UPDATED: February 15, 2012
Secondary Web - National Curriculum Review Consultation
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On 20 January 2011 the Secretary of State for Education announced a review of the National Curriculum in England to look at the National Curriculum for both primary and secondary schools.
Closing date for submissions was 14th April 2011. |
The English Association' Response to the consultation document
The English Association (EA) believes that the following principles should underpin all revision to the National Curriculum for English.
PRIMARY
Speaking and listening
By the completion of Key Stage 2 children should be confident users of the spoken language, able to respond effectively in formal and informal discussion and to hone their responses by listening to the contributions of others.
Reading
By the completion of Key Stage 2 children should be able to use language to get their thinking organised and to respond in an informed way to texts of all kinds. When it comes to the literary texts that are at the heart of English we seek personal, sensitive responses, but allied to being able to point to evidence in the text. Not only should they have become competent readers, they should be developing as critical readers able to evaluate all that they encounter. Above all, teachers should have been enabled to do all they could to make children likely to see reading, whether on screen or in print, as useful and life enhancing. The repertoire is wider and richer than ever and the Curriculum must ensure that children encounter the full range of non-fiction texts, including the lyrical kinds and autobiography and biography, the classics of children’s literature, multimodal and multi media texts and the new texts which are for ever changing and expanding. Crucial here is a quality primary school library which provides an inviting environment and a good range of texts and resources. Some have suggested that a guiding list of recommended titles would be helpful. But there is something potentially off putting about ‘approved’ texts, however good. Children and teachers like to discover exciting books for themselves. However, a list of categories – picturebooks, storybooks, traditional tales, novels, poems, autobiography, reference books and so on- the genres children need to encounter might be helpful.
Writing
When it comes to writing, it is to be hoped that by the end of Key Stage 2 children will have acquired their own ‘voice’, their own distinctive way of making sense of information, issues and feelings. The four language processes - speaking and listening, reading and writing - work together and are mutually enriching. So, for example, talking about what has been read can develop and refine understanding . The abilities to discuss, read critically and produce well developed, fluent prose in the best English lessons can enrich lessons in every subject.
Process and content
All that is written above supports the English Association’s belief that English is about process – becoming able to talk, listen, imagine , read and write to express views, responses, understandings and ideas. But English has a content and routines are needed to cover this. A well thought out Key Stage 1 programme for the initial teaching of reading is essential. Phonological knowledge through the teaching of phonics is an important part of this programme. But the phonological cue system has to work in combination with the other cue-systems: semantic and syntactic.
There is also a need for teaching about the conventions of writing - the secretarial or transcriptional aspects, including spelling, punctuating and correct use of grammar. Conscientious attention to these secretarial aspects of English is entirely compatible with a creative and imaginative approach in which drama, art work and writing of all kinds can be combined in both more formal lessons and in workshop activities.
By opting for the programme of study to be set out in key stages the EA wishes to give teachers a guiding framework without the more constraining effects of the year-by-year option. Well educated and professionally competent teachers will be able to plan their own year-by-year programme, with the help of regular meetings led by the English, language and literacy co-ordinator/manager. Good collaboration between teachers is professionally satisfying and adds to their effectiveness and their enjoyment of this important job.
To provide a creative, research- informed English curriculum, as indicated above, needs well educated and professionally trained teachers. This has implications for their preparation for a crucially important task. We believe that student teachers need time away from the classroom to reflect critically on their practice and on the principles that underpin it. As the account under 9a of the Consultation Document indicates, teachers need to have considerable knowledge about language – about grammar, punctuation and so on as well as understanding how to teach it to children. They need also to have become expert in the whole field of children’s literature. While time in school and under the supervision of excellent teachers is necessary, the complexity of the task demands time spent in university Education departments which put students in touch with the theoretical foundations of language and learning and recent research including classroom-based research. Many colleges have achieved excellent partnership arrangements with schools so that the initial training of teachers is a shared responsibility.
SECONDARY
The English Association believes that the national curriculum in English at Key Stages 3 and 4, and post-16, should:
• predominantly feature literary texts as crucial to an understanding of the cultural heritage of the nation.
• include texts from all literary periods, including those before the nineteenth century and the contemporary in order to encourage a sense of history and of difference.
• always include a Shakespeare play, because of the linguistic and conceptual richness on the Shakespeare canon and because much complex thinking about current situations has utilised his work as a focus or point of discussion (notably postcolonial studies and discussions of British-ness and cultural heritage). Shakespeare is an international cultural export which British citizens might reasonably be expected to have a view on when communicating with other nationalities.
• focus on what are considered to be canonical texts and not texts selected because their authors are examples of purely contemporary political concern.
• require students to read whole and not parts of texts, since the value of a literary text is partly to do with its ability to view situations from multiple points of view. This is crucial to managing the transition from A level to the first year of University English degrees, where the focus will be on reading and analysing a series of complete texts.
• require students to read an increased quantity of texts, as a preparation for the volumes of comparative reading in university (which may be up to c. 300k words per week) and/or as a preparation for in professional employment where efficiency in processing texts is key. It is vital that students obtain a firm sense of how literary representation has developed and are encouraged to respond more in a creative and wide-ranging manner to literary texts.
• include some formal analysis of genres as students should be aware of familiar with all the genres, poetry as well as prose.
• prepare students to write clearly, correctly, and directly about what they read.
• develop in students written skills demonstrating critical, interpretive and/or technical vocabulary.
• provide students with opportunities to develop independence of mind or independence in applying method when studying English
• encourage students to have basic familiarity with bible stories, and ancient Greek or Roman myths since these are recurrent features of English literature, probably through the reading of texts where allusions and parallels to classical myths and biblical stories arise.
• provide opportunities where students should be given texts where they may not already know the meanings of all the words but have to infer them from context, and that process of inference should be discussed in class.
• fully encourage the notion that independent enquiry and learning beyond the syllabus is expected . e.g., by promoting books, plays, etc, which will not be examined, but must be read. I suspect we are all concerned about the identification of education with a curriculum and a curriculum with what is examined.
• deploy the use of potentially confining Assessment Objectives sparingly and with caution so as not to interrupt the teaching and learning process.