Learning to Be Literate: Insights from Research for Policy and Practice

Introduction PART I Insights from literacy research: 1960s to 1980s 2. Reading and related skills: lessons from the early 1970s 3. Language and reading: insights from early research 4. Strengths and weaknesses of children with reading difficulties and young fluent readers 5. Insights from young fluent readers PART II Young literacy learners: how we can help them 6. Literacy learning in creative contexts 7. Sensitive observation and the development of literacy: a tribute to Marie Clay 8. Meeting individual needs in learning to read 9. High frequency words: a neglected resource in learning to read 10. Reading and writing: a reciprocal relationship PART III Curriculum developments and literacy policies, 1988 to 1997: a comparison between England, Wales and Scotland 11. The first National Curriculum in England and Wales: lessons for the future 12. Government policy on literacy in Scotland from the 1980s to the 1990s PART IV Synthetic phonics and literacy learning: government policy in England, 2006 to 2015 13. The Rose Report and the teaching of reading: a critique 14. One best method of teaching reading: what is the research evidence? 15. The phonics check: its background, initial results and possible effects 16. Research evidence on the phonics check for all Year 1 children in England 17. Unresolved issues on the value and validity of the phonics check: four years on 18. Whose knowledge counts in government literacy policies: at what cost? PART V Interpretations of literacies in the twenty-first century 19. International studies of reading, such as PIRLS: a cautionary tale 20. Literacies in and for a changing world: what is the evidence? 21. Insights on literacy from research