Sam Gibbs - Curriculum / Development Leader for The Greater Manchester Education Trust and Author - Manchester

In this episode I’m talking with Sam Gibbs. Sam is a former English teacher and curriculum / development leader for a school trust in Manchester. Additionally, she co-authored the brilliant The Trouble with English and How to Address It: A Practical Guide to Designing and Delivering a Concept-Led Curriculum.

As we go onto discuss, making the shift to concept-led curriculum in English is a paradigm shift that ensures deeper learning for students. Consequently, Sam and Zoe’s book offers an excellent introduction to this change as well as practical advice for how to go about doing it.

We discuss:

• How Sam advises on starting the shift to a concept-led curriculum

• Whether she suggests teachers start by exploring foundation concepts initially before then bringing in second-order ideas over time

• Examples of how schools have taken on the concept-led curriculum and subsequently tried to build in assessment

• Whether 'argument' is a foundational concept of English

• And finally, the difference between 'structure' and 'pattern' as concepts

Thanks again to Sam for giving up her time today as well as the amazing work she and Zoe Helman have done in bringing this book to the subject.

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Links:

Sam and Zoe’s book: The Trouble with English and How to Address It