Teaching Literacy, Balancing Perspectives

Debate about standards of literacy is always with us. The contributors to this book take the debate away from polarized views of different approaches and try to achieve a balanced perspective reflecting what most primary teachers actually do. This book is organised in three parts. Part one looks at the structure of language and differences in learning speech and writing. Part two concentrates on reading and tries to untangle some of the problems underlying and surrounding "real books" or "whole language" versus phonics and reading schemes. The much neglected subjects of writing and composing, along with spelling, are discussed in part three, and different models of how children acquire writing skills are introduced. Roger Beard has assembled a list of contributors including David Crystal, Jessie Reid, Margaret Donaldson, Jane Oakhill, Barbara Tizard, Peter Bryant, Katherine Perera, Nicholas Tucker, Alison Littlefair, Keith Guines, Carl Bereiter, Marlene Scardamalia, Margaret Peters, Rosemary Sassoon and Marilyn Jager Adams.