Miss Mika (English)

An article for tes on how to make the best of lesson observations now they're coming back post lockdown learning. How to handle the return of lesson observations - tes

This is a lesson I made on redacted poetry to get students to really think about the choices writers make about the words they use. This is based on the erasure poetry of Isobel O'Hare on the #MeToo movement. I find students struggle to explain the effects of writer's methods because they can't articulate or even consider something as simple as word choice, much less more complex techniques. This lesson was to address this and really get them thinking about what a writer is saying both overtly and in the subtext of their writing, why they are conveying it the way they are and how their words hold power. The lesson starts with a clearly forced and insincere apology and get students to think about its subtext and why it may not be sincere: Then I teach some context about the #MeToo movement. Now, because they really need to think about the word choice and the power of words, I show how the poet transformed Weinstein’s 'apology' into a redacted poem. We talk abou...

Over the last few years, what we see and what we expect to see in the classroom has massively changed. We’ve gone from super-pacey, four-part, not-too-much-teacher-talkey lessons, to progress for the long haul, repeated learning and in-depth modelling. This is much more a shift in mentality than it is just methodology and thankfully, the same can be said for differentiation. But it is still something so easy to get wrong! Despite all the controversy that comes with differentiation, with high challenge and upward scaffolding, the glass ceilings once put in place with it, can still be shattered for the wide range of students our classrooms hold. While the transformation of what we know as differentiation is in no way complete, we can still adapt during its transition to something better - it is just a case of reassessing how we are differentiating and why. The past life of differentiation Previously, the suggestions and perhaps expectations of differentiation were planning using “All, mo...

Is dual coding the new VAK? My first Edu-article for @TeachSecondary   on the difficulties of keeping up with and implementing the latest research into everyday teaching.   Educational research – The problem with this “pedagogical minefield”

The mixed vs set ability debate is not a new one. It has gone round the houses, done its laps and the research and general consensus seem to have settled quite firmly in favour of blended classes. So why write about it now?   Mainly because I (like many on the other side of the debate) was completely and utterly against the introduction of mixed ability classes when it was first discussed in our department. Many of the titular misconceptions were my own but having now researched, taught the classes and reaped the benefits fully mixed sets bring, I have deserted post and I am firmly in the mixed ability camp. Here’s what I thought versus what I found:  1. Differentiation and Challenge is too difficult  For context, our previous configuration was to have two top sets on each side of the year with rest in mixed classes, so from my prior experience, going fully mixed would have been extra work for the teachers while taking away specific focus on learners’ needs. But how ...