This book will supplement the training currently being offered to all secondary English departments. It offers a view of the place of the English 'strand' in the overall Key Stage 3 strategy and gives support to English departments in their preparations for a new way of working. It will encourage English teachers to review their current schemes of work, offering suggestions for more substantial teaching and learning modules, as well as practical ideas for classroom use and recommended resources. The book interprets and explains the NLS document for busy practitioners; reinforces the messages of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS); spells out the expectations of the framework and offer guidance on how to fulfil them; and describes and explains the types of teaching methods to improve students' learning. This book includes many practical ideas for classroom activities and offers direct support for the less confident English teacher. The book is equally valuable to students and practicing teachers.

`Improving Literacy at KS2 and KS3 is all about primary-secondary transfer, seen mostly through the eyes of secondary teachers, but with some interesting contributions from middle-school staff who know the territory well. This book sees the NLS′s influence on primary practice as generally benign, but takes a more jaundiced view of the implications for secondary teaching, especially in its central chapter "Evidence from experienced practitioners". There are, however, many useful suggestions for reshaping and adapting parts of the strategy, including chapters on classroom literacy and everyday life and literacy and drama which consider ways of relating learning to the wider culture beyond school, including screen-based literacy. There is also a review of the language-across-the-curriculum movement and a chapter on subject literacies which has left me with an abiding admiration for geography teachers as lone voices of dissent′ - Sue Palmer, TES Teacher This book will to help students and practising teachers to understand the issues surrounding literacy, the place of transition in pupils′ lives, and to feel confident in handling The National Literacy Strategy. The book focuses on the crucial period when children complete primary schooling and begin in secondary schools. It examines the issue of transition from one phase to the other and specifically, the nature of literacy at this period. The authors contrast the `whole school′ approach of primaries to the very subject-specific nature of secondary teaching. The authors set the NLS in perspective, reviewing earlier movements such as Language across the Curriculum and the NLS itself. They offer a critique of the strategy and outline its strengths and weaknesses. The book sets out evidence of the way schools are reacting to the NLS, and what classroom teachers and their pupils think. Its coverage is comprehensive and includes focus on primary, secondary and middle schools, the teaching of literacy and English, the role of ICT, as well as important areas such as media education, drama and modern foreign languages. This book will be useful to education students and to practicing teachers in primary and secondary schools.

Presenting an informed view of current educational policy, this text encourages students of secondary English to take a creative and independent interpretation of government initiatives in order to achieve effective teaching practice. It provides a good balance of theoretical material with practical ideas for application in the classroom and strongly encourages reflection and critical thought. This new edition includes: coverage of the National Curriculum 2000, the National Literacy Strategy and the new Key Stage 3 Strategy a new chapter on how to teach ICT a new chapter on Inclusion – including differentiation, cultural diversity, EAL and teaching across the ability range new material on how to teach Shakespeare an introduction to cross-curricular themes – such as citizenship, and social, moral and spiritual values. Written in an accessible and conversational style, this text poses an excellent degree of challenge for all students on initial teacher training courses.

`This book is a useful addition to any staff library. What makes it different to many other similar books is that it shows teachers that speaking, listening and reading create the foundations for writing. Tested in schools, staff said: "It is a very useful framework for action-research based upon secure theory. When deciding classroom strategies, it is easy to find what you are looking for and the chapter summaries are very helpful. Some of the staff development and training suggestions are very practical and we are trying them out. We found the emphasis upon class novels and the class discussion that follows, very important, especially when linked to the excellent examples of children′s writing." This book may appear to some as theoretical and ′academic′, but this is why it will be valuable. It does what the title says because it shows how children learn to write. It starts at the beginning and saves diving into the latest trend. Perhaps its best recommendation is that every school that was asked to look at it said, `It′s good and we have ordered a copy′ - John Lilly, independent education consultant `The chapter on the Taxonomy of Writing Purposes will be useful for planning and those on extending and enhancing writing will definitely be helpful in many day-to-day situations′ - Nicholas Bielby, Times Educational Supplement This book outlines the processes which are involved when children learn to write. The author shows how certain strategies can improve children′s progress in writing. Dealing with the age range three to 13, the book addresses issues to do with: - the gender gap - children with English as an additional language - left-handedness Dorothy Latham includes ideas for sound and easy ongoing assessment of writing. The book is written in line with the requirements of the English National Curriculum and The National Literacy Strategy Framework for England, but is not limited to them. Topics also covered include: - brain development and structures - the acquisition of speech - language and thinking - working memory - secretarial skills - stages in compositional development - writing purposes and cross-curricular applications - strategies for improving self-generated writing - using reading to improve writing - using speech and drama to improve writing and - ten ways to improve children′s writing. This book is for serving teachers in schools wishing to study the subject in further depth, and as a source book for students. Useful for school-based staff INSET, it provides simple activities for teachers to do and discuss.

