On Reading More
Thoughts on reading, and on reading more, occasioned by Ian Leslie’s Ruffian Substack: Nine Ways to Read: ideas for reading more and better books.
Read MoreClosing the Reading Gap
Closing the Reading Gap is a sibling to Alex Quigley’s previous book, Closing the Vocabulary Gap, and joins it in being one of the most accessible, interesting and helpful books on education in recent years.
Read MoreAttention (3): the power of reading aloud
One of the deepest pleasures in life: being a child snuggled up to a parent, listening to a story. And also being a parent holding your child, telling that story (such as, for instance, Sam McBratney’s gentle series Guess How Much I Love You ). It is simply The ineffable magic in the mingling of a voice, a narrative, loving attention, and physical closeness.
Read MoreAttention (2): Maryanne Wolf and cognitive patience
Reader, Come Home: the reading brain in a digital world (2018) is an elegant and insightful analysis of how deep reading is under threat, and of how this particular form of attention is being eroded by the digital universe in which we now live. For an English teacher, the book is essential reading. For me, it is one of the most important books of our recent years.
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.