Extending Knowledge in Practice
Primary English
Extending Knowledge in Practice
Primary English David Wray Jane Medwell
First published in 2008 by Learning Matters Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Learning Matters. ß 2008 David Wray and Jane Medwell British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978 1 84445 104 3 The rights of David Wray and Jane Medwell to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Cover design by Topics – the Creative Partnership Text design by Code 5 Design Associates Ltd Project management by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock Typeset by PDQ Typesetting Ltd, Newcastle under Lyme Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow Learning Matters 33 Southernhay East Exeter EX1 1NX Tel: 01392 215560
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Contents Introduction
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Index
Phonological awareness, language comprehension and knowledge about print
1
4
Teaching phonics
14
English vocabulary and the development of language
27
Looking closely at spelling
40
Working with punctuation
52
Handwriting
61
Looking closely at reading comprehension
72
Approaches to developing comprehension
81
New texts: new literacies
98 109
v
Introduction This book builds upon and extends our existing Learning Matters volume (Medwell, J., Moore, G., Wray, D. and Griffiths, V. (2007) 3rd edition, Primary English: knowledge and understanding. Exeter: Learning Matters). Its main aim is to provide you (as a trainee or newly qualified teacher) with a means to extend and deepen your command of the subject knowledge relevant to the teaching of English in primary schools, but in a manner which is designed to assist you to use such knowledge more actively in planning and implementing English lessons.
The context of the work Since the publication and implementation of Circular 14/98, which laid down a set of national requirements for the training of teachers, there has been a demand for books expressly aimed at covering these requirements. There have been several phases in this demand. Initially the concern was that the then National Curriculum for Initial Teacher Training delineated a list of key elements of subject knowledge in the core subjects which training institutions had to guarantee their trainees would be taught and, eventually, be competent in. Training providers were required to audit trainee subject knowledge and to provide opportunities for those trainees judged lacking in aspects of this knowledge to acquire it. To meet the demand for assistance with this aspect of primary teacher training, we produced, in 1997, English for primary teachers: an audit and self-study guide for Letts Educational. This was very much a ‘quick and dirty’ solution to the problem of trainee teacher subject knowledge – a problem which itself ha