Roy Cross's Blog

1. I should have included this one yesterday – sorry! The Hay Festival’s free Book of the Month event for July at 19:00 UK time today, 22^nd July, is Suzanne O’Sullivan’s The Sleeping Beauties (and other stories of mystery illness) https://www.hayfestival.com/p-17963-suzanne-osullivan-talks-to-rachel-clarke.aspx

 2. This one’s not easy reading, and I should maybe have saved it for the weekend, but here it is anyway: a free-to-download collection of ten of the ‘highest impact’ articles from International Affairs https://academic.oup.com/ia/pages/top_cited_papers I’ve presumed to download Joseph Nye’s article on The rise and fall of American hegemony from Wilson to Trump and you’ll find it below. Here’s the opening paragraph to give you the flavour: Americans often describe their place in the world as ‘exceptional’. As Stanley Hoffmann once pointed out, every country likes to think of itself as unique, but two stand out in their claim that their values are universal: France and the United States. France, however, was limited by the balance of power in Europe. Only the United States ‘has tried to develop foreign policies that reflect such exceptionalism’ and has had the scope conferred by sufficient power to take an original path in the international jungle.

3. Lots of captivating videos here of classrooms around the world from the OECD. Here’s one from Colombia on Starting the Lesson with an Energising Game https://www.globalteachinginsights.org/media/Starting+the+Lesson+with+an+Energising+Game/1_09b1ymwh/187561183 and here’s another, from Japan, on Monitoring Students and Pushing them Forward https://www.globalteachinginsights.org/media/Monitoring+Students+and+Pushing+them+Forward/1_cd39iz5r/187561183 Lots more here https://www.globalteachinginsights.org/observing

4. And, finally, see what you make of this, The Sun Sets Eight Times A Day https://eightsuns.online/ Scroll down for the instructions in English – if you need to!

1. I’ve mentioned Oxford University Press ‘position papers’ before. Here’s one on The Role of the First Language in English Medium Instruction https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/general_content/global/expert/oup-expert-english-medium-instruction.pdf?cc=us&selLanguage=en&mode=hub – PDF copy below – further below than I’d planned!

When I started teaching, the ‘direct method’ was at the height of its influence and the unthinking, evidence-free assumption would have been that there was absolutely no role for the learner’s first language in any foreign language classroom. But that was a while ago now …. Here’s a Wikipedia article (with ‘multiple issues’, alas!) on the Direct Method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_method_(education)

You can find all the OUP ‘position papers’ and ‘focus papers’ here https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/expert/?cc=us&selLanguage=en

2. Here’s a short video from the REAL Centre (Research for Equitable Access and Learning) at Cambridge University on The Economics and Politics of Educational Reform https://youtu.be/DOYzIztjM6E It forms part of a book written in memory of Christopher Colclough, Reforming Education and Challenging Inequalities in Southern Contexts: Research and Policy in International Development. A Tribute to Christopher Colclough, and you can find more videos and more info on the book here https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/real/publications/reformingeducationbook/ Copy of the presentation at the book launch below

3. Admitting to anxiety is never comfortable. Here’s another piece from Cambridge, an interview with researcher Olivia Remes, who’s just written The Instant Mood Fix https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/fightinganxiety and here’s her TEDx talk on How to cope with anxiety https://youtu.be/WWloIAQpMcQ

“Imagine”, she says, “there’s someone standing next to you all the time pointing out every! single! thing! you’re doing wrong. This is what millions of anxiety sufferers feel on a daily basis, and it’s awful.”

4. The week before last, I included what I uncritically described as a ‘thoughtful article’ on Artificial Intelligence and Education from the THE. Here’s an alternative view on that article from Michael Feldstein, which begins “This is an excellent article. I don’t mean that it is insightful or well-written. While it has its moments, overall, it’s an unenlightening mess wrapped in clickbait packaging. It is not good writing or good journalism. But it is a near-perfect illustration of how the popular representations of both artificial intelligence (AI) and cheating can be harmful” https://eliterate.us/ai-cheating-and-the-future-of-work/ And here’s that THE link again, just in case https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/does-rise-ai-spell-end-education

5. This week’s phobia? Porphyrophobia – not a good one to suffer from in the UK at present with all the lavender in full bloom!

1. The Climate Connection podcast is proving very popular. Episode 5, explaining why every child should bring their own plant to school and with a report from the Hands Up project in Palestine, is now available https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/climate-connection-episode-5-greenhouse-classes PDFs of episode notes and transcript below.

2. The final event in the Teachers AHEAD project, Inclusion Beyond Borders, will take place this Saturday, 24^th July, starting at 09:30 UK time. The project seeks “to foster innovation, economic growth and progress, promote digital citizenship and draw attention to knowledge sources for skills required by new professions of tomorrow”. More info and registration here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inclusion-beyond-borders-tickets-161516172219 and here’s the Teachers AHEAD website http://iclasse.eu/ahead/

3. The next webinar in the Language and Sustainable Development webinar series will take place on the 23rd of July at 12:00 UK time, when Kate Spowage will present Prosperity and Exploitation: Language and Sociolinguistic Structure in Capitalist Rwanda. PDF of abstract below, and you can register for the webinar here https://essex-university.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUtdemurTIqGNVA48IdZFUSsLr5fI-H9g_p Fair to say, I think, that this would seem to be a more than usually politically engaged event.

