This paper explores one way that teachers can develop creativity within potentially limiting confines and pressures of curriculum guidelines. The researcher considers the inclusion of film as a creative, engaging and effective strategy for teaching reading using data from a small-scale research project. Hypotheses are based on analysis of…

In recent years, interactive white boards (IWBs) have been introduced into many primary classrooms in England. This enquiry examines the ways in which they are being used in the context of literacy teaching, in six primary classrooms in the south-west. Drawing on the perspectives of teachers and pupils, this report reflects on the impact of IWB…

This article explores the fine detail of practice by three teachers, all recognised as effective teachers of literacy. The three were observed during nine literacy lessons (three lessons each), working with Year 2 classes (6/7-year-olds) in successful inner-city primary schools in the south of England. Data collection took place in 2003, just as…

Meaning making in new media presents new opportunities and challenges for those working in formal and informal educational contexts. How this impacts on a literacy curriculum that attempts both to deliver "the basics" and to respond to new technology demands careful exploration. This paper examines what we mean by digital literacy and how it…

Critical literacy has been a particular focus in literacy education in the past two decades. Literacy models such as the "four resources" model provide a significant framework for a critical understanding of texts and the social and cultural practices that inform them. In this paper, I draw on the "four resources" model to argue that the success…

Practice in working with parents is changing and communicating with parents is increasingly a part of teachers' responsibilities. Besides focusing on supporting their children's learning, many schools now involve parents in education for themselves. Yet despite the expectation that they will work to engage parents in their children's learning, in…

This paper reports a small-scale study of wider reading at Key Stage 3 in current English classrooms in secondary schools in the south of England. Six English teachers, three of whom were relatively new to teaching, were interviewed on what they thought about wider reading. The findings indicate that because of a lack of time and absence of demand…

As part of a professional development initiative helping secondary school teachers use assessment data to guide their instruction, teachers in this study changed their knowledge, skills and dispositions. Over time, they were able to identify assessments, administer these assessments, interpret the results and plan instruction. As a result, the…

One hundred and eighty British secondary school pupils aged 11-12 and their six trainee teachers in five schools participated in an action research project, designed to improve the quality of children's group talk in English lessons, particularly their engagement in higher-order thinking through "exploratory" talk. The programme, supported by the…

The 1-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education Secondary English method course at the University of Sheffield's School of Education has, since 2001, asked its students to write an essay of around 4000 words on their initial understanding and experience of the National Strategies promoted by the United Kingdom's Department for Education and…

This paper explores the relationship between student teachers' behaviour and their underlying thoughts and beliefs as they learn to teach English in the primary school. It draws on data from a study involving student teachers at a range of points in their Initial Teacher Education programmes at a university in England. It uses these data to…

In this paper, we describe part of an Australian national research project that aimed to find out how well prepared beginning teachers are to teach literacy. A majority of beginning teachers participating in a series of national surveys and focus group meetings were confident about their personal literacy skills, their conceptual understandings of…

In England, little research has been carried out into how pre-service secondary English teachers transform what they know as they learn to teach. They are seldom asked to reflect explicitly on the connections between the pedagogy of their undergraduate studies and their pedagogical experiences as student teachers. The initial teacher education…

The article compares evidence from an electronic corpus of texts written for a child audience with specifications in the National Literacy Strategy. The concepts and terminology associated with corpus linguistics are introduced and explained, and the research study from which the findings derive is summarised. Results of the analysis are presented…

The effect of irregular English orthography (spelling) on foundation literacy, and in particular on alphabetic decoding, is discussed within the context of the orthographic depth hypothesis. A method for circumventing the retarding effects of traditional English orthography, based on the support provided for Chinese pupils learning their…