The making ofAnya,or a tale of two villages

The UK editors invited Michael Morpurgo to write about the origins ofWaiting for Anya, a story set on the Franco Spanish border in the High Pyrenees during the Second World War. The young hero, Jo, is drawn into a perilous network which helps Jews to escape over the border. A European bear, a Pyrenean mountain dog, a shepherd—all feature in the story. How they come to be there is explained in the article which follows.Waiting for Anya is published by Heinemann (hard-back) and by Mammoth (paperback) in the UK, by Viking Penguin in the USA, and by Gallimard in France. It was nominated by the American Library Association as Best Book for Young Adults, and it was aSchool Library Journal Best Book of the Year; it was also an NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the field of Social Studies.Michael Morpurgo writes extensively for children and, at the same time, manages (with his wife, Clare) a project based on farms in England and Wales which gives city children a working experience of rural life. Several of his books have been filmed, includingWhy the Whales Came (Heinemann) andMr Nobody's Eyes (Mammoth). His own education at an English public school helped to shape his most recent book,The War of Jenkins' Ear (Heinemann).     

The Cay Theodore Taylor

Cle continues its series of accounts of classroom practice with books that teachers have found successful as class readers with their students.Stephen Wicks is Head of the English Department at Camborne Comprehensive School in Cornwall. He has chosen an American novel, Theodore Taylor'sThe Cay, which he reads with classes of thirteen-year-old boys and girls drawn from the whole ability range.Barbara Hall is in her second year of teaching at The Woodrush Comprehensive School, near Birmingham. She teaches Stan Barstow'sA Kind of Loving to classes of average ability who are taking the Certificate in Secondary Education in English Literature.     

Developing phoneme awareness through alphabet books

Previous research suggests that children who are successful in phoneme awareness tasks also have high levels of alphabet knowledge. One connection between the two might be alphabet books. Such books typically include both letter-name information and phonological information about initial sounds (B is for bear). It may be that children who are read alphabet books, and thus understand how B is for bear, will learn both letter names and be able to isolate phonemes. To examine this, we gave three treatments to different groups of prekindergarteners. In the first group, the teacher read conventional alphabet books. In the second, the teacher read books chosen to contain the letter names only, without example words to demonstrate sound values. The third group, a control, read only storybooks. We found that all groups gained in print concept and letter knowledge over the course of the study. The conventional alphabet group made significantly greater gains in phoneme awareness than the group that read books about letters without example words, suggesting that conventional alphabet books may be one route to the development of phoneme awareness.     

‘This is Me’: developing literacy and a sense of self through play,talk and stories

Children from literate home backgrounds, who have exposure to supportive, positive reading role models using good quality texts, are the ones who are best able to cope with the demands of learning about literacy and the transition from home to school. This study of 3-year-old children will focus on their interactions with picturebook read aloud, their repeated requests to have favourite books read over and over again, their developing sense of identity and their growing ability to respond to the books through play, oral retellings, drawings, emergent writing and ‘readings' of the stories in their own words. Over a period of time, as the children had a series of picturebooks read to and shared with them, they were able to identify a sense of self mirrored in the content of some of the books and to make informed choices about their favourites. The children identified themselves in the storybook narratives and went on to record their responses in a variety of differing modes some of which led to them becoming real authors as they constructed their own books to be read, re-read and enjoyed.     

Forty Years on: Touchstones Now

The Touchstones series of poetry anthologies was first published in the UK between 1968 and 1972 in five volumes. Over a million copies and three revisions later, Touchstones Now 11–14 appeared in the summer of 2008. Few, if any, books for the classroom can claim such longevity. In this article, the compilers of the anthologies, Michael and Peter Benton, look back over the 40 years of the series’ life. They reflect upon the principles which have guided their choices; and the social and political pressures, often exerted by governments, which they have confronted in their attempt to help school students become enthusiastic, committed and discriminating readers of poetry. Bionote: Michael and Peter Benton taught in various secondary schools in the UK for 10 years before becoming University Lecturers in Education. Separately, they have published many articles and academic books on the teaching of English and, together, they have collaborated on a variety of anthologies for the classroom in addition to the “Touchstones” series, notably their books on poetry and painting, “Double Vision”, “Painting with Words” and “Picture Poems”. Michael Benton is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Southampton; Peter Benton is Emeritus Fellow, St Cross College, & formerly Lecturer in Education, Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford.     

