Making Meaning in English : Exploring the Role of Knowledge in the English Curriculum

"What is English as a school subject for? What does knowledge look like in English and what should be taught? Making Meaning in English examines the broader purpose and reasons for teaching English and explores what knowledge looks like in a subject concerned with judgement, interpretation and value. David Didau argues that the content of English is best explored through distinct disciplinary lenses - metaphor, story, argument, pattern, grammar and context - and considers the knowledge that needs to be explicitly taught so students can recognise, transfer, build and extend their knowledge of English. He discusses the principles and tools we can use to make decisions about what to teach and offers a curriculum framework that draws these strands together to allow students to make sense of the knowledge they encounter. If students are going to enjoy English as a subject and do well in it, they not only need to be knowledgeable, but understand how to use their knowledge to create meaning. This insightful text offers a practical way for teachers to construct a curriculum in which the mastery of English can be planned taught and assessed"-- Provided by publisher Cover Endorsement Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of contents Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction A guide to Making Meaning 1 What is English for? Has English lost its way? How did we get here? The Newbolt Report The humanising effects of English The Bullock Report Back to basics The National Curriculum The effects of Ofsted Gove’s reforms Where are we now? Further reading 2 Problems in English We can’t teach skill; we can only teach knowledge Problems with reading Strategies not skills Problems with writing Cargo cult writing Developing stamina The capital letter problem The clockwork curriculum The history lesson problem The problem with knowledge organisers Further reading 3 An epistemology of English The struggle for an epistemology of English Substantive and disciplinary knowledge Propositional and procedural knowledge Tacit knowledge Chunking procedures Powerful knowledge Ways of making meaning in English Further reading 4 Noticing and analogising Noticing Analogising Noticing and analogising in practice Grasping the world and changing it Further reading 5 Metaphor What makes a metaphor? Metaphors within words and as words Systematic metaphors Noticing metaphor The ‘major tropes’ Simile Personification Metonymy Irony Noticing extended metaphors Conceit Symbolism Allegory Motif Metaphor and pragmatics Teaching metaphor Further reading 6 Story Causality Telling it slant How stories are made Plot Unity Tragedy Comedy The basic plot structures Narrative structure Character Characterisation Flaw and façade Thought: speech Internal thought Theme Teaching story Further reading 7 Argument Rhetoric Invention Arrangement Decorum Dialogue, dialectic and debate Conversation Argument and poetry Precision, clarity and economy Teaching argument The thesis statement Marking discourse Nominalisation Further reading 8 Pattern Noticing sound Meaning in sound Anaphora Alliteration Noticing rhyme Rhyme schemes End-stopping Internal rhyme Slant rhyme Eye rhyme Noticing metre Iambic pentameter Enjambment and caesura What’s the stress? Anapests Dactyls Form The sonnet Form in fiction Teaching pattern Further reading 9 Grammar Spontaneous grammar Morphology Syntax Noticing grammar What grammar should we teach? Prescriptive grammar Descriptive grammar Teaching determiners and noun phrases Teaching conjunctions: and & but Teaching active and passive sentences Grammar through content and content through grammar Further reading 10 Context Knowledge in action “There are no wrong answers” The role of theory The canon Critiquing the canon Decolonising the curriculum Intertextuality Further reading 11 Connecting the curriculum Art is long and time is short Curriculum as a conversation Quality (1): Is it powerful? Quality (2): Is it shared? Choosing texts Quantity: breadth versus depth Manner: critique and conversation Relatedness: hierarchical and cumulative sequencing The story of English Further reading 12 Into action The map is not the territory Year 7: The origins of English Year 8: The development of form Year 9: Into the world Assuring the curriculum 1607928148285_152 Bibliography Index