School support, curriculum writer and author of books. Wanderer of hills, wonderer of everything else. Posting on Dungeons & Dragons, music and vegan food.
Bluesky
Joined August 2015
- Tweets102K
- Following4.3K
- Followers28.5K
- Likes176K
Pinned Tweet
I'm looking forward to my first term as a freelance writer and supporting schools.
If you think I could be of any help, do get in touch.
*** FINAL POST ***
Having spent the last few weeks sifting through research on supporting writers, it has become clear that no one has a clear answer to the problem.
1/2
What I have managed to find are 6 principles that we can use to guide our practice in the classroom - which I hope will help.
Handy pdf summary included for download.
enserm.substack.com/p/so-wha…
2/2
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
*** NEW POST ***
Do attempts to support weaker writers actually support improvement or simply mask a lack of improvement?
What happens when we try and get all pupils to write in the same way regardless of the subject - or the question within a subject?
1/2
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
The three flood sentences make the point well: more precise, not longer. Step 2 is the test I'd want everywhere. A short piece with no frame and no starters shows quickly whether the frame was supporting the writing or doing it.
*** NEW POST ***
Do attempts to support weaker writers actually support improvement or simply mask a lack of improvement?
What happens when we try and get all pupils to write in the same way regardless of the subject - or the question within a subject?
1/2
I take a look and writing frames - and provide a possible writing frame for different types of geographical questions drawing on thinking from @ClareSealy and drawing on work from @greeborunner @LesleySullivan and @Matea_Marcinko
enserm.substack.com/p/how-sc…
2/2
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
The pupil who said she hadn't really improved, she'd just done what she was taught, is the line that stuck. Learning the method gets counted as cheating, not as getting better. Naming what she did that made it work (Step 4) seems the most direct answer to that.
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
*** NEW POST ***
The next in the series looking at supporting unwilling writers.
In this post I go through some of the research into building pupil confidence in writing and how it can be applied in the classroom.
enserm.substack.com/p/why-is…
*** NEW POST ***
The next in the series looking at supporting unwilling writers.
In this post I go through some of the research into building pupil confidence in writing and how it can be applied in the classroom.
enserm.substack.com/p/why-is…
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
*** NEW POST ***
Do pupils with more knowledge on a subject write better?
Yes… but…
Both the yes and the but are important and have implications for what we do in the classroom.
enserm.substack.com/p/is-it-…
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
*** EXCITING NEWS ***
My new book - POWERFUL GEOGRAPHY 2 - is due to be published in 2027 by @CrownHousePub
This book picks up where Powerful Geography left off, looking at the pedagogy needed to support a curriculum built on the principles of powerful knowledge.
*** EXCITING NEWS ***
My new book - POWERFUL GEOGRAPHY 2 - is due to be published in 2027 by @CrownHousePub
This book picks up where Powerful Geography left off, looking at the pedagogy needed to support a curriculum built on the principles of powerful knowledge.
This book examines how different pedagogical approaches combine to support pupils in gaining the capabilities from having access to geographical knowledge. This includes using:
✅ Dialogic teaching
✅ Geographical enquiry
✅ Cognitive science
amazon.co.uk/Powerful-Geogra…
*** NEW POST ***
Do pupils with more knowledge on a subject write better?
Yes… but…
Both the yes and the but are important and have implications for what we do in the classroom.
enserm.substack.com/p/is-it-…
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
*** NEW POST ***
Continuing to explore research on supporting pupils who struggle with writing - this time, looking at how to support pupils who write like they are speaking.
Is better oracy the answer or more grammar instruction? What can a teacher do?
enserm.substack.com/p/why-do…
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
The bit about "and" is what I'll keep: it says two things happened, not that one caused the other. The waterfall answer has the knowledge and none of the causation. Splitting a pupil's own run-on into lines and asking which causes which makes that easy to see.
*** NEW POST ***
Continuing to explore research on supporting pupils who struggle with writing - this time, looking at how to support pupils who write like they are speaking.
Is better oracy the answer or more grammar instruction? What can a teacher do?
enserm.substack.com/p/why-do…
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
Our recent ITAP with SCITT trainees focused on questioning in geography- allowing us to deep-dive into how and why questioning in geography is not just a pedagogical tool but also a critical aspect of disciplinary knowledge to model.
Resources used: katestockings.com/teacher-tr…
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
Feels a bit weird to have all my predictions about instructional coaching at scale confirmed by a strong study (it didn’t work)
Cautionary tale!
Instructional coaching is usually seen as a safe bet for school improvement. But a recent EEPA study of a $20M/year coaching rollout across 130 schools paints a very different picture. Despite spending about $5,800 per teacher on the program, the district saw:
Zero improvement in teacher retention.
Flat ELA scores.
Math scores that actually leaned negative.
It turns out that the logistics of scaling killed the impact.
First, the district simply ran out of top-tier talent. To fill all the open roles, they had to start drafting average teachers as coaches.
Second, pulling their best teachers out of classrooms for half the day hurt students more than the peer coaching helped.
Finally, 80% of coaches were eventually tasked with summative evaluations, destroying the trust and vulnerability required for actual instructional growth.
It’s a great reminder that structural changes don't automatically improve the instructional core.
more on it here: ammaramerhbi.substack.com/p/…
Mark Enser 🌍 retweeted
As usual superb reflections by @EnserMark here highly recommend not just #geographyteacher but all #teacher having a read of this as think about mocks and exam prep enserm.substack.com/p/the-kn…