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Reading for School
To Whom Do the Words Belong? Examining the opening of Chapter 9 of Treasure Island through principles of free indirect discourse.
Prerogative or perjorative? Examining the opening of Chapter 9 of Treasure Island through principles of free indirect discourse.
Writing Composition in the British NC: can we learn something from this American focus?
The examinations in the British NC focus heavily on word and sentence level analysis. Analysing the connotations of individual word choices, for example, is a dominant focus on most of the current English language exam, and not to mention being useful (perhaps even...
How to improve your literary analysis KS3-KS5
This selection of types of analysis was originally termed Top Ten out of Ten? Try Terrence T Templeton of Tadcastle Technlogical's Ten Tangible Techniques. It is a range of generic strategies for literary analysis from KS3-KS5 that I have developed over the past five...
Teaching Comparative Contextual Analysis in Literature: Spark Presentation January 2017
This is a short presentation I delivered at a Spark event (TeachMeet) organised by the wonderful Rachael Edgar. Essentially it proposes the teaching of context and comparative audience response at the same time. Inspired from the practice of Peter Flynn.
How is Sheila Birling presented?
Sheila Birling can be seen by the 2017 audience as a millennial: put-upon, subordinate, but ultimately defiant. Initially presented as a demure if childish character, she grows in voice and confidence throughout the play until she challenges the Birlings, and what...
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Being a Lifelong Learner – Thoughts about Teaching After 15 Years (and why most teachers don’t improve after 3-5 years)
An Easter of reading raises some old truisms: That most teachers do not 'improve' after 3-5 years. That most ineffective teachers 'catch up' to expert teachers after 10 years or so. That these statements are made in terms of impact on external performance measures....
Podcast Libraries – Educating Yourself beyond a Curriculum
Teaching students for fifteen years has allowed me to recognise some of the deficiencies of my early education. One choice every teenager needs to make in school is whether to follow a vocational or academic route. It is an impossible choice. I would define the...
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Thoughts about the Purpose of IB: Reprioritising Reader-Response in Literature
English teaching's essential purpose in our politicised times is to make students culturally critical. I feel that this particularly suits the IB's international element, and the need to perhaps reframe 'international' mindedness as 'intercultural' mindedness (and not...
The Vegetarian Book Review: Planting Desire and Rooting Order?
The Vegetarian is a dark book that has sat with me for a few weeks now. Conventionally about the descent of a Korean woman into self-harm and mental illness via her change to a vegetarian lifestyle, it defies easy definition. Instead, I think it seeks to challenge...
In Cold Blood – Playing With Genre
In True Blood is another dark read, distinctly American and impressively literary. It is a text that manipulates genre, attempting to fuse a journalistic style with a free indirect discourse when presenting the perceptions of criminals. At its heart we meet our worst...
TedX Presentation on Confidence: No Difference between Real and Fake Confidence?
A student that I taught at the beginning of my international career spoke profoundly well at a recent TedX event. I was very impressed. She named dropped my Socrates creed that there is no difference between fake confidence and real confidence, at least as it presents...
Book Review: Wonder by RJ Palacio – Collisions of Kindness
This is a young adult story about kindness and identity. Its story can instigate useful conversations in schools and homes about how we treat others, and therefore how we want to be treated. I found some of its presentations of school-life problematic, though. The...
A Question on Frankenstein: Walton’s Change in Perspective
A student recently asked me a question in the run-up to our Xmas Mocks. I include the question as it is an example of what students should be like. He/she is an excellent student whom I have known for many years as a debating champion. Question: Hi Sir, Sorry to...