The Literate Classroom

Now in its fourth edition, The Literate Classroom combines a range of refreshing and challenging viewpoints from experienced classroom practitioners in order to offer practical and effective approaches to teaching reading and writing to primary students. Over the last few years, how teachers talk with children about their learning has been missing from much of the documentation going into school, but with essential information and advice, this book highlights the importance of speaking and listening in literacy learning and recognises the powerful links between reading, writing and dialogic talk. This fully updated edition includes: shared and guided reading and writing comprehension through response to children’s literature guidance on literacy teaching with ELL pupils new chapters on digital literacy, drama for literacy, talk for spelling and poetry. The Literate Classroom describes how the theory behind key areas of literacy teaching can be transformed into realistic learning experiences within the classroom. An accessible and informative collection, this book is a must-have for any teachers of literacy in the primary sector.

Updated to introduce topics within the context of the new Primary Strategy and the National Literacy Strategy, this edited collection provides sound advice and practical suggestions about the teaching of literacy.

Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, p, e, i, t.

Guidelines for teachers to improve their listening and conferencing skills to promote better literacy in their students.

Learn how to work with your children to improve learning and uncover their potential.

Prepares teachers for careers in literacy education, emphasizing the role of literacy education in promoting the spirit of democratic life. Chapters on the reading process, teacher empowerment, teaching approaches, higher order literacy, content area reading, and literacy provisions for children wit

Shows teachers how to meet the challenges of teaching literacy in today's classroom This book provides educators with the historical and theoretical foundations necessary for becoming a reading, writing, and literacy teacher and helps them understand the broader, more complete picture of the reading process and what it means to be a teacher of readers. It covers the major theories and application strategies of the reading process, and teaches how to organize for literary instruction in a classroom. As educators learn to recognize and draw upon the multiple literacies that children bring to the classroom, they will: become skilled problem-solvers as they work through real-world examples and study the classroom experiences of others; discover how to dig deeper into literacy instruction and decide on what actions to take; and explore ways to drive and teach literacy with such tools as children's toys and familiar characters.

This very important book reaffirms the beauty and uniqueness of children's developing minds and the power that is unleashed when their imaginations are nurtured. -Susan Zimmermann Kindergarten has changed, and not necessarily for the better. Once a joyful time when children grow into school gradually, today it often resembles a watered-down first grade, where academic pressures squelch creativity and play. The Literate Kindergarten shows how carefully balancing academics with song, movement, talk, and play creates an environment where every child can grow and learn. Sue Kempton is a master teacher, and in The Literate Kindergarten, she shares the thinking, the structures, even the precise language she uses to help young children become motivated, engaged, and joyful learners. Kempton guides you through the three domains of learning on which she bases her lessons and actions: the cognitive, creative, and emotional. With this framework in mind, Kempton offers clues to interpreting children's talk and body language so that you know which domain they are engaged in, as well as specific questions and phrases that draw out their thinking and make learning visible. From there, The Literate Kindergarten offers effective suggestions for: establishing routines and creating cooperation developing oral language modeling the language of thinking teaching across content areas supporting students as they become socialized to school recognizing the vital importance of integrating music, movement, and play familiarizing children with concepts of print, comprehension strategies, and other important literacy habits. Discover thoughtful ways to create a safe, nurturing, predictable learning space for children, where their thoughts and feelings are encouraged. Read The Literate Kindergarten and discover a comprehensive resource that can bring joy and serious learning to your classroom.

Trainee and beginning teachers often find the teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling especially challenging as they are not confident in their own knowledge. This popular text explores and provides the subject knowledge you will need to teach grammar, punctuation and spelling and gives guidance on how to teach it. The text is really accessible and includes lots of examples and teaching ideas, enabling you to approach teaching with ease. Detailed examples of effective lessons show you how to engage children’s interest in some of the more formal aspects of writing and throughout, activities and practical examples demonstrate how you can translate this learning into the classroom. This second edition has been updated in line with the new National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2. A new chapter is included to explore the national SPAG tests in primary schools. The tests are explained and advice on how to approach them is included. The text will enable you to teach grammar, punctuation and spelling effectively supporting your class in all their writing, across the primary curriculum.

Combining theory with practical examples, Creative English, Creative Curriculum will stimulate students and teachers to be adventurous and creative in their teaching, while covering the mains strands of the Primary National Strategy for English: narrative, non-fiction and poetry. This book: reflects the new emphases on speaking and listening contextualises recent changes to the English curriculum, reviewing models of best practice provides practical examples and research evidence of creative approaches to the teaching of English considers the cross-curricular aspects in creating a thematic approach to teaching and learning. This book will appeal to both students and practising teachers in the primary school who either wish to implement creative approaches to their English teaching, or are undertaking extended study for a Masters Degree.

