A Year of Reading Dangerously, Slowly, Carefully, Accurately

This is part of my TLT talk:

Over the last decade, I have promoted reading in several ways. I have organised book talks, Readathons, themed days, competitions, quizzes, posters, activities and many things to make students read more. And the galling thing is it only made the students who read... read more. They did not help students who didn’t read for pleasure. They were all about PR - to raise the opinion of reading. And, any literacy coordinator worth their weight in gold should see that. Activities like ‘Drop Everything And Read’ are only going to be a PR activity and never really address the reading problem. They are the sequins on a Strictly Come Dancing costume. They distract the audience form the real problem. The dancing. The reading.

For a year, I looked at reading across my school. The main priority I had was KS3. I wanted to study and assess the reading taking place across three year groups. I wanted to disprove, in terms of reading, KS3 was not the ‘Wasted Years’, which according to Ofsted it is. So, for a year, I assessed the reading ages of all KS3 students and compared those ages with their reading age on entry. I then assessed the amount of reading taking place by the students individually. I went ‘full-on’ researcher mode. I collated the data and I dug deep behind the data and came up with some interesting points. The students were assessed using the GL Assessments ‘Group Reading Test’ and I am critical enough to suggest that it isn’t perfect, but it was a starting point for me. The test provided me with data and specific data relating to reading age, inferences and information retrieval. It was a robust system for me to comparing students across a variety of year groups.

Findings

Point 1:  The boys performed better in the reading test than girls.

Like everybody in the universe, we are exploring how to narrow the gap in progress between boys and girls. So, it was inevitable that I was going to look at this issue. I discovered that the students with the highest reading ages in Year 9 are boys. In fact, the top 20 students in reading across Year 9 were all boys. This contrasts differently with our Year 9 attainment. The top twenty students in English are female, highlighting a massive difference.

Logic would tell us that a student’s reading age would be reflected in their attainment in English. There may be some other factors in play such as the attainment being based on reading and writing skills, but overall it suggested one thing to me: the reading assessments in English and the reading test assess different things. Often, in English we assess students on reading through critical essays of a text and it is based on their written response to a title or question. Now, before people start thinking I am toying with the idea that I would change an assessment system to favour boys, I am not. Instead, I am thinking about why is there a difference between the two. What is it that holds boys back? It can’t just be the task. Could it be the way the boys articulate their ideas? Boys simplify rather than develop their thinking. They go for the easiest route or explanation rather than sift through the layers of meaning.  When the thinking is limited to multiple-choice answers, this level of simplification is done already for the boys. Therefore, the multiple-choice answers actually hinders the girls, for they could probably see multiple possibilities.

The issue could also be that the multiple-choice quiz made an abstract experience (reading a text) a concrete one. The test was based on the principle that one answer out of the possible four was right and the rest were wrong. This makes things quite concrete and our assessments in English lack that concrete quality. There isn’t one clear answer. Now, if I could help students, ideally boys, move from concrete to thinking to abstract thinking, then I’d be seeing greater levels of progress. This isn’t going to be a simple case of getting students to make interpretations based on abstract thoughts. It is more likely to be getting students to see two or three possible right answers to a question and evaluating the effectiveness of each one.

 Point 2: Often students with the highest reading age failed to score marks for retrieving information.  

This was one of the most enlightening points for me. There are a lot of assumptions made about very able students. We assume they can do a lot of basic things and they do them well because the rest of their work is sophisticated. However, when analysing the different year groups, I spotted one worrying aspect, which will impact on all areas of the curriculum: the brightest students failed to score marks when retrieving information from a text. Perhaps, this is the result of very able students overanalysing the task and thinking that something more complex is needed. Or, it could be that bright students, often girls, are conditioned to interpret and infer information from the text that they cannot simply search and find. In our testing, students with a reading age of 15 years or above lost a possible 5 to 8 marks for failing to find information. Therefore, I think we need to work on the relatively easy task of finding information in a text for able students, which goes against the grain.  

Point 3:  Girls scored higher on inference questions than boys.

The good thing about the reading test used is that I am able to identify where students performed well in an area. Looking across the year groups, 13 of the top 30 Year 9 students scoring highly in inference questions were boys. Based on the tests, we can see that girls tend to be better at reading inferences. However, these thirteen boys are very interesting. In fact, as I have taught the majority of them, there is a lot I know about these boys. They are not the boys you would pick out in a line for being the best students in the year group. In fact, these students are in the middle of the sets for English. They are the boys with a sense of humour. They are the boys with often terrible presentation of work. They are the boys who you have to push to complete their work. They are also the boys that we want to improve in terms of progress because they are underperforming. Yet, here they are achieving a skill that the best readers do well. It shows me that boys’ reading isn’t the problem. It is something else.

Now, the findings and these points led me to these following points. Boys and girls generally read differently. Boys’ reading is often precise and technical. Girls’ reading tends to lack the technical precision, but they are often more astute with their reading. Boys when reading are better at finding the information whereas girls are better for finding the meaning. Ideally, we want students to be strong at both aspects – information gathering and implied meaning. I feel that whole novels are important for developing this understanding of implied meaning. A lot of boys in our school make three or more years progress in reading age and I think this is a result of reading whole novels. It is important that students read non-fiction text to develop their ability to process information.  

