English Teaching Today

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English Teaching Today

• Geoff Barton
• Headteacher, King Edward VI School, Suffolk, UK,
  and English teacher

Download this presentation at www.geoffbarton.co.u
k/teacher-resources
(Presentation number 93)
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Hello.
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• A brief history of English teaching
• The key ingredients in successfully teaching
  speaking listening, reading and writing
• A demonstration

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REFLECT
TALK
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?
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What
How
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1 Model the way we teach English today
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2 Be lexically redundant
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Do you want to leave now?
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A brief history of English teaching
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This is what classrooms used to look like
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1870s
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Elementary Education Act 1870 National education
for children aged 5-12
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Beginning of national literacy
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NOW
Writing
Reading
Speaking listening
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THEN
Writing
Reading
Exercises Repetition Copying
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?
English as a subject
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Edmund Coote Headmaster King Edward VI Grammar
School 1596
for nine months
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Edmund Coote Headmaster King Edward VI Grammar
School 1596
Latin Greek Hebrew NOT English
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1870
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Grammar
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Parse the italicised words The lady protests
too much, methinks Sit thee down I saw him
taken Rewrite these sentences correctly Louis
was in some respects a good man, but being a bad
ruler his subjects rebelled Vainly endeavouring
to suppress his emotion, the service was abruptly
brought to an end
Alfred S West, The Elements of English Grammar
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George Sampson English for the English 1921
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Literature Speaking listening
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FR Leavis Denys Thompson 1950s
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Culture Morality Personal growth Discrimination
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English becomes the most important subject.
Therefore
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The English teacher becomes the most important
teacher
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Freedom and autonomy
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5 years
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? ?
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1960s
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Move away from grammar
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1989 First National Curriculum
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Today New National Curriculum based on
international comparisons
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Social mobility
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The Matthew Effect
(Robert K Merton)
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The rich shall get richer and the poor shall get
poorer
Matthew 1312
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the word-rich get richer while the word-poor get
poorer in their reading skills
(CASL)
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Good readers may choose friends who also read
avidly while poor readers seek friends with whom
they share other enjoyments
The Matthew Effect Daniel Rigney
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Strichts Law reading ability in children
cannot exceed their listening ability
E.D. Hirsch The Schools We Need
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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
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The Matthew Effect
The rich will get richer the poor will get
poorer
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REFLECTION

1. What do you agree or disagree with?
2. What surprises you?
3. What would you like to learn more about?

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Emphasise exploratory talk
(how and why questions)
Vary student groupings remember the Matthew
effect
Break tyranny of questions and answers
Alternatives to hands-up
Thinking time oral rehearsal
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REFLECTION

1. What do you agree or disagree with?
2. What surprises you?
3. What are the implications for your teaching?

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Read aloud
Encourage reading for pleasure a social act
Teach specific skills skimming, scanning,
analysis, research
Demystify spelling
Avoid death-by-comprehension question
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SKIMMING
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The climate of the Earth is always changing. In
the past it has altered as a result of natural
causes. Nowadays, however, the term climate
change is generally used when referring to
changes in our climate which have been identified
since the early part of the 1900's . The changes
we've seen over recent years and those which are
predicted over the next 80 years are thought to
be mainly as a result of human behaviour rather
than due to natural changes in the atmosphere.   
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The best treatment for mouth ulcers. Gargle with
salt water. You should find that it works a
treat. Salt is cheap and easy to get hold of and
we all have it at home, so no need to splash out
and spend lots of money on expensive mouth ulcer
creams. 
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Lexical v Grammatical Words
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Urquhart castle is probably one of the most
picturesquely situated castles in the Scottish
Highlands. Located 16 miles south-west of
Inverness, the castle, one of the largest in
Scotland, overlooks much of Loch Ness. Visitors
come to stroll through the ruins of the
13th-century castle because Urquhart has earned
the reputation of being one of the best spots for
sighting Loch Nesss most famous inhabitant.
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Urquhart castle is probably one of the most
picturesquely situated castles in the Scottish
Highlands. Located 16 miles south-west of
Inverness, the castle, one of the largest in
Scotland, overlooks much of Loch Ness. Visitors
come to stroll through the ruins of the
13th-century castle because Urquhart has earned
the reputation of being one of the best spots for
sighting Loch Nesss most famous inhabitant.
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Urquhart castle is probably one of the most
picturesquely situated castles in the Scottish
Highlands. Located 16 miles south-west of
Inverness, the castle, one of the largest in
Scotland, overlooks much of Loch Ness. Visitors
come to stroll through the ruins of the
13th-century castle because Urquhart has earned
the reputation of being one of the best spots for
sighting Loch Nesss most famous inhabitant.
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Urquhart castle is probably one of the most
picturesquely situated castles in the Scottish
Highlands. Located 16 miles south-west of
Inverness, the castle, one of the largest in
Scotland, overlooks much of Loch Ness. Visitors
come to stroll through the ruins of the
13th-century castle because Urquhart has earned
the reputation of being one of the best spots for
sighting Loch Nesss most famous inhabitant.
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Urquhart castle is probably one of the most
picturesquely situated castles in the Scottish
Highlands. Located 16 miles south-west of
Inverness, the castle, one of the largest in
Scotland, overlooks much of Loch Ness. Visitors
come to stroll through the ruins of the
13th-century castle because Urquhart has earned
the reputation of being one of the best spots for
sighting Loch Nesss most famous inhabitant.
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SCANNING
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• Where did the first cell phones begin?
• Name 2 other features that started to be included
  in phones
• Why are cell phones especially useful in some
  countries?

