As a teacher of teens with mixed ability classes, I teach students with huge variations of abilities, and it can be extremely challenging to ensure all my students are able to engage with text in the lesson due to the difference in reading ages. How are we supposed to cater to this? 

A lot of us often write our own content for our lessons or we download resources online, so it can be a challenge to know whether the text is pitched right for our own students and their needs.

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If you’re not sure whether your text is pitched at the right reading age, a great idea you can try out is actually analysing the reading age of your text! It’s actually very easy to do - all you need to do is copy and paste a blanket of your text into this website and it will give you some valuable data in the readability of your content (it can also check the readability of websites too!) I challenge you to check the readability of some of your resources right now and see how close your text is from the level you are teaching at. In fact, I checked the readability of this blog post and it came to a reading age of about 16-17, which according to the website, is apparently very high for the average adult!? But you know, we’re teachers ;)


It is amazing how we’re never really taught to consider the readability of our text in lessons but imagine how much more effective our students’ learning would be if we just took this extra tiny step to ensure we are pitching content just right for our learners. We could even use this as an effective differentiation tool to include a couple of variations of text to cater to the differing abilities and reading ages of our students: let's ensure we set our learners up for success! 


Thanks for reading this post :) If you found this valuable, leave a comment below or share it out!
I truly believe if we take this one step to ensure we are pitching our lessons just right for our learners, we will see significant progress in our students' learning and confidence in the classroom.


Take 5 minutes to check the readability of one of your resources - is it pitched right for your students? Are you surprised at the outcome? Do you even agree with this method?! Leave a comment below, I'd love to chat more!

Today I was teaching my 11-12 year olds about bullying and we were discussing possible support networks they can turn to for help. It was sparked by a terrifying video I was watching a few weeks ago about a teenage girl who committed suicide after continuous cyber bullying. It was especially sad as the girl felt she had no one to turn to and even her own mother had no idea what was going on. I would never want my students to feel they were so alone that they felt only had one way out, so it was important to me after watching this video that I spent time talking to my students about who they could turn to if things got bad for them. 

​If you're interested in seeing the video that sparked off this lesson, the interview with the girl's mother is below. Of course, it's very hard hitting, so brace yourself.

My heart breaks for all those affected by these kinds of stories. When I was teaching my lesson today, I was speaking to my students as if I were speaking to this poor girl. I was telling them that they are never alone. Even if they feel they feel they have no have friends right now or don't want to confide in their family for whatever reason, there are other support networks they can turn to for help - there is always someone that cares about them and things do get better!

In a strange timing of fate, this morning before I was due to deliver my lesson, I was watching the news with my tutor group, and the station were reporting on this new app that had been designed by school children in the UK to support young people through hard times. Their app was such a good idea that it has since been adopted by Childline and funded by Barclays Bank, how amazing is that! You can read more about the "For Me" app here. I love that it was designed by young people, for young people!

For those of you who may not know what Childline is, it's a 30 year old charity in the UK that offers free 1:1 counselling over the phone to young people. However, now some teens have brought this wonderful service into the 21st Century. Not only is there still the 1:1 chat feature, but they have "Ask Sam" problem pages and a "private locker" where they can digitally track their moods and record their thoughts.  I thought this would be particularly good for tracking any bullying episodes too, which is something I advise students to do in this Cyber Bullying Awareness Lesson.

This app is free to download and is currently only on IOS; the Android version is coming soon I hear! I'm not sure if it is available worldwide yet, but keep an eye out for it! I think it's a wonderful tool to share with our students. I've found that so many young people suffer in silence and this gives them a private support network to access, which I think is fantastic. There are some really fabulous reviews from young children using the app too which is incredibly encouraging!

I shared this with my students today and wanted to share it with you too so you could spread the word and help more youngsters. The more support networks we offer our students, the more chance they can pull through these tough teen years and build up resilience and character to build a good life for themselves.

​Do you know of any other apps that offers support for young people? Feel free to share links in the comments below!

Are you noticing signs of low self esteem in your students too? I know I am - it comes out in all kinds of ways. I'll share some of the signs I often notice in a bit! I've found that in order for our students to succeed in school, they do need to overcome self-esteem barriers. I do think this is perhaps slightly more challenging when students are older as self-talk can be deeply ingrained by this point.  But more importantly, I think helping students develop character is seriously overlooked in secondary schools especially. That's why, not only do I like to use my tutor period / home room time every day to develop these skills, but I also tackle it in every day lessons too!

​Here are some of the signs of low self-esteem I notice in my teenage students:

• They can be pessimistic and negative in their outlook
• They put themselves down with negative self-talk
• They compare themselves to others in negative ways
• They don't seem proud of their achievements

What other signs have you noticed? I came up with about 15 things in my self-esteem resource! You can catch a glimpse of the PowerPoint below:

​Here are some things I do with my students to help build their resilience and grit, I hope they help you!

Stop and swap
Get them to start recognising when they hear negative self-talk and then replace it with something like the power of "yet". Here's an example that I hear a lot:

Student: "I can't draw... I can't do this... It's too hard."
Me: "Maybe you think you can't draw YET, but try out these tricks I just showed you and see how you get on!"

You might find you have to start doing it for them at first like I had to, just so they can get used to recognising the sound and frequency of their own self-talk. For some this will be a completely new thing for them. I have also encouraged my students to do this for each other too in a supportive way. I'll suddenly hear "Ah- ah- ah- ah- remember... YET!" while students are working together! It's actually really sweet watching them do this for each other! I've discovered that by helping my students gain self-awareness that they are speaking negatively about themselves, it makes a big difference in helping them develop some grit and resilience in all areas of their lives, not just in the classroom.

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Celebrate and succeed
Secondly, I like to encourage my students to focus on their achievements. I've noticed students with self-esteem issues often can't appreciate their own success. Therefore it's important to get them reflecting on how far they've come and display it somewhere where they can be proudly reminded every day. For example, I have my students create a "success banner" that can either be displayed up in the classroom, or they can even take it home if they prefer to keep it more private. This banner highlights 5 things they are really proud of (not just academically) and then one goal they are working towards next!

So, whenever they try to tell themselves that they can't do something or that they're worthless, I just point at their banner and say - really? Look at all the amazing things you have done! You can do anything you put your mind to! They may mope their head around for a bit at first (teenagers, tsk - lol) but after when I walk away and leave them to it, they do tend to pick themselves back up and get hustling! I think they just need that reminder. We may have to do it for them at first, but eventually I've seen that they start having more self-awareness and begin to recognise when they're speaking negatively about themselves and can take steps to "stop and swap". It's at that point that their independence and resilience really starts to bloom!


If you want some resources to implement straight away in your classroom on self-esteem and resilience, you can check out my Character Education lessons below. They all come with a PowerPoint, Printables and Task Cards!

​Thanks for reading :) If you liked this post, leave a comment below or share it out!
I truly believe if we help our students battle the negative self-talk on a daily basis, then we will really see a significant increase in both their attainment and emotional well-being.
​For more on how I teach Character to teens, check out this page!

​How do you help to develop resilience and grit in your classroom? Leave a comment below, I'd love to chat more!