Whole-text immersion at pace is a sounds like a great idea. It may build stamina, coherence, vocabulary. It may especially help weaker readers.
Some thoughts on how we might respond to the evidence on ‘fastervreading’ open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Being a "warm demander" is a main drive for us this year, and this fits in perfectly ...
01.03.2026 21:30 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
A lovely review in Teach Secondary for my Cabinet of Curiosity. “School life ought to consist of far more than just a utilitarian pursuit of exam grades”
You can buy a copy here if you like books and think this is interesting:
www.hachette.co.uk/titles/james...
NEW BLOG: We need to talk about oracy
A taste of my ResearchEd talk yesterday
learningfrommymistakesenglish.blogspot.com/2026/03/we-n...
They really were
01.03.2026 21:16 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
We say we care about children. So why do we let them opt out?
At researchEDBrum I taught a live lesson. One student wanted to opt out. I could have backed off. It would have been easier. Instead, I insisted they participate, as warmly as possible
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
It was so valuable to have a more reluctant pupil in the room (albeit unintentionally, I'm sure) as this is the modelling it's really useful and reassuring to see. Exemplar videos often show a leafy/half-size class where nothing's wrong - great for showing some things, but not everything.
01.03.2026 11:29 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
We say we care about children. So why do we let them opt out?
At researchEDBrum I taught a live lesson. One student wanted to opt out. I could have backed off. It would have been easier. Instead, I insisted they participate, as warmly as possible
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Chapter 43 of The Second Summer of Love
It’s going to kick off…
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
A very interesting read. "Reading comprehension is not a single, detachable skill. It is the visible outcome of many interacting components: decoding fluency, vocabulary, background knowledge, inference, working memory, " #edpsychs
24.02.2026 06:54 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
New study casts doubt on what reading comprehension is and how best to teach it. Is background knowledge less important than we thought? Is reciprocal teaching the way forward? Or is it a bit more complicated than that?
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
New study casts doubt on what reading comprehension is and how best to teach it. Is background knowledge less important than we thought? Is reciprocal teaching the way forward? Or is it a bit more complicated than that?
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Chapter 42 of The Second Summer of Love… where did it all go wrong?
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
Chapter 42 of The Second Summer of Love… where did it all go wrong?
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
Pleased with 1 hour 40 :)
22.02.2026 18:08 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Pretty flat :)
Hope to meet you there
Yeah. They sound good 😂
22.02.2026 09:57 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
8 weeks out from Newport Marathon - half marathon in Bath today. Cold, rainy, windy. What could be better?
22.02.2026 09:32 — 👍 25 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0Because what works for learning is deeply counterintuitive and human judgment is fundamentally biased towards ‘stuff I like’
21.02.2026 16:56 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
Do brain scans tell us anything about how to structure a curriculum? Should we be lead by what cognitive psychology indicates about how we learn or by what neuroscience suggests about how knowledge is stored?
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Over the last year, we've built an innovative model of writing assessment that blends human & AI judgement.
If you would like to see how it works & try it for free, sign up for our webinar next Wednesday at 4pm. We will give all attendees 30 free AI credits.
us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Chapter 41 of The Second Summer of Love… open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
21.02.2026 10:05 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Do brain scans tell us anything about how to structure a curriculum? Should we be lead by what cognitive psychology indicates about how we learn or by what neuroscience suggests about how knowledge is stored?
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
FREE webinar next Wednesday (8.40 AM UK Time)
Using talk as a cognitive lever
thinkforwardeducators.org/events/title...
FREE webinar next Wednesday (8.40 AM UK Time)
Using talk as a cognitive lever
thinkforwardeducators.org/events/title...
Ah, there I’m not so sure I agree. I definitely think we should do our best to prevent students making avoidable errors. They’ll make plenty of mistakes without our help :)
19.02.2026 11:43 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
It’s not good enough to say “it works for me”. How do you know? What are the criteria by which you’d change your mind? If there are none, you have insulated yourself from reality.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
It’s not good enough to say “it works for me”. How do you know? What are the criteria by which you’d change your mind? If there are none, you have insulated yourself from reality.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
BABS!!
WE’RE BACK ON 28TH FEB!! FEW TIX STILL AVAILABLE. COME ALONG AND HEAR FROM ACE PEOPLE INCLUDING @carlhendrick.substack.com @daisychristo.bsky.social @didau.bsky.social @jonhutchinson.bsky.social @marymyatt.bsky.social @alexjquigley.bsky.social
#rEDBRUM
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/researched...
Chapter 40 of The Second Summer of Love
Let’s get it on… open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
