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Review ------ Andy Tharby is clear from the outset that there are no silver bullets, and no strategies that will work for all English teachers in all classrooms. He stresses the importance of individuality and context, but also recognises that we can learn much from reading and research, from collaborative dialogue with other professionals and from careful reflection on all we learn as a consequence. How can we adapt what others have found to be successful in order to continue to build and strengthen our own practice? Making Every English Lesson Count is firmly grounded in the principles of challenge, explanation, modelling, practice, questioning and feedback, and considers these elements of effective practice from a subject-specific perspective: offering practical strategies, specific examples and questions to prompt reflection. Tharby encourages the reader to consider how these ideas could be usefully adapted for best effect in their own teaching practice. The book explores, for example, the central place of the text in English teaching; the importance of background knowledge, both in terms of textual content and context and with respect to mastering literary skills; the crucial place of developing our understanding of vocabulary; and the effective use of supporting visual images. Meanwhile, throughout the book, suggestions based on sound underpinning theory about what learning is, and how it happens, are ed out with helpful close analysis and annotation of specific literary passages. Tharby cls, Great English teachers must live and breathe their subject. Making Every English Lesson Count is testament to the fact that Tharby himself is definitely among their number. --Jill Berry, leadership consultant and author of Making the Leap This is a fantastic follow-up to Making Every Lesson Count, a book that has proved a solid resource for professional learning at all levels of experience. Andy offers us a manifesto for great teaching of English, informed by research evidence, experience and pragmatism. His style is thought-provoking and inful, and altogether a pleasure to read. Making Every English Lesson Count will no doubt be a ste of all English departments, offering a wealth of advice to support the planning of an ambitious curriculum for our students and allowing colleagues to deliberately practice specific strategies in the classroom, with a focus on explicit teaching based on strong subject knowledge. An advocate for reading and for expanding our students vocabulary, Andy s enthusiasm is contagious. He has it right when he quotes Ludwig Wittgenstein: The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. What a fantastic challenge for all English teachers! I couldn t recommend this book more. --Hélène Galdin-O Shea, English and media teacher, research advocate Andy Tharby has written the best book on English teaching that I have read. Not only is it full of practical wisdom, arresting anecdote and a thorough understanding of the implications of cognitive science for English teachers, it s also couched in elegantly composed prose and is a joy to spend time with. It will bestride the educational world like a colossus. --David Didau, author of What If Everything You Knew About Education Was Wrong? About the Author ---------------- Andy Tharby is a practising English teacher with nine years of classroom experience at a secondary school in West Sussex. He is also a research lead, with an interest in helping ordinary classroom teachers enhance their practice through engagement with a wider evidence base. He writes a well-regarded blog, Reflecting English, in which he covers a range of subjects from improving student writing to finding solutions to the problems and dilemmas faced by busy teachers.