I now have a picture for my school based on this data. I have an idea of each year group’s reading ability and the weaknesses. Based on this information, I have an idea where to put my efforts. The students who need inference support. The students who need to work on information retrieval. The data is a diagnostic tool. It is now up to me to work on this information and retest to see if there has been progress.

What improves reading in students? Reading. Nothing fancy – just reading. Reading harder, tougher books. Students reading out aloud. Students reading in silence. Students reading for prolonged times. What is the biggest thing for improving reading in school? Making sure there is good quality reading taking place, is the answer. The process of reading is a largely mystical one. We often attach emotion to the reading process, but it is a process. If we attach emotion to the process, we cause problems. We make it about the experience rather than the process. We want to improve the process. The experience is a personal thing and it is something that varies from student to student. By us forcing our view, based on our experiences, of reading on students we are clouding the waters. We are making students see the process and the experience as one and the same thing.

We have three meals a day. We eat. Some meals we enjoy. Some we dislike.  I enjoy Dominos’ pizzas. I could eat pizzas all day. I love the experience of eating pizzas. I hate breakfast because I don’t eat pizza then. Yet, I know I eat to keep me alive. I understand the process is more important than the experience. If I focused more on the experience, I’d only ever eat pizza. Forget the process and obsess over experience and you will have a student who reads when they want to. I am reading all the time. I am using the process all the time. If that process is repeated and continued all the time, I will get better at that one process. A focus on the process is more important than a focus on the experience.

Our approach in our school is focused on the process. We get students to read in tutor times. We get them to read in cover lessons. We get them to read in lessons. We get them to use the process again and again. We get them to log their reading. We get them to write down how many books they read. And, next term I am emailing parents of children who haven’t read a whole book in term 1 independently. It will not be a stern letter, but a nice letter explaining the importance of reading. We need to look at the process and look at improving the process, but first we have to look at the physical process of reading.

We expect our students to sit several exams in Year 11. Exams where they have to concentrate on one topic for longer than an hour. What will help build a student’s concentration over time? Reading. We need to build and train students to concentrate. Reading is concentrating for a given time. Pick a class, I dare you. Ask them to read in silence for twenty minutes. Watch the students. See who pretends to read. See who reads intently. You can see the students who will underperform in the future exams. And, we are not talking about students who cannot read. This is why we need to work on developing and improving the process and that will only happen when the process is repeated continuously.

I am a dad and I have watched the progress of reading in my daughters. I read with them daily. It isn’t rocket science. If you repeat the process daily, they get better. My daughters are much better reading this year compared to last year as a result of constantly reading. In secondary schools, there are students who need our support reading, but the majority don’t. They just need a context for the reading process to happen. Sadly, in this day and age they don’t have the environment for reading at home, so that’s why reading in school is important and vital. Schools need to look at where reading happens in school. Build the process into the school routines and the experience of reading will develop.  

Thanks for reading,

Xris

Vocabulary: Oleaginous is the word that you heard. It’s got groove. It’s got meaning.

Sir, I would say that Piggy is a masochistic character, who, in a way, contrasts with the sadistic Jack.

That one comment signalled a shift in understanding for a student in the class this week. In fact, it was a massive shift in terms of understanding. Without the words ‘masochistic’ and ‘sadistic’, the student would probably be saying the following sentence:   

Sir, I would say that Piggy is a weak character, who, in a way, contrasts with the cruel Jack.

One comment shows a complex understanding of the characters and the other shows a superficial grasp of the characters. I’d like to say it took hours of complex teaching: it didn’t. The sheet below helped the individual make the comment. It then was followed by examples of the student telling me how Piggy provided opportunities for people to be cruel to him and examples of how Jack let slip his enjoyment at being cruel to other characters.

Barbarity: A brutal or inhuman contact N	Ferocious: A violently cruel or as a wild beast, person or aspect A	Malice: A desire to inflict injury, harm or suffering on another because of meanness or an impulse  N	Vicious: Bad tempered or violent A Av	Sadism: To take enjoyment from being cruel N
Ruthless: To act without pity or compassion A	Masochism: To take enjoyment from being cruel to oneself through own actions or another’s actions. N	Callousness: Hardened or unsympathetic attitude   A V	Deprave: To make morally bad or evil V	Brutal To describe a cruel, inhuman, savage aspect A
Inhuman:  Not human or lacking  human feelings such as sympathy, warmth or compassion A	Merciless: Showing no mercy or compassion A	Bloodthirsty: Eager to shed blood A	Homicidal: Wanting to kill a person A	Spite: A desire to harm, annoy, frustrate or humiliate another person N
Crude: Natural, blunt or underdeveloped A	Feral: Having the characteristics of a wild animal A	Civilised: To be educated, refined and enlightened. V A	Uncivilised: To not be educated or cultured V A	Ill-bred: Showing a lack of social breeding; unmannerly; rude A

Previously, I described this idea of teaching vocabulary through synonyms and groups of associated words. For the past two weeks, I have been trying it out in classes, and thoroughly enjoying it. It has, if I am honest, ‘raised my game’ in the classroom. By that, I mean it has developed the way I talk in the class. It has given me a script to work from. It has given me new elements to put in a lesson that I usually wouldn’t use. It has become a cohesive device.