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Where begin? Two features? Some countries?
Cellular telephones The first cellular
telephone system began operation in Tokyo in
1979, and the first U.S. system began operation
in 1983 in Chicago. A camera phone is a cellular
phone that also has picture taking capabilities.
Some camera phones have the capability to send
these photos to another cellular phone or
computer. Advances in digital technology and
microelectronics has led to the inclusion of
unrelated applications in cellular telephones,
such as alarm clocks, calculators, Internet
browsers, and voice memos for recording short
verbal reminders, while at the same time making
such telephones vulnerable to certain software
viruses. In many countries with inadequate
wire-based telephone networks, cellular telephone
systems have provided a means of more quickly
establishing a national telecommunications
network.
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DEMYSTIFYING SPELLING
3
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1 - SOUNDS
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Government
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Happened
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February
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2 -VISUALS
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Se-para-te Be-lie-ve
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3 - MNEMONICS
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necessary
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accommodation
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Read aloud
Encourage reading for pleasure a social act
Teach specific skills skimming, scanning,
analysis
Demystify spelling
Avoid death-by-comprehension
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REFLECTION

1. What do you agree or disagree with?
2. What surprises you?
3. What are the implications for your teaching?

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Link to speech
Feed with reading
Teach sentence variety
Teach higher level connectives
not just and but
Demonstrate the writing process
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Know your connectives Adding and, also, as well
as, moreover, too Cause effect because, so,
therefore, thus, consequently Sequencing next,
then, first, finally, meanwhile, before,
after Qualifying however, although, unless,
except, if, as long as, apart from,
yet Emphasising above all, in particular,
especially, significantly, indeed,
notably Illustrating for example, such as, for
instance, as revealed by, in the case
of Comparing equally, in the same way,
similarly, likewise, as with, like Contrasting
whereas, instead of, alternatively, otherwise,
unlike, on the other hand
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Link to speech
Feed with reading
Teach sentence variety
Teach higher level connectives
not just and but
Demonstrate the writing process
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Demo
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Learning objective Explore two conventions of
narrative fiction
1 Point of view
2 Narrative disjuncture
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Provide a model
(Good or bad)
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If you were the editor, what advice would you
give the writer to improve it?
Once upon a time there was a little girl whose
name was Little Red Riding Hood. She lived at the
edge of a dark forest. Her grandmother lived at
the other edge. The only way to Grandmas house
was through the forest. This scared Little Red
Riding Hood. One morning her mother told her
to take some food to her grandmother
Predict what happens next
How can you tell this text was written for
children?
How would you make it into a horror story?
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Learning objective Explore two conventions of
narrative fiction
1 Point of view
2 Narrative disjuncture
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REFLECTION

1. What do you agree or disagree with?
2. What surprises you?
3. What are the implications for your teaching?

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3 MESSAGES

• Speaking listening, reading and writing feed
  each other
• Grammar should support learning rather than be
  terms and labels to be named
• As teachers our role is to make the implicit
  explicit through questions, exploratory talk,
  exploring models and demonstration

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www.geoffbarton.co.uk
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Published by Routledge
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English Teaching Today

• Geoff Barton
• Headteacher, King Edward VI School, Suffolk, UK,
  and English teacher

Thank you for inviting me to Shanghai!