Leigh in Azerbaijan

This piece of research from the University of Canterbury’s School of Literacies and Arts in Education (NZ) seems to show that viewing DVDs with subtitles is very effective at assisting remedial readers. “Struggling readers who took part in the programme improved their reading age by 1.2 years in just six weeks.”  [...]

[Read more]

I’m increasingly convinced that the most important things my grade 5 students learn do not include subject content.  I reckon it does include attitudes, conflict management, time-management, self-confidence, seeing themselves as learners…  That’s not to discount the value of curriculum, but learning to learn and gaining life-skills are probably even more important.
Last year we had [...]

[Read more]

Part of the Edinburgh free walking tour included some J.K. Rowling sites that are sacred for the young reader.

The Elephant House cafe was the venue where the struggling JK Rowling went to write the first Harry Potter book.  Going there meant that she didn’t have to heat her flat.

This shot of The Elephant House cafe [...]

[Read more]

At Greyfriar’s church, in Edinburgh, just behind The Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling worked on the first Harry Potter book, there is an ancient graveyard full of stories. One of them is about the death of a policeman John Grey and his loyal Skye terrier Bobby who remained at the grave for fourteen years.
This film [...]

[Read more]