The Primary English Encyclopedia

The heart of the curriculum

Margaret Mallett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317232070
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This newly updated, user friendly Primary English Encyclopedia addresses all aspects of the primary English curriculum and is an invaluable reference for all training and practising teachers. Now in its fifth edition, entries have been revised to take account of new research and thinking. The approach is supportive of the reflective practitioner in meeting National Curriculum requirements in England and developing sound subject knowledge and good classroom practice. While the book is scholarly, the author writes in a conversational style and includes reproductions of covers of recommended children's books and examples of children's writing and drawing to add interest.

The encyclopedia includes:

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• over 600 entries, many expanded and entirely new for this edition, including entries on apps, blogging and computing;

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• short definitions of key concepts; input on the initial teaching of reading including the teaching of phonics and the other cue-systems;

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• extended entries on major topics such as speaking and listening, reading, writing, drama, poetry, non-fiction, bilingualism and children's literature;

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• information on new literacies and new kinds of texts for children;

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• discussion of current issues and input on the history of English teaching in the primary years;

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• extended entries on gender and literacy;
  
  

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• important references for each topic, advice on further reading and accounts of recent research findings; and

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• a Who's Who of Primary English and lists of essential texts, updated for this new edition.

This encyclopedia will be ideal for student teachers on BA and PGCE courses preparing for work in primary schools and primary school teachers. Anyone concerned with bringing about the informed and imaginative teaching of primary school English will find this book helpful and interesting.

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Abbreviation

See also: acronym, apostrophe, ellipsis, text messaging and literacy

This is the shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase. Frequently used abbreviations or contractions include don’t (do not), can’t (can not) and haven’t (have not). Children need careful teaching about the difference between possessive apostrophes and those used to indicate contraction. Sometimes the abbreviation becomes a word in its own right, for example pub, plane or fridge, and in these cases the apostrophe has been dropped. Other abbreviations are acronyms like SAT (standard assessment test) and NATE (the National Association for the Teaching of English). Useful abbreviations of Latin terms include: e.g. for example (exempli gratia); i.e. that is (id est); etc. and so on (et cetera); N.B. note especially (nota bene). The detailed explanation of ‘abbreviation’ in McArthur’s Oxford Companion is useful but we need to consult newer sources to learn more about the impact of written messages on mobile phones.

The increasing use of text messaging brings new attention to abbreviation as it is writing that uses as few characters as possible. Wilson and Scanlon pinpoint the three main features of text messaging: ‘abbreviation by using phonic spellings; acronyms; emotions represented by symbols’ (Wilson and Scanlon, 2011: 149).

International research findings suggest that text messaging can, in some respects, support children’s developing literacy skills. For example, Wood et al. report that, as well as other benefits, ‘children who demonstrate the greatest knowledge of text abbreviations (textisms) also demonstrate better knowledge of conventional spellings’ (Wood et al., 2014: 92).

McArthur, Tom (1992) The Oxford Companion to the English Language Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wilson, Angela & Scanlon, Julie (2011 fourth edition) Language Knowledge for Primary Teachers Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Wood, Clare, Kemp, Nenagh & Plester, Beverly (2014) Text Messaging and Literacy – The Evidence Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Abstract noun

See also: clause, grammar, noun, parts of speech, sentence

This is a noun which names a state or condition (melancholy), a quality (mercy), a concept (feudalism) or an action (favouritism). Such nouns are ‘abstract’ because you cannot perceive the phenomena they denote with your senses.

Accent

See also: language variety, speaking and listening

This is the aspect of language variation to do with pronunciation. All spoken language, including standard English, is spoken with an accent. Pronunciation varies according to a speaker’s geographical and social origin. For example, I come from the north of England and pronounce ‘bath’ and ‘path’ with a short ‘a’ while my husband, a southerner, pronounces them with a long ‘a’. People speaking in a second or additional language often have a distinctive accent. ‘Received’ pronunciation refers to the accent historically associated with BBC announcers (although regional accents are heard increasingly) and the well educated. However, language is dynamic and pronunciation like other aspects – dialect and vocabulary – changes with each generation of users and many well-educated people speak with a regional accent and are proud to do so.

Acronym

See also: abbreviation

An acronym is made up of the initial letters of a related sequence of words and pronounced as one word. Examples include NATE (National Association for the Teaching of English) and UKLA (United Kingdom Literacy Association). Texting on mobile phones has brought a flock of new acronyms: ‘KIT’ (keep in touch), ‘TBH’ (to be honest) and ‘LOL’ (laugh out loud).