The format for using these vocabulary sheet is quite simple:

1: Give student the sheet.

2: Student tries to draw the definitions of all twenty words in a simple, Pictionary style sketch.

3: The whole class play a game of Pictionary.

4: The class play a game of Blockbusters to recall the definitions. What C is an adjective to describe something natural, blunt or underdeveloped?

5: Students learn the words for homework.

6: Next lesson, students complete a multiple choice test on definitions.

7: Next lesson, students complete a test on definitions. What C is an adjective to describe something natural, blunt or underdeveloped?

8: Next lesson, students write a paragraph with as many of the words as possible.

I might change and vary the format of the lessons, but there is a lot of repetition and all the time I am asking students to give me a definition. I keep going back to the new words. I use them to drive lessons, discussions and work. Who is the most feral character in ‘The Lord of the Flies’? Remind me again, what does feral mean?   

What I like about having this group of words, is that I now have developed a kind of sociolect. A way of speaking that only the class and I share. There have been numerous times when another teacher has entered the room and we have spoken in the equivalent of parseltongue. At the core of what I have done, is repetition and different contexts. The drawing context has helped students to visualise the idea and convert the idea from a concrete to abstract notion. The meaning context helps students to attach the word to the right meaning and identify how the word differs to other words. The talking context helps students to secure the pronunciation of the word and to see how the can fit it into a phrase or sentence. The writing context helps students to secure the words use in writing and helps them to use the words for meaning.

In the past, I’d say that my vocabulary as a teacher has always concentrated on clarity. I might punctuate what I say with some high level vocabulary, but for the most my vocabulary was Standard English and not that varied and complex. Occasionally, I’d sprinkle an advanced word in a lesson, but that would depend heavily on the context. I, however, was too concerned with the notion that I make everyone understand me. Having this bank of twenty words, I have felt empowered and felt that actually the speed at which I get to complex and challenging ideas is far quicker than before.  

 Imagine giving a person directions to their nearest city centre but you can only use the words ‘right’ and ‘left’. It would take a long time and there would be lots of vague bits and there is a strong chance that the person would not get to the city centre. Add words like ‘roundabout’, ‘junction’, ‘traffic lights’ and you’ll stand a better chance of getting there. Then, add words like specific street names and you’ll get the person there, precisely. I think we are like this with vocabulary in the classroom. We often use ‘left’ or ‘right’ when actually we need precise words or phrases like street names such as ‘Bridge Street’.

When I think of how vocabulary is taught, I worry. Look at how we phrase it. Word of the Week. Wow Words. We concentrate on individual meanings of words or a bank of randomly selected words. We rarely look at the context for using the words and we rarely look at the sociolect. We make endless lists of words. Lists for analysis. Lists for talking about poems. Lists for talking about photosynthesis. Maybe, we need to look at the language. Maybe each aspect has its own form of parseltongue and we have to actively look at how we get students to understand and use this form of parseltongue instead of common tongue.   

Of course, words are only one part of the language we use in the classroom and it is the easiest to pick up on. There is also the grammar and syntax of the language used. Also, how often do we look at the language in a lesson and it is focused on clarity and all students making progress? Perhaps we are being counterproductive with language. Start with the basics first isn’t always the best principle to work with. To learn a language, it is best to get a few basics and then immerse yourself in the language. Surely, we should be immersing students in rich worlds of vocabulary rather than trickling brook of the odd word here and there.

Complex and precise vocabulary should be used all the time and that starts and ends with the teacher. We should be working harder to get students to speak in our own form of parseltongue, but first we must be clear what it is first. Sadly, we have a common tongue that is standard, generic and imprecise for the job we need it to do. The common tongue is helpful at times but it will not lift up their souls with the beauty of words nor raise their academic success through understanding.  

Thanks for reading,

Xris

The Force is strong in you – I can see it from the blood test.

The point where I lost interest in Star Wars was when they tried to rationalise the Jedi powers. As soon as a character mentioned that stuff in your blood made you a Jedi, I lost all interest in the series of films. Part of me died. As much as I try, I cannot get excited about the new Star Wars films. The trick has been revealed and the magic has died. A simple bit of exposition rewrote a complex aspect of a series of films.

Every school is different. A different location. A different set of teachers. A different set of students. A different set of influences. Like Star Wars, the magic is lost if you try to rationalise what makes your school unique, different and one of a kind. The soul of a school is lost when you rationalise it based on a series of numbers. The data says this. You see feelings don’t get a look in when you try to rationalise things. We feel that it is this. Yes, but the cold, hard data says this. You can rationalise and evidence facts, but you can’t rationalise feelings. I have a warm glow about my school at the moment after several days of fun activities. Can I pinpoint what it is? No. Can others feel it? Yes. Step into my school on an average day and you’ll feel it. But, can you evidence it? No. Well, unless you have a magical ‘feelingometer’.

