The golden rules of primary literacy...
...and how you use them in the classroom

Review by Julia Strong, NLT deputy director

Anyone lucky enough to have attended training sessions by either Sue Palmer or Pie Corbett knows that they both have the knack of being able to explain things really clearly, bringing out the salient points and throwing in lots of practical advice along the way. Their book Literacy: what works? has the same refreshing clarity and usefulness.

Subtitled "The golden rules of primary literacy. and how you can use them in your classroom", the book provides an excellent overview of the primary literacy strategy, making old hands feel secure in their knowledge and helping newcomers get up to speed. Most usefully, it is full of practical advice about how to do things effectively. For instance, on grammar for literacy it warns against isolated exercises and the labelling of parts: "Sentence level objectives should be taught in relation to a relevant text type; sentence level knowledge should merely be the precursor to a skill - writing style". It adds a useful practical warning: "Where terminology is introduced, it should always be with a view to using it immediately in context."

Not only is this an excellent book for all primary teachers but it is also invaluable for secondary literacy coordinators and English teachers too, to help them build on the best of primary practice.


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