three chances of getting it right, but it helps us to understand if they know the concept. It provides them with the experience of others but also a starting point for writing their own. Which one is best? Which could you easily improve? Which one could you expand on? Which one could you add more to the sentence?  We are testing their knowledge retrieval but we are working on their skills and experience at the same time. 

Knowledge retrieval isn’t that hard to do, but it can become meaningless if it isn’t done with thought or understanding. It is so easy to write questions about defining techniques or filling the blanks of quotations, but will it improve their English skills? No. I have known hundreds of students who could give me a crystal clear definition of a simile, yet their own similes in their writing are rubbish. If we focus too much on the knowledge, we miss out on the skill and the experience part of the subject. Where is your skill retrieval in the lesson? Where is your experience retrieval in the lesson? Knowledge connects, but it is like a web in our subject. You cannot focus on it alone. There is room for all three parts - knowledge, skills, experience - and English teachers need to ensure there is a balance between all three.

English teachers are the spiders of the knowledge world. We spin our webs all over the place and we wait for some unsuspecting creature to become ensnared in the web. We listen for the vibrations on a thread. We knit connections where are none. 

Thanks for reading, 

Xris