A school is more than its parts. However, the problem with education all too often it is the sum of its parts being measured. But the glue, the magic, or the tiny creatures that hold a school together isn’t measurable. Yet, when we want to improve things, we look at others and look for the magic ingredient. We look for the critters in the blood that will create the magic. The truth is, is that there is nothing simple about schools. When we start to understand this, then maybe things in education will improve.

Let’s take reading. I loved David Diddau’s recent blog on reading. Please take the time to read it. In it, he explained some of the approaches one school is taking to tackling reading. Their approach is interesting and it is one way of dealing with things. But, and let’s be clear on this, it isn’t a ‘wholesale’ idea. It is an idea for one school based on the school’s DNA. It’s blood. Therefore, I thought I’d share the approaches to reading that my school uses and some of the plans for the future. They are based on the DNA of my school. Therefore, they might not work in your particular context. However, the more strategies we expose, and share, the more chances a person has to finding the combination of strategies that will work.

Reading Point 1 – Cover  

We have been doing this for a while now, but like most things we need to refresh it a bit. We often use cover lessons for private reading. The first twenty minutes is dedicated to silent reading. It helps to calm a class down and get students ready for work, but also it helps with the ‘pants-where-is-the-cover-work’ moment and ‘what-on-earth-are-they-expected-to-do’ feeling you get at the start of a cover lesson. This reduces the amount of planning by 50% and it makes cover have a clear purpose. We support this by having some book boxes in the classroom.  

The curriculum is full and finding time for reading is a challenge for all schools. Many students don’t read at home, so we have to get clever with how we use time in schools. Instead of cranking up the DVD player when students when half of the class is away on a trip, get the books out.

Reading Point 2- Transition

In primary schools, the reading culture is often superb. That is often lost in the transition phase between primary and secondary school. This is partly due to the different contexts of teaching. Students are taught in one classroom in primary school and they are taught in several classrooms in secondary school. I tend to read when I am at home, but I don’t take a book out with me when I am shopping. Why? I cannot get into the zone for reading when I am moving from one place to another very quickly.

We need to be clear about the status of reading. I spoke to Year 6 parents about reading in our introduction evening. I informed them of the problems we face, as parents and teachers, with reading and how reading habits change in teenagers. Plus, I also informed parents of the demands of the new curriculum and GCSEs on reading. I told parents that reading at home is a powerful tool in helping a student succeed.

Transition work has always related to writing in my school. We have asked students to prepare something for some writing in the first week or we have asked students to write at home. This year, I wanted the focus to be about reading and make the message clear about reading. That is why all our Year 6s have been given a sheet and on it they have to write down what they have read over the summer. Their English teacher will be reading them in September and they have an opportunity to impress them.

I am getting students to see the importance of reading. I think students know how writing is important, but the reading gets forgotten. The parents and the students will get to know now how important reading really it. Like all things in education, I am a PR agent. This time my client is reading.

Reading Point 3 – Reading logs
Reading logs are nothing new and original. They are often used in primary schools, but secondary schools rarely use them. One of our focuses for next year is homework and I often tell parents is that reading is part of the homework we expect students to do in English. I tell parents that students should be reading for at least fifteen minutes a day. I say that again and again.

This year we are making English homework booklets. It will contain pages for spellings, research, vocabulary, sentences and pages for reading. We are going to get students to write down the reading they do in the week. And, we are making parents aware of this. Again, we are making the message that reading is important clear. I will probably text parents termly to make sure students are completing their reading.

The teachers will sign the reading booklets once a term and the best booklets will receive a reward.

Hopefully, the process will make explicit to parents, students and teachers how much reading students do. Let’s see the conversations in parents evening, because that will be something I want mentioned by staff. The booklet will be our record of how much they do.

Reading Point 4 – Points

Again, I have stolen something from primary school. We have used a number of incentives to promote reading such as events, competitions and quizzes. We have used a number of different reading resources, but I think simplicity is the key.

Every book a student reads will be logged in the homework booklets. However, each book will be given a score out of 10. The higher the score, the more challenging the book. The teacher will decide the score and it will vary from student to student. There will be no charts charting the score of each book. Teachers might suggest a book is a ten, but there will be no hard rule to the scoring. This should be very easy and quick for teachers to do.

Each term we will produce a leader board of scores and at the end of the year there will be prizes and I might even consider certificates for level of readers.

The process is simple, but it feeds into a particularly masculine aspect. A challenge. Turning the reading process into competition. Plus, it makes the quantity of the reading and quality of the reading at the heart of the process.

Reading Point 5 – Books

We have always used the Bookstart option of buying students a book. It has been a great opportunity to promote reading, but I don’t think it has always helped our weaker readers to develop as readers.

This year I am going to use the money for something different. This year I am going to buy a new set of books. The purpose of these books is to build and create enjoyable reading experiences.  We have six sets and six terms. Each set is going to be given the book at the start of a term and they have to read it by the end of term. The reading will take place at home.

Geoff Barton made a very good point about the sociable dimension of reading. It is a sociable thing. I often talk to people about books I have read and listen to their book suggestions. With this set of books, there isn’t going to be any ‘work’ about. No book review. No drama activity. No essay. Not a single thing that can be classed as work. It is a book that students are reading. The only thing I want is it to be a social activity. We are going to look at building opportunities to get students to talk about it. Get sets to discuss the book after they have read it. Get them interested and engaged.

