Product reviews for Opening Doors to a Richer English Curriculum for Ages 10 to 13

This book is a new addition to the established -˜Opening Doors' series on the teaching of English. Although the authors avoid the term -˜Key Stages', the matching coverage is clear, together with the indication of quiet dissent from current-‹arrangements. These are not revolutionary or subversive books, but they do set out by a systematic method to restore major literature, the reading of whole texts, and ambitious children's writing to the place they have lost as teachers attend to the demands of a mechanical curriculum. The authors aim to show that you can do what is necessary to heed curriculum requirements, but at the same time do much more for children's future as skilled and enthusiastic readers and writers.

The book is split into fifteen units, eight on poetry and seven on prose, each following the same basic structure (and -˜strategy' to use that compulsory word). With a single text, or extract from a novel, as the point of focus, the unit design moves from -˜Access strategies' (starting points) to -˜taster drafts' of short initial writing and then a -˜Reading journey' (a term the authors rightly prefer to -˜Comprehension'). A very helpful method here is to set out a central -˜challenge question', with radical -˜support questions' for those who need them, and a single more ambitious target enabling classes to explore more deeply a chosen focus of interest. The approach is flexible but the goal is the same for all. Work then moves on to wider -˜link reading', not just as a vaguely hopeful add-on to the topic but as something essential to it. Units end with -˜Wings to fly', which are opportunities for pupil response to take shape in free writing.

One may have a few reservations - for instance about the little inserts clearly designed to boost teacher morale - but they in no way detract from the value of this excellent enterprise. Without attempting to wrench teachers away from things they have no option but to do, it restores literature to its place in the curriculum for its own important sake, not as a mere vehicle for teaching utilitarian language skills.