Alex Quigley's Blog, page 10

Fostering Fluency with Reader’s Theatre

The performance of reading aloud can offer vital opportunities for pupils to learn. In particular, the act of reading aloud can benefit pupils’ reading fluency, as well as proving a helpful bridge to increasing reading comprehension. Reader’s Theatre is a comprehensive classroom approach that can offer a vehicle to foster fluency in the classroom. A recent research review …

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Why Literacy Fails (Part 3) Manageable Solutions

There are a vast array of barriers and problems that attend literacy development. In Part 1, it was tricky to limit it to only ten! And yet, the gains from developing literacy are so significant – for many pupils they can prove genuinely life-changing – that we keep making literacy a significant focus of our …

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Why Literacy Fails (Part 2) The Oracy Challenge

Developing literacy is difficult. Like most school improvement efforts, it is beset by challenges, barriers, and limits of capacity and time. Rather than gnash our teeth, it is helpful to confront these issues and understood the likelihood of failure. In doing so, we can attempt to carefully plot our way to success. In my previous post, …

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Why Literacy Fails (Part 1)

This blog is based on my talk entitled, ‘Why Literacy Fails (And What To Do About It)’, at the researchED National Conference, in a baking-hot Camden classroom! It will be the first part of a short series of blogs.   I’ve never found a teacher who disputes the importance of literacy, reading, writing, or the …

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Where does ‘growth mindset’ go next?

Has ‘growth mindset’ been debunked? Will the million+ selling book quietly be removed from shelves, or will it reappear rebooted in teacher training in some other guise in future?  I began writing about the promise and the problems with ‘growth mindset’ in 2014. It was a wildly popular topic that was common in school INSET, based …

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Top 10 Blog Posts of 2023 (So Far)

From the blogs of 2023 so far, this is my top 10 most popular blogs. They span from 'Crafting Great Sentences' to free research reads on spelling, and more.

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Revising writing and why it matters

If I was to identify one important writing process that is most neglected by pupils, I would pose revising their writing. Why is this vital strategy so commonly neglected? In my ‘Closing the Writing Gap’ book, I propose that ‘revising’ writing is misunderstood and confused with ‘editing’. So, what is the difference between these admittedly …

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The Struggle with ‘Writing Stamina’

After some grim national writing results last year, and lots of conversations with school leaders about their post-Covid teaching and learning priorities, writing is high on many schools’ priority list. Common issues that have been raised to me by school colleagues are wide ranging, from issues with spelling, to extended writing, problematic writing assessments, and …

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The Challenge of Editing Writing

“To write is human, to edit is divine.”  Stephen King, ‘On Writing’ ‘I’ve finished’ is a common refrain you hear in the classroom soon after pupils are set a writing task. Pupils’ urge to write can see them rush to pour their ideas onto the page. Alas, for too many pupils, their energised efforts can …

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What should we do with WAGOLLs?

Few teachers would teach writing in primary or secondary classrooms without using a WAGOLL to model writing for novice pupils. The language of ‘WAGOLL’s – or ‘What A Good One Looks Like’ – is common, but there may be less shared understanding about how to use them most effectively in the classroom. You will find …

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