Back in March 2019, I met with Chloe from Bloomsbury to start work on a plan for this book... just over a year later the book has been published (May 2020) and I have been overwhelmed with the response. Thank you to every single person who has purchased a copy - I hope you enjoy it, and find it useful.
I had worked out a clear idea in my own head about what I did, and did not want to do with this book. I wanted it be filled with the things that would genuinely improve classroom practice in RE. I wanted to avoid fads, gimmicks, things that generated the wrong kind of "engagement". I wanted to look at the best ways to teach certain things. I also wanted to share some of the things that I have found really effective in my 15 years in the RE classroom.
However, I was also aware that the way I teach RE will not work for everyone. I reflected carefully upon the fact that most of my lessons would fit the Tom Sherrington / Barak Rosenshine model of review and recap, questioning and modelling, followed by practice. However I am also certain that all of these things can be done in different ways. Just because we do something, doesn't mean we do it well, or in the most effective way - and I've always included myself in that.
As such, I reached out to the RE community and listened carefully to what people thought should be in the book, what should be avoided, and what would give the book a universal appeal. Therefore I do hope this book genuinely has something for everyone, both those new to teaching RE - and those who have been doing it for a while. It was brilliant to see the first Amazon review that said, "[it] reminded of some past gems that I have not done for a while and [I was] inspired by some new ideas to use.".
A few weeks before actual publication date, I tried to generate a bit of discussion about the best bits of RE with a couple of competitions - both on Twitter and Save RE (Facebook group). As with a competition I had co-run previously for copies of my GCSE quiz book (<here>), I didn't really want to a "Likes & RTs" kind of thing, so I asked a simple question - about teacher's favourite things to teach in RE and I loved reading all the responses - check them out <here>. RE is a great subject - we get to teach some amazing things to young people in our classrooms:
On a personal level, I am genuinely humbled to have been asked to write this book. The RE community is genuinely like a family - there are frequent squabbles, a few vested interests, some little cliques, but equally a lot of people who care deeply and genuinely want to make RE better. When Mary Myatt described the book as a "gift to the RE community", I was quite overwhelmed. It was exactly what I set out to do - to give something back - and for that to be recognised made the many (many) hours writing worthwhile. It was great to hear Tom Bennett liked it and felt it deserved a big audience.
The week of the book's release, I decided to do a short "virtual book launch". If you want to me talk about the book for 30 minutes, you can do so here:
Finally, one of the most amazing things was the number of people who took a picture of the book and tagged me on Twitter... I've saved them all! For me, it was reassurance that this book was getting out into the world, particularly during this strange time of lock-down. Thank you to every single one of you who bought this book, and keep the photos coming!
A very interesting reflection. A job well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kaye!
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