The Perfect Ofsted English Lesson (The Perfect Series) - Hardcover

Didau, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1781350523 ISBN 13: 9781781350522

Publisher: Independent Thinking Press, 2012

Synopsis

Designed to help bring the best out of English departments during that all-important inspection visit. Packed full of ideas, strategies and simple yet effective innovations, it is an essential tool – and not just for the inspection! With topics including assessment for learning, progress, the learning environment and planning outstanding lessons, this is the book for every English teacher’s desk.



“The techniques and strategies that you will read in this book will help teachers of English reflect on what really matters when they teach the subject.”
David Carter, Executive Principal, Cabot Learning Federation
“Provides a range of ideas and approaches that aren’t just outstanding against some Ofsted ticklist, but genuinely outstanding.”
Geoff Barton, Headteacher, King Edward VI School

“This book is an encouraging reminder that, with hard work, effort and
an understanding of the fundamental pedagogies of our classrooms, we too can achieve perfection in our lessons.”
Lisa-Jane Ashes, (AST), Author and Creator of Reflections of a Learning Geek

“If you are a teacher - not just an English teacher – you need to read this book.”
Dave Rees, Principal of Erne Integrated College

“There’s a wealth of experience within these pages, but also love, joy,
and compassion from a classroom practitioner on whom we should
all model ourselves.”
Kenny Pieper, English teacher in a Scottish Secondary School

“I’d recommend this book heartily to every teacher (NOT just English teachers) and encourage them to try out the tips within. They work …
I know … I’ve tried many myself to great effect!”
David Doherty, Assistant Principal & Teacher of English, Cowes Enterprise College

David Didau has been teaching since 2000, has lead a successful English faculty and has just taken up a new post as Director of English and Literacy. He blogs about learning at learningspy.co.uk and writes irregularly for the Guardian Teacher Network.

About this title

About the Author

David Didau has been teaching for 12 years and is a Director of English and Literacy. He blogs about learning at learningspy.co.uk and writes regularly for the Guardian Teacher Network.

Jackie Beere is a School Improvement Partner, Independent Thinking Associate and trainer having been a secondary school headteacher. She taught in primary and secondary schools before becoming an Advanced Skills Teacher leading and implementing innovative teaching and learning strategies. This work led to her being awarded an OBE for services to education in 2002.

From the Back Cover

The Perfect Ofsted English Lesson is designed to help bring out the best in all English departments during that all-important Ofsted visit. Packed full of ideas, strategies and simple yet effective innovations, this book is an essential part of the toolkit of every English department – and not just for the inspection either!

“The techniques and strategies that you will read in this book will help teachers of English reflect on what really matters when they teach the subject.”
David Carter, Executive Principal, Cabot Learning Federation

“Provides a range of ideas and approaches that aren’t just outstanding against some Ofsted ticklist, but genuinely outstanding.”
Geoff Barton, Headteacher, King Edward VI School

“This book is an encouraging reminder that, with hard work, effort and
an understanding of the fundamental pedagogies of our classrooms, we too can achieve perfection in our lessons.”
Lisa-Jane Ashes, (AST), Author and Creator of Reflections of a Learning Geek

“If you are a teacher - not just an English teacher – you need to read this book.”
Dave Rees, Principal of Erne Integrated College

“There’s a wealth of experience within these pages, but also love, joy,
and compassion from a classroom practitioner on whom we should
all model ourselves.”
Kenny Pieper, English teacher in a Scottish Secondary School

“I’d recommend this book heartily to every teacher (NOT just English teachers) and encourage them to try out the tips within. They work …
I know … I’ve tried many myself to great effect!”
David Doherty, Assistant Principal & Teacher of English, Cowes Enterprise College

David Didau has been teaching since 2000, has lead a successful English faculty and has just taken up a new post as Director of English and Literacy. He blogs about learning at learningspy.co.uk and writes irregularly for the Guardian Teacher Network.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Foreword by Jackie Beere

My first choice of career was journalism, writing first for a newspaper then for a computer magazine in London until a restless dissatisfaction with the commercial world took me into the classroom. I started teaching English in a secondary school in 1978. I had no English degree, a primary teaching qualification and had never taught English before. I was led to a cupboard full of books and told to pick one I might like to teach for the next few months. There were no schemes of work; no lesson plans, data, differentiation, engaging starters, collaborative activities or plenaries to measure progress.
I made it up as I went along – and absolutely loved it! Teaching English has always been characterised by opportunities to be creative and, quite rightly, enjoys high status amongst students and parents. It really is one of the most
important subjects you do at school. In recent years that status has been ratcheted up several notches so that teaching English is as high status as it gets in secondary education.
Along with that there is now extreme accountability at every Key Stage. Are your pupils making enough progress? Are they developing their literacy skills and using them across the curriculum? Are enough students getting level 4 in Year 6 or GCSE English grade C?
The sharp focus on the core subjects as a measure of school performance has made good English teachers highly valued and sought after – but has the learning experience for kids improved since those dim and distant days before the National Curriculum? A recent Ofsted research document ‘Moving English Forward’ suggests some English teachers slavishly follow lesson plans and a tick list strategy in their attempt to meet the examination (and inspection) criteria. But an outstanding English lesson is an opportunity to empower your learners, to awaken their interests and instil in them a love of reading. What David does in this book is capture some of the very best ways you can demonstrate those demanding outstanding Ofsted criteria in every lesson.
The format he uses ensures that every question asked of an English teacher’s performance can be answered to the highest possible standard – all with a sense of flair and fun!
David is perfectly placed to present these ideas to you as an experienced teacher and Head of English. With an enviable passion for the subject, he is also an avid blogger and tweeter, who shares and grows his ideas about teaching and learning. The ideas in this book are tried and tested so that they can be applied to your own context with confidence.
Many of them are relevant to all subjects and across all phases of education.
My teaching of English evolved over the years through trial and error into the kind of responsive, engaging teaching that David delivers every day and promotes in this book. Luckily for me I had time and space to grow – and make mistakes. English teachers today don’t have that kind of luxury and so we need this book. Use it to guide you towards the essentials of the outstanding English lesson. Use it to add more strategies to your teaching repertoire. And tweak it to suit your context and your learners. This book can help your learners love our wonderful language and learn to use it with elegance
and style to become powerful communicators.
Above all, use this book to make your English lessons outstanding and fun for your students – and for you too.
Jackie Beere
Tiffield, 2012

Edition details

• Publisher: Independent Thinking Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781350523
• ISBN 13: 9781781350522
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128
• Editor: Beere Jackie