This is a book about teaching, but it is not a manual on how to teach. It is a book about ideas, but not ideological. It is a book about thinking and questioning and challenging, but it also attempts some possible answers.
Intelligent Accountability discusses two opposed models of school improvement: the deficit model (which assumes problems are someone's fault) and the surplus model (which assumes problems are unintended systemic flaws).
What is English as a school subject for? What does knowledge look like in English and what should be taught? Making Meaning in English examines the broader purpose and reasons for teaching English and explores what knowledge looks like in a subject concerned with judgement, interpretation and value. David Didau argues that the content of English is best explored through distinct disciplinary lenses - metaphor, story, argument, pattern, grammar and context - and considers the knowledge that needs to be explicitly taught so students can recognise, transfer, build and extend their knowledge of English. He discusses the principles and tools we can use to make decisions about what to teach and offers a curriculum framework that draws these strands together to allow students to make sense of the knowledge they encounter. If students are going to enjoy English as a subject and do well in it, they not only need to be knowledgeable, but understand how to use their knowledge to create meaning. This insightful text offers a practical way for teachers to construct a curriculum in which the mastery of English can be planned, taught and assessed.
This book builds on David Didau’s groundbreaking book Making Meaning in English by showing how the principles of the original book can be applied in schools and classrooms. It offers a fully resourced English curriculum packed with teaching suggestions and examples of high-quality practice.