ABSTRACT

How children learn to read well and what kind of teaching helps them is a scarcely penetrated mystery. This book is a fascinating and informative research report by a group of teachers who set out to teach children who have failed to acquire a useful degree of literacy; in it they discuss their experiences. The authors are presenting evidence about a central and constant problem in education, an essential kind of evidence which is often ignored, because it is so difficult to collect and present. The report presents enough case-notes and recordings of lessons and discussions to allow readers to make their own interpretations alongside those of the writers. Highly informative about many of the central topics of teaching literacy it discusses children’s motivation, the influence of social and cultural background on learning, and different methods of teaching reading.

chapter 1|4 pages

A view of the task

chapter 2|11 pages

Features of the starting point

chapter 3|32 pages

The compromise

chapter 4|16 pages

Reading, without tests

chapter 5|40 pages

Early encounters

chapter 6|25 pages

Two sources of evidence

chapter 7|84 pages

What progress looks like

chapter 8|13 pages

Reflexions