Introduction

To begin your thinking, here is a set of four issues relating to professional practice as an English teacher that are taken as principles for this book:

• Competence – you owe it to your pupils and to your employer to demonstrate competence on all occasions in the teaching of your subject. This means not only knowing the subject content of your lesson well (i.e. do you know the topic or text you are teaching effectively), but also providing suitable learning activities that relate clearly to your objectives for learning, understanding how your work relates to the National Curriculum and/or relevant examination specifi cation, monitoring and assessing pupils’ work regularly and accurately, developing pupils’ work in each of the four modalities, etc.