I dwell in possibilityA fairer House than ProseMore numerous of Windows –
Superior - for Doors-
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of Eye –
And for an Everlasting RoofThe Gambrels of the SkyOf Visitors - the fairest –
For Occupation - This –
The spreading wide my narrow hands –
To gather Paradise –
Emily Dickinson
English now:
a house of possibility?
Leah Crawford
Hampshire Inspector/adviser
[email protected]
Our reading goal is…
to investigate the obligations and the
possibilities within the new National
Curriculum programme of study for
English.
Choose one…or more…of the
following texts.
• What is your first response?
• What do you need to know and be able to do,
to make sense of your text and respond to it?
The ideas behind each of these texts
tell you most of what you need to know
around the content of the new National
Curriculum and the issues it raises.
What are they?
English NC statement of aims: across all
Key stages
Purpose of study
English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. It is a
subject in its own right and the medium for teaching; for pupils,
understanding language provides access to the whole curriculum.
Through being taught to write and speak fluently, pupils learn to
communicate their ideas and emotions to others; through their
reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through
reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally,
emotionally, spiritually and socially. Literature, especially, plays a key
role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to
acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the
skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of
society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to read and write fluently
and confidently, are, in every sense, disenfranchised.
English NC statement of aims: across all
Key stages
Purpose of study
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pre-eminentretrieval,
place in education and in society. It is a
subject in its own right and the medium for teaching; for pupils,
understanding, clear
understanding language provides access to the whole curriculum.
literature
for fluently, pupils learn to
Throughcommunication,
being taught to write
and speak
personaltheir
andideas
social
communicate
anddevelopment
emotions to others; through their
reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through
reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally,
emotionally, spiritually and socially. Literature, especially, plays a key
role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to
Does it matter what I think
acquire knowledge and to build on what
theyabout
already
know.
All the
and feel
what
I read,
skills of language are essential to participating
a member
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and that I fully
writeasbecause
I
society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn
to read and
have something
to write
say? fluently
and confidently, are, in every sense, disenfranchised.
KS3 big picture
• Reading widely, often and for pleasure
• Reading easily, fluently and with understanding (ways
of monitoring)
• Critical, comparative reading
• Vocabulary development
• Writing clearly, accurately, coherently for a range of
purposes and audiences, in a range of forms
• Grammar for reading, writing and spoken language:
‘disenfranchised’ without Standard English
• The ‘arts’ of speaking and listening: formal contexts,
speeches, debates, presentations, performing play
scripts, take part in ‘structured discussion’
What is surprisingly absent from the
draft programme of study…
• Developing the attitudes and attributes of learners: their
dispositions.
• Moving image, multi-modal or electronic text literacies:
functional and critical
• Speaking and listening content refers more to communication
skills and social poise than cognitive growth and
social/cultural dimension of learning through talk.
• No compulsory list of non-narrative/practical text types,
genres or purposes for reading
• Odd compulsory list of non-narrative texts for writing: formal
expository essays, personal and informal letters, notes for
formal presentations as well as imaginative writing and ‘other
non-narrative texts’
• Writing is more about craft and grammar, than it is about
having something meaningful to communicate.
Opportunities to seize
• Read aloud and learn by heart (teachers and
students)
• Reading for pleasure
• Reading breadth, comparison, analysis and
evaluation
• Confident teachers of grammar: accuracy and
variety, obligations and choices
• Adaptive writers, not recipe writers
The course: today + 3 centre-based
development days
1. National and local priorities and issues
2. An age of reform: helping you to handle the
new currency, before you’ve had a chance to
get used to the old
3. Time to reflect on current practice and the
implications that each day’s journey may
have on your personal development goals
The course: tight but loose
Day 1 November 4th: Teaching writers not writing
• Sentence and word study (otherwise known as SPAG)
• Modelling the struggle: teachers as writers alongside their students
• ?
Day 2 March 5th: Teaching reading: early processing to imaginative to
literary
• Nurturing critical readers
• Managing longer texts
• Teaching struggling readers: strategies, cues and miscues.
Day 3 June 11th: the DNA of teaching and learning
• Thinktalk: talk for learning that grows brain power
• Assessment for learning: the power of feedback
• ?