A few things that 'matter' for me in English teaching: 1. There must be opportunities to 'think' as well as 'know'. Knowing involves thinking. 2. Response is important, before, during & after reading. 3. The exploratory is a route to the formal, critical. 4. Choice matters...
..to develop taste & pleasure, in reading & writing. 5. Books should be age-appropriate & diverse (the canon, YA fiction & much more.) 6. The creative & the critical should work in conjunction with each other. 7. Dialogic classrooms are essential for many of the above. 8. Talk..
...about texts should push towards deeper thinking & exploration of meanings, not meaning. 9. Assessment should be properly formative – what does this student really need to move on. 10. Small detail should be at the service of big ideas. 11. Formulae & scaffolds should be...
...treated with caution & used sparingly. 12. Vocabulary is just 1 element in a whole structure of language, all of which need to be taught in the context of reading, writing & talk. 13. The teacher is expert, guide, craftsperson, collaborator, cheerleader, mentor – all of these!
14. Development of taste for reading should be a core aim. 15. Most things work, in different contexts with different texts – selecting carefully from a repertoire is better than blanket rejection of approaches. 16. Valuing students & what they bring is of paramount importance.
17. Bringing one's own enthusiasm(s) to bear is essential. 18. Opportunities for teachers to talk about the texts they're teaching are essential. 19. English isn't History. The focus should be on what illuminates the text. And...
...to stop at 20. Texts don't always need a lot of front-loaded 'prior knowledge'. Often they tell you a lot of what you need to know & the pleasure in reading them is learning that from them. What's needed can be offered along the way. I could go on but I'll stop there!
