Product reviews for The Literacy Toolkit

At the heart of this book is the recognition that society, the continued development of ideas and the ability of individuals to properly engage with life is dependent upon a command of literacy skills. Language after all should not merely be the preserve of intellectual elites but the means by which every person develops their ability to play a full and active part within the society in which they live.

Yet it is equally clear that whilst we may live at a time when there are more published materials than ever before, we are also living in a post literate world in which the power of the moving image, modern technology and the spread of text speak seems to dominate the lives of the young, often at the expense of traditional forms of language acquisition and its deployment.

Amanda Sara begins by highlighting a key point namely, that the young spend less time reading than utilising visual interactive stimuli in their learning and day to day living. Moreover she makes the extremely important point that is so often missed in schools, namely that literacy is an issue which all of us as teachers need to address irrespective of the subject we teach.

The Literacy Toolkit delivers a very clear message and is clearly based on a thorough appreciation of modern day research which includes significant reference to government and DCSF policies and initiatives. These references, however, whilst useful and contextually pertinent, are not the key strengths of this work. What is presented is a series of simple yet effective strategies and practical examples that can be used and manipulated in a variety of different contexts to help focus the attention of young people to appreciate language and the means by which they can acquire a greater command of it.

All too often in works that focus on literacy, too much space is given to identifying the issues and much less focus is given to providing practical solutions; not so The Literacy Toolkit. By focussing on three key questions What is literacy about?, How are you going to overcome resistance?, and What do you want children to be able to do as a result of achieving better literacy skills?, Amanada Sara not only provides a relevant, useful and accessible commentary, but she also provides a host of practical solutions that will help stimulate the imagination and the purposeful engagement of learners.

Regardless of the subject taught, The Literary Toolkit will help teachers to support their pupils in being better learners by providing useful methods for them to acquire and deploy language in a meaningful and productive manner. Herein lies one of the means by which we can help turn pupils into real learners and active participants in society and not just whilst they are at school. The Literacy Toolkit is less an academic tome than a very practical and worthwhile volume for all classroom practitioners.