Thinking About Literacy: Young Children and their Language

HALF-TITLE......Page 2
TITLE......Page 3
COPYRIGHT......Page 4
CONTENTS......Page 6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 8
DEDICATION......Page 9
Introduction LANGUAGE AND HUMANITY......Page 11
Centrality of language......Page 13
Background to this book......Page 15
A note about thinking, talking and writing......Page 16
Introducing Tacolneston First School......Page 19
Part I CHILDREN AND TALK......Page 25
1 EARLY TALK......Page 26
Alastair1......Page 28
Nil on entry......Page 33
Teachers’ reactions......Page 36
Six year olds talking......Page 38
Some science in the nursery......Page 45
3 QUESTIONS......Page 46
Unspoken language......Page 48
Children talking about death......Page 49
AN INTERLUDE......Page 58
CHILDREN MAKING THEIR OWN BOOKS......Page 59
Playground rhymes and their significance......Page 60
A reservation about using children’s rhymes in school......Page 62
Poems by very young children......Page 64
Children making their own books......Page 66
Part II CHILDREN AND WRITING......Page 69
4 CHILDREN AND WRITING......Page 70
The literate child......Page 71
Early writing......Page 72
5 THE WRITING CORNER......Page 75
Developing writing in the classroom......Page 80
The Raeburn Letters......Page 82
7 CHILDREN WRITING LISTS......Page 103
Spelling: the historical context......Page 108
Stalin County Primary......Page 110
Development of spelling skills......Page 111
Strategies for teaching spelling......Page 112
A note about handwriting......Page 113
Part III CHILDREN AND READING......Page 115
9 FACING PRINT......Page 116
A critique of the literacy industry......Page 117
How did these materials answer these questions?......Page 118
Reading Recovery: a glimpse......Page 120
10 THE POLITICS OF READING......Page 121
Liz Waterland and the apprenticeship approach......Page 123
11 REMEMBERING LEARNING TO READ......Page 128
Tacolneston’s English policy......Page 133
Closing reading down: easy ways to do it......Page 134
Children with English as an additional language......Page 135
The National Curriculum: making classroom ceilings transparent......Page 139
An OFSTED report......Page 141
REFERENCES......Page 142
INDEX......Page 144