One of my favourite lines in TLaC is when Doug Lemov states: “The complete sentence is the battering ram that knocks down the door to college.” Insisting pupils answer questions or contribute to class discussions in full sentences will support them to write in full, well-articulated sentences. Put simply: if they can say it, they … Continue reading Working with trainees: Format Matters and the importance of BY…| Lee Donaghy
The team of teacher educators I work in has been spending a lot of time since half term thinking about how best to support our trainees as they return to face-to-face teaching for all pupils from next week onwards. As part of this, I thought it may be useful to conduct a RAG rating exercise … Continue reading Supporting trainees and NQTs with the return to face-to-face teaching – a TLaC technique RAG rating resource| Lee Donaghy
On Sunday I replied to a short Twitter conversation about most of the conversation in Zoom break out rooms being about being in a Zoom break out room with the following thread of tips for making sure most of the conversation in Zoom break out rooms is not about being in a Zoom break out … Continue reading Teaching on Zoom: Breaking (Out) Bad? Try these 7 tips…| Lee Donaghy
Since 2006 when I first became a head of department, through 4 years as a HOD and 5 as an assistant head, to my previous and current roles supporting trainee teachers, I have observed literally hundreds of lessons, often alongside other colleagues: heads of department, fellow senior leaders, ITT mentors and tutors. In that time, … Continue reading Stop telling teachers to talk less! The bad advice series #1: ‘Reduce the amount of teacher talk’.| Lee Donaghy
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – administers of the infamous PISA tests (a kind of educational Mirror of Erised, for those looking into them tend to magically see evidence for their heart’s truest educational desire) – recently organised the eighth International Summit on the Teaching Profession. Having attended, the joint general secretary … Continue reading The Schleicher Fallacy*: partially right problem, totally wrong answer| Lee Donaghy
In my work with trainee teachers, I draw heavily (as the programme I work for does) on techniques from Teach Like a Champion, by Doug Lemov. There is one technique that I talk about so often with my trainees that any mention of it now brings barely suppressed smirks and playful eye rolls: Brighten Lines. … Continue reading Working with trainees: my favourite action step – extending ‘Brighten Lines’ into a comprehensive routine| Lee Donaghy
This paper, by Professor Becky Francis and her research team at the IOE, which described setting of pupils in English schools as being a form of ‘symbolic violence’ against those who find themselves in the bottom sets, has provoked much discussion on my edu-Twitter timeline. I like to think, despite inevitable cognitive biases, that I … Continue reading A traditionalist case against setting/for mixed ability grouping (at least in subjects which are cumulative as opposed to hierarchical)| Lee Donaghy
I feel privileged to be a history teacher because of the level of professional dialogue that goes on amongst the history teaching community, both through Teaching History magazine but also more recently through blogs and Twitter. I have learnt a hell of a lot about the discipline and how to teach it more effectively from … Continue reading Disciplinary knowledge and (in my next post) a call for unity.| Lee Donaghy
In my last post I described how I had begun to implement the insights I gained from Jim Carroll’s session at #WLFShistory, by helping my pupils to build abstract generalisations that could be…| Lee Donaghy
Almost a year after I wrote my first and until now only post on my work with trainee teachers as a teach educator using the TLaC Brighten Lines technique, that post recently received a boost when A…| Lee Donaghy