Primary English: Teaching Theory and Practice

Jane Medwell taught in primary schools in Cardiff and South Devon, before moving into teacher education. She has lectured at the Universities of Cardiff, Plymouth and the College of St Mark and St John, and is currently Director of Teacher Education and Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. Her research and writing has covered areas such as the teaching of writing and the use of electronic books to teach reading. More recently she has begun a major research programme exploring the teaching of handwriting, and has begun a unique programme of teacher education in primary Modern Foreign Languages. She is fluent in French and Russian, and is learning Chinese. David Wray taught in primary schools for 10 years and is currently Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Warwick. He has published over 40 books on aspects of literacy teaching and is best known for his work on developing teaching strategies to help pupils access the curriculum through literacy. His work was made an integral part of the National Literacy Strategy in England at both primary (1997) and secondary (2001) levels. More recently he has acted as consultant to a number of electronic learning projects and has begun new research programs exploring the importance and teaching of handwriting, and the use of mobile learning devices. Hilary Minns co-ordinates primary English courses in the Institute of /par1/Education, University of Warwick. Vivienne Griffiths is a Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University. Elizabeth Coates is an associate fellow of the Centre for Education Studies at the University of Warwick. Prior to her retirement in 2013, she was an associate professor and director of the Early Childhood Studies undergraduate program at the University of Warwick. Since that time, she has worked on a part-time basis within the Centre teaching child development, education, and early years’ policy and practice. During her time at Warwick, she organized and directed five triennial international early years conferences and was founding editor of the International Journal of Early Years Education. Her background as an early years teacher has been a strong influence and, with Andrew Coates, she is involved in a longitudinal action research project focusing on young children (3-7 years) talking and drawing together. This has resulted in a number of conference papers and publications which include, among others, a chapter on “The subjects and meanings of young children’s drawings” in Exploring Children’s Creative Narratives.

• 1 Introduction2 Learning English3 Effective English teaching4 Speaking and listening: developing talk in the primary classroom5 Teaching reading at and before Key Stage 16 The teaching and learning of phonics7 Teaching early writing8 Teaching handwriting and spelling9 Developing reading comprehension10 Reading for information11 Teaching writing at Key Stage 212 Teaching with electronic texts13 Teaching English at a distance14 Including all children15 Organising and resourcing English at Key Stages 1 and 216 Assessing English