Art is an attitude

Here is a quotation from Seth Godin’s The Icarus Deception that I have been meditating on for a while now. I have … More

The power of poetry (free download) #NATEconf

Here are the text and ppt presentations of my NATE Conference 2014 keynote speech on The Power of Poetry. PDF … More

Heaney’s Pedagogy

A comment Mark Robinson made in the days following Seamus Heaney’s death in August resonated with me. He said he … More

Lifesaving Poems: e e cummings’s ‘in Just’

I I first came across e e cummings’s ‘in Just’ in an anthology, Wordscapes, edited by Barry Maybury (OUP, 1971). … More

Lifesaving Poems: Tom Raworth’s ‘8.06 p.m. June 10th 1970’

As I say in my previous blog post, I owe my knowledge of ‘8.06 p.m. June 10th 1970’ to the … More

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 4,329 films were submitted … More

Recent Research on Poetry in Education

Below is a summary of some recent research on progress in pupils’ poetry writing and teachers’ metaphors of poetry writing … More

In search of the ‘Tyger’: power relationships and poetry in the classroom

  When I began teaching the Year 5 class of children whose work would form the basis of my doctoral … More

Poetry and 9/11

  I am a little late in writing these reflections prompted by the tenth anniversary of 9/11. What I want … More

The Write Team Conference: Creativity, Confidence and Challenge

Creativity and Writing Explored.ppt Download this file > Keynote Address to Conference AW June 2011.ppt Download this file >

Ways With Words: Teachers’ Metalinguistic Understanding of Poetry

This is the powerpoint of the paper I am giving with Debra Myhill at the Writing Across Borders II conference … More

My recent research: Teachers’ metaphors of poetry writing pedagogy

Download now or preview on posterous Teachers’_Metaphors_presentation_Poetry_Matters_Jan_2011.ppt (93 KB) I was pleased to present the attached paper at the ESRC-funded … More

New Research on Teachers’ Conceptualisations of Poetry Writing

via edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz My latest research paper is now published in English Teaching: Practice and Critique Volume 9, Number 3, December … More