Creatures we can’t understand doing things we can just about fathom. A young girl giant strolling across the sky saw an orange and decided to lick it. She found it was nice and so licked it more and more, and gradually she began to lick the orange away. Slowly she Read more…
And how can we use this knowledge to improve our pupils’ level of reading? Too often it is thought that a fluent reader is a good reader but if your pupils have no or very little understanding of what they are reading, their ability to read (fluently or not) is Read more…
Football is fun for so many children and it provides rich resources for reluctant readers. No matter who wins tonight, Arsenal or Chelsea, for many people it will the source of fun, discussion and disagreement. Sheila Blackburn has written a series of stories about football specifically designed for reluctant readers Read more…
Knowing good grammar is one thing but understanding grammar is something else entirely. The single most powerful way that one can express oneself is by using one’s own words. And whilst it may appear that young people can express themselves orally or in writing when explicitly asked to do so, Read more…
It is difficult to think of much in the English language that is more complex than a sentence. It can be short. It can alternatively be very long and involve all sorts of diversions along the way before reaching its final conclusion, which in this case might be that it Read more…
It could be argued that any creative writing that your pupils are required to undertake as part of the curriculum is something of an oxymoron. You must encourage your pupils to think outside the box whilst providing evidence that they can use fronted adverbials, adjective-packed noun phrases, and other grammatical Read more…
It is not so much that people ask me what I do, it is rather that when they hear what my job is, they make assumptions. You see: I’m a publisher. To some that makes me one of the good guys. To others I’m evil incarnate. Dr Jekyll and Mr Read more…
Today is National Poetry Day and to celebrate we are giving away ‘Lions in the Garden’ a poem by Charlotte Makhlouf from Brilliant Activities for Reading Comprehension, Year 4. The poem comes with questions, word work and extension work, making it easy to use in a lesson. To download your Read more…