Primary English Across the Curriculum

Karen Tulloch, Judith Cullen, Enid Jones, Linda Saunders, Gillian Turner

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780857257826
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Enseignement des langues

This book supports trainee teachers working towards primary QTS in teaching primary English across all areas of the curriculum.

Focused on teaching a more integrated and inclusive curriculum, this text draws out meaningful cross curriculur links and explores how the teaching of English can take place across the whole curriculum. It examines how a teacher?s effective use of English is essential in supporting learning in all subjects and considers the role of the teacher in promoting English. Chapters cover topics such as language, literature, EAL and thinking skills. Incorporating the latest thinking in primary English and including exemplars of current good practice, this practical guide encourages trainee teachers to explore learning and teachig in new ways.

About the Transforming QTS Series

This series reflects the new creative way schools are begining to teach, taking a fresh approach to supporting trainees as they work towards primary QTS. Titles provide full up to date resources focused on teaching a more integrated and inclusive curriculum, and texts draw out meaningful and explicit cross curricular links.

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

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Part 1 of this book explores the central role of English in the primary school curriculum and in everyday life. It considers the nature of language, English in the primary curriculum, language capability and the significance of English as a core skill in a range of contexts. It explores the potential to use English across the curriculum to enhance children’s learning. There is particular focus on language, literature and non-fiction texts. Consideration is also given to children learning English as an additional language who face challenges in understanding a new language and the language of each curriculum subject. Chapter 1 identifies links between language and thought and this is developed further at the end of Part 1 in an exploration of thinking skills. You are encouraged to take a creative and innovative approach to using English in a cross-curricular manner and this book supports you in doing so, by providing many practical examples of effective cross-curricular opportunities. It is hoped that you will respond to your children’s interests and needs by facilitating learning which engages and educates, making links across subjects which will maximise the development of skills, knowledge and understanding. The emphasis is on providing a range of inspiring, exciting and interesting opportunities to enthuse children and to develop their learning in natural, real and stimulating ways.

1. English as a core skill

Learning Outcomes

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This chapter aims to help you to:

• understand the difference between English, literacy and language teaching;
• understand more about your own use of English and language;
• understand the development of English within the National Curriculum;
• develop your understanding of the importance of supporting children to develop their English capability across the primary curriculum.

TEACHERS’ STANDARDS
A teacher must:

1. Set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils
   • establish a safe and stimulating environment for pupils, rooted in mutual respect
2. Promote good progress and outcomes by pupils
   • plan teaching to build on pupils’ capabilities and prior knowledge
   • demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how pupils learn and how this impacts on teaching
3. Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge
   • have a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas, foster and maintain pupils’ interest in the subject, and address misunderstandings
   • demonstrate a critical understanding of developments in the subject and curriculum areas, and promote the value of scholarship
   • demonstrate an understanding of and take responsibility for promoting high standards of literacy, articulacy and the correct use of standard English, whatever the teacher’s specialist subject

Introduction

This chapter introduces a key premise of this book: that English is a core skill; proficiency enables us to interact, learn and to function in many different areas of life. The skill of using English can be applied to different circumstances and different curricular areas and can be considered a ‘core skill’ as it is highly useful in our everyday lives. For the purpose of this chapter, a skill is considered as something that is applied and develops through practice. This chapter is designed to pinpoint key areas in the use of English across the curriculum that are fully developed in the remainder of this book. The chapter begins by addressing the question of English capability in the light of a brief outline of the developmental process of language.

Using English in the world around us

Some adults and children believe that the core English skills of reading and writing are confined to the classroom and that once acquired do not play a significant part in the daily world. In addition there is the tacit assumption that the underlying skills of speaking and listening, that are core parts of English in the National Curriculum, do not need attention because they develop of their own accord.

Activity

To help you to think about English as a core skill, look at the list of everyday tasks. Choose one task and list the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills necessary to achieve it. This is designed to help you to consider how a number of everyday tasks require a range of different reading, writing, speaking and listening skills

How did you manage the activity? Even everyday tasks like speaking to the GP at the surgery will require a range of English skills. For example:

• reading the calendar to fix an appointment date;
• preparing for the consultation by writing down your list of symptoms;
• choosing the appropriate language if you are bilingual;
• speaking clearly to the GP so that he or she can make a rapid and accurate diagnosis;
• listening to the GP’s medical advice and asking appropriate questions if necessary;
• locating the chemist with the prescription and reading the instructions for its administration;
• repeating the process if symptoms persist.

Tasks analysing the necessary English skills in this way allows you to see the central place of English in everyday life and perhaps to what extent such skills are taken for granted by those who are competent users. It cannot be argued that these tasks could be completed independently without the applied use of English skills. However an individual’s response as to what skills are necessary for each may be influenced by personal responses to English that are largely intuitive. Many of these intuitive responses are based on what individuals perceive as the nature, purpose and context of English in life. Such notions are closely linked to a clear judgement and understanding of the constituents of effective English skills for lifelong use. This includes English for recreational, academic and social uses.

Research Focus: The development of English within the National Curriculum

In the lead-up to the creation of the first National Curriculum for English the Cox Report, published in 1988, recognised the breadth of English. Five possible ‘views’ or models of English were identified in the Cox Report.

A ‘personal growth’ view was identified as one which should help children to grow personally. Through literature, discussion and imaginative writing children are enabled to come to a deeper understanding of themselves and others. They develop their imagination and their interpersonal and communication skills.

