Author Description

Mena Drever has developed approaches for training teachers to teach English, based on a solid theoretical framework and the latest research, which she outlines in the opening chapter of this book. Her ideas and methods have been extended by her co-authors to enhance the English language development of all children in the classroom. At the core of their approach is the knowledge that children learn best when they collaborate with their peers to achieve realistic learning objectives. Their classes have fun exploring the words we use for history, geography, poetry and the media and how these are put together to create accurate and appropriate meanings. In chapter two Susan Moule describes how she applied collaborative learning in a class of 8-year-olds, first to writing a "mini-saga" and then to extending the understanding of verbs.The whole schedule is set out for other teachers to follow. Keith Peterson gives a similar detailed account in chapter three of 9-year-olds learning collaboratively about the future tense, and in chapter four Mena Drever deals with relative pronouns and the possessive "s", before moving on to a concluding chapter. The book is copiously illustrated with children's work, as they see grammar come to life as never before in the classroom. The book will be invaluable to all elementary school teachers and anyone concerned with the development of children's written and spoken English.