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Product reviews for Opening Doors to Quality Writing
Martin Galway, Teaching and Learning Adviser, Herts for Learning Primary English Team
It's fair to say that I am a huge fan of Bob Cox's Opening Doors to Famous Poetry and Prose. Bob's book struck me as a quiet, personable, ambitious yet modest oasis of calm that seemed to say: -˜Don't worry: things change, but let's look to the timeless for a way through.' It is a book alive with love for the written word. More importantly, it is a book alive with a deep understanding of the what and how of transporting and transforming young lives through the study of the good and the great of literature. Since reading the book, I have recommended it whenever I have worked with teachers in Years 4 to 6. Almost every teacher has told me how they tried a unit, enjoyed great success with it and then had the children beg for more. You really cannot ask for more than that from a resource.
In this new volume for six- to nine-year-olds, Cox does a fantastic job of selecting just the right texts and coupling each one with deceptively simple strategies to ensure that children are not only able to access the text, but are enthused, intrigued and inspired by them.
The book is not a scheme of work - it is looser than that and deliberately so. One of Cox's primary aims is to develop teachers' confidence in grappling with challenging texts and enhance their subject knowledge in the course of their classroom practice. The book serves to open doors to the texts within, but it also opens doors to a richer seam of classroom dialogue and creation. Across the book, a range of analytical and evaluative tools support deeper thinking. All of these tools could be applied to other texts and contexts - a gift that keeps on giving, if you'll forgive the cliché. One of the real thrills for me in reading this book is the surprising volume of unfamiliar titles that I now feel almost duty-bound to explore.
Opening Doors to Quality Writing is a very welcome and markedly different addition to the bustling market of educational materials designed to support us in reaching ever-higher heights in our reading and writing standards. How is it different? It feels like real teaching is woven into its fabric throughout. No gimmicks. No worksheets. No stultifying sense of the lazily generic. Instead, high quality texts with carefully designed supporting tools to help to open the reading up and enable the children to surprise themselves in terms of how far they can go. All the tools needed to hit the ground running are in place but trust is placed in colleagues to take the principles of the book and bring them to life in the classroom. At a time when many are banging drums to reclaim -˜real learning', Cox is comprehensively exemplifying that process for primary English teachers everywhere.
In this new volume for six- to nine-year-olds, Cox does a fantastic job of selecting just the right texts and coupling each one with deceptively simple strategies to ensure that children are not only able to access the text, but are enthused, intrigued and inspired by them.
The book is not a scheme of work - it is looser than that and deliberately so. One of Cox's primary aims is to develop teachers' confidence in grappling with challenging texts and enhance their subject knowledge in the course of their classroom practice. The book serves to open doors to the texts within, but it also opens doors to a richer seam of classroom dialogue and creation. Across the book, a range of analytical and evaluative tools support deeper thinking. All of these tools could be applied to other texts and contexts - a gift that keeps on giving, if you'll forgive the cliché. One of the real thrills for me in reading this book is the surprising volume of unfamiliar titles that I now feel almost duty-bound to explore.
Opening Doors to Quality Writing is a very welcome and markedly different addition to the bustling market of educational materials designed to support us in reaching ever-higher heights in our reading and writing standards. How is it different? It feels like real teaching is woven into its fabric throughout. No gimmicks. No worksheets. No stultifying sense of the lazily generic. Instead, high quality texts with carefully designed supporting tools to help to open the reading up and enable the children to surprise themselves in terms of how far they can go. All the tools needed to hit the ground running are in place but trust is placed in colleagues to take the principles of the book and bring them to life in the classroom. At a time when many are banging drums to reclaim -˜real learning', Cox is comprehensively exemplifying that process for primary English teachers everywhere.
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09/08/2016 01:00
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