The Leading, Language and Literature Podcast

In this episode I’m speaking to Jennifer Webb. Jenny is nothing short of a legend in English teaching after writing a number of hugely beneficial books ranging from how to teach reading and writing to metacognition as well as grammar instruction for secondary professionals. On top of this, she is a constant source of insight via her in person and virtual CPD events, which encompass advice on almost every element of secondary academic life imaginable.

Following what has been an incredible couple of years for English teachers around curriculum development, I wanted to ask Jenny a number of questions about how she, the schools she works with and the departments she advises have interpreted these new ideas.

We discuss:

1. What Jenny thinks of organising the curriculum by concept as opposed to earlier approaches through theme or task type.
2. How Jenny feels about the government’s pledge to improve oracy in schools
3. The extent to which kids need to learn to learn or be more meta-cognitively aware
4. When considering text choices through an unapologetically ambitious lens, does Jenny mean more full texts, extracts or something else?
5. And finally, Teach like a Writer offers insights into how English happens in an authentic context. To what extent does Jenny think kids need to be assessed by producing a text that resembles the ‘real thing’ in English.

Thanks again to Jenny for offering so much insight about many of the most popular topics for discussion around at the moment. In addition to this, I hope she realises the massively positive impact she has had on the profession as well as the many ideas she she has shared that make the job all the more effective and therefore enjoyable on a daily basis.

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk

Links:

Jenny’s books

Jenny’s (free) CPD

In this episode, I’m talking to Eoin MacCarthaigh. This is the second in what we hope will be a long line of episodes focused on issues in and around English teaching. For anyone who hasn’t listened before, we bring forth 3 unknown issues to be discussed each, relating to things that we’ve thought, learnt or considered lately.

We discuss:

1. Uncertainty around the purpose of grammar and language teaching
2. Giving students ‘choice’ x Organising English concepts
3. The role of modelling in English
4. The stratification of English skills x research and reflection
5. SEND students’ or routines in class
6. Authenticity and oracy in English

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk and Eoin @EMCTeach

Links:

Essential Grammar by Jenny Webb and Marcello Giovanelli

Crafting Brilliant Sentences by Lindsay Skinner

Ausubel's Meaningful Learning in Action by Sarah Cottingham

Explicit English Teaching by Tom Needham

The Complete Guide to Service Learning by Cathryn Berger Kaye

In this episode I am speaking to Shane Leaning. Shane is an organisational Coach, international educator, author and podcaster. As a prolific creator in a number of different spaces, I was keen to get Shane on to discuss what it takes and what it’s like to make the switch from teaching students to advising schools around the world.

We discuss:

1. What made Shane transition from the classroom to consultant in the first place

2. His process for making contact with potential school partners

3. Shane’s go to texts to inspire and inform him on the job

4. The current state of the private education sector in China

5. And finally the original intention for his podcast and how that has evolved over time

Thanks again to Shane for his generosity in terms of time spent chatting as well as all the content he produces via the podcast and beyond.

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk

Links:

Putting Staff First by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

Change Starts Here

Global Ed Leaders podcast

The Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast

Two Weeks Notice by Amy Porterfield

In this episode, I’m talking to Eoin MacCarthaigh. This is the first in what we hope will be a long line of episodes focused on issues in and around international English teaching. It’s important at the outset to explain that this is an unapologetic rip off another podcast that I personally love, namely Craig Barton and Ollie Lovell’s Tips and Tools for Teachers. For anyone who hasn’t heard this show, first of all it is a fantastic listen for professionals of any discipline. Specifically, the regular format is that both speakers bring forth 3 unknown issues to be discussed each, relating to things that they’ve thought, learnt or considered lately. So, here is me and Eoin’s effort at doing the same with an international English bent.

We discuss

- AI

- Oracy

- Inquiry

- Gapless instruction

- Infographics

- And lastly, whether English sits outside the insights of cognitive research

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk and Eoin @EMCTeach

Links:

Meanings and practices of inquiry-based teaching and learning in the International Baccalaureate (2022) Joseph L. Polman and Karla Scornavacco

Drew Perkins’ interview with Dylan Wiliam

Craig Barton’s interview with Adam Boxer

Bringing the English Curriculum to Life by David Didau

In this episode I’m speaking with Professor Guy Claxton. Guy is a cognitive scientist, author and one of education’s foremost experts on practical ways of expanding young people's relationship with and capacity for learning. His most recent book, The Future of Teaching, And the Myths that Hold it Back, a work that seeks to reclaim the nuanced middle ground of teaching that develops both rigorous knowledge and ‘character’, and lay the foundations for a 21st-century education worthy of the name.

We discuss:

1. What 'good thinking' is and why there is a dearth of it in schools

2. What teachers, departments and schools can do to better attend to students' attitudes and dispositions

3. What 'expert amateurism' is and how it would challenge the current paradigm

4. Guy’s 'third way' for education or 'guided discovery’

5. How we go about convincing state schools that academic outcomes aren't everything

6. And finally, whether Guy would advocate for a move away from traditional subjects and move towards a more responsive curriculum

Thanks again to Guy for giving up time in his busy schedule to talking so broadly, passionately and practically about the experiences of students and the changes we need to make to respond to a changing world.

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk

Links:

Guy’s River of Learning and Teaching visual

Future Wise by David Perkins

How We Learn by Stanislas Dehaene

The Gardner and The Carpenter by Alison Gopnik

Education Outrage by Roger Schank

Teaching Minds by Roger Schank

In this episode I’m talking to Professor Nutsa Kobakhidze. Nutsa is a Director at the Comparative Education Research Centre and Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University. Her areas of expertise include comparative education; privatization of education; globalization and education and large-scale international assessments. I wanted to speak to Nutsa particularly in regard to the privatization of education and more specifically, private tutoring.