The hope is that this can be done with other year groups, but this year I am going to start it with Year 7s. One more book a year and another brick in the wall of their reading experience.

At the moment, I am looking for something engaging and enjoyable. I want the whole experience to about reading enjoyment so that it will inspire them to read more. That’s why I am probably going for a David Walliams’ book. Before you shudder at my choice, the same students will also study parts of Dickens in the year and the opening of ‘Jane Eyre’.

Reading Point 6 – More books

There is money, very little money, within budgets to support students such as pupil premium and KS2 transition. I am considering making rucksacks of books for these students. There is such a thing as book poverty. It is not uncommon for a student to live in a house with no books. How are we going to instil a love for reading when they cannot read? Libraries are an important place, but the home is where the heart is. That is why I am looking to buy books chuck them in a rucksack and give them to the students. For thirty pounds, it is amazing what I can get.  

There are hundreds of great books out there and putting a few in a bag could be a personal library that they can dip in, when they want something.

Oh. And I am not going to make a big song and dance about it.  Nobody will know. Just the student.

Reading Point 7 – The Opening / Articles

This was done with the Carnegie book award in another school. The school made all the students read the opening chapter and then got students to judge the best on the opening. We tried it this year.

Often there is time in tutor time to do some reading, but all too often that reading can be directionless. This year I am going to photocopy article and opening chapters from new novels. The students read and discuss them in 10 minutes. Will this inspire you to read the rest of the book? Do you agree with the writer? Both these questions form the basis of the reading. They allow for a high level of engagement as students search the text to support ideas.

Therefore, we are going to use our library for the texts and get students to engage in these short reading tasks. It gives students opportunities to read a variety of texts. Students need help finding the right book. This is just another way.

These are just a few strategies I am using or will use next year. A lot are general PR stuff. However, they do not work unless everybody is part of it. If staff are on message, then the school is sending students the message. The more students see that reading is important, the more likely they will treat it as important.

Staff will know that…

·         Students must have a reading book in their bag at all times.

·         Students will read at the start of most cover lessons.

·         Students must read at home several times during a week.

·         Students’ reading is being monitored.  

·         Students will get points for every book they read.

·         Students will be given reading opportunities to read often in lessons and especially in tutor time.

·         Reading is something that must be discussed and talked about.

 

Not one strategy is the key. Something here will hopefully develop and improve the reading of students. But, I am not going to search for the magic in the blood. I am just going to throw a lot of magical things and use the Force. For the Force is strong in reading, my friend.

Thanks for reading,

Xris

Making errors and spotting where the plain socks are located

Making mistakes is just a part of life. I have made mistakes and I still do make them. I put my hands up. Once, in my youth, I bought a yellow canary coloured shirt once. My ‘friends’ ridiculed me constantly the one time I unveiled the shirt as the latest fashion choice that I never wore it again. In fact, I have a complete aversion to the colour yellow now. I have been mentally scarred by the whole experience. I’d like to think it was a colour-blind phase I was going through; but it wasn’t.  At university I purchased a lime green shirt. Then, a few years ago I bought a red shirt. The reaction to the colours often makes me understand the mistake I have made. I learn my mistake after the purchase. Then, I change my whole perspective on the whole thing. What felt like a good idea at the time becomes, on a reflection, a terrible mistake. There is almost an ‘eye of the storm’ aspect to making mistakes. We don’t see them at the moment of doing it. It is only when I have left a shop with my purchase and put on the shirt and then been ridiculed by family and friends that I realise: maybe, bright yellow isn’t my colour.

Yes, this is a blog about fashion tips for men in teaching. No - although maybe that could be a possible series of blogs - I am interested about mistakes and the nature of mistakes. The clues is in the title of the blog. It is interesting how we seem to have two ends of the spectrum: students that fear speaking in a lesson or endlessly draft work to avoid making a glaring error; or, students that make a mistake every word or line and accept them as a part of life, like breathing or blinking. We, teachers, traipse a tightrope between praise and punishment. Between highlighting and correction. Between frustration and ignorance. The problem often is time. There is never enough time. This is a result of our curriculums. The emphasis on content leads us to often have a crammed curriculum with no time for dealing with the mistakes head on. What if the content of curriculums was reduced to the ten lines? And, the overall focus was on making better readers and writers?

I have seen endless blogs about proofreading, DIRT time and taxonomy of errors, but their existence highlights a need for this issue to be addressed. Does the juggernaut of the curriculum actually hinder progress? Do we spend enough time looking at the errors? Or, do we feel the need to teach new things, just to appease the god of progress? Or, are we teaching students to learn that mistakes are tolerable as long as their ideas and the content of their work is good? Maybe, our obsession with getting students to the next grade is making us neglect helping students to secure their current grade. Oh look this C/D student is using an A grade skill!

