Niteracy Hour

The National Literacy Strategy is at the heart of the government drive to raise the standards in literacy in schools. Based on a research project conducted in classrooms during the first year of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS), this book provides a practical analysis of the ways in which successful teachers have implemented the Literacy Hour. Taking a reflective approach, it chronicles how teachers have changed their attitudes and practice over the first year, and questions why these changes have occurred. With various descriptions of teachers' practice and examples of children's writing throughout, this is an in-depth, yet down-to-earth reflective analysis of effective literacy teaching. Ros Fisher looks in detail at issues such as; improving the teaching of literacy; researching classroom practice; children's learning in the Literacy Hour; changing practice at Key Stage One and Two and mixed age classes and literacy for four-year-olds.

A Wall Street Journal writer’s conversation-changing look at how reading aloud makes adults and children smarter, happier, healthier, more successful and more closely attached, even as technology pulls in the other direction. A miraculous alchemy occurs when one person reads to another, transforming the simple stuff of a book, a voice, and a bit of time into complex and powerful fuel for the heart, brain, and imagination. Grounded in the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, and drawing widely from literature, The Enchanted Hour explains the dazzling cognitive and social-emotional benefits that await children, whatever their class, nationality or family background. But it’s not just about bedtime stories for little kids: Reading aloud consoles, uplifts and invigorates at every age, deepening the intellectual lives and emotional well-being of teenagers and adults, too. Meghan Cox Gurdon argues that this ancient practice is a fast-working antidote to the fractured attention spans, atomized families and unfulfilling ephemera of the tech era, helping to replenish what our devices are leaching away. For everyone, reading aloud engages the mind in complex narratives; for children, it’s an irreplaceable gift that builds vocabulary, fosters imagination, and kindles a lifelong appreciation of language, stories and pictures. Bringing together the latest scientific research, practical tips, and reading recommendations, The Enchanted Hour will both charm and galvanize, inspiring readers to share this invaluable, life-altering tradition with the people they love most.

This text on implementing the Literacy Hour in primary schools includes: a demonstration of how to meet the teaching objectives through well-chosen fiction and poetic texts; appropriate activities at whole text, sentence and word level; and practical ideas to aid the planning of the Literacy Hour.

First published in 1999. This book offers clear, practical advice and guidance on how to encourage and support children who have special educational needs without losing sight of the needs of the rest of the class. The focus is on children with a wide variety of special educational needs including emotional and behavioural difficulties, visual or hearing impairments, speech and language difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders. By looking closely at the key features of each difficulty, the authors show how to plan for these pupils and includes proven strategies.

Classroom assistants are increasingly relied upon to support the most needy pupils, and they have had significantly less training than their colleagues with qualified teacher status. It is clear that these assistants need some very practical materials. This book provides photocopiable resources so that classroom assistants can get to work. The book covers all they need to know about literacy, it explains in very simple terms what is expected from them and: *how the National Literacy Strategy works *how to support reading, writing and spelling *how to select fiction and non-fiction *how to help children use computers It also covers issues such as: *how to help children for whom English is not their first language *how to help children with special needs *how to set targets and monitor progress. As well as providing an invaluable manual for assistants, Supporting Literacy will be useful for SENCOs and English Co-ordinators who are training support staff and volunteers in primary schools. Learning Support Assistants and others following recognised courses (eg Specialist Teacher's Assistants) will find the book helpful in the study of children's literacy.

First Published in 2000. Over the last 30 years, growth in the popularity and provision of books for children has been remarkable. The quality and inventiveness of children's authors and illustrators have led some to think of the picture book as a new art form. This book is a celebration of some of this work and it concentrates on the potential that picture books have for the teaching and learning of literacy. The aim of this book is to encourage colleagues to take a closer look at some of their favourite picture books and to see how they can be used as a starting point for enjoyable and challenging literacy work in primary classrooms. Believing that teachers do not need to rely on schemes to structure their English curriculum and with this in mind this book includes 24 popular titles that have been identified in terms of their potential for delivering exciting text-, sentence- and word-level work. Written to be used as a resource, and anticipate that many readers will be most interested the commentaries on the picture books (contained in Chapters 3- 7) and the accompanying photocopiable activity sheets.

A vital introduction and critical appraisal for practitioners and students, TheLiteracy Game examines the origins, evolution and impact of the NLS, and provides a fully comprehensive contribution to the teaching of literacy and the management of educational change.

This volume covers the teaching of drama at nursery and Key Stage 1. It looks at why drama should be used, how it works, and how to get children involved.

This four-volume collection reprints key debates about exactly what it means to be literate and how literacy can best be taught. Rather than centering on the emotional reaction of mass media debates, this set focuses on research findings into processes and pedagogy. The themes covered include Literacy : its nature and its teaching, Reading - processes and teaching, Writing - processes and teaching and New Literacies - the impact of technologies.

This seminal guide to school literacy programs offers an overview of the most successful strategies education leaders can use to build a powerful reading schools.