Let’s Think in English blog
This page features news from the Let’s Think in English team, and blog posts from our wider community of schools.
The Mirror: Effective Professional Development
The argument for continuing professional development Education Policy Institute (EPI) undertook a detailed review of the evidence on the impact of teacher professional development. The report examined 52 randomised controlled trials evaluating teacher development programmes, in order to establish their impact on pupil and teacher outcomes. Unsurprisingly, they found continuing…
Our submission to the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group
Parliament has set up an All-Party Group of MPs to take evidence and make recommendations about the need for better oracy education in England’s schools. Here is our submission to them. Let’s Think in English This submission is on behalf of Let’s Think in English, one of the Cognitive Acceleration…
Our response to Ofsted’s consultation – and our worries
We took part in three responses to Ofsted about its new Inspection Framework. In all three we supported Ofsted’s closer focus on the curriculum because it will move inspectors’ attention away from data towards the reality of what is happening in classrooms. Inspectors are already talking more to teachers, middle…
Narrative Shapes. Lesson Six: “The Maker”
From a focus on six word short stories and classification the Year 6 class moved on to narrative sequencing in a film, considering the story mountain as a model and narrative shape. Narrative sequencing in Let’s Think in English involves: “…the ability to sequence and re-sequence events to create narratives…
Writing Less and Thinking More: Lesson 5: Classification
Writing Less and Thinking More: Lesson 5: Classification and Six Word short stories. It would seem from pupils’ responses during Let’s Think in English lessons that they have previously been provided with definitions of literary terms e.g. genre, sonnet, etc, but are infrequently provided with an opportunity to apply the…
Creating challenge through ranking: Lesson Four “Terrible Things”
Let’s Think in English uses low floor and high ceiling activities that help to develop reasoning. One such task is central to the fourth lesson I explored with the Pakeman Year 6 class: ranking. Pupils studied Eve Bunting’s “Terrible Things” which is an allegory of the Holocaust. However, we make…
Responsive Teaching in LTE: The Black Hole Lesson 3
This blog post looks at the ongoing development of cognition in a Year 6 class. This third post is an exploration of "responsive" teaching in LTE with a particular focus on when to provide opportunities for social construction and group size. Responsive Teaching: Lesson Three: The Black Hole. The Black…
Ripples of reading in LTE: Voices Lesson Two
This blog post looks at the ongoing development of cognition in a Year 6 class in their second LTE lesson of the year and the impact of multiple rereading of a text. Let’s Think in English Lesson 2: Voices in the Park You’ll recall from the previous blog post I…
Voices in the Park: Starting a year of LTE teaching and reflection
Voices in the Park: Starting a year of LTE teaching and reflection Lesson One: Voices in the Park NB: There are online versions of the story for those who are unfamiliar with the text. However, in the first LTE lesson the pupils are presented with the text only (in four…
Let’s Think in English: A House of Possibility
In this month’s blog post, Leah Crawford, LTE Associate Tutor and Hampshire Network Lead, shares her experiences with LTE and its impact upon the teachers she’s trained. Leah explores how LTE supports teachers development of subject knowledge, reasoning, self-efficacy and self-regulation. I came across the Let’s Think in English programme…
A teacher’s reflection on LTE
As promised, this is the first of our teachers’ accounts of their experiences with Let’s Think in English. Sarah Cunningham is a Year 6 teacher in Berrywood Primary School, Hampshire. She attended a 6 days training course led by Leah Crawford (Hampshire LTE Tutor) and me over 2 years…
Brave New Blog
Laurie and I have considered the role and purpose of the LTE blog over the last year. There are many excellent education blogs where an individual shares their thoughts and experiences however an LTE blog seems to require a different structure and many different voices. Laurie and I developed LTE…
