This blog is the first of three on talking, reading and writing in science. Students like to talk. Even in…
Teaching Reading Comprehension – Which Texts Work?
Grant Wiggins is writing a great book on reading as blogs (here): each new chapter arrives in my inbox as he…
Science For Parents
Following a twitter query about school science events for parents from @paulcoxon and @drlucyrogers, I thought I’d share a text I wrote…
Of The Cells and Pores of Frothy Bodies
Science is a practical subject. It is also a literary subject. Reading science texts is important. It is the key…
A Hippo Banquet
Adapting Writers More Read About than Read Mary Kingsley, the Victorian scientific explorer and writer, is the subject of many Key…
Writing to Learn (not Learning to Write)
Writing is a process of deep thinking. It slows and clarifies thought: paragraph by paragraph; sentence by sentence; word by word.…
Finding Nonfiction Texts
I find it difficult to find the nonfiction text I want to use in class. I’m fussy, yes, but the…
Top Trump Assessment – What Reading Levels Can Tell Science Teachers
So, Mary is a level 4b reader…. Your year seven’s reading level is a little like a Top Trump score:…
Let Me Be The Judge Of That
Why wait to be told you need to change your practice, when you can do it yourself? For generations of teachers, the three…
A Pocketful of Proxies
Progress is in the air. If we could measure progress before it was too late, we could be far clearer about what…
Reading for Learning 