The English Miscellany

Time to take the Book Challenge. Please post comments and suggestion below, or use Twitter #bookchallenge Which book is most often stolen from a library? Is it possible to be poisoned by a book? How much did it cost to produce the world's most expensive book? What was Shakespeare's best insult? Who invented science fiction, or fantasy? When was the world's first novel written? What's the funniest moment in literature? Which book has the best opening line? What's the longest book ever written? Who is the world's best selling writer, alive or dead? Who is the most famous/infamous fictional woman to appear in a story? When was the first comic strip published? Who wrote the world's first romance? When was the world's first recipe book composed? Who was the world's most prolific author? Who invented young adult fiction? Which book has caused the most trouble? Who is the most liked/hated superhero?  Who was the world's slowest ...

The Place to find Exam Skills at work I hope that your exams (and your results day) have not been as traumatic as mine were at school. I still have minor nightmares about that day! In this blog, I take a look at the reasons behind exam success and failure. If you are coming to this blog having faced disappointment, do not despair. Help is at hand. There is a lot that you can learn in order to improve your performance . This blog will help you to start that journey I will be sharing my pesonal experiences, but you will also find that the research is informed by professional experience, rather than irrelevant educational theories. In my experience of 30 years of teaching English in Schools and in the University sector,  these are the most common reasons for poor results: 1.    Anxiety based on lack of confidence, poor planning and fear of the unknown 2.    Lack of familiarity with past exam questions 3.    Poor me...

In A Manual of the Art of Prose Composition: For the Use of Colleges and Schools (1867), John Mitchell Bonnell explained the value of Extemporaneous Composition;   Debating by the Class; and proposed a list of topics for debate. This is an extract from his book. The following list presents a few of the questions that afford good fields for debate. Does wealth exert more influence than intelligence? Should a criminal be capitally condemned on circumstantial evidence? Are banks more beneficial than injurious? Ought military schools to be encouraged? Should colleges be endowed? Did the French revolution advance the cause of liberty in Europe? Is there any real danger of the over-population of the globe? Is country life more favourable to the cultivation of virtue than life in a city? Is history a more useful study than biography? Is ambition more destructive of personal happiness than avarice? Is it the duty of good ...

Boys are underperforming by 10% or more, compared to girls' literacy. My experience working with boys and adolescents (9-15) in the last year has taught me that they do not have an insurmountable problem with reading or writing. But far too often they are being forced to answer tedious comprehension questions. Or they are pushed into commenting critically on subjects that do not relate at all to their interests. Research shows that often boys visualize reading as a female activity. So some of the problems are part of the current culture and construction of reading as an activity. At first, the key to success, in my view, is to work with their existing interests. That means that you need to find out what fires their imagination. In an overcrowded classroom that is sometimes difficult, and there is a tendency for the whole class to work on the same topics such as "Africa," or "Environment," or "Superheroes." The young people I've worked wi...

Why are boys underperforming in English classes? I am frequently dissatisfied with the resources on, and approaches to, Creative Writing in the Classroom. Five of the Problems: 1. Traditional writing exercises are predictable and dull: e.g. Describe an interesting encounter Make a story based on an overheard conversation Write on a topic chosen by the teacher Do a 60 minute exam essay. 2. Negative criticism from teachers just makes us feel embarrassed and reminds us of our sense of inadequacy. None the less, some creative productions are better than others, and children can be trusted to see this for themselves! 3. The disobedient curriculum. The creative activities outlined were exercises in being grammatical and were not a spelling test. It's so easy to pick on the tick and the cross, the right and the wrong. We need quality of expression rather than quantification of results. 4. There is a gender gap in English studies that needs to be ad...