4. And, finally, to even things up Obama-wise after Barack Obama and Marcus Rashford last Tuesday, here’s Michelle Obama discussing Education & Self-Belief with pupils and staff from a London secondary school https://youtu.be/k6KSiZ2KA8s

1. The Olympics start on Friday, almost spectator-free, and the sport karate will be included – to my surprise – for the first time ever. Here’s a good long (free) read from The Smithsonian magazine on the history and traditions of the sport, not all of them as old as one might imagine https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/centuries-old-sport-karate-history-olympics-180977941/

2. Even though we have ample supplies of vaccine here in UK, unlike many other countries around the world, we still face a challenge getting young people to get vaccinated. We all thought we were immortal when we were younger? Maybe! The Young Scot organisation have produced a short set of video interviews https://youtu.be/wZ4WFgy7B1o and a matching article to encourage vaccination https://young.scot/get-informed/national/young-people-tell-us-why-they-re-getting-a-covid-19-vaccine This is another of those ones where I blithely observe there’s a lesson in there somewhere!

3. A recent report from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) on Cognitive Science Approaches in the Classroom investigated approaches to teaching and learning inspired by cognitive science that are commonly used in the classroom, with a particular focus on acquiring and retaining knowledge https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/evidence-reviews/cognitive-science-approaches-in-the-classroom/

PDFs of three documents below: the summary version (which is itself over 50 pages long), the full 372-page version and …. a one-page summary of the summary!

4. And, finally, courtesy of my colleague Simon, ten more extraordinary cricket catches https://youtu.be/fDhNfxxAzLs

1. This one’s not light reading – thanks, Amy! – but will repay a half-hour’s quiet attention, Ofsted’s review of research into factors that can affect the quality of education in languages, “its purpose to identify factors that contribute to high-quality school languages curriculums, assessment, pedagogy and systems”. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-research-review-series-languages

PDF below, if that’s easier than reading online.

2. This one’s also more of a weekend read with a cup of coffee, the British Council’s fifth annual report on how young people in thirty-six countries round the world view their own countries and the United Kingdom, Global Britain: the UK’s soft power advantage https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/global_britain_the_uks_soft_power_advantage_report.pdf Trust in government is diminishing it seems … PDF below.

3. Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday only, The Lisbon Players perform Offstage Stories: the stories of eight people intimately connected with theatre – a cleaner, a critic, an accompanist, a wardrobe mistress, a stage manager, a set designer, a stage-hand and an actor. More info here (scroll right down to book a free ticket) https://lisbonplayers.com.pt/box-office/ Thanks, Karl!

4. And, finally, a simply staggering catch from Indian cricketer Harleen Deol https://youtu.be/SakX1XtRaAU

For those of you less familiar with cricket, the catch would have been ruled invalid if she’d crossed the boundary with the ball, so, with extraordinary presence of mind, she leaves the ball behind on the field of play (in the air), crosses the boundary and returns in time to catch the ball again before it hits the ground. Stunning!

1. More on the interface between the hands and the brain, from my colleague Robin in Tokyo https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-athletes-way/202107/touch-typing-may-unclamp-the-brain-and-promote-flow-state

Never having learnt to touch type remains one of the embarrassments of my life when working in an open-plan office; I can batter my keyboard at home as much as I like.

2. This is currently the most popular article on one stop English, and it’s clearly fulfilling a need https://www.onestopenglish.com/support-for-teaching-grammar/comparative-and-superlative-adjectives-article/144846.article

3. Not sure this converts into a lesson, but it’s a powerful, sombre read by the Uyghur poet Tahir Hamut Izgil https://www.theatlantic.com/the-uyghur-chronicles/

4. And, finally, Mexican music from Luz Negra https://youtu.be/OpXvKvhoaK8 (but I think I liked uKhoiKhoi from Zambia best).

1. When I was in primary school, handwriting was a very big deal – we spent hours practising our letters. Years of keyboard work later, I can now hardly write a legible sentence. Just as well I learnt to read before I lost the ability to write, it seems, according to this article on the ScienceAlert website  https://www.sciencealert.com/handwriting-is-better-than-typing-when-learning-to-read-study-finds

Here’s a piece on The Importance of Teaching Handwriting from the Reading Rockets website https://www.readingrockets.org/article/importance-teaching-handwriting

2. Here’s a free set of learning materials from Nik Peachey, Image Scenarios – The Phone Call, designed to enable students to develop influencing skills and deal with unpredictable situations https://payhip.com/b/fS8K Enter the code PHONE to get them free.