Primary teacher reference book which considers literacy in the primary school. Defines literacy and the influence of educators' decisions and outlines various community and cultural resources which shape what children bring to the classroom. Also looks at how children perceive the possibilities and potentials of literacy and discusses the possibilities for teaching children a critical social literacy. Includes a bibliography.

Increasingly, educators are recognizing that for children to thrive intellectually they need socially and emotionally healthy classrooms. Conveniently, this is exactly what parents have always wanted for their children--classrooms that offer and grow positive relationships and behavior, emotional self-regulation, and a sense of well-being. Using the guiding principles from Peter Johnston's best-selling professional resources, Choice Words and Opening Minds, Peter and six colleagues began a journey to create just such classrooms--environments in which children meaningfully engage with each other through reading, writing, making, and discussing books. In Engaging Literate Minds, you'll discover how these teachers struggled and succeeded in building such classrooms. Inside you'll find the following: Practical ways to develop a caring learning community and children's socio-emotional competence Powerful teaching practices from real classrooms Engaging ways to encourage inquiry and student agency Suggestions on how to use formative assessment in everyday teaching practices Helpful research behind the classroom practices and children's development Ways to help students inspire and support each other Building a just, caring, literate society has never been more important than it is today. By embracing the ideas and teaching strategies in Engaging Literate Minds, you can help children to become socially, emotionally, and intellectually healthy. Not only do these classroom practices develop the skills to achieve district benchmarks and beyond, they help develop children's humanity.

Literacy can empower students, but it may also limit their understanding if taught without regard for the context of their lives. Using his encounters with students, in high school, college, and state prison classrooms, as well as his own experience, Robert Yagelski looks at the sometimes ambiguous role of literacy in our lives and examines the mismatch between conventional approaches to teaching literacy and the literacy needs of students in a rapidly changing, increasingly technological world. He asserts that ultimately, the most important job of the English teacher is to reveal to students ways they can participate in the discourse that shapes their lives, and he offers a timely look at how technology has influenced the way we write and read. The scope of this fascinating book reaches beyond the classroom and offers insight about what it means to be "literate" in an economically driven, dynamic society. Addressing earlier works on the subject of literacy, as well as the ideas of theorists such as Foucault, this perceptive work has much to offer educators and anyone seeking to understand the nature of literacy itself.

Renita Schmidt and P. L. Thomas The guiding mission of the teacher education program in the university where we teach is to create teachers who are scholars and leaders. While the intent of that mission is basically sound in theory—we instill the idea that teachers at all levels are professionals, always learning and growing in knowledge—that theory, that philosophical underpinning does not insure that the students who complete our program are confident about the act or performance of teaching. In our unique program, students work closely with one teacher and classroom for the entire senior year and then are supervised and mentored during their first semester of teaching; the program is heavily field-based, and it depends on the effectiveness of mentoring throughout the methods coursework and the first semester of full-time teaching. Students tell us this guidance and support is invaluable, and yet we feel the disjuncture between university and school just as many of you in more traditional student teaching settings. Students hear “best practice” information from us in methods classes and they receive ample exposure to the research supporting our field, but have a hard time implementing research-based practices in their cla- room settings and an even harder time finding it in the classrooms around them.

This book brings together a collection of essays on the teaching of writing. It is a companion to Prue Goodwin’s The Literate Classroom and The Articulate Classroom and aims to: augment our existing knowledge about the teaching and learning of writing stimulate thought and provoke discussion about writing offer a blend of theory and practice give ‘food for thought’ and ideas for teaching writing to primary age children. The topic of writing is one which is under the spotlight with increasing regularity as politicians and policy makers move on from reading as an ‘issue’. This has already happened in England where the National Literacy Strategy is urging more emphasis on the teaching of writing to remedy weaknesses in this area.

This book explores the many dialogues that exist between the arts and literacy. It shows how the arts are inherently multimodal and therefore interface regularly with literate practice in learning and teaching contexts. It asks the questions: What does literacy look like in the arts? And what does it mean to be arts literate? It explores what is important to know and do in the arts and also what literacies are engaged in, through the journey to becoming an artist. The arts for the purpose of this volume include five art forms: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts. The book provides a more productive exploration of the arts-literacy relationship. It acknowledges that both the arts and literacy are open-textured concepts and notes how they accommodate each other, learn about, and from each other and can potentially make education ‘better’. It is when the two stretch each other that we see an educationally productive dialogic relationship emerge.

Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, k, p, e, i, t.