Of course, marking is at the heart of the mistake conundrum. I spot mistakes. I comment on mistakes. I get students to act on the information. I hope they learn to not make the mistake again. I mark again. I spot the mistake again. I comment …. You get the idea. As a teacher, I will think: is it me? Am I teaching them correctly? Do I need to do more? However, I think at the heart of the problem is the unwritten philosophy of teaching. New is better. Old is worse. The new teachers are often popular. The old ones fade into the background. A new concept in a subject is sexier than on old one. Look commas are dull as dishwater. They are so last year. Pathetic fallacy sounds sexy. It sounds exotic. It is sounds so fresh and clever. As it turns out, the student learns to use pathetic fallacy, but cannot use a comma correctly in a hostage situation.

I recently bumped into a student I used to teach and we had a conversation about what he is doing now. Interestingly, he is studying A-level English. I asked him: ‘Does your English teacher nag you about using quotes?’ The reply was in the affirmative. I was saddened by this response. It was great to hear that he is studying English, but the fact that he hadn’t learnt from that one constant mistake he used to make in my lessons saddens me the most. At one stage, when I was teaching the student, I wrote the word quote 50 billion times on his work to help him get the message.  A great lad, but he didn’t get it.

Is it our student’s mindset?  Or is it teachers’ mindset? Do students think that a piece of work will be good if it has great ideas and basics do not matter? What makes our students learn from their mistakes? Teachers? Students? Both?

I started making some posters for students, identifying three key things a student would do in their work at a particular grade. However, in my planning I was focusing on what students should add such as paragraphs or a variety of sentence structures. I wasn’t focusing on the basics, so I came up with this:

A* - One error in the whole piece or free from errors  

A – A few basic errors throughout the whole piece  

B – One basic error on every page

C – One mistake every few paragraphs

D – One mistake a paragraph

E    - One mistake a sentence

 

Now, I expect people would look at this list and think it is too negative. Show a student this and it focuses on the negative aspects of their writing. But, doesn’t our obsession with seeing the positive sometimes cloud our perspective on the basics? The focus on APP made this apparent. Look they have the spelling of a Level 7, but their punctuation is Level 3. Let’s give them a Level 7.  You could dress anything up to be an outstanding piece of writing, but without the basics, it cannot be an outstanding piece of writing. Rather than upselling writing, let’s look at the basics. Let’s focus on the basics. Let’s explicitly talk about the basics. Let’s make the basics the core of what we do and make the ‘lacy’ or ‘sexy’ new stuff be secondary to the basics. As long as the sexy new stuff takes priority, the old basics will drag everything down.

If only clothes shops had these lists, then I wouldn’t make so many fashion mistakes. Then again: shops want us to fail at this so we buy more from them. They are forever shoving the spangly and garish new items of clothing in our faces. But, where are the plain socks? The item of clothing you need, in this country, every day. The basics are neglected. They are hidden away. They are neglected. They probably sell more yellow shirts than socks to people like me.  

Thanks for reading,

Xris

The Literacy Journey

The Literacy Journey

Here’s a list of links to the various literacy pages on the blog:

An overview of my approach

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/literacy-for-newbies.html

Guidance to parents

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/guidance-to-parents-literacy-across.html

 

Slow writing

Handwriting

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/deep-reading-literacy-across-curriculum.html

What are the problems with writing?

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/slow-writing-literacy-across-curriculum.html

Is texting the problem?

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/is-texting-really-death-of-english.html

Sentence structures in lessons

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-lion-grammar-and-science-cupboard.html

 

Exploring writing choices

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/slow-writing-part-2-being-consistent.html

Deep reading

Developing high level reading skills

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/questioning-questions.html

Developing confidence at reading longer and larger texts

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/questioning-questions.html

Reading comprehension

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/mashing-up-literacy.html

The purpose of reading

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-reading-jigsaw-and-purpose-of.html

Getting students to read

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-reading-jigsaw-and-purpose-of.html

The importance of the library

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-body-in-library-literacy-across.html

What are the barriers to reading?

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/deep-reading-literacy-across-curriculum.html

 

Whole school events

http://learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/mashing-up-literacy.html

 

Listening to the words

I had a funny incident this week, when someone didn’t listen to me. My car, a small silver thing, was due for an MOT and service this week. I rang up and booked an appointment. During the call, I then asked for a courtesy car. However, when I arrived at the garage, I was informed that a car was not available. After huffing and puffing a bit, I was questioned if I minded what I drove. I said: ‘No.’ I was then taken to a forgotten part of garage’ forecourt and introduced to what can only be described as a monster truck. A huge ‘transformer’ style truck with wheels the size of me. Any minute, I thought, it was going to transform into this robot. This massive jeep, which wouldn’t look out of place in the Australian outback, was my car for the day. In fact, I had to travel to and from school in it. Surprisingly, there wasn’t space in the car park for it. All of this because someone didn’t listen properly.

Writing is a complex process, and, even after years of living on this planet, I haven’t fathomed everything yet about it. Just when I think I have things cracked, I notice something else about it. This week I tried something different with writing, but before I explain it, I think I need to discuss the thought processes that led to the idea.

In its simplest of forms: writing is the communication of ideas. It is the writing down of what a person thinks or feels or both. Of course, it can be something more meaningful and it can invoke emotion in others: and it can be, like, really really really pretty.  As English teachers, we can become a little bit obsessed in this ‘pretty’ writing. We even teacher students to write pretty. In fact, a lot of my marking involves making writing pretty. I could almost add ‘so it makes your writing look pretty’ to all my comments in exercise books.

