Total Teaching by Neil Mackay

Neil MacKay is passionate about raising the achievement of pupils who struggle to learn and who do not have a formal diagnosis of special needs.  By identifying these pupils and prioritising their learning, schools can see great improvement for these students and a boost to the results of the school.  Total teaching is a philosophy as well as a set of practical ideas and teaching techniques for teachers in mainstream classes.  It means you do not have to wait for extra funding, a formal diagnosis, etc. instead you can pick out and use Neil Mackay’s ideas and boost the inclusive quality of your lessons and in offering good differentiation and quality first teaching you can make a difference for those students that are close to achieving their learning goals.

Neil looks at the following key issues:
•    How to create the right classroom climate
•    How to identify and meet specific learning needs
•    Supporting students with weak working memory
•    Tracking your quick thinking, slow delivering students
•    Self-directed learning
•    Supporting students with low confidence and self-esteem issues
•    Boosting decoding and analytical skills
•    Strengthening comprehension activities
•    Getting reluctant writers to show what they know