Description
Book Synopsis"The bookâs strength lies in the ability of the contributors to draw conclusions in relation to the reading debate and constructively justify moving away from the reliance on a single phonics approach based on evidence from empirical research. ...The book offers a timely warning against reading becoming synonymous withsynthetic phonics instruction, of children becoming mere âfunctional decoders of printâ (p. 53). The argument turns to the very real need for children to develop andunderstand the âjoy, relevance and use for readingâ (p. 79); indeed in the current climate of synthetic phonics instruction children are in danger of losing the ability orthe will to look at a book for pleasure."Early Years
Debates about the teaching of reading and particularly which phonics method teachers should use have been simmering for many years. This groundbreaking book offers critical perspectives on the teaching of reading and phonics, openly challenging contemporary policy in bo
Table of Contents
Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
What is early childhood for?
Parents’ voices: A conversation with parents of pre school children
Understanding educational discourse: Attending to multiple voices
The limits of science in the phonics debate
Teachers voices
To codify pedagogy or enrich learning? A Wengerian perspective on early literacy policy in England
Social class and the struggle to learn to read: Using Bernstein to understand the politics of the teaching of reading
Learning to read across languages: The role of phonics and synthetic phonics
Inquiry into meaning: A conversation
Revisiting reading for pleasure: Delight, desire and diversity
