Teaching Primary English The State of the Art

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.

chapter0001 Introduction; Part I Speaking and listening; chapter0002 Editors’ introduction; Chapter 1 The oral language of young children, Martin Hughes; Chapter 2 The dead spot in our struggle for meaning, Terry Phillips; Chapter 3 The assessment of oral language, Greg Brooks; Part II Reading; chapter0003 Editors’ introduction; Chapter 4 Reviewing the reading debate, David Wray; Chapter 5 Texts that teach, Colin Mills; Chapter 6 Information handling, David Wray; Chapter 7 The assessment of reading, Denis Vincent; Part III Writing; chapter0004 Editors’ introduction; Chapter 8 The writing process, Roger Beard; Chapter 9 Contexts for writing, Jane Medwell; Chapter 10 Word processors, redrafting and the niche of the laptop, Frank Potter; Chapter 11 Assessing developing writing and writers, Richard Fox; Part IV Other themes and issues; chapter0005 Editors’ introduction; Chapter 12 Media education, literacy and schooling, Frank Potter; Chapter 13 What is knowledge about language?, Margaret Wallen; Chapter 14 Children with literacy difficulties?, Bridie Raban, Ann Lewis; chapter0006 Conclusion;

David Wray is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Exeter. Jane Medwell is Lecturer in Education at the College of St Mark and Sr John, Plymouth.