Improving Literacy at KS2 and KS3

Book excerpt: `Improving Literacy at KS2 and KS3 is all about primary-secondary transfer, seen mostly through the eyes of secondary teachers, but with some interesting contributions from middle-school staff who know the territory well. This book sees the NLS′s influence on primary practice as generally benign, but takes a more jaundiced view of the implications for secondary teaching, especially in its central chapter "Evidence from experienced practitioners". There are, however, many useful suggestions for reshaping and adapting parts of the strategy, including chapters on classroom literacy and everyday life and literacy and drama which consider ways of relating learning to the wider culture beyond school, including screen-based literacy. There is also a review of the language-across-the-curriculum movement and a chapter on subject literacies which has left me with an abiding admiration for geography teachers as lone voices of dissent′ - Sue Palmer, TES Teacher This book will to help students and practising teachers to understand the issues surrounding literacy, the place of transition in pupils′ lives, and to feel confident in handling The National Literacy Strategy. The book focuses on the crucial period when children complete primary schooling and begin in secondary schools. It examines the issue of transition from one phase to the other and specifically, the nature of literacy at this period. The authors contrast the `whole school′ approach of primaries to the very subject-specific nature of secondary teaching. The authors set the NLS in perspective, reviewing earlier movements such as Language across the Curriculum and the NLS itself. They offer a critique of the strategy and outline its strengths and weaknesses. The book sets out evidence of the way schools are reacting to the NLS, and what classroom teachers and their pupils think. Its coverage is comprehensive and includes focus on primary, secondary and middle schools, the teaching of literacy and English, the role of ICT, as well as important areas such as media education, drama and modern foreign languages. This book will be useful to education students and to practicing teachers in primary and secondary schools.