August in the UK – GCSE and A-Level students get their long-awaited results and either finalise or revisit their next steps –
Author Archives: Dr Julia Fowler
Monsters, myths and ‘reluctant readers’.
How to spark the interest of that reluctant reader who’d sharpen every pencil in the school before they’d open a book? Well first….
Stepping into the Virtual Classroom
It was time to step into a virtual classroom – an online space, or videoconferencing.
Is my dad here already – the lesson went too fast!
MarshMallows – one of the Literacy Shed’s amazing animated shorts – is a huge hit with my Year 5 and 6 one-to-one tutees. A. is so impressed that students made the film that he’s decided he’s going to be a film maker himself! As usual, the children have seen far more detail in the film than I noticed, and been fascinated by so many different aspects.
“Reluctant Reader” no more.
Like most teachers, I know the lure and the dangers of labelling children, and try to avoid doing it. Charlie’s a boy aged ten, who’s in Y5. Why reduce him to ‘a Year 5’? It’s quicker, of course, and only lasts12 months. It has meaning within a limited context, but like all labels, it excludesContinue reading ““Reluctant Reader” no more.”
What doesn’t work?
Great addition to my resources for developing inference skills. Children who find it difficult to access non-literal meaning in words, and dread the reading comprehension tests in school, often relate more easily to visual material, and can practise the skills of inference and deduction without pressure. I think next week’s students will enjoy ‘reading betweenContinue reading “What doesn’t work?”
First Day
8.50 am. Infants and Juniors troop past our house on their way to school. The cat’s in the front window watching them, trying to get her head around the mystery that is children.
