BOOKS READ I spent the holiday period (December and January) perusing everyone’s ‘best of 2019’ lists (especially in the Guardian, the New York Times and the NZ Listener) and reading the novels that ‘crossed over’ many of these lists. In all, I read 13 novels in this period. My favourites, by far, were all by American writers and two of … Read More
The beginning of the school year fast looms and, like all teachers, I am getting ready for it. Almost all working days for the year have been allocated already and I am now taking tentative bookings for 2021. During 2020 I will be undertaking in-depth LPD projects (mostly around writing) in 17 schools around New Zealand: 6 in Auckland 1 … Read More
Jimmy, a Year 6 boy of Samoan heritage, is currently achieving one curriculum level below national expectations for Year 6. He declares emphatically that he doesn’t like writing and says that “It’s boring” and he doesn’t see “any point” to it. So how do you go about inspiring an under-achieving year 6 writer? Chris Kell, his teacher at Ranui Primary … Read More
Suzanne Francis runs a Reception class at Stanmore Bay School, Auckland and currently has 25 students in her room. She gets a new intake of students at the beginning of each term. In the term that her students are with her, she works hard at preparing them for the long-term literacy learning journey that they will embarking upon. As well … Read More
I spent most of October reading the six short-listed novels for the 2019 Man Booker Prize: ‘The Testaments’ (Margaret Atwood); ‘Ducks, Newburyport’ (Lucy Ellmann); ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ (Bernadine Evaristo); ‘An Orchestra of Minorities’ (Chigozie Obioma); ‘Quichotte’ ( Salman Rushdie); ‘10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World’ (Elif Shafak). I commented on some of these in my last book blog, … Read More