Thinking About Literacy: Young Children and their Language

✍ Scribed by Fred Sedgwick

• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 147
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Thinking About Literacy discusses the literacy of children in the infant years. The author takes the view that the child is an active learner when he/she arrives in school, and that it is the school's job to build on what the child already knows. The book addresses issues such as spelling, writing, and children talking and writing about moral matters. It has an optimistic view of the potential of children to surprise us with their language and emphasises that literacy is for life, not just for an hour.

✦ Table of Contents

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