#barbara bleiman

[teacherscrapbook]

English and Media Centre (EMC) is an educational charity providing CPD and innovative & award-winning teaching materials to secondary Englis

[teacherscrapbook]

The truth is that the P in PEE, or PEEL, or PETAL or any other formula, has been sadly neglected. Points are what essays hinge on – having good, relevant and significant ideas to put across. Any old point won’t do, like noticing a tiny bit of alliteration in a poem, or making a big deal out of the use of caesura, stichomythia, iambic pentameter, enjambment when there are much more significant features leaping out at an expert reader. Latinate terms used only to prove that you know Latinate terms are worse than useless. The same is true of grammatical constructions, whether it’s a tricolon, or asyndeton. An exaggerated focus on the terms makes it highly likely that students will want to make sure they get them in, and end up talking about what is insignificant rather than what’s significant, often with no real thought about effect. It’s topsy-turvy. Observe something important and make a good point about it, don’t remember lots of terms and then search for examples in the text to show that you know the label.  If a term helps you to explain what you’ve observed, then brilliant! Terms, including Latinate ones, can be learned along the way, as a shorthand, to act in the service of ideas. In a nutshell, knowledge of terms and drilling in essay technique are irrelevant if students don’t understand what is significant about a text.

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/an-agenda-for-knowledge-organising-without-false-limits