ABSTRACT

In this stimulating collection of specially commissioned essays, teachers and researchers in the forefront of thinking in this area consider both the controversies and the day-to-day realities of teaching primary English. The book's four sections reflect the organisation of the National Curriculum for English: Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, with a final section on issues that confront the teacher across the English curriculum. Particular attention is paid to assessment within the three strands of the National Curriculum and, throughout, the contributors combine the latest research with practical suggestions about what it means for the teacher in the classroom. Teaching Primary English takes up and develops the themes of David Wray and Jane Medwell's very successful Literacy and Language in the Primary Years. Students, teachers and everyone with an interest in how children acquire the skills of literacy will want to read it.

chapter |2 pages

Introduction

part I|45 pages

Speaking and listening

chapter |2 pages

Editors' introduction

chapter 2|15 pages

The dead spot in our struggle for meaning

Learning and understanding through small group talk

chapter 3|11 pages

The assessment of oral language

part II|45 pages

Reading

chapter |2 pages

Editors' introduction

chapter 4|9 pages

Reviewing the reading debate

chapter 5|11 pages

Texts that teach

chapter 6|8 pages

Information handling

An important dimension to literacy

chapter 7|13 pages

The assessment of reading

part III|56 pages

Writing

chapter |2 pages

Editors' introduction

chapter 8|13 pages

The writing process

chapter 9|10 pages

Contexts for writing

The social construction of written composition

part IV|49 pages

Other themes and issues

chapter |2 pages

Editors' introduction

chapter 13|12 pages

What is knowledge about language?

chapter |3 pages

Conclusion