To think an English teacher should know poems that AREN'T on the examination syllabus?

[Shiningbaubles]

And be familiar with Shakespeare plays other than Romeo and Juliet?

Friend is training but 'hates poetry" and 'hates Shakespeare.'

Or am I being harsh?

You can tell when a teacher is passionate about an area - that really comes across in their teaching and enthusiasm. My Latin teacher seemed to really be into his Roman history. Did that help us learn Latin? Maybe not, but it was inspiring to see someone with a passion for their subject.

My school has been consumed by the idea that pupils MUST make rapid progress at ALL times, otherwise learning will not be achieved. I believe this is why I struggle as a teacher to get pupils through whole texts, rather than just scenes/sections. I think back to when I was in school 12 years ago, and I remember reading loads of novels and plays as a class. I've not managed a single full text with my top set year 7s this year, as there's just too much to get through and too little time. Also, we are learning walked regularly, and if somebody were to enter my room during a reading lesson, I would doubtless fail, as there would be no evidence of rapid progress being made... Only reading. I find it sad, really.

I do try to inject as much of my own passion into my subject as possible though. This morning, the book fair was in the library, and I must admit that I just put aside the planned lesson, and trouped them all off to the library to enjoy the books. We had a lovely time exploring, and I showed them some of my favourite books from my own childhood which were on sale. Then we went back to the classroom, and they wrote loads of suggestions of their own books they thought I would like to read on to the whiteboard. They had a great time enthusing to me about all the books they thought I would enjoy, and why they loved them. It was great. I think if anybody asked me what they were learning, I would have said, "To bloody well love literature."

I bought Of Mice & Men & Lord of the Flies for my 15 yr old & was surprised that he would only be expected to read the designated chapters. Almost makes me want to go back to having a bed-time story, if only so that he'd read the whole book.
I suspect it'd be a lost cause. We have to have a ban on mobiles when we're eating so that I have a captive audience.

I don't understand how you can only read a chapter and analyse it. It's like discussing a film based on 1 scene. You can discuss how the director filmed it but how the hell can you say anything about the characters without any previous understanding?

At GCSE you need to read the whole text. I never just read a chapter - for any year