Category: Teaching Ideas

Posts about activities, strategies and resources which I have used in my classroom…

Vocabulary Flood

by funkypedagogy, posted in Literacy, Research, Teaching Ideas

flood

Foundations

I am very blessed to work in a school where most of my students have a talent I do not possess. Over 75% of our students speak something other than English as their first language, and many of them speak three, four or even five languages fluently. There are 72 languages spoken in our school community. Walking through our corridors is a very humbling experience for someone like myself who scraped a grade C in GCSE French; our students are constantly slipping in and out of various languages, often creating their own unique patois as they attempt to transcend cultural and linguistic barriers to share ideas with their friends. Continue reading “Vocabulary Flood” →

differentiation (with a small ‘d’)

by funkypedagogy, posted in Research, Teaching Ideas

This post is based on workshops I have led this summer at both the Leeds Trinity University NQT Conference, and at Teaching and Learning Leeds 2017 (hosted by The Grammar School at Leeds). If you attended either of these sessions and have questions, suggestions or comments, I would love to hear them @funkypedagogy, or write a comment below. My thanks to Anne Williams (@agwilliams9) and Charlotte Wright (@commahound) for asking me to speak at these brilliant events and providing the impetus I needed.

Slide5

differentiation: know your students and act accordingly. Anything which seeks to complicate this beautifully simple idea is missing the point. Continue reading “differentiation (with a small ‘d’)” →

Bird’s-eye View: GCSE top grade statements and evaluation…

by funkypedagogy, posted in Resources, Teaching Ideas

Birds pic

This is a resource I have developed for my Y11 class. It is meant to support them in making evaluative comments about texts (looking at them from a bird’s-eye view), and exploring overall text structure. The idea is that it allows students to construct strong opening statements, and also gives them prompts to consider the more challenging structural questions, and author intentions. Only by finding a way to access the BIG ideas, can students really come into ownership of the texts they study…

Enjoy! Feel free to use/adapt or discard as you see fit! Please get in touch with pictures or comments; I’d love to see if and how people use it! Continue reading “Bird’s-eye View: GCSE top grade statements and evaluation…” →

27 English reading and analysis resources which work!

by funkypedagogy, posted in Literacy, Resources, Teaching Ideas

The creativity and generosity of the online teaching community never ceases to amaze me. I have spent a couple of weeks collating resources for my department from my Twitter back catalogue, and was blown away by how long the list was. Years of communication with fellow educators has given me a huge collection of ideas and resources, some of which I use regularly, and some which I had forgotten about entirely. In an attempt to bring some order to the chaos, I have started with some reading and analysis resources. All of these resources were created by teachers, and shared online – you can see the creators’ details below in case you want to follow anything up with these very talented people.

Though I’ve collected them here for English resources, most can be very easily adapted to other subjects and disciplines. Continue reading “27 English reading and analysis resources which work!” →

The Dyslexic English Teacher

by funkypedagogy, posted in Literacy, Personal Reflection, Teaching Ideas

dyslexic_fun_bigIt was only after I had got through GCSEs, A Levels, an English Degree and my PGCE year that I discovered I am dyslexic. My particular brand of dyslexia manifests itself in letter, number and colour recognition. In other words, I misread words, struggle to recognise spelling errors (including my own), read more slowly than average, and have struggled for years with my handwriting. The fact that I am an English teacher just adds to the fun. Continue reading “The Dyslexic English Teacher” →

Walking-Talking Mock Exams

by funkypedagogy, posted in Teaching Ideas

Many of you will know how these work and, whether you love them or hate them, they are an invaluable tool in the journey to exams for students across the spectrum.

We used them last year in the run up to exam prep in English, and students reported an increased confidence level and, in some exams, performed very highly because they were used to the format and had been “drilled” in the process.

For anyone who doesn’t know how these work, they generally follow these rules:

  • Students sit in the same exam room where they will do their exam, preferably in the same seats
  • Students are given an exam paper which is as close to being like the real thing as possible (i.e. exam writing booklet if relevant)
  • Students are literally walked through every question on the paper – the person leading the session talks them through the smallest steps, such as underlining key words, how to plan, things to remember etc.
  • Students then write their responses in timed conditions

Continue reading “Walking-Talking Mock Exams” →

A Level Teaching Ideas – #5 Academic Voice

by funkypedagogy, posted in A Level Teaching, Teaching Ideas

ALL credit for this goes to the talented Leslie Rowland, a PHD student and Associate Tutor in English at Indiana University. She ran a really fantastic workshop with some A Level Literature students in West Yorkshire this week, and the work she did was so great that I thought other teachers of essay subjects would benefit from it.

The powerpoint and handout below are all aimed at getting students to write in a more formal and appropriate academic tone, avoiding colloquialism and ensuring that they have the right amount of distance, while still making a personal response to a text.

You can contact Leslie at: rowlandl@umail.iu.edu

Powerpoint: Academic Expression

Handout: Academic Expression Handout

#TMBrad – Teachmeet reflection..

by funkypedagogy, posted in Projects, Teaching Ideas

I am always amazed by the dedication and sheer geekery of some teachers. At 10am on Saturday 11th July (the FINAL weekend of the school term), teachers from around Leeds and Bradford (plus, you know, Bahrain, just because…) descended on Appleton Academy for a day of inspiration and all round teacher banter.

The day was part of our project called ‘Writing for Bradford’ which you can see details about here.

TMBrad Continue reading “#TMBrad – Teachmeet reflection..” →

A Level Literature Ideas – #3: Mood Boards

by funkypedagogy, posted in A Level Teaching, Teaching Ideas

Literature at A Level has traditionally been a very essay driven course; there are very few specifications which allow any element of creative writing, and even these are optional swap-ins for a potential second essay. This is a shame because students need to be able to appreciate the craft of the writer and have a deeply ingrained sense that someone sat down and wrote something for a reason. The specification I am teaching allows students to create a piece of original transformational writing. The idea is that they study one of their set texts, then write a ‘missing’ scene, chapter, monologue etc. Obviously this allows students to get under the skin of a particular character or idea, and to better appreciate the author’s style and craft because they are no longer just passively observing, they are actively creating. Continue reading “A Level Literature Ideas – #3: Mood Boards” →