Acrostic

See also: poetry, verse

This describes a poem or puzzle where the first letter of each line, read sequentially down the page, spells out a word or phrase. In a double acrostic, the first and last letters of each line spell out a word or phrase.

Adjectival clause

See also: clause, grammar, parts of speech

An adjectival clause modifies a noun.

‘The girl, who was flushed with pride, rose to receive the bouquet’.

Adjective

See also: adjectival clause, grammar, parts of speech

Adjectives are words that modify nouns or pronouns or complement verbs.

• the yellow dress

• it is spacious

• those gloves look attractive

‘Simple’ adjectives include words like ‘large’, ‘small’ and ‘red’, while what are termed ‘derived adjectives’ are created by adding a suffix (-able, -ful, -ish) to a noun or verb, for example, ‘readable’, ‘restful’ and ‘foolish’.

Adjectives (and adverbs) have comparative and superlative forms. Comparative forms include:

• hard – harder

• challenging – more challenging

Superlative forms include:

• large – largest

• impressive – most impressive

Adventure stories

See also: history of children’s literature

In Victorian times, adventure stories tended to reflect the traditional world of men and boys. The action often centred on dangerous journeys and exciting events on land and at sea. John Rowe Townsend (1995) locates the roots of children’s adventure stories both in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson introduced a vivid new kind of adventure story for children which broke away from the moralistic flavour of earlier books. The action is exciting and the characters are fully rounded mixtures of good and bad qualities. Treasure Island, which Stevenson wrote in 1881 to amuse his stepson during a wet August in Scotland, is still in print. Another book, H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines, also written in the 1880s, had considerable influence on later writers of adventure stories. For more detail about the early history of adventure stories, I recommend John Rowe Townsend’s Written for Children, Victor Watson’s Cambridge Guide to Children’s Books in English, Peter Hunt’s Children’s Literature: An Illustrated History and Daniel Hahn’s The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature.

There are fashions in children’s reading choices as in other things. At the beginning of the twenty-first century children seem to favour stories set in magical worlds of the imagination: R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series, Roald Dahl’s fantasy tales and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. Nevertheless, stories of young people facing up to physical danger – sometimes touching the improbable but staying within the confines of the physical world – are still enjoyed. Historical novels for children often contain the elements of hazard faced up to with courage and resourcefulness that we associate with the best adventure stories. Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels still interest and excite young readers in the later primary years. The Eagle of the Ninth (Oxford University Press, 1954) tells the story of a dangerous venture, north of Hadrian’s Wall, to find out the truth about the disappearance of the Ninth Legion and to recover its lost Eagle. Two other much-read historical stories, again for the ten to twelve year olds, are Marita Conlon-McKenna’s Under the Hawthorn Tree (Puffin, 1992), the tale of the dangerous journey to find help made by three courageous children during the Irish famine of the 1840s, and Berlie Doherty’s Street Child (HarperCollins, 1993), which tells the true story of a boy who escaped from a workhouse in the 1860s and whose circumstances inspired Dr Barnardo to set up his homes. Cynthia Harnett’s ever-popular book, The Wool Pack, is set in an earlier period, fifteenth-century Winchester and the Cotswolds. (A new edition was published by Egmont Books in 2001.)

Not all adventure stories are historical novels. The impact on people of natural disasters is described in Andrew Salkey’s books: Hurricane (1964), Earthquake (1965) and Drought (1966). Enid Blyton wrote adventure stories in the 1940s and 1950s – The Famous Five series, for example, which were formulaic but created a predictable world which some children still find reassuring whatever the reservations of some adults. Still in print is Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, which has strong male and strong female characters and involves children from the town in sailing adventures in the Lake District during their summer holidays. Twelve books were published between 1930 and 1947. Unlike contemporary authors writing in the category often termed ‘realistic’, Ransome does not involve us in issues like the tensions between parents and children. Subtle nuances in developing relationships are explored in Walkabout (Penguin, 1963) – James Vance Marshall’s powerful story of some children’s survival after an aeroplane crash in the harsh physical environment of the Australian outback. Walkabout and other children’s novels of the second half of the twentieth century, for example Anne Holm’s I am David (Egmont Books, 1989) and Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword (Penguin, 1983), are not just adventure stories but quality works which tell us profound things about the human condition. Another kind of survival story – Robert O’Brien’s Z for Zachariah (Penguin, 1998) – relates the events in Ann’s life in the form of a diary when she discovers she is the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust.

