The Early Literacy Handbook: Making sense of language and literacy with children birth to seven - a practical guide to the context approach

Dominic Wyse · Christine Parker

Mar 2013 · Andrews UK Limited

About this ebook

The heart of this book is a new approach to the teaching of language and literacy. Its focus is exemplary classroom practice built on rigorous theory and evidence.The approach combines new theory and dynamic practice in its advocacy for contextualised teaching. This book shows how the teaching of smaller units of language, such as sentences, words, letters and phonemes, follows naturally from the context of whole texts. The book offers: practical examples, photographs from settings, case studies and action points to help any practitioner working with young children to develop one of the most crucial life skills, advice on how to build on children's motivation using whole texts, clear guidance on phonics teching in an appropriate context and a unique blend of new theory and dynamic practice.

About the author

Dominic Wyse is Professor of Early Childhood and Primary Education at the Institute of Education (IOE) University London and a widely published author. A major strand of Dominic's research is on teaching English, language and literacy, which form the focus of his titles, spanning from curriculum, pedagogy and policy to educational thought and practice. Dominic was consulted for the government review of the National Curriculum in 2011. Christine Parker is head teacher of a large city centre primary school in the East of England. Previously she was the head of an early excellence centre where she led the nursery school through a period of significant change. Always an advocate for quality provision and practice for the youngest children in school, Christine felt it was time to take her early years specialism into the primary sector. She has also worked as a partnership adviser for the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and as an associate head teacher for the local authority, supporting primary head teachers in understanding the Early Years Foundation Stage.