How does a English teacher transform professional learning into great classroom practice? How do you take a set text, pick the bits that are going to engage your students and prepare them for what comes next? From medieval Icelandic sagas to Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, Dan joins Julie to talk about how deep reading, writing, and meaningful classroom encounters help students grow and keep teachers loving what they do.

Dan has taught English in public schools for most of this century and long enough to know the essentials don’t change – fads, policies and strategies notwithstanding. He is trepidatious about each new syllabus and prescribed book lists (especially if they prevent him teaching Hamlet), but he’ll work with them because he loves good books and thinks we have a duty to share them with children. He also loves the way languages work, Shakespeare, and all things Icelandic.

Show notes:

Dan learnt a lot from The Secret of Literacy: Making the Implicit, Explicit by David Didau and Reading to Learn

Dan spoke extensively about teaching Hannah Kent's Burial Rites

Dan’s next read is The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (with Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko still waiting patiently on the shelf)

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