Reconsidering Schools and the American Welfare State

Recalling her experience as an exchange teacher in Birmingham, England, in 1938–39, in the midst of the Great Depression, Oregon teacher Mary Kelly, wrote: When I witnessed the first‘leaving’day … in one of the Birmingham schools and learned that as soon as the majority of the English children were fourteen they were through with regular schooling forever, I almost shed tears. “Do you mean that those girls will never go to high school?” I asked. “Yes it is true.” ”Will they have jobs or will they be idle?” “The Education Department will place most of them in positions in homes, shops or factories ….” There were no graduation exercises, no lovely new dresses, no parents or relatives invited. I thought of my high‐school graduation, which possibly would never have been if education was not free, because the means were limited. Still another graduation after going through college on nothing a year permitted me to take up teaching ….To me, at that moment, there was nothing more precious than democracy and I mean the American way.¹     

Supporting Inferential Thinking in Preschoolers: Effects of Discussion on Children’s Story Comprehension

Research Findings: This study examines the effects of low– and high–cognitive demand discussion on children’s story comprehension and identifies contributions of discussion, initial vocabularies, and parent reading involvement. A total of 70 English learner preschoolers took baseline vocabulary tests in Portuguese and English, were randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions, and were read pairs of books in small groups. In the experimental condition, 1 book per pair was discussed using low–cognitive demand (literal) talk. The other was discussed using high–cognitive demand (inferential) talk. In the control condition, books were read aloud without discussion. All children took story comprehension tests (new literal and inferential questions) following books’ third readings. Findings showed significant effects of discussion on comprehension. Repeated measures analyses indicated significant effects of high-demand discussion on both question types, particularly inferential questions. Regression indicated significant contributions of high-demand discussion beyond English vocabulary and home reading. Practice or Policy: High-demand discussion significantly influences chigldren’s inferential thinking skill, contributes benefits over and above expected impacts of initial vocabulary, and may offer benefits over low-demand talk for literal details. Teachers need not wait to engage young language learners in cognitively challenging discussion.     

Deconstructing Burglars: Formal analysis as a Pedagogic Jemmy

There is an increasing interest in attempts to find a mode of discussion appropriate for young children's books. The article which follows offers a close consideration ofBurglar Bill by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Readers might find it helpful to have a copy of the picture book at hand, if possible, as they read Andrew Stibb's article. Andrew Stibbs, after many years in various secondary schools, is now a senior lecturer in education at the University of Leeds, where he specializes in English in education. He has written extensively on assessing English, on children's literature, on teaching poetry and literature in general, and—more recently—on the applications of literary theory to English in schools.     

What is a real story? Investigating the perceptions of Key Stage One children

This small‐scale piece of research stemmed from a larger study on oral storytelling and the responses of children to stories told and read to them. In the larger study several children expressed preferences for stories from picture books, as told stories were not real stories. This concept of real stories and what constitutes a real story in the eyes of an infant child, aged between five and seven years, is what led to the basis of the research. One hundred and thirty‐five children between the ages of five and seven years old were involved in the research. The investigation was conducted in three different schools in South Wales, UK. It was hoped that the research would give some insights into the literacy habits of children today. The children were asked some basic questions about home practices relating to storytelling and story‐reading and about preferences in relation to oral stories and picture books. Finally they were asked if they thought oral tales were real stories. This essay gives an overview of some of the literacy practices of the children and deliberates on their comments as they wrestle with the concept of a real story.     

