Leaving Certificate English resources
During these uncertain and anxious times for pupils, here is a summary of some resources for Leaving Certificate English candidates that may be helpful when working at home. Regular updates coming.
Read MoreThinking about 'Hamlet'
Here are some exercises on quotations in Hamlet. They are designed for pair-work 10-minute sessions in class, but work perfectly well for individuals. You need to know the play well, so these are for revision at a late stage. The purpose is to make your mind work hard.
Read More'Hamlet': the opening scene
Shakespeare’s four great tragedies all open in uncertainty and discomfort. In Macbeth, three ‘weird’ figures of indeterminate gender speak in riddles. In Othello, two men mutter obscurely in a Venetian street, one telling the other of his contempt for his own boss, and then the two rouse the house of a respected Senator. In King Lear, two noblemen discuss with dismay how the aged King is favouring one Duke over another, following which the said King, appallingly, slices up his own kingdom.
Read MoreBooks on English Teaching
We are in a golden age of writing about teaching, much of which (though not all) has been prompted by online connections and blogs. Here is a small selection of books aimed at English teaching, or which will be of interest to English teachers. It will be added to gradually.
INOTE Conference 2019
I gave the keynote presentation at the Irish National Organisation of Teachers of English annual conference in October 2019 in Portlaoise. It’s below (I hope plenty of it doesn’t make sense, since it depends on the commentary).
‘The Building Blocks of the English Classroom’ looked at vocabulary, how cognitive science can assist us, ways of increasing reading, and how modelling can help.
English Meet, April 23rd
A new venture for Thursday 23rd April 2020 (Shakespeare's birthday): an evening dedicated to sharing ideas about teaching Leaving Certificate English.
Venue: Whispering House at our school, www.stcolumbas.ie (which was the venue on October 5th for the first-ever Irish researchED) in South Dublin. 7.00pm to 9.00pm. It will be free to attend, but will be ticketed (ticketing via EventBrite later down the line). See the venue here.
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