I'm delighted to share that our new book, Teaching Shakespeare in Primary Schools: All the World's a Stage (David Fulton publishers) is due out in September 2021. The book, written together with Maureen Kucharczyk, is an essential guide for battling the Bard with primary school learners. First a confession: we are not Shakespeare scholars, nor do we have a background in the dramatic arts. Instead, we are teachers with a love for Shakespeare. Yet we both felt that a suitable, beginners guide to teaching Shakespeare with primary children didn't exist. So we set out to write the book that we wished we had been given at the start of our teaching careers. Yes, we've both overcome bad memories of learning Shakespeare at school. That is why we adopt a creative, flexible and child-centred approach to teaching Shakespeare. If you've always wanted to give Shakespeare a go but don't know where to start, this is the book for you. Here's a quick summary of what's in...

Drama is an integral component of primary English teaching. It is the engine that drives creative responses to stories, helping children explore characters, settings and predicaments. Yet the primary National Curriculum for England (DfE, 2013) makes scant reference to drama. Some generic guidance indicates the importance of speaking, listening and performing although these points are both too obvious and too generalised to be useful to teachers and subject coordinators hoping to embed drama across the whole school. When writing our forthcoming book, Teaching Shakespeare in Primary Schools: All the World's a Stage (Routledge, David Fulton, 2021), both Maureen and I felt that whole-school drama guidance for primary teachers - so integral to teaching Shakespeare's plays - was notably lacking from online resources currently available (apologies if you have produced such a document but we could not find it!). We decided to compile our own. In fact, you may have found this blog post...

A treat for the final half term - a new workshop at a delightful school in Leeds! This half term I am working with two Year 5 teachers to develop a cross-year group, cross-curricular writing project based on my favourite picture book, Armin Greder's The Island . I've done this book many times and every time the response is different! This week, we got to grips with the facts, possibilities and mysteries of the story. What do we know about the story so far? (we only ever read up to page 6 to leave it on a knife edge...) What doesn't this story tell us and what could we infer or predict?     We looked at the crowd of islanders who 'welcome' the stranger's arrival. As in every class, country or community, no group ever sees the world the same way and we discussed how the islanders might react differently to the man. Is he a poor thing who needs to be rescued? Is he a curiosity? Is he a threat? We each adopted an islander and took on their perspective f...

George Lucas (yes mom, the guy who directed Star Wars) talks here about how the school system in America is obsessed with teaching the 'grammar' of communication and how the arts, drama, cinema and music are labelled as 'creative fun'. He's spot on. ARTiculate workshops help children understand how ideas can be communicated in ways additional to writing. Click here to see the creative literacy workshops I offer.     

As you probably heard on BBC 1 this morning, this week, ARTiculate has launched its new weekly-ish bulletin with ideas for creative literacy teaching. It made the Big News, right? If not, here is what I have for you this week: Exploring a Quality Text -  Little Beauty  by Anthony Browne Everything we do at ARTiculate is built around good quality texts. Story telling is a great way to draw children (and adults) into discussions about powerful issues and ideas. One such great text is  Little Beauty  by Anthony Browne. Here, we are allowed to peep through the bars at a 'special' zoo - home to a talented but miserable gorilla. He seems to have everything a primate could wish for but with one exception... a friend. This curious tale throws up important questions about need vs want, the nature of happiness as well as the treatment of animals by humans.  A  'Have You Tried?'  ideas sheet for Little Beauty can be found here . This resource...

This week, ARTiculate is launching a weekly-ish bulletin from ARTiculate Education where I aim to push great ideas for creative literacy your way. Like a pygmy, crocodile plumber, the bulletin will be short, snappy and useful. I will point you towards books that are perfect for you and the classes you teach, some helpful planning ideas, videos, examples of work, details of new workshops I offer and so on that might give you great ideas for teaching effective, creative literacy. Heck, I might even chuck in the odd cat picture. If you teach primary school aged children already, are a student working in education or if you were cleaning the tables and signed up for this by accident, there will almost certainly be something in this for you to use now or in the future. To sign up, click here and send a blank email - I'll add you to the list.

Week 2: A good author gets into the mind of his characters. The man who arrives on the island is a nobody. We don't where he is from, or how he came to be on the mysterious island. We don't even know his name. The information gaps in this story are seemingly waiting to be filled and drama and imaginative discussion are the key ways to deepen and shape a child's understanding of the man and his situation. This week's workshop explored the man's origins . How has he come to arrive on this island on his flimsy little raft? He's an escaped prisoner! A castaway! A fisherman swept out to see! A man on a secret mission! He is a refugee from a war-torn land! He was sent away like Moses in a basket! He is simply searching for a new, better life! We then used hot-seating and interviews to develop these ideas with the children playing the exhausted, weary man just after his arrival. One question leads to another... Where did the raft come from? What ...

Creative Literacy Workshop: The DIY Writer Friday 13 th February 2015 A satisfying and engaging morning with teachers from local primary schools talking through the processes that support children’s development in writing. The group got to grips with talk as a basis for writing, explored their artistic response to a book and saw how model texts can help children shape their own compositions. Thank you to all who took part for your enthusiasm, positive child-centred attitude and for making it such a fun morning! I am delighted the staff found it useful and gave some great feedback: “[The session gave me] lots of ideas I can take home and implement next term.” Michelle, Teacher “I will be changing my practise so the provision for children is better.” Bryan, Teacher “Lots of ideas about how to use picture books and ways of breaking down modeled writing.” Calum, Teacher Y3 “Inspiring ideas.” Ali, Teaching Assistant “Very insp...

Our first workshop started yesterday with children from a Year 4 class from an inner-city primary school in Leeds. The ' On the Outside ' workshop is a six week masterclass in developing creativity through art and writing and is built around The Island a captivating picture book by Armin Greder. The children loved it and reflected that they had learned lots of new things in such a short space of time. Roll on next week! Follow the 'WORKSHOPS' tab to find details of this session.

Want to open young minds to creative thinking? How about creative 'doing'? Even better, what about creative 'being'!?  Asking learners to be creative is one thing, but teaching them to think, act and be creative is quite another.  The ARTiculate project draws together literature, drama and the arts to show children that the creative processes behind writing, being artistic and performing are very similar. Once learned they can show a learner how to dance the steps of creativity, unlocking their potential and removing barriers of fear and lack of confidence.   Take a look around this blog to see how ARTiculate can help your child, class or school do just that!