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WELCOME
Welcome to the Elition Blog. Here, you’ll see semi-regular posts from members of the team exploring some of their recent teaching experiences, reading and the rationale behind our practice.
It's very much a work-in-progress as the site develops and we hope you find something worthwhile.
Metacognition: Strategies for English Classrooms
Metacognition sounds complicated. Conversations about it can certainly feel that way at times, partly due to the difficulty in containing...
James
Aug 25, 20242 min read
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Creating an Interdepartmental Team of EAL and Literacy Champions
While I was completing my NPQSL last year, I read a few case studies in which leaders created a team of “Champions”: teachers who would...
Suzy
Aug 18, 20242 min read
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Finding the Balance: Meaningful Changes to An English Curriculum
It’s that time of year again. Another year 11 cohort have disappeared into the ether of study leave and some tasty gained time can be put...
James
May 6, 20242 min read
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Valuing Creativity in Writing: Focusing on Process, Not Product
Grimly, the recent Ofsted subject report for English mentions ‘writing’ 141 times with no reference whatsoever to promoting it for the...
James
Apr 3, 20243 min read
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The Perfect Poetry Scheme, Part 4: Poems of a Feather
A standard poetry selection for GCSE, IGCSE, A Level or IB exams can be anywhere from ten to thirty poems. I often see teachers working...
Suzy
Mar 7, 20242 min read
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How Do We Create a More Diverse Curriculum in English? Part 3: Teaching It
Four weeks into the unit and our students are gradually engaging with the complex ideas around how context applies to their study of The...
James
Feb 25, 20242 min read
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The Perfect Poetry Unit, Part 3: Build From The Heart
As I’ve covered in the first two posts in this series, enthusiasm and engagement should always be your starting point if it’s likely that...
Suzy
Feb 21, 20243 min read
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The Perfect Poetry Unit, Part 2: Start Strong
Whatever anthology or collection you’re teaching, there will be thematic groups or common threads that will help in terms of basic...
Suzy
Feb 16, 20242 min read
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Revision, Retrieval, Recall
I like the idea that revision should be uncomfortable. I wish that had been explained to me at school as being a natural part of the...
James
Feb 7, 20242 min read
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Screens vs Paper: Why Reading Media Matters
Some obvious and indisputable book facts: books look great; smell good; are weighty and substantial; and make you feel clever when...
James
Feb 1, 20242 min read
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The Perfect Poetry Unit, Part 1: Define Your Terms
I don’t hate it when students come into my classroom on the first day of a poetry unit and tell me how much they despise poetry. It’s...
Suzy
Jan 25, 20243 min read
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How Do We Create a More Diverse Curriculum in English? (Part 2)
In Part 1, I discussed some reasons for introducing a more challenging range of texts in an English curriculum that reflected a wider...
James
Jan 14, 20243 min read
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Narrative and Descriptive Skills: Attempts at Getting Writing ‘Right’
Directed writing and composition tasks for IGCSE English Language courses expect a lot from their students. Tasks usually consist of: A...
James
Nov 13, 20233 min read
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Experiments in De-Implementation
In international schools the notion that ‘going above and beyond’ is the norm is, in most cases, the norm. It’s even baked into teacher...
James
Nov 6, 20233 min read
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How Do We Create a More Diverse English Curriculum? (Part 1)
The next few blog posts in this series cover how we introduced more diverse, current and challenging texts into our English curriculum....
James
Oct 28, 20233 min read
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Reflections on 'Closing the Vocabulary Gap' by Alex Quigley
Perhaps a little late to the party but I finally got around to reading Alex Quigley’s ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’. While focused on a...
James
May 10, 20232 min read
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