The Secret of Literacy

Back to school Part 3: Literacy

2015-01-04T18:28:17+00:00August 21st, 2014|literacy|

This series of #backtoschool blogs summarises much of my thinking as it’s developed over the past few years and is aimed at new or recently qualified teachers. Each area has been distilled to 5 ‘top tips’ which I hope prove useful to anyone embarking on a career in teaching. That said, I’ll be delighted if they serve as handy reminders for colleagues somewhat longer in the tooth. It's all very well establishing all those routines and relationships, but sooner or later you'll have to teach them something. And whatever you teach, you'll also be teaching literacy. Every time you open your mouth you’re modelling how to speak; every time you ask students to [...]

Revisiting Slow Writing – how slowing writing might speed up thinking

2020-03-10T19:54:01+00:00June 19th, 2014|literacy|

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast. Shakespeare It's been a while since I first wrote about Slow Writing and in that time it's rather taken on a life of its own. Today I had the interesting experience of someone excitedly telling me about this 'great idea' they'd been using to transforming students' writing, and guess what? Now, I don't want to suggest that I'm precious about it or that it's in any way 'mine', but it is one of the relatively few good original ideas I've had and I feel a certain sense of paternal pride in its increasingly viral [...]

Some pictures and reviews of #litbook

2014-05-26T10:17:09+01:00May 17th, 2014|Featured|

Many thanks to all the people who have kindly been in touch to tell me their long-awaited copies of The Secret of Literacy have arrived; I hope you find it useful and enjoyable. If you do like it, please don't underestimate how grateful I'll be for a positive review on Amazon (Many thanks to D Hewitson for the first 5 star review.) If you'd like to send me a picture of your copy of #litbook, Crown House have promised a prize for the most imaginative... Here are a few of the pics I've been sent so far: @RachelOrr @TeacherToolkit [...]

3 reasons why you should read The Secret of Literacy

2014-09-24T22:57:03+01:00May 10th, 2014|literacy|

This is, unashamedly, a sales pitch for my new book, The Secret of Literacy: making the implicit explicit which should be available in the next few days. Apologies if such blatant self-promotion offends your sensibilities, but do bear with me; it won't be a hard sell. Who's the book for? Teachers. All teachers. It's definitely not aimed at English teachers, although I would hope they'll find it useful. Neither is it aimed at literacy coordinators; there are better practical guides on how to roll out a literacy policy. And it's not aimed at secondary specialists although the overwhelming majority of my experience has been in [...]

An Ofsted inspector reviews The Secret of Literacy

2014-01-27T20:31:55+00:00January 27th, 2014|Featured, writing|

Over the past few weeks I've publicised some of the reviews for my new book. The advance notices I've received have been universally positive and deeply gratifying. The idea that such thinkers and writers as Doug Lemov, Alex Quigley and Tom Sherrington should all be so effusive is something of a relief. But in traditional style, I have left the best (or at least my favourite) review til last. As the count to launch day ticks down, it's finally time to share lead Ofsted Inspector, Mary Myatt's incredibly kind, helpful and specific review.   This book needed writing. Literacy, the quoin [I [...]

Some reviews of The Secret of Literacy

2014-01-18T14:44:58+00:00January 18th, 2014|literacy|

To further whet your appetite for my forthcoming book and in the spirit of shameless self-promotion, I thought I'd share a couple of pre-release reviews. (Just in case you weren't aware, it's out on 31st January, and I'm quite pleased with it!) First of all, there's a very generous review from the headguruteacher himself, Tom Sherrington: The Secrets of Literacy is an essential book for all teachers and school leaders.  It is not just another literacy book. David Didau provides a crystal clear rationale for all teachers taking responsibility for developing literacy in their specialist areas, with lots of very practical ideas, [...]

Coming soon… the secret of literacy revealed

2014-01-13T09:53:19+00:00January 10th, 2014|Featured|

This isn't really a post, more a shameless piece of self-promotion. I would normally cringe at the idea of publicly bathing in the warm glow of congratulations but in this case it feels exciting enough to be worth making an exception for: one of my education heroes, Doug Lemov, the mastermind behind the Uncommon Schools network in the US and best selling author of the marvellous Teach Like A Champion and Practice Perfect took time out of his hectic schedule to say he likes my new book! In a review for The Secret of Literacy: making the implicit explicit, Doug says: [...]

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