One of my favourite books was 'King of the Copper Mountains'. It was out of print for a long time but a couple of years ago it was reprinted. One day I got home to find my mum had sent me a new copy. I then read it to my children and enjoyed it even more as an adult. I am now searching for some of my other favourites to share.
Headteacher Chris Lockwood welcomes us
THE QUALITY OF TEACHER’S CHOICE
60 teachers and group leaders met on Wednesday to choose the stortlists for the UKLA Book Awards 2012.We met at Frederick Bird Primary School Coventry, and were made welcome by the headteacher Chris Lockwood and by teachers. It was a joy to be in the school.
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It was difficult to choose. Teacher judges have spend the last few months reading longlisted titles, sharing them with other teachers in their discussion groups and with children. However, they did choose shortlists for each of our 3 awards. In doing so they demonstrated that teachers recognise an unusually diverse range of quality texts including debut authors, established and prize winning authors, texts in translation and quality texts first published overseas. They also clearly recognise what children will like with two current Red House children’s choice winners on their list
Teachers welcomed the opportunity to widen their knowledge of recent children’s titles and enjoyed talking together in order to decide which books would best match the criteria for the award texts. One comment which reflects the feelings of many was: "I’ve absolutely relished the opportunity, not only have I had the opportunity to share some wonderful books with my children on a daily basis, I’ve also really loved the group meetings sharing the books with other teachers". There is no doubt that the children and students in their classrooms benefited too. "It’s been great finding out about authors I wouldn’t perhaps have picked up, and discussing them with children and with teachers in our group. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to read a wider range of authors that I would normally do. I’ve probably read more books in this period of time than I have done for a while!"
The shortlisted books will now be re- read by a smaller panel of teacher judges and the final winners will be announced during the UKLA International Conference to be held on July 6-8th at the University of Leicester.
Shortlists here http://www.ukla.org/news/
· 6 debut authors (Lindsey Barraclough, Phil Earle , Lissa Evans, Ruth Eastham, Katherine Rundell,Gill Lewis)
· Past Carnegie and Kate Greenaway winners Patrick Ness and Catherine Rayner
· a picture book in translation ( Marlolaine Leray, translated by Sarah Ardizzone) and
· quality text first published overseas (Kenneth Oppel)
· Red House winners Patrick Ness and Chris Wormell
Review of Yes, We Can Read (2011) By L. Coleman and N. Ainley
ISBN 987 1842310 755
Gatehouse Books
Yes We Can Read is a ‘one to one reading scheme for learners from 8 -80’, published by dyslexia support, and available through Gatehouse Books. It is a phonics based programme which aims to develop reading for meaning, through a guided reading programme, to be delivered by non-specialists. It suggests that anyone who can ‘read fluently’ can ‘teach a non-reader or poor reader to read in six months or less.
The book is written in a clear, easy to follow style that describes a simple process for helping someone learn to read, modelling a structured multi sensory approach by linking visual imagery to letter sounds and including the look, say, write approach for words not spelt phonetically. One home educator said ‘it was really helpful to have some direction and coaching as a tutor and it gave me lots of confidence because I know it’s a tried and tested method.’ Two people who have used the book have commented on the ‘waste of space’, for example ‘I felt that the contents could have been spaced out more and maybe have a larger font for SEN learners’ and ‘there seems to be a lot of space which is not being utilised’.
The programme includes a ‘photo alphabet’, which claims to be unique, but is actually a variation on a method that has been used to teach children to read for many years – linking a letter (not a sound) to a picture which mirrors this shape – so, for example, the letter b is represented by a bat next to a ball, making the ‘b’ shape. One parent remarked ‘I really liked the photo alphabet, haven’t seen this before. This was really good for children with special needs because it’s so visual’.
However adults may find it confusing - many adults will have their own form of visual imagery that may be different to that described in the book that links to the letters; for example, a dyslexic learner may link the spelling of leaf and feather because they have an image of these two things floating down in the air, a visual image rather than a phonetic link.
