Bloomsbury Teacher Guide: Anita and Me

Zara Shah is the KS4 Coordinator for English at The Grammar School at Leeds, a Learning and Teaching Specialist for English for the Leading Learning Partnership and a passionate advocate for equity and evidence-informed practice in teaching. Zara has an MA in Teaching and has co-authored Succeeding as an English Teacher. She is also a mentor and Regional Lead for LitDriveUK, a non-profit organisation committed to better balance and subject-specific CPD.Kerry Kurczij has over twenty years’ experience as an English teacher. She is an A-level English language specialist, former Head of Department and now Director of Faculty with whole-school responsibility for teaching and learning at The Grammar School at Leeds. She has delivered external CPD for the Yorkshire Schools Alliance and in other local schools and regularly publishes in English and Media Centre’s eMagazine.

This superb guide to 'teaching Anita and Me' with knowledge-rich, academic teaching at its core will open doors to English teams who may be reluctant to teach a lesser-known text. The importance of this is not to be dismissed: Anita and Me being seen more commonly on the curriculum will open minds, eyes and worlds into cultures, and help students who - for too long - have struggled to relate to the current white, middle-class, male heavy curriculum to see characters like themselves through the eyes of subject experts in the English discipline. A colossal well done to the authors - I only wish it came out sooner so that when I was Head of English, I could feel as comfortable to place the text on my curriculum as I would do having now read this guide.