educator to ensure that it supports good practice in literacy/communication or ESOL teaching.
The Teaching Practice chapter is at times a little prescriptive for my taste, but many brand new teachers will undoubtedly find it very supportive. In the Professionalism and CPD chapter, I particularly liked the section on Reflective Practice; like much of this book, it managed to convey the essence of quite sophisticated ideas about teaching in a very clear and accessible way.
The book as a whole is a triumph of clarity and succinctness. It will be an extremely useful resource for intending adult literacy and ESOL teachers at early stages of their professional development – perhaps as pre-course reading for PGCE candidates, or as an accessible 'starting point' for reading in the first year of a part time teaching qualification. It could also be an excellent resource for managers or teacher educators who wish to develop CPD for ESOL and adult literacy/functional skills tutors in FE or other post-16 contexts. There are ready-designed tasks throughout the book that can be used or adapted for this purpose.
Some selected recommended resources for learning literacies We hope the following list will be of interest to any literacy practitioner, whether embarking on a PGCE or other professional course, or wishing to read something to inspire their thinking and practice in a less formal way. We believe they provide a very good introduction to looking at literacies, and we know many course participants have found them to be clear and useful for their professional development.
They are mainly oriented to literacy teaching but some could also be useful for ESOL or numeracy teachers. Although some are quite old now, we have included them because we believe they still have resonance and relevance for today's literacy practitioners.
Crystal, David (2nd ed. 2004) Rediscover Grammar with David Crystal, Harlow: Longman Crystal, David (2004) Making Sense of Grammar, Harlow: Longman David Crystal has written many books about language, all of them both entertaining and useful. These two companion pieces offer clear and concise information about the grammar of the English language. Rediscover Grammar explains the key elements of sentences and the place of different types of phrases in the construction of sentences. Making Sense of Grammar goes further with the analysis of grammar by focusing on semantics (the meaning expressed) and pragmatics (the effect conveyed by that meaning).
Duncan, Sam (2012) Reading Circles, Novels and Adult Reading Development, London & New York: Continuum This book describes Duncan's research with a group of literacy learners reading a novel together. It is inspiring to read in these days of Functional Skills, of pleasure that literature can bring and how learners can work collaboratively to support each other in gaining meaning from texts. Duncan takes as her starting point the learners' perceptions of the process and what they gained from the experience. Additionally there is a fascinating historical account of reading, in particular reading as a communal and social process.
Fowler, Ellayne and Mace, Jane (eds) (2005) Outside the classroom: researching literacy with adult learners, Leicester: NIACE This is book is a valuable professional development tool for several reasons. Firstly, it contains very accessible descriptions of key ideas in adult literacy education, especially the concept of literacy as a social practice (chapter 1) and communities of practice (chapter 2). Secondly, it grew out of a course for literacy teachers, and, illustrating the theoretical content of each chapter, there is a series of engaging learner profiles written by the literacy teachers themselves. Thirdly, it is an introduction to the writing of Jane Mace (a founder member of RaPAL). Her work is a real pleasure to read, being consistently insightful and creative as well as
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