Teach Secondary 13.7

TeachingClassroomControversies (GlennY.Bezalel,Routledge,£16.99) 208 Anyone who’s somuch as picked up a newspaper in recent years, let alone ventured into the trenches of social media,will know all too well howvituperative modern societal discourse has become across all manner of subjects. Bezalel has therefore set himself quite the task by penning this ‘how to’manual advising teachers on how to engage their class in productive and equitable discussion of hot-button topics.Abook of two halves, part 1 maps out a theoretical framework that unpacks the concept of ‘polarity’ – recognising that a given problemcan havemultiple correct, yet interdependent solutions – and calls for teachers and students alike to adopt a pluralisticmindset capable of acknowledging the different modes of thinking and value systems that exist across the world. In Part 2, Bezalel rolls up his sleeves and presents a series of practical guides to exploring specific topics – including transgenderism, free speech, the Holocaust, climate change and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In each case, Bezalel is at pains to not tell readers what positions to adopt, but rather show how they can introduce students to the wider context surrounding the issue, the potential sensitivities and pitfalls they should bemindful of, and how the topic can be discussed/debated in a spirit of open enquiry and intellectual humility.Any readers concerned that the book amounts to an indoctrination toolkit, don’t be – if anything, it’s the polar opposite. Howdidyou devise the scenarios within the book? I came upwithmost of themover a week or so, thinking back on incidents that had happened throughout the course ofmy career. I also sought some advice fromothers to check I wasn’t missing anything, andmy 11- and 13-year-old sons were a great help in pointing out a few things I’d overlooked. Overall, though, the scenarios are amix of issues I’ve seen other teachers grappling with, as well as fair few things I’ve got wrongmyself over the years. Areyou able to share anyexamples of the latter? As a young NQT. I remember doingmy seating plan, then giving the ‘ You’re sitting next to you ’ instructions on the day,when two students pleadedwithme to not be sat beside each other. Being stuck inmyways, I told themmy decision was final – only to later discover that they’d recently broken up, and that it was genuinely quite painful for themto be near one another. It mademe realise that I should have donemore digging, beenmore communicative and a bit more open. I could have had a quiet wordwith themboth and found out what the issue was. Whydidyou devote a separate section in the book to non-verbal behaviour strategies? Non-verbals and gestures are hugely underused.The teachers I speak to all recognise what they are andwhy they’re important, but I thinkwe can sometimes forget that they’re available to us, despite themoffering some key advantages over verbal communication.They can help to save your voice in class, avoid breaks in the flow of a lesson and provide us with a way to avoid lapsing into a negative tone. By using certain types of gestures,we can remove that sense of confrontation. Has there been an overall rise behavioural challengeswithin schools? There aremore families living in poverty and more children coming to school hungry.Those societal challenges, along with COVID and access to smartphones, havemeant that schools are now having to tacklemore behaviour issues, but I don’t think that should make us despondent. Behaviour is something we can control and help children to better understand. It’s not a given that children who behave poorlywill always behave poorly.We have to see the potential for growth and development, because if we don’t,wemay as well pack up and go home. MarkRoberts is director of research at CarrickfergusGrammar School in Northern Ireland ON THE RADAR Meet the author MARK ROBERTS PicturePerfect:AnAnthology ofPoetryandProse (RichardDavenport-Hines (Ed.),MountOrleans Press,£25) As indicated by the title, the first thing to know about this anthology is that it comprises both poetry and prose, rather than one or the other. Many of the pieces are quite unusual, such as a series of short pieces grouped under the shared title of ‘ I have been…’ , though the arrangement and presentation of the works is evidently the result of careful thought (or veiled humour – such as one poemconcerned with the theme of sea-sickness being immediately followed by an assemblage of advisory aphorisms). If there’s a criticism, it’s that more roomcould perhaps have been made for a few lesser-known poets. Regardless, English teachers can expect to discovermuch here that could serve as the focus of a lively class discussion or prompt for a writing exercise.This is a solid collection of poetry by a goodmix of authors,which is always to be welcomed. ReviewedbyTerry Freedman TheBehaviourWhisperer (MarkRoberts,Routledge,£15.99) Subtitled ‘ 100Ways Teachers Can Communicate to ImproveTheir Students ’ Focus in the Classroom ’ that’s exactlywhat you get here – a hundred distinct 2-page ‘scenarios’ that each briefly describe a common behaviour-related situation in the classroom, before presenting a straightforward ‘do/don’t’ panel, a brief explanation of why the advice offered works, and several suggestions on how to manage similar incidents in future. Between its smartly conceived structure and helpful illustrations (particularly those accompanying the 20 scenarios towards the end of the book dedicated to non- verbal behaviourmanagement techniques), it’s conceivedwith the needs of busy teachers verymuch inmind. If one were to try hard, it might be possible to come up with a specific scenario the book doesn’t address, but so extensive is its scope, chances are you’ll still find some applicable advice regardless. 43 teachwire.net/secondary B O O K R E V I E WS