The traditional adventure story is thrilling because the characters face life-threatening situations. In the later part of the twentieth century there were many books that included some element of fear and mishap but with a light touch. Teachers have their own favourites which they include in the book collection. Two examples are Beverly Cleary’s amusing tale Ramona Quimby Aged 8 (Oxford University Press, 2001) – which, not surprisingly, appeals to girls about age eight – and Willard Price’s Arctic Adventure (Vintage Books, 1993), liked by girls and boys of about ten years. The latter is one of a series telling about the travels of young Hal and Roger to different countries. Their mission is to collect wild animals for their father’s zoo and in the story about the Arctic visit the brothers face freezing temperatures and lack of food.

New writers of the kind of adventure stories often liked by boys are emerging. Some of these are in the tradition of Henty and Buchan.

Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series – which includes Stormbreaker (now also a film), Eagle Strike and Ark Angel – are fast-moving stories about the adventures of a young boy recruited into MI6. They are written in a crisp, accessible style which is almost Blyton-like at times. Charlie Higson’s stories about the teenage years of James Bond – Silverfin, Blood Fever, Double or Die – are complex and exciting, but a good deal of the action is quite explicitly violent.

Changes in society are reflected in the modern adventure story. Girls are now more likely to be protagonists. Themes, too, change and tend to be in tune with modern preoccupations – racism and the environment, for example (Butts, 2004). Look out for the work of authors of adventure stories enjoyed by both boys and girls, for example Michael Morpurgo’s Kensuki’s Kingdom and Geraldine McCaughrean’s Gold Dust.

Adventure stories can be read online. For example, the whole of Treasure Island can be found at www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/treasure.

Annotated booklists for different ages and abilities are available from Booktrust, Book House, 45 East Hill, London SW18 2QZ. www.booktrust. org.uk

Butts, Dennis (2004) ‘Shaping Boyhood’ in Peter Hunt (ed., second edition) International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature London: Routledge.

Hahn, Daniel (2015, second edition) The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature Oxford: Oxford University Press. (1st edition by Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Pritchard, 1984.)

Hunt, Peter (ed.) (1995) Children’s Literature: An Illustrated History Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Townsend, John Rowe (1995, sixth edition) Written for Children London: The Bodley Head.

Watson, Victor (2001) The Cambridge Guide to Children’s Books in English Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Adverb

See also: adverbial clause, connective, fronted adverbal clause, grammar, parts of speech

These are words which modify or give extra meaning to other parts of speech – to verbs, another adverb or an adjective. So: an example of an adverb modifying a verb is – ‘She ran swiftly’, another adverb – ‘She ran very swiftly’, and an adjective – ‘Her shorts were really elegant’. What are termed ‘sentence adverbs’ – ‘happily’, ‘regrettably’ – modify the whole sentence as in ‘Happily, she came first in the race’.

Adverbs can be divided into groups:

Table 1

Time:	soon, tomorrow, immediately
Frequency:	occasionally, sometimes, often
Place:	inside, near, here
Manner:	effectively, skilfully, swiftly

Adverbial clause

See also: adverb, clause, fronted adverbials, grammar

Like adverbs, adverbial clauses modify, elaborate or qualify verbs.

In the following sentence, ‘after the children had put on their coats’ modifies the verb ‘ran’.

‘After the children had put on their coats they ran into the playground’.

Similarly ‘when we left the school’ is an adverbial clause modifying ‘There was a hail-storm’ in the sentence below.

‘There was a hail-storm when we left the school’.

Adverbial clauses, like other clauses, usually have a subject and verb, as in the examples above.

Adverbial phrase

See also: adverb, adverbial clause, fronted adverbials, clause

An adverbial phrase is a group of words functioning in the same way as a single adverb.

So in the following sentence ‘in an encouraging way’ is an adverbial phrase.

‘He looked at me in an encouraging way’.

However, in the next sentence ‘encouragingly’ is an adverb modifying the verb ‘looked’.

‘He looked at me encouragingly’.

An adverbial phrase, like other phrases, is a group of words acting as one unit. Unlike a clause, a phrase does not have a verb and subject.

Advertisements

See also: environmental print, genre, multimodal texts, National Curriculum, persuasive genre, visual literacy

Advertisements on billboards, in magazines and newspapers and on screen are a powerful part of the environmental print that surrounds us. Children notice pictures and format from an early age and soon become sensitive to their cultural associations:...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword by Sue Palmer
• Acknowledgements
• About this Encyclopedia
• Introduction. Primary English: the heart of the curriculum
• Encyclopedia entries A–Z
• A who’s who in primary English
• My ten top texts
• My top fifteen children’s books published since 2000
• List of entries in the Encyclopedia
• Index