 Write in paragraphs so your writing looks pretty.

Vary how you start your sentences so your writing looks pretty.

Use a range of punctuation marks so your writing looks pretty.

Like teenagers over a boy-band, we coo and sigh when we read pretty writing in books. Oooh. Ahhhh. Isn’t it pretty? Often English teachers enthuse passionately over how they love, adore, cherish a book and make comments that would sound stalkerish if they were attached to a human being. I’d die if I don’t read the next book. I could eat that book.  

 Admittedly, we all love pretty things. But, writing is complex. There is no point having pretty writing if it doesn’t fully make sense. We often, when teaching writing, focus on the pretty things, rather than focus on the communication aspect. Does this piece of writing communicate its ideas well? Or, has it used a range of punctuation marks? The two areas of pretty and communication are interwoven together and, honestly, cannot be separated as two entities, but I do feel we focus on the pretty stuff and neglect the communication aspect. We might get students to plan their writing. We might brainstorm ideas with them. We might ask them to read over their writing to make sure it makes sense. Unfortunately, I think that is the point at where we stop with the communication and then we wade into the ‘pretty’ territory. We get them to proofread things and we get them add bits, but I think that is all for the communication aspect. We show how other writers made their writing pretty. We give them lessons on ‘pimping up’ their writing.

 Over the years, I have done loads of self and peer assessments. And, usually, they are the equivalent of apple bobbing. Students dip in and out to correct a mistake. It is all about students searching for mistakes and errors. Again, it is about polishing something so it becomes pretty. This week I did something different and it was met with some success. Instead of getting students to read each other’s work, I got students to read their essays to their partner. The partner couldn’t see the writing or even mark it with a pen. Instead, they had to listen to the words. Listen to how ideas were conveyed in a piece of writing. When the listener heard something ‘rum’, they gently tapped them on the shoulder and explained what the problem was. I heard the following things in the discussions:

You are repeating points.

I don’t know what you mean by that.

You need to explain X further.

You use ‘however’ but this is another point from the same perspective.

You haven’t told the reader why this is bad.

I even joined a pair and listened to a student read her essay out. As a group, we commented on how her introduction didn’t really explain the direction she was going. We also reflected on how we kept hearing the words ‘animals’, ‘zoos’ and ‘caged’ all the time.  The Year 7 student as a result of this discussion noted these comments and worked on making it better. The advice given was probably more helpful than ‘check your spellings’. But, underwriting this whole approach is the communication of ideas. I am a bit woolly when getting students to check if a piece of writing is effective. It often gets bogged down with the ‘pretty’ things, and the translation of thought to writing is often forgotten. This was plain and simply about the communication of things. The ideas. The development of ideas. The reader’s understanding of ideas.

I am not suggesting that we stop proofreading. Far from it. I am suggesting that we need to look at the communication of ideas. We need to get students to communicate effectively and work on developing that communication. The focus on spelling, punctuation and grammar can neglect the ideas in the writing. Yes, spelling, punctuation and grammar help to express those ideas, but starting with dud ideas in the first place is not going to make a great piece of writing. Adding a few techniques and correcting a few spellings will not improve the whole text. Listening, rather than reading, could help students to see / hear where things need improving.

After all, students spend more of the day listening than reading and writing, so surely that skill is the strongest, yet we often refrain from using it to help students get better. It is always about getting them to read another person’s work? Not, listening to another person reading their work out.

Thanks for reading,

Xris

Frankenstein’s Essay – To improve, this letter of application needs a simile and some rhetorical questions in it.

The more I teach English, the more I am faced with difficult questions. What coloured post-its should I use in this lesson? Should I use the whiteboard this lesson? Or, should I use the interactive whiteboard? There are these questions, and then there are the bubbling questions that hide under the surface of an English teacher’s brain. Or, any teacher really. The kind of questions that make you question your sanity. They are the questions that the public would openly laugh in your face if you dared speak or share them. So, you keep these questions to yourself for fear of being a laughing-stock. The problem, for me, is that these questions never go away. They sit and sit and wait and wait for the right moment.

I had some INSET training this week about pushing A*s and two of these questions came to the front of the empty, vacuous space I call a head (trading standards would have me if I called it a mind). The training session was good, but I sat there and thought of a question, well two to be precise. Questions that challenged the common accepted norm of education. Things that everybody has accepted as being the norm. Joe Kirby and David Didau have recently done similar things in their blogs.  They have questioned about ‘fun’ or ‘entertaining’ teaching methods. I too have had similar thoughts about this topic, but when mentioning such thoughts on Twitter I was virtually pelted with eggs. It was as if I had taken kitten kicking as a hobby – I haven’t! I don’t even own a kitten. Furthermore, there are no kittens in my street. You could say that there is a deficit of kittens in my town. So, if I wanted to kick a kitten (which I don’t), I couldn’t find one. Anyway, I was shouted at by some people over this idea so like the big baby that I am I walked away from the discussion/argument.  Some people are never going to be convinced.

