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Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

Jan 29

A long(ish) thread on the teaching of reading comprehension in key stage 2. Just some thoughts and opinions:

1/n

Children are often asked to read a brief bit of text before spending the majority of the lesson doing an activity or answering a selection of questions. I don't think this is an effective (or engaging) way to teach reading comprehension. It's little more than assessment.

2/n

For those who aren't already sick of me saying it, the heart of teaching reading comprehension is shared exploration of worthwhile texts, modelling thinking and engaging in rich discussion. No selection of ready-made worksheets comes close to this.

3/n

Read 22 tweets

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

Nov 28, 2021

Apologies if I am repeating myself, but there is an elephant in the room when it comes to Ofsted's curriculum focus in primary schools: subject knowledge.

1/n

I strongly suspect there is little difference in outcomes between an excellent curriculum and a poor one if the teachers implementing it do not have good subject knowledge.

2/n

In the foundation subjects at primary school, I would say good subject knowledge is not the norm. (It isn't uncommon in the core subjects either, though lack of pedagogical content knowledge tends to be a much bigger factor here, especially in mathematics).

3/n

Read 19 tweets

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

Jul 26, 2021

A thread on why/how I wrote a book, which was released today:

Last summer I wrote a book. I'd planned to write it a few years from now, but my FSH-muscular dystrophy suddenly stopped me walking much more than very short distances, so I found myself in need of a distraction.

I have taught children to read in classrooms (and undertaken interventions) with every year group over the last 15 years. I also spent two years working specifically with smaller groups of children whose reading had badly stalled and desperately needed a restart.

Recently, I have delivered sessions for a local ITT provider following an observation of my teaching and an interview. I currently coordinate reading and the wider curriculum in a wonderful school (and have supported other schools in adapting their reading offer).

Read 18 tweets

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

May 1, 2021

We can learn a lot about the unforeseen consequences of assessment and accountability from the discussion on Edutwitter about text types in the teaching of primary writing:

Every day I read someone questioning the emphasis that is placed on the key features of a diary ... 1/6

...entry or on how to write a newspaper headline, and they are right to do so. Often too much attention is paid to text (stereo)types at the expense of clarity of expression.

A sensible question then is, "Where does this misplaced emphasis come from?" 2/6

I strongly suspect that it comes from the old Y6 writing SAT. When it existed, there were a substantial number of pretty cheap marks to be had for making it apparent to the marker that you knew the typical features of a given text type. Every child was trained in how to... 3/6

Read 6 tweets

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

Aug 23, 2020

Three points that are related:

1. The position that "in the end, you have to just follow your own style and teach whatever way you feel is best, based on your own experience and contextual perceptiveness" is one I understand and respect. However, due to the undoubted...

...complexity of teaching, it is also a position that demonstrates high confidence in one's own capacities. It might often prove correct (and we all think this way to some extent), but it's hard to paint this somehow as a particularly humble view of teaching.

2. If I share something on Twitter, and you honestly think it is flawed or there is a misconception behind it, please tell me. Praise makes me feel valued, but constructive criticism might make me a better teacher. Personally, when it comes to teaching I tend to trust...

Read 8 tweets

Christopher Such

@Suchmo83

Jun 13, 2020

A thread on maths vocabulary:

I've seen a fair few resources in my career that attempt to associate mathematical words with specific operations. I've also observed numerous mathematics lessons where UKS2 children are taught to associate given words with operations and... 1/14

...to solve word problems on this basis. (Nonsense like RUCSAC encouraged such superficial strategies.) Unfortunately, such associations are, at best, often misleading. Take this question: "Amy has some cakes. She adds them to a pile of 3 cakes, making 10 in total... 2/14

...How many cakes did Amy have?"

The only discernible maths vocabulary here is "adds" and "total", and yet this is a question that requires subtraction.

When I have discussed this with other teachers, separating mathematical vocabulary from its context has often been... 3/14

Read 14 tweets

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