Having read an interview with the professor in Youth Hong Kong, a quarterly magazine published by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, I was instantly struck by how much academia and research there was around so called ‘Shadow Education’ that largely goes undiscussed in the day to day practice of classroom teachers.

We discuss:

1. Why the term ‘Shadow Education’ is used in academia and what services it covers

2. How or why shadow education benefits from Hong Kong’s education system

3. Whether there is a consensus on why students get tutoring in secondary schools

4. What students are missing out on during an evening filled with tutoring

5. Why it is so difficult to gain a consensus on whether private tutoring contributes to students' academic achievement

6. How schools, students and parents can work together to better understand the need or not for a private tutor

7. And finally, the ways AI technology might impact the shadow education industry in the future

Thanks so much to Professor Kobakhidze on her research and advocacy for better understanding around private tutoring and the impact it has on young people and their families as well as offering up her time to talk to me for the podcast.

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk

Links

Youth Hong Kong - the magazine for which Nutsa was recently interviewed.

In this episode I’m talking to Sarah Cottingham. Sarah is Associate Dean at Ambition Institute, author of Ausubel's Meaningful Learning In Action, a Professional Development Consultant and former English teacher.

I was really eager to speak with Sarah after reading her work about Ausubel’s theory and applying it to recent discussions about how English can be approached in a more conceptual manner. Added to this is the requirement that every subject be approached conceptually within the IB framework but with limited practical guidance about how to implement such a curriculum.

We discuss:

- What a subsumer is and how secondary departments should plan with them in mind

- What the subsumers Sarah believes we should teach Secondary school English students are

- What Sarah thinks of the IB MYP 'Key Concepts', 'Related Concepts' and ‘Global Contexts’

- How an English subsumer could be fed with detail over the course of a secondary education

- What an advance organiser is

- And finally, how subsumers interact with retrieval practice

Thanks so much to Sarah for giving up her time to discuss this brilliantly written book in more detail as well as her wider contribution to the conceptual teaching discussion.

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk

Links:

Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning in Action Book

Sam Gibbs and Zoe Hellman’s The Trouble with English and how to Address It

David Didau’s Making Meaning in English

In this episode I’m talking with Drew Perkins. Drew is Director of Thought Stretchers Education and host of the ThoughtStretchersEducation Podcast. I wanted to speak to Drew as I continue my exploration of what inquiry looks like in the classroom and particularly how it applies to English. Drew is an active advocate for implementing inquiry in a meaningful manner within education and has helped thousands of individual teachers to do so.

We discuss:

1. The difference between inquiry, project-based and other constructivist approaches to teaching
2. What inquiry is for and what it offers students that other approaches do not
3. How we know when to give students the level of autonomy they can handle
4. How we can best aid students in generating their own questions
5. What Drew means by ‘order of operations’ and how it is practically applied
6. And finally, whether Drew thinks there's a difference between inquiry in elementary and middle-school and between different subject disciplines.

Thanks again to Drew for discussing inquiry approaches with his customary enthusiasm and expertise.

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk

This week I’m talking to Zach Groshell. Zach is an instructional coach, teacher in the American school system, has a PhD in instructional design and hosts the Progressively Incorrect Podcast.

I have listened and loved Zach’s podcast for a long time now, particularly as the first season deals with the tension of progressive ideas and ideologies around inquiry based teaching as well as direct instruction as a pedagogy. For me, these are two approaches that a teacher delivering the PYP, MYP or DP for IB has to wrestle with on a daily basis as well as any teacher operating in any school where competing pedagogies are prevalent.

We discuss:

- What direct instruction and inquiry based teaching mean in practice

- Whether there’s scope for inquiry to play some part in a unit given that topics such as: the information age, masculinity, travel, ways of life, love of literature can be explored according to students' standing interests, experiences or passions

- How Zach feels about suggestions that relying solely on direct instruction and not “culturally responsive education” is narrowly Western, Eurocentric and racist

- If there's a disconnect in international and state schooling with regard to improving teaching and learning

- If seeking guidance as an international teacher about how to improve teaching, what Zach would suggest teachers start with

- And lastly, when implementing an instructional coaching culture in a school, what are the most important things to consider and prioritize at the outset?

Thanks so much to Zach for weighing in on what I believe is hugely important set of topics for international teachers or teachers of IB curriculum more specifically. His podcast is linked to in the show notes below and is well worth a listen for people working in any walk of education.

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk

Links:

Zach’s podcast

Zach’s blog

Roshenshine’s Principles of Instruction

THAT Kirschner, Sweller and Clark paper

Zach’s conversation with Gene Tavernetti

In this episode I’m speaking with Sarah Donarski. Sarah is a Head Of English Department, PGCE & NQT mentor, speaker, blogger, researcher and author of The researchED Guide to Assessment. I recently relistened to an episode of Craig Barton’s Tips for Teachers with Sarah and immediately jotted down a number of questions and I had about assessment in English, which she has been kind enough to come on and answer.

We discuss:

1. What final or summative assessments should look like in a KS3 department

2. Whether teachers should ever give grades and if so, when and why?

3. What should feedback look like at KS3?

4. How should students follow up on feedback?

5. The 'novice / rote / inflexible / flexible' spectrum of knowledge

6. And finally, Sarah’s favorite things about having studied in Australia and formerly working in an IB school.

Thanks again to Sarah for not only contributing to the online discussions around assessment but also evidence informed professional development more broadly.

If you want to be kept up to date on when educational chat like this happens, then be sure to subscribe to the podcast and/or follow me on Twitter @chrisjordanhk

Links:

Sarah’s book, edited for ResearchED