3. Last thing on football for this month, promise, without further comment: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/13/england-euro-2020-chaos-wembley-european-press-review

4. This week’s phobia, courtesy of my colleague Marta, is the self-fulfilling hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – nothing to do with hippopatam(i)(uses)!

5. And, finally, now I’ve run out of Zambian music, here’s Efe Ce Ele from Argentina https://youtu.be/bq1jPwjJ92s

1. UnHerd is new to me https://unherd.com/ If you’re pushed for time, all its articles are tagged with how long they take to read! It has an ambitious mission:

UnHerd aims to do two things: to push back against the herd mentality with new and bold thinking, and to provide a platform for otherwise unheard ideas, people and places. We think this approach is more needed than ever. Societies across the West are divided and stuck, and the established media is struggling to make sense of what’s happening. The governing ideologies of the past generation are too often either unquestioningly defended or rejected wholesale. It’s easy and safe to be in one or other of these two camps – defensive liberal or angry reactionary – but UnHerd is trying to do something different, and harder.

Good luck, UnHerd!

2. Not a MOOC from FutureLearn this time but a blog post instead – on Freedom of Speech https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog/freedom-of-speech I could see it forming the basis of a good lesson for senior school and university students.

3. Marcus Rashford was one of the England players who missed a penalty at the end of the Euro 2020 final and has since been shamefully, disgracefully, appallingly, deeply depressingly vilified by racist England ‘supporters’. I’ve attached copies of his Twitter response below.

As this short video with Barrack Obama shows, Rashford is a remarkably mature young man, who’s achieved more positive social change in his young life than most people three times his age, including changing UK government policy on free school meals last year https://youtu.be/BhQ2ODFmeT4

He’s also just founded the Marcus Rashford Book Club, to help young people between 8 and 12 years old learn to read, and written a positive and inspiring guide for life for young readers, You are a Champion: how to be the best you can be. I have three copies of his book to give away – send me a message by 20^th July if you’d like your name to be in the hat! Photo of the book cover below.

4. And, finally, more great music from Zambia, from uKhoiKhoi at this year’s (online) Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: https://youtu.be/eBPvncHlPSE Hope you’re reading to the end, George Kanyama!

1. The Teacher Tapp app allows teachers to share thoughts and opinions by answering three short multiple-choice questions sent to their phone at 3:30 pm each day. Answers are collated and the findings shared. The idea’s a good and simple one. It’s primarily intended for UK schools but they’re now opening up to other countries.

Here’s more info on the app https://teachertapp.co.uk/who-is-the-app-for/ and here’s the most recent blog post, summarising recent findings https://teachertapp.co.uk/how-are-schools-organising-self-isolation-this-and-other-findings/

2. New guidance was recently issued by the UK Department (Ministry) for Education on The reading framework: teaching the foundations of literacy https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-reading-framework-teaching-the-foundations-of-literacy

You can’t really argue with the introductory paragraph: Reading is fundamental to education. Proficiency in reading, writing and spoken language is vital for pupils’ success. Through these, they develop communication skills for education and for working with others: in school, in training and at work. Pupils who find it difficult to learn to read are likely to struggle across the curriculum, since English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching. This is why the government is committed to continuing to raise standards of literacy for all.

PDFs below of the whole thing and the introduction only.

3. The second webinar in the TeachingEnglish series on using literature with young learners and teenagers, Using children’s literature as mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors in primary ELT, is presented by David Valente at 12:00 UK time this coming Wednesday, 14^th July. More info and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/using-childrens-literature-mirrors-windows-sliding-glass-doors-primary-elt

I hope some of you managed to catch today’s webinar with Gail Ellis and Tatia Gruenbaum on using picture books!

4. And, finally, how about a set from ‘Zamrock legends’ Witch? https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/witch-2nd-july-2021

1. ReadListenLearn have added comprehension questions to some of their stories, most of which already have an audio version https://readlistenlearn.net/en

Here’s a science fiction story, The Ablest Man in the World, by Edward Page Mitchell, a one-eyed writer I’d never heard of till earlier this afternoon! https://app.readlistenlearn.net/articles/the-ablest-man-in-the-world

2. Here’s Alexandra Mihai’s latest blog post, ePortfolio: a student-centred learning space https://educationalist.substack.com/p/eportfolio-a-student-centred-learning As ever, lots of references and links to follow.

What is an ePortfolio exactly? Alexandra defines it as a “personal learning space”, “a collection of materials that documents student accomplishments. Unlike an analogue portfolio, a digital portfolio allows for the inclusion of different media (video, audio, infographics, etc.), thereby providing students with various means of expression as well as the possibility to easily connect resources and ideas.”

3. Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) films “tackle a whole host of subject matters, all inspired by strong human stories.” There’s ever such a lot to explore here in the film archive: https://www.scottishdocinstitute.com/films/?category=stories&opportunities=&duration=&order=DESC

Try this one https://www.scottishdocinstitute.com/films/beautiful-dreams/

4. And, finally, the latest MARSM playlist, #38: A Taste Of Music From Ammanhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlA3v8gHbQc1nMGPShyg0UqW0JnSOta73