Diving BellApr 171 minVisit The Craft of Writing BlogHSC English Module C 'The Craft of Writing' continues to perplex students about the nature and possibilities of such weird animals as...
Diving BellJan 26, 20213 minICT, Wisdom and the Satisfaction of ResearchOne of the big tasks of Term 1 is checking on the progress of senior research projects. Have students thought about them over the...
Diving BellMay 26, 20203 minAsk for power words, not techniquesWhenever you put your foot on the accelerator, there's a bang from the engine as the car goes forward. You take it to the mechanic, and...
Diving BellMay 17, 20203 minCraft of Writing: mixed mode responsesA mullet: the ultimate mixed mode response It's ok to mix modes in your writing. Most speech isn't purely one thing or another: in the...
Diving BellMay 13, 20203 minTheorizing Advanced Module AOften we move straight into the study of the texts themselves in Module A without thinking about influence and intertextuality...
Diving BellMay 5, 20203 minBut is it beautiful?In the language of pandemic, the HSC Advanced Module B rubric says that students will develop 'detailed analytical and critical...
Diving BellMar 24, 20202 minNew times, new text typesLike most pessimists, I perk up in times of despair. There's endless opportunities to say I told you so, and as standards become...
Diving BellMar 16, 20203 minWhere's the argument?Writing about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the historian Geoffrey Roberts says that On the Soviet side the pact emerged from a process of...
Diving BellMar 10, 20202 minWhat even is...a value?This week I discovered the value of a school blazer: it clearly tells kids what the school values. 'Truth, Justice, and Diddling the Tax...
Diving BellMar 3, 20202 minWhat even is 'representation'?Students often seem to stumble on essay questions which ask them to consider 'the representation' of something. In the previous...
Diving BellFeb 25, 20205 minOpening êthos: how historians claim your trust In the last History post, I suggested that students can find traces of historians' very early schooling in the way they construct their...
Diving BellFeb 20, 20202 minPitching the conversation concept In this term's opening lesson on Module A: Textual Conversations, one student said 'Don't conversations involve both people taking turns?...
Diving BellFeb 11, 20202 minHistory Extension and Ancient SchoolingThe first topic of History Extension is easily my favourite thing to teach, because there's never a time I don't feel as if I'm teetering...
Diving BellFeb 4, 20202 minWhat even is textual integrity?When I came back to Australia from doing a DPhil in late medieval politics at Oxford and saw that English students were required to talk...
Diving BellJan 28, 20203 minWhat even IS analysis?Last week I asked what we did when we 'did' English. It had something to do with texts, reading, and meaning, I thought. Practically...
Diving BellJan 21, 20202 minWhat do we do when we do English?Last year I started by asking each year group that I teach 'What do we do here in English?' (for Year 7s, I asked 'What do you think...
Diving BellJan 14, 20203 minNew year, stronger skills?My professional weakness is graphic novels. I just hate them. I can’t see the point, and I don’t know what to do with them. I’m worried...
Diving BellNov 8, 20192 minA New OodgerooAs an immigrant to Australia (I'm white, so I gather I can call myself an immigrant, not the more PC 'migrant) I had no preconceived...
Diving BellAug 29, 20192 minStudent blog: Essays are not a flash mobWhat makes an argument? Connection, my little vegetables. Only Tinder users are hungrier for connection than an essay. And an essay requires
Diving BellAug 21, 20193 minTeacher blog: When it's good to say it's badOne of the problems is that students forget that they’re supposed to be forming a personal response to the texts. And that often begins with