On 'Notability' for teaching
A recommendation for my most-used classroom tool, the iOS app Notability.
Read MoreTom Needham's 'Explicit English Teaching'
Tom Needham’s Explicit English Teaching is a rare example of a book for our subject that is based on the principles of cognitive science.
Read MoreShakespeare: 'In Our Time'
A list of the BBC Radio 4 ‘In Our Time’ episodes about Shakespeare.
Read MoreBooks of the Year, 2023
My Books of 2023.
Read More'Essential Grammar' by Jennifer Webb and Marcello Giovanelli
In Essential Grammar: the resource book every English teacher will need, Jennifer Webb and Marcello Giovanelli have written a helpful and practical guide to an area teachers often find difficult. It is their contention that far from being dry and pedantic, knowledge of how grammar works is liberating and opens up possibilities for pupils.
Read More'Hamlet' webinar
Notes and links for a webinar via Tralee Education Support Centre, for teachers of Hamlet at Leaving Certificate.
Read More'Sentence Models for Creating Writing' by Christopher Youles.
Christopher Youles’s Sentence Models for Creative Writing is a useful short book for English teachers, properly sub-titled ‘A practical resource for teaching writing.’
Read MoreEmma Smith on 'Hamlet'
Notes on the Hamlet chapter in Emma Smith’s This is Shakespeare.
Read MoreRevising the sequence of 'Hamlet' 2
A simple way to help pupils understand which parts of a play are important for revising an individual character. Here, Hamlet, but any play by Shakespeare works.
Read MoreGabriel Josipovici's 'Hamlet: Fold on Fold'
Gabriel Josipovici’s commentary in Hamlet: Fold on Fold is consistently stimulating and thought-provoking, and blessedly free of academic jargon.
Read MoreOn the Importance of Studying Poetry
The argument for the most ‘important’ subject in school being … poetry.
Read MoreThe RSC Shakespeare Complete Works
The second edition of the RSC Shakespeare Complete Works edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen is well-worth buying.
Read MoreEmily Dickinson Face to Face
Martha Dickinson Bianchi’s Emily Dickinson: Face to Face is a brilliant evocation of her aunt’s life next door in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Read More'The researchED Guide to Cognitive Science' edited by Kate Jones
The authors in Kate Jones’s selection of essays looking at the basics of cognitive science explain key concepts in a valuably accessible way.
Read More'The Art of Explanation' by Ros Atkins
Ros Atkins’s The Art of Explanation: how to communicate with clarity and confidence is a fascinating fine-grained account of how he has reached the status of one of broadcasting’s most impressive ‘explainers’.
Read MoreRos Atkins explainer: Manchester City
Ideas for the use of a Ros Atkins ‘explainer’ in English class.
Read MoreOn the role and selection of prescribed text lists
Some comments on the recent NCCA ‘Report on the role of prescribed text lists in Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate English and the processes involved in text selection.’
Read MorePerspectives on the Teaching of English in Post-Primary Education
Perspectives on the Teaching of English in Post-Primary Education, edited by Kevin Cahill and Niamh Dennehy, is a comprehensive and valuable collection of essays on the way the subject is taught and studied in Ireland.
Read More'The Great White Bard' by Farah Karim-Cooper
Professor Karim-Cooper’s The Great White Bard: Shakespeare, race and the future is a rich and provocative look at the plays with a fresh eye.
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