Articles
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Abstract or Description This article is a short summary of a conference presentation given online for the NAWE Conference, Spring 2021. It suggests some different ways of teaching creative writing online, using puppets, stories, drawings and metacognition. Gilbert, Francis. 2021. Teaching Creative Writing Online: Research-Informed Strategies. Writing in Education, 83, pp. 89-91. ISSN 1361-8539 [Article] Reference: […]
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Abstract or Description This article argues that we need to ‘descend into the crypt’ of creative writing, and use rigorous, academic research methods and methodologies to examine it. The communities that writing arises from, processes of writing, the unique psychologies of writers, the ways in which writing is used in different settings and eras all […]
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Abstract or Description This article examines the deeper purposes behind the teaching of creative writing. To extend an analogy created by William Blake in his poem ‘The Tyger’, its furnaces are examined and ‘its deadly terrors’ clasped. As a starting point, it reinterprets the different views of teaching English, as drawn up in the United […]
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Abstract or Description An article exploring some of the lessons I learnt during the lockdown crisis, about staying sane, being mindful and engaging with technology. Reference details: Gilbert, Francis. 2020. Lockdown lessons: Teaching and working during the Covid-19 crisis. Writing in Education, 81, pp. 31-40. ISSN 1361-8539 [Article] TextGilbert, F. (2020) Lockdown lessons_AAM.pdf – Accepted VersionAvailable under […]
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Finding a new path: Building affective online learning spaces for creative writing and arts practice
Abstract or Description An Entry for the British Educational Research Association blog on Covid-19 related research. Reference details: Matthews, Miranda and Gilbert, Francis. 2020. Finding a new path: Building affective online learning spaces for creative writing and arts practice. British Educational Research Association, [Article] TextGilbert and Matthews (2020) Bera_AAM.pdf – Accepted VersionAvailable under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.Download (84kB) | Preview
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Abstract or Description For many English teachers, teaching Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG) is daunting. The stakes have always been high: if your pupils are not good spellers, struggle to punctuate correctly and have a tendency to use non-standard forms in their writing, then invariably they won’t achieve highly, particularly in exams.Since the beginning of […]
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Abstract or Description PurposeThis paper focuses upon the affordances of and issues surrounding the teaching of George Orwell’s novel 1984 (1949) as a set text for GCSE English and English Literature in an examination-obsessed and heavily surveilled school system. It considers this by focusing on the classroom practice of a beginning teacher tackling the teaching […]
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Abstract or Description An article for NAWE’s peer-reviewed magazine Writing in Education about how mindfulness can be used by creative writers to develop their practice and pedagogy. Reference details: Gilbert, Francis. 2019. Mindfulness and Creative Writing. Writing in Education(77), ISSN 1361-8539 [Article] TextFGilbert_NAWE_magazine_Jan_2019 (2).pdf – Accepted VersionAvailable under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.Download (149kB) | Preview Official URL: https://www.nawe.co.uk/writing-in-education.html You can […]
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Note in 2024: This article contains some interesting ideas about educating English teachers in relation to Teaching Standards set since 2012 for teachers to be measured against. However, these standards could well change and are less emphasized now than they used to be. Gilbert, Francis. 2019. The Teachers’ Standards and English Teaching. Teaching English(19), pp. 33-36. […]
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This article examines the author’s interactions with the teaching strategy known as Reciprocal Teaching, sometimes also called Reciprocal Reading, which involves students learning to read collaboratively in small groups. Reciprocal Teaching typically involves students teaching each other by following a rubric of activities that are aimed at primarily improving their comprehension skills. In brief, students […]
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This article explores the author’s own troubled upbringing and education to develop a personal theory of aesthetic literacy. The author felt an urgent need to do this because of his experiences as both a teacher and a creative writer in the state-run English education system. Feeling that existing pedagogical approaches to literacy are inadequate, he […]
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This article explores how mindfulness can assist English teachers. Reference: Gilbert, Francis. 2018. Mindfulness and English Teaching. Teaching English, 16, pp. 54-56. ISSN 2051-7971 [Article] TextNATE FGilbert Mindfulness and English teaching.docx – Accepted VersionAvailable under License Creative Commons Attribution.Download (24kB) Official URL: https://www.cvent.com/Events/ContactPortal/Pages/C… You can read the full article here:
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An explanation of a creative writing and reading project the author carried out with students at Deptford Green school, which involved putting the principles of Reciprocal Teaching into practice. Reference: Gilbert, Francis. 2017. Dreaming of a Better World. Teaching English, [Article] TextDreaming of a Better World FGilbert NATE Magazine June 2017.docx – Accepted VersionAvailable under License Creative Commons […]
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An article which outlines how creative writers might teach creative writing, using relevant theories of learning. Reference details: Gilbert, Francis. 2017. The Creative Writing Teacher’s Toolkit. Writing in Education, 2017(73), [Article] TextCreative Writing Teacher Toolkit revised FGilbert Sept 2017.docx – Accepted VersionAvailable under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.Download (30kB) Official URL: https://www.nawe.co.uk/DB/current-wie-edition/arti… You can read the full […]
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This article aims to examine the benefits of teachers using their own autobiographical writing in the classroom. It explores the blurring of truth and fiction in autobiographical writing and argues that teachers can help students if they provide students with the cloak of fiction when writing about their own lives. Furthermore, it puts forward the […]
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My article, published in Changing English, argues that the concept of ‘aesthetic learning’ can be helpful for English teachers on two levels. First, it can be a useful identity for English teachers and students to adopt, based upon my own experiences as a secondary English teacher, creative writer and PhD student. Second, I argue that […]
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Blue Door Press is delighted to announce that the audiobook version of Who Do You Love (BDP 2017) is now available for sale on Audible, Amazon and iTunes. It was quite a journey working with the voice artist and actor Christopher James on the novel during this lockdown period. He and I talked quite intensely […]
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As I’ve pointed out in previous blogs, the process of listening to the audiobook of Who Do You Love has been enriching for me, making me return to the text some years after writing it. Christopher James reads the book more slowly than me, taking his time, giving the narrator’s voice a melancholic, deadpan quality. […]
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I’m writing this blog post on the summer solstice, 20th June 2020, which is an important date in my novel Who Do You Love. In fact, I like to think the events on the summer solstice June 1988 in a Sussex wood, devastated by the hurricane of October 1987, are pivotal in the novel. They […]
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‘The author of several books including the bestselling memoir I’m a Teacher, Get Me Out of Here, Gilbert draws from a deeper emotional well for this painfully honest novel about mid-life crisis and young love. Flicking between the present day — in which Nick is a recently fired journalist, reeling from the news of a […]