It wasn’t until I began working with teachers and trainee teachers that I began to understand that all good teaching works from learning objectives and that, often, poor teaching is the result of planning which is based on activities rather than intended learning. When you say, ‘What are Year-7 going to do with this poem?’ you should probably be saying, ‘What are Year-7 going to learn from this poem?’ This emphasis leads to teaching which is creative but focused. Of course, if your practice is secure you are already teaching to objectives, even if (like me) you don’t recognize them. If the practice is implicit, progress will come best when you make it explicit and have a look at it there is much more detail in Chapter 2.