Postgraduate Module Descriptor

EEDM009: Semi Specialist English (Primary)

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

The module will focus on extending the breadth and depth of your understanding of primary education in several directions, in order that you can develop children’s learning and your own teaching in a number of ways. These include:

  • acquiring a deeper understanding of Programmes of Study in the English National Curriculum as they relate to speaking and listening, reading and writing;

  • developing an awareness of creative approaches and professional and classroom communication skills for teaching English to children with a range of needs;

  • extending your understanding of the range resources for English, the importance of including a wide range of types of texts from literature to ICT based texts, and other resources, and their function in the process of learning to read, write, speak and listen;

  • understanding assessment in English across the school and the use of results at school level in considering ways to improve classroom practice;

  • developing skills in researching a chosen area of practice to deepen knowledge and understanding of theory and classroom based research and recognise the implications of this information for your own professional philosophy and for improving practice;

  • understanding the roles and responsibilities of the English subject leader, ways to support and inspire colleagues and approaches to the management of English in a school;

  • meeting the Standards required for the award of Qualified Teacher Status (2012) and thus be in a very good position to gain employment as a primary teacher able to specialize in English teaching.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. identify and evaluate educational concepts and issues related to the teaching of English ; and engage in critical debate about current educational issues in the teaching of English drawing on evidence from theory, research and practice;
2. recognise pupils’ learning needs in English and interpret these learning needs in order to plan, teach, assess and evaluate lessons and schemes of work;
3. demonstrate confident academic and pedagogic subject knowledge to teach English in Key Stage 1 and 2;
4. demonstrate secure understanding of the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum for English;
Discipline-Specific Skills5. critically evaluate the relevance of educational theory to practice;
6. synthesise relevant educational literature in support of an argument;
7. use appropriate technologies for data handling and writing in education;
8. present data and findings in a form appropriate in educational studies;
9. use research data in support of an argument in education;
Personal and Key Skills1. manage your own learning development;
11. learn effectively and be aware of your own learning strategies;
12. express ideas and opinions, with confidence and clarity, to a variety of audiences for a variety of purposes;
13. work productively in different kinds of teams (formal, informal, project based, committee based etc); and
14. think creatively about the main features of a given problem and develop strategies for its resolution.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Core Reading:

Alexander, R. (2004), Towards Dialogic Teaching: Rethinking Classroom Talk. Cambridge: Faculty of Education.

Waugh, D., and Jolliffe, W., (2012), Teaching Systematic Synthetic Phonics in Primary Schools (Transforming Primary QTS). London: Sage.

Waugh, D., Warner, c., Waugh, R., (2013) Teaching Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling in Primary Schools. London, Sage.

Bearne, E. and Wolstencroft, H. (2007), Visual Approaches to Teaching Writing: Multimodal Literacy 5-11. London: Sage.

Carrington, V. and Robinson, M. (2010), Digital Literacies. London: Sage.

Fisher, R., Jones, S., Larkin, S., Myhill, D., (2010) Using Talk to Support Writing. London: Sage.

Lewis, M. and Ellis, S. (2006), Phonics: Practice, Research and Policy. Leicester: UKLA.

Johnston, R. and Watson, J. (2007), Teaching Synthetic Phonics. Exeter: Learning Matters.

Riley, J. (2006), Language & Literacy 3-7:  Creative Approaches to Teaching. London: Sage.

Stainthorp, R. & Flynn, N (2006) The Learning and Teaching of Reading, London: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Whitehead, M.R. (2010), Language & Literacy in the Early Years 0-7: 4th Edition. London: Sage.

Medwell, J., Moore, G., Wray, D. and Griffiths, V. (2017), Primary English Knowledge and Understanding 8th Edition).  London: Learning Matters.

Medwell, J., