Planning for Innovation in English Teaching

This professional development booklet offers ideas for innovative planning for reading, writing and talk in English teaching. It could be used by individual teachers, colleagues within an English department, local authority personnel working with teacher groups or initial teacher education lecturers to support their work with student teachers. Although the examples included here focus on teaching English at key stage 3, the underlying principles of innovation and critical enquiry are readily applicable to key stage 4, and to primary classrooms. The material gives examples of innovative planning for English teaching where:

• year 7 students co-construct a series of lessons based on a detective novel
• a year 9 class explore a wordless graphic novel
• pupils create poetry anthologies.

The booklet also includes guidance for undertaking a small-scale critical enquiry in the classroom.

Free copy of the professional development materials Raising Standards through Innovations in English teaching: creativity and critical reflection if you buy ten copies.