Reading Lessons from the Eighteenth Century

The extraordinary nursery library produced by Jane Johnson (circa 1742–1747), entirely in the private domain with no thought of publication, holds pride of place in the Lilly Library's collection of early children's books at the University of Indiana, USA. It has already been celebrated in an exhibition and international conference held at the Fitzwilliam Museum and Homerton College respectively in Cambridge, UK, in 1995. One outcome of the interest aroused in Jane's educational materials by scholars from a wide range of disciplines was the publication of Opening the Nursery Door in 1997, which included two essays devoted to her enterprise by Shirley Brice Heath and Victor Watson. Since then, the Bodleian Library in Oxford has acquired and published in facsimile form a story written by Jane in 1744, alongside a fascinating assortment of family letters and other papers. In Opening the Nursery Door, Watson explored the sources for Jane's story, while Brice Heath considered the materials from a linguistic and anthropological point of view, but no one has yet examined them as reading materials. This is the focus the present authors have taken, based on their research into her life and work, alongside their exploration of the historical and educational context in which a mother might have taught her children to read in the eighteenth century. This article is devoted to examining Jane's nursery library, the philosophical and pedagogical influences on her approach, and the methodologies she used to teach reading, thus throwing a spotlight on domestic literacy and providing insights into the culture of Georgian family life.     

Notes on Contributors

^{1 1} This article provides a detailed reconstruction of the processes leading to the formation of the widely influential Birmingham Agreed Syllabus of Religious Instruction (1975). This is contextualised within one of the most significant periods in the history of race relations in the United Kingdom. The authors discuss how this syllabus, and other landmark reforms in religious education (RE) in English schools from the late 1960s, responded to ethnic diversity by promoting supposedly culturally pluralist, multi-faith approaches to RE, which were subsequently perceived as eroding the Christian foundations of British/English national identity. They argue that the vilification of these curriculum reforms by culturally conservative critics was in fact based on an erroneous assessment of the extent to which these renounced the Christian hegemony of RE. They also critique the assumption that the religious clauses of the 1988 Education Reform Act represented a simple transition from culturally pluralist to assimilationist policies for the subject.     

What Katy Did

What Katy Didwas the second of more than twenty books written for children by Susan Coolidge, the pen name of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (1835–1905). Early in Sarah's childhood, the Woolseys moved from Cleveland to Connecticut, where she and her younger sisters and brother grew up. They and her relations provided the models for the fictional Carr family of the Katy novels, Sarah having much in common with Katy herself. What Katy Didwas published by Roberts Brothers of Boston in 1872 and is often compared with Louisa M. Alcott's Little Women,published very successfully by the same firm only four years earlier. Katy Carr was as immediately popular as Jo March, who may well have created an eager market for her. Elizabeth Jennings was born in 1926 in Boston, Lincolnshire, but since the age of six has lived mostly in Oxford. She was educated at Oxford High School and read English Language and Literature at Oxford University. Her first book,Poems (1953), won an Arts Council Award, andA Way of Looking brought her the Somerset Maugham Award in 1956. The latter enabled her to make the first of many visits to Rome, a city which has had a formative influence on her work. She has published fifteen volumes of poetry as well asCollected Poems (1986), which was awarded the W. H. Smith Award in 1987. She has also written two books of poems for children (now out of print) calledThe Secret Brother andAfter the Ark, has translated Michelangelo'sSonnets (reissued in 1988), has edited four anthologies, and has written four critical books, includingEvery Changing Shape andRobert Frost. Over the years she has received five Arts Council prizes or bursaries.CLE invited her to revisit a favorite book of her childhood.     

Conferences past and future

Education and Enquiry. By John Anderson, edited by D. Z. Phillips. Pp. 240. Blackwell, 1980, £21.00 hardback, £5.25 paperback.

Injustice, Inequality and Ethics. By Robin Barrow. Pp. xii, 204. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books, 1982. £18.95 (cloth) and £4.95 (paper).

Universities, Politicians and Bureaucrats: Europe and the United States. Edited by H. Daalder and E. Shils. Pp. viii, 511. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. £37.50.