The book provides information on approaches to working with adults who are just beginning to read, that is essential for non-specialist staff such as learning mentors, intermediaries, and it does promote a recognised and successful approach to learning reading for adults with dyslexia. However, I think those working with adults may have a number of issues with using the programme, despite the fact that it has glowing reviews by those who support or teach adults reading.
The programme promotes coaching reading in isolation from writing, (although being clear it is for 20 minute sessions, three times a week) and speaking and listening, and NIACE suggest quite strongly that adults with poor literacy need support with all aspects of literacy. Speaking and listening skills are at the heart of improving literacy, and concentrating on reading alone is not best practice for learners. It is likely that unqualified tutors will not be aware of broader approaches that support and reinforce literacy learning.
The programme, having been developed for work with children, uses nonsense sentences, such as ‘the thin man sat on the fat dog’, for progression purposes, which adults could find childish and patronising. Good adult literacy teaching recognises, uses and builds on adults’ own experiences that they bring to class, and working with adults as individuals.
Overall, this book offers an excellent tool for those supporting children at home, for those working with young people with poor literacy on a one to one basis. Use of it with children and young people in school needs to be seen as a part of an overall educational programme, and should be seen as such. Using the programme with adults, especially those who have ‘coped’ for many years with poor skills, needs a range of supporting mechanisms such as encouraging reading for pleasure, for example through using Quick Reads, development of speaking and listening skills and the development of writing skills. Some adults may love working on this programme; others may not. Those supporting adults with their literacy build on and use a learner’s own uses of literacy – this might not be the tool for that.
Reviewed by Carol Taylor
Director of Research and Development
NIACE
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
Title: All Talk: English 14-19.
Authors: J. Blake et al.
Publisher: BT.
ISBN 978-1-904709-28-2
Free resource.
This review was written by Amanda Stec, PGCE English, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
All Talk is a resource that can be used by teachers and students in English lessons. It focuses on routine everyday talk and is a tool for building an understanding of communication in everyday interaction.
Each of the fifteen modules outlines an aspect of communication in everyday interaction within four main categories: talk about the self (names, idiolects, multilingual talk), online and offline talk (texting, chatting and paralinguistic features), dialect and accent and public talk. The book provides materials for discussion and reflection, whilst emphasising practical approaches to teaching about language. All Talk teaches skilful ways of talking for different purposes, such as with the module on spoken word poetry and performance talk. It also teaches ways of interacting in a variety of contexts such as talk in school – both on- and off-task – and with family and friends.
This resource adopts a multimodal approach to teaching about spoken language. For example, one of the activities involves students preparing a storyboard and making a podcast about linguistic diversity. It also includes alternative aspects of language such as a module on British Sign Language and activities in which students analyse a translated transcript of British Sign Language in written standard English. All Talk contains helpful teacher guides, lesson builders, planned activities, web links, word clouds and graphs as well as text in order to support a variety of lesson activities.
Rather than being an add-on, the DVD is a resource in its own right and helps to illustrate many points that the book makes. It includes voxpop videos, scripted representations of interactions, video soundbites, recordings of speakers, samples of face to face chats, interviews, improvised student performances and a themed collection of performed poems.
All Talk would be valuable for teaching the Spoken Language requirement in GCSE English Language. It also directly supports the Speaking and Listening curriculum topic of GCSE English and GCSE English Language. It could be used to support some Year 9 and Year 12 lessons.
As a trainee teacher I found the materials offered enough structure to help me incorporate it into my lesson plans. The abundance of ideas and resources also facilitated my teaching of the English Language course.
lizwalsh, Dec 4 2011
I don’t know whether you spotted the announcements at the LIBDEM conference last week about the pupil premium. First we had Sarah Teather announce an increase to the pupil premium: http://www.libdems.org.uk/latest_news_detail.aspx?title=Sarah_Teather%E2%80%99s_speech_to_Liberal_Democrat_Autumn_Conference&pPK=0b20f466-bd30-4abc-842a-3a273aed6f5c Then the next day Nick Clegg decided how much…Read more >