So what are the questions? Well, I will share one now and one at a later date. The question was about essay writing. Dull. I know, you are thinking: he spent all that time on preamble and this is what he gives us – essay writing. Now, hear me out! Shouting isn’t going to help you. Well, there’s no need to use language like that. Fine. Suit yourself. Yes, essay writing. I think this is a major problem in the education system. It is a problem for everyone, but it isn’t really addressed or approached, because we have clouded the issue.

Why do we spend all our time exploring different styles of writing when students struggle to write a simple essay?

Before you consider leaving a comment, or writing a critical comment on Twitter, listen to this. None of my students have ever gone on to write a novel. None of my students have ever gone on to work for a newspaper. None of my students have gone to write a script for a theatre. Their success has varied. They have gone on to succeed at something nonetheless. Yet, year after year I get them to write these different styles of writing. In fact, I have the market cornered in this area because I have made students write blogs, packaging, letters, radio shows, fact sheets, leaflets, charity letters, speeches, magazine articles, podcasts and numerous different types of writing. With each type of writing comes a different set of rules, techniques and devices. With each type of writing students practise different skills. With each type of writing students don’t get bored. Yet, I am not producing novelists, journalists, bloggers and scriptwriters. I do, I think, produce students who enjoy literature and who can write well when prompted, which is the result of our current approach to teaching writing.    

 
It could be argued that by writing in these different styles of writing students are learning how to craft and hone their skills. Furthermore, writing in these different styles of writing helps students to develop their reading skills of the texts. However, are we really watering down the experience of writing? Are all these different styles preventing students from writing in a formal, clear and logical style of writing? Are we doing lots of ‘whizzy things’ because teaching writing can be dull?

I am in a privileged situation as I teach English and I have been a Literacy Co-ordinator, so I have seen how writing is taught across schools. Originally, I was concerned about consistency and sharing the conventions of writing across the whole school, but now I think something monumental is needed to improve literacy: a shift away from different styles of writing and a focus on essay style writing. Currently, we have adopted a Frankenstein’s monster approach to teaching writing. In History, students might write an essay, a letter, a newspaper article and a report. In primary schools, students are taught on a carousel the different types of writing. The whole is made up of different components of writing. A short story foot. A newspaper leg. A leaflet arm. Alright, I will stop with the extended metaphor. The whole body is the issue. We keep asking ourselves: why don’t the students do what we ask them to do? The problem is our message. We are expecting students to be good at lots of things, rather than be good at the basics.

Frankenstein’s monster can be a beautiful thing. As the novel goes, the monster is a thing of beauty. It has the best of everything. The sad thing is that the monster cannot function and survive in society. Are we really doing the best for our students by giving them a diet of different types and styles of writing? Or, are we setting them up for a fall? A teenager might be able to write a great newspaper article or story, but will they be able to write a report for a manager that makes sense? Will they be able to write a letter of application that gets them a job? The might, but I tell you what: they can write a great description of a beach on a hot sunny day. You’re hired! They are experts at niche writing, but not always experts at the basics of writing.

Some people might read this and think that I have finally flipped. I haven’t: I am just raising the question. Should we be focusing on writing essays rather than other types of writing? What would happen if every department concentrated on writing essays instead of newspaper articles, factsheets and letters? Would the overall writing improve? Would standards be raised? I don’t know, but it is an interesting viewpoint. I can feel the queasiness that some people might have with this idea. Yes, it could make the teaching of some aspects difficult. However, if a student can write a good essay, it stands to reason that they can write a good letter and a good report.

As an English teacher, I find this all tricky. Engrained in English curriculums across the country is the chunking of writing styles into units of work. This term we are looking at writing to persuade. This term we are looking at writing to inform. The titles might change but they are still the same thing. An essay can be a thing of beauty. Ultimately, it is form that allows people to form and develop their ideas. It helps them think and communicate. One of the criticisms of an essay based curriculum, as opposed to a Frankenstein’s curriculum, is that is prevents students from finding their voice. But, the essay allows for a student to develop a voice in an uncluttered form. Stories are cluttered by narratives. Newspapers are cluttered by bias and sensationalism. The essay is about explaining and developing and extending an idea.  It is about showing a person’s thinking on paper in a clear and precise form.  

I am currently preparing my Year 11 for the AQA GCSE exam and the Unit 1 exam is the equivalent of six essays in two hours and fifteen minutes. They struggled with a recent piece of controlled conditions assessment. It is entitled: The Oscar goes to… They struggled with it because they hadn’t a clear form to focus on. I said to them: ‘It is like an essay and you are persuading them.’ Cue a lot of vacant looks. This is partly linked to David and Joe’s idea of teaching not always being fun. The essay isn’t fun, exciting and engaging for students.  Stories, newspapers, blogs and other types of writing seem so much more fun. Surely, putting essay writing at the heart of what we do will raise standards.

When planning our new curriculum for our subject, maybe we need to consider the role the humble essay places. By all means, invite Frankenstein’s monster to the table, but do consider if his inclusion comes at a price.  Why do we spend all our time exploring different styles of writing when students struggle to write a simple essay?

If I get time, I will share my other question next week.

Thanks for reading,

Xris

P.S. No kittens were harmed in the writing of this blog, but a few Frankenstein’s monsters have had a kick in the unmentionables.