Conflict and Compromise: Class Formation in English Society 1830–1914, A Comparative Study of Birmingham and Sheffield. By Dennis Smith. Pp. xiv, 333. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1982. £17.95.

English Education, Social Change and War 1911–20. By Geoffrey Sherington. Pp. xiii, 194. Manchester University Press, 1981. £14.50.

The Sociology of Childhood: Essential Readings. Edited by Chris Jenks. Pp. 290. Batsford Academic Books, 1982. £6.95 paperback.

Hooligans or Rebels? By Stephen Humphries. Pp. viii, 279. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1981. £12.50.

A New Case for the Liberal Arts. By D. G. Winter, D. C. McClelland and A. J. Stewart. Pp. xxvii, 247. London: Sage Publications, 1981. £14.75.

Sources for English Local History. By W. B. Stephens. Pp. xvi, 342. Cambridge: University Press, rev. ed., 1981. Hard covers £25.00, paperback £8.95.

Innovation in the Science Curriculum. Ed. by John Olson. Pp. 178. London: Croom‐Helm, 1982. £12.50.

Brightest and Best. By W. P. Gothard. Pp. 270. Driffield: Nafferton, 1982. £10.95.

Verbal Deficit: A Critique. By J. C. B. Gordon. Pp. 181. London: Croom Helm, 1982.

Multi‐lingualism and Mother‐tongue Education. By D. P. Pattanayak. Pp. xvii, 185. Delhi: O.U.P., 1982. £7.95.

Asia: the Winning of Independence. Ed. Robin Jeffrey, London, the Macmillan Press Ltd., 1981, xv, 337     

THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH‐‐II

Recent work aimed at involving parents more in the teaching of reading by encouraging parents to hear their children read school reading books at home has created a great deal of interest. But to what extent does it depart from normal school practice?

Little is known about schools’ attitudes to parental involvement in home‐based, as opposed to school‐based, educational activities. Therefore a study was made of a sample of 16 infant and first schools. Interviews were carried out with head teachers, all teachers of seven‐year‐olds, and some of their pupils. It was found that whilst there was general support for the idea of parental involvement in the teaching of reading this stopped short of helping parents hear their own children read at home. An examination of the schools’ practice suggested that at present comparatively few children regularly take school reading books to read at home.     

A charity school in the nineteenth century: Old Swinford hospital school, 1815–1914

The University in Society. Edited by Lawrence Stone. 2 vols, pp. viii, 642. Princeton University Press. London: Oxford University Press, 1975. £4.75 each.

Education for National Efficiency: the contribution of Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Edited by E. J. T. Brennan. Pp. 208. London: The Athlone Press, 1975. £5.00.

Microteaching: A Programme of Teaching Skills. By G. Brown. Pp. 163. London: Methuen, 1975. £7.00 hardback, £3.60 paperback.

Heinrich Pestalozzi. Father of Modern Pedagogy. By Robert B. Downs. Pp. 147. Boston, Mass.: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1975. $7.50 (10% higher outside U.S.).

Authority and Organization in the Secondary School. By Elizabeth Richardson. Pp. 146. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1975. (Schools Council Research Studies). £2.25.

An Introduction to the Study of Comparative Education. By Vernon Mallinson, University of Reading, 4th ed. London: Heinemann, 1975.

The Sociology of Educational Ideas. By Julia Evetts. Pp. via, 168. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1973. £2.50.

Class, Culture and the Curriculum. By Denis Lawton. Pp. ix, 124. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1975. Cloth £3.00. Paperback £1.25.

Ideology and the Imagination. By Fred Inglis. Pp. 244. London: Cambridge University Press, 1975. £4.90 hard cover. £2.00 paperback.

Handbook on Curriculum Development. By Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. Pp. 179. Paris: OECD, 1975. £2.80.

Looking at Innovation: two approaches to educational reasearch. P. Sheldrake and S. Berry. NFER Publishing Company Ltd., 1975.