`What the book does extremely well is do describe the way things are in terms of the requirements of the Framework for Teaching English, the curriculum and the new specifications - and for this reason it is likely to be most useful to those contemplating English tech9ng in the maintained sector from outside - returnees, aspiring NQTs or those in the independent sector′ - Times Educational Supplement `Instead of taking us yet again on a tour through the four modalities of English, this book′s tri-partite structure takes a refreshingly different approach by offering thought-provoking argument grounded in classroom practicality′ - Nick McGuinn, University of York Students′ comments on Teaching Secondary English: `The book is written in clear, digestible terms, offering many practical ideas for teaching the key skills and the wide range of material encountered in the English classroom. .. It is the kind of book which can be dipped into, which is particularly useful for people who spend most of their time planning lessons!′ `Teaching Secondary English is a must for student teachers and NQTs. It is a clear, comprehensive and practical guidebook dealing not solely with theory and pedagogy, but with the very real issues facing new teachers today′ ` It is clear that Teaching Secondary English, unlike so many textbooks on the subject, is written by someone with recent classroom experience and this helps the reader to trust and respect the advice it purports. I certainly feel it is grounded in practicalities not "pie in the sky" theory that will not work in most `real′ classrooms!′ This book enables English teachers to implement change and rise to new challenges, while remaining true to an ethically and socially just position which provides the rationale for their vocation. The author describes and evaluates recent changes to English teaching brought about by initiatives such as the Literacy Strategy, the new `A′ levels and the requirement to focus on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Examples of innovative teaching and learning strategies are provided throughout. The author helps teachers to foster keen readers, writers and communicators. He shows how they can enable their students to acquire skills and knowledge, as well as to recognize the value of aesthetic experience, emotional literacy and spiritual and moral response to literature in their own lives and in their communities. This book is essential reading for PGCE students as well as practising teachers and all those involved in English in education.

This practical book is chiefly intended to help English teachers tackle an area of the new English programme that causes anxiety and about which a large proportion are still uncertain: grammar. Grammar has been an uncertain classroom topic for many years; taught often as a duty, without real progression. In this book, the latest knowledge about grammar is treated as a central component of the meaning making process, in both reading and writing. Pupils can become better readers and write with greater confidence and control as a result of using this approach to grammar. Teachers of other subjects may also benefit from knowing how to integrate some grammatical teaching into the textual interactions of their lessons.

This best-selling textbook combines theory and practice to present a broad introduction to the opportunities and challenges of teaching English in secondary school classrooms. Each chapter explains the background to current debates about teaching the subject and provides tasks, teaching ideas, and further reading to explore issues and ideas in relation to school experience. Already a major text for many university teaching courses, this new edition has been thoroughly updated in the light of new legislation and includes fresh chapters on the National Literacy Strategy, Media and ICT. Other chapters suggest a broad range of approaches to teaching such crucial areas as: reading and writing, speaking and listening drama, media studies and information technology grammar, poetry and language study Shakespeare post-16 English language and literature Written particularly with the new and student teacher in mind, this book offers principles and practical examples of teaching and learning in a twenty-first century context as new notions of literacy compete with demands of national assessment. Taking these changing ideologies as a starting point, the text also addresses questions about the nature of teacher education. It raises issues concerning competence-based courses, working with a mentor in school and monitoring the development of a student teacher.