The 3
(or more)
big things…
English and Maths Fest
29th June 2015
Catriona Mowat
Engagement
Structure
Great selfmotivation
Feedback
Stimulation
‘Standards are raised ONLY by
changes which are put into direct
effect by teachers and pupils in
classrooms’
Black and Wiliam (2001),
‘Inside the Black Box’
“…the word-rich get richer while
the word-poor get poorer” …in
their reading skills
Canadian Assoc. of Librarians
“Spoken language forms a
constraint, a ceiling not only on the
ability to comprehend but also on
the ability to write, beyond which
literacy cannot progress”
Myhill and Fisher
To begin at the beginning:
It is Spring, moonless night in the small town,
starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent
and the hunched, courters'-and- rabbits' wood
limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow,
black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. The
houses are blind as moles (though moles see
fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or
blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled
middle by the pump and the town clock, the
shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows'
weeds. And all the people of the lulled and
dumbfound town are sleeping now.
“ Some books are to be tasted, others to be
swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested: that is, some books are to be read
only in parts; others to be read, but not
curiously; and some few to be read wholly
and with diligence and attention.”
Francis Bacon, 1562-1626
• Make connections with other
subjects/main course
• Encourage students to self-assess/ peerassess
• Keep it varied
• Set homework/ flippin’ eck!
• Set targets
• Give rich feedback that really feeds…
• Get DIRTY
Teachers make a
difference…
but they don’t make all
the difference
Have a great summer!