The Sciences, the Humanities and the Technological Threat. Edited by W. Roy Niblett. Pp. xiv, 168. London: University of London Press, 1975. £3.80.     

International institutions and educational policy: A review of education-sector policy

In 1974, the World Bank published a study entitledEducation Sector Working Paper which set forth its policy in the field of education. This study, the second the Bank had published, was widely read, analysed and discussed for some time after its publication and had a considerable influence on thinking in education and development at the international level. Prospects devoted four articles to the paper: one book review and three controversies (Vol. V, No. 2, 1975, p. 285; Vol. V, No. 4, 1975, p. 457–78; Vol. VI, No. 2, 1976, p. 209–20). Thus, the discussion in our pages, in which the Bank participated, lasted nearly a year.Now the Bank has brought out another eagerly awaited policy paper on education which is to guide its thinking and action in the coming years. Its publication is an event of international importance and its impact will certainly be considerable.The following article by Martin Carnoy is the first in a seriesProspects will publish reviewing the policies of the Bank as expressed in theEducation Sector Working Paper, and by extension, the foreseeable impact of these policies on the world of education in general. Martin Carnoy's paper is critical: readers familiar with his work (seeProspects, Vol. VIII, No. 1, p. 3–19) will know that his viewpoint on the international aspects of education diverges considerably from that of the Bank and of most international governmental and non-governmental agencies.The debate is open again. Specialist in the economics of education, economic development and political economy. Among his many publications in related fields are Education as Cultural Imperialism, Economic Change and Educational Reform in Cuba, 1955–1974,and Education and Employment.     

Changing the Subject: English in London, 1945–1967

Two recent books, English Teachers in a Postwar Democracy: Emerging Choice in London Schools, 1945–1965 and The London Association for the Teaching of English, 1947–67: A History, explore an important period in the development of English as a school subject and in the remaking of the professional identity of English teachers in London.     

基于英文绘本的儿童英语阅读教学策略建构

语言学习依赖于大量的阅读,儿童只有"培养广泛的阅读兴趣,扩大阅读面,增加阅读量,多读书,读好书,好读书,读整本的书",他们的语言能力才会得到长足的发展。目前我们儿童英语学习低效的原因也和缺少阅读、缺少语言环境有关。近年来,笔者在教学中倡导开展英文绘本阅读,扩大儿童的英语阅读量,让儿童尽可能多地接触原汁原味的英语,这无疑是提升儿童英语水平的一条有效途径。     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Al Hurwitz and Stanley S. Madeja with Eldon Katter Pathways to Art Appreciation: A Source Book for Media and Methods Brandon Taylor Art Today Candace Jesse Stout The Flower Teachers: Stories for a New Generation Stuart Macdonald The History and Philosophy of Art Education John Swift An Illustrated History of Moseley Art School: Art Education in Birmingham 1800–1975     

Environmental Cognition: early ideas and misconceptions at the ages of four and six

The purpose of this paper is to present some of the key findings of the first main stage of an on‐going research project entilted ’Emergent Environmentalist]!’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK and based at the University of Durham, UK. Early results from pilot studies of this project have already been published (Palmer, 1993, 1994, 1995). The findings discussed here relate to the more detailed and fine grained analysis of the project's main data base collected in the UK and the USA. It should be noted that related databases are currently being collected and analysed in a number of countries in the world and that further international and cross‐cultural comparisons will be made in due course. This paper is concerned with: (i) the knowledge (accurate, partial and inaccurate) of the environment that young children have when they enter school; (ii) the way in which such knowledge may develop and change as children mature during their first two years in school; (Hi) the sources of early years knowledge of and potential concern for the environment. This report will focus on knowledge relating to two key environmental topics, namely tropical rain forests (including deforestation and biodiversity issues) and polar lands (including reference to warming of the climate). The results are divided into three sections. First the emergent knowledge and misconceptions possessed by 4‐year‐olds; second the changes in knowledge noted between ages four and seven; finally, the apparent sources of young children's ideas about the environment. The discussion of the results is divided into three corresponding sections.