A ‘cross-curricular’ view, particularly relevant to the topic of this book, identifies that English should enable children to cope with the demands of learning across the school curriculum. It recognises that children learn English for other subjects and that they also learn about English in other subjects.

In keeping with the ‘functional’ view of literacy, an ‘adult needs’ view stresses that English should enable children, ultimately, to cope with the oracy and literacy demands of the adult world.

A ‘cultural heritage’ view places importance on introducing children to ‘our’ literary cultural heritage, to the ‘best’ poetry, novels and plays that have been written in the language.

Finally, in a ‘cultural analysis’ view, which aligns with a critical view of literacy, children are taught to interpret and question and to ‘read against the text.’ (Cox 1989 2.20) The report asserted that these views are not the only possible views and they are not sharply distinguishable or mutually exclusive. Nonetheless, they do offer a broad basis for consideration of priorities within the English curriculum.

Activity

Take a few minutes to consider the five views of English teaching outlined above. Is it possible to place them in an order of importance? What are ‘the best’ examples of literature in the language? Whose heritage is referred to in ‘our’? Which view(s) of English is/are closest to your priorities for English teaching?

Table 1.1 on page 8 outlines each of the five views of English teaching and provides examples of how each might be explored using a cross-curricular approach in the classroom.

The first National Curriculum for English and the National Literacy Strategy

The National Curriculum for English was published in 1990 (DES, 1990). The curriculum was informed in part by national projects in oracy and writing that had evolved during the 1980s drawing on the work of practising teachers. It set out three ‘Programmes of Study’: Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing and five ‘Attainment Targets’: Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, Spelling and Handwriting. These modes were inter-related. Similarly, cross-curricular learning is an excellent vehicle for linking English and other subjects. Attainment Targets in English can be effectively achieved through, for example, history topics or PSHE work.

Table 1.1 The five views of English teaching

The work of Graves (1981; 1983) was very influential in exploring the writing process rather than just the product of writing. This included drafting and editing according to purpose, audience and context and Smith (1982) linked the skills of composition and transcription to the contrast between the work of ‘author’ and ‘secretary’. In the 1995 review of the National Curriculum the assessment criteria for spelling and handwriting were amalgamated with those for writing, combining the compositional and transcriptional dimensions of writing in one attainment target. This structure of three programmes of study and three attainment targets was maintained in the 2000 review of the curriculum although the National Literacy Strategy (NLS), which had set out a termly framework from Reception to Year 6 in 1998 (DfEE, 1998), only identified objectives for reading and writing. The National Curriculum placed emphasis on children’s exposure to a range and variety of texts and the National Literacy Strategy also placed emphasis on different genres of writing. Cross-curricular learning can provide excellent contexts for exploration of these different genres.

The revised framework for English

In the revised framework the Primary National Strategy (DCSF, 2006) identified twelve strands across speaking, listening, drama, reading and writing and set out fiction, non-fiction and poetry blocks as the core content for curriculum planning. The revised framework aimed to provide a clearer picture of progression across the primary years. The framework also drew on the Rose Report on The Teaching of Early Reading (DCSF, 2006) and the work of Gough and Tumner (1986) in setting out a ‘simple view of reading’ which identified language comprehension processes and word recognition processes as children move from learning to read to reading to learn. Cross-curricular contexts can be particularly significant for the application of developing reading skills and this will be explored further in Chapters 3 and 4.

What is English capability?

English capability involves the ability both to use and reflect on language in a wide range of contexts within the four language modes of speaking, listening, reading and writing. The range of ability is sometimes referred to as a language ‘repertoire’. Concepts of what counts as literacy are constantly changing. At the beginning of the twentieth century if a person could sign their own name on the marriage register rather than putting an ‘X’ by someone else’s writing, they were deemed to be literate. Today studies such as those conducted by the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD, www.oecd.org) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS, www.nfer.ac.uk/pirls) enable us to compare literacy data from across the world. Clearly the ability to write a name on a register would no longer be a measure of functional literacy.

Children have to develop their language repertoire and to be able to make appropriate choices according to purpose, context and audience. Whilst the necessary skills may be taught in English lessons, cross-curricular contexts provide a valuable opportunity for children to develop and apply what they have learned (Barnes, 2009). Speaking and listening generally occur in shared contexts. In contrast reading and writing allow us to communicate over time and space. These contexts influence the nature of how we use and apply the different modes of language. Speakers’ resources are influenced by a shared physical environment, the human voice and body and the co-operative, interpersonal nature of speech. This enables the speaker to draw on intonation, volume, gesture and body language. The listener can ask for more detail or for instant clarification of any misunderstandings and can also cooperate and encourage the speaker.

Most children enter school with well-developed skills in spoken language. Ask any parents of four or five year olds and they will probably be able to describe a child who is very accomplished, for example, in the genre of verbal persuasion! As you will read in the next section of this chapter, many preschool children also know a good deal about written language but communicating in a reader-writer context places different demands on the participants and this should not be underestimated in a child’s journey to becoming a reader and writer. A cross-curricular approach to learning can...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• About the authors
• Introduction
• Part 1 Introduction
• Part 2 Introduction
• Appendix 1: Model answers to the self-assessment questions
• Appendix 2: Language books
• Appendix 3: Children’s literature books
• Index