Primary English: Knowledge and Understanding

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. George Moore, now retired, was Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Education, University of Warwick. Vivienne Griffiths is a Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University.

• IntroductionSpoken English and Standard EnglishThe nature of learningThe acquisition of languageRepresenting sound in writingWords, vocabulary and morphologyThe grammar of the sentence in Standard EnglishThe components of sentencesHandwritingPunctuationCohesion: grammar at the level of the textThe qualities of storiesThe qualities of poetryThe qualities of dramaLooking at information booksElectronic textsLooking more closely at children’s errors