Primary English: Knowledge and Understanding

Jane Medwell taught in primary schools in Cardiff and South Devon, before moving into teacher education. She has lectured at the Universities of Cardiff, Plymouth and the College of St Mark and St John, and is currently Director of Teacher Education and Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. Her research and writing has covered areas such as the teaching of writing and the use of electronic books to teach reading. More recently she has begun a major research programme exploring the teaching of handwriting, and has begun a unique programme of teacher education in primary Modern Foreign Languages. She is fluent in French and Russian, and is learning Chinese. David Wray taught in primary schools for 10 years and is currently Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Warwick. He has published over 40 books on aspects of literacy teaching and is best known for his work on developing teaching strategies to help pupils access the curriculum through literacy. His work was made an integral part of the National Literacy Strategy in England at both primary (1997) and secondary (2001) levels. More recently he has acted as consultant to a number of electronic learning projects and has begun new research programs exploring the importance and teaching of handwriting, and the use of mobile learning devices. George Moore, now retired, was Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Education, University of Warwick. Vivienne Griffiths is a Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University.

Introduction
Spoken English and Standard English
The nature of learning
The acquisition of language
Representing sound in writing
Words, vocabulary and morphology
The grammar of the sentence in Standard English
The components of sentences
Handwriting
Punctuation
Cohesion: grammar at the level of the text
The qualities of stories
The qualities of poetry
The qualities of drama
Looking at information books
Electronic texts
Looking more closely at children’s errors