How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019

Conclusion

My wife has a funny approach to books. She will read the ending before the beginning. Surprisingly, she is not alone in this bizarre method. So, with this in mind, I thought I’d include a conclusion here so she can get the gist of the ideas in the book. These are my seven key underpinning principles:

1 Ideas — complex thinking should be at the heart of all English lessons. That complex thinking can be presented simply, but students should be engaged cerebrally in every lesson. Students should be reading complex texts with the hope that they recreate complex ideas in their writing.

2 Choices — students are writers and they have to become familiar with the writing process. A writer has a myriad of options at any point, and we need to work actively to help students see those choices.

3 Comparing — to understand our level of ability, we need to see where we are in relation to others. Where we want to be. Where we used to be. Think of the Roman god Janus: looking backwards and forwards at the same time. The picture of what we want to produce must be clear and placed next to where we are at the moment so we can see the steps needed to get from one to the other. Success must be evidenced so we can replicate the features of it and adapt our thinking or behaviour to allow it to occur.

4 Vocabulary — complex thinking needs complex and, more importantly, specific language.

5 Talking — we learned to talk before we learned to write, so we need to utilise this ability and allow students to see how that interfaces with writing. Talking and writing are two separate mediums, but they are closely linked. A teacher’s talk can be a model for a student’s writing; a student’s talk can be a way for them to articulate a complex idea in preparation for writing.

6 Structure — we all crave structure and systematic approaches to solving problems. The same applies in English. A system for spelling, vocabulary, sentence structure and other aspects will help the students cope with problems and save the teacher time, effort and energy.

7 Experiences — every child in a classroom has had different life experiences. Teaching should be about providing experiences that are familiar to all: shared experiences which help us to make sense of the world.

The joy of teaching is that it is never finished. We are always learning. The problem with teaching is that you can never really tick off a job. A simple job can spiral and dominate even your ’free’ time. That’s why it is so hard to conclude this book, because we all aspire for a version of perfection. A long time ago, I twigged that perfection isn’t really the goal in teaching. Aiming for perfection is the goal in itself. There has never been, nor will there be, a year in which 100% of students achieve full marks. We are just trying to be better than last year. Each year, I aim to be better than the last. A good teacher, in my opinion, is one who is always learning from their mistakes and wanting to get better. That isn’t something you can quantify or measure in this world of accountability.

If you have changed or improved one thing in the classroom as a result of this book, then I am a happy man.