David Didau - How to assess in middle school English - Somerset
In this episode I’m speaking to David Didau. David is a well-known and well-respected consultant in the world of English teaching and teaching more broadly. He has authored numerous books about education and the subject of English more specifically. Most recently, his book Bringing the English Curriculum to Life: A Field Guide for Making Meaning in English, with contributions from Claire Woozley, James Hibbert, Emma Levins, Kate Moloney, Tom Pinkstone, Amy Rose and Daniel Blackburn, has helped to outline how cognitive science and a concept-led English curriculum can be implemented in secondary schools.
David is an educational hero of mine and as such it was a great privilege to speak with him again, this time on the topic of assessment in middle school English.
We discuss:
- Whether discussing themes is more suited to PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) as opposed to the English curriculum
- How mastery assessment works and the way it shifts focus onto good teaching and learning
- The amount of question level analysis needed and conditions assessments are done in
- Whether there needs to be opportunities for kids to ‘play the whole game’ in English
- What the data collected reflects about students’ learning through the external summatives done
- And since writing Making Meaning in English, is there anything David has changed his mind about
Thanks again to David for taking the time to talk with me as well as his continued work within the subject. For me, all of this has helped English teachers better understand how the curriculum could look and how best to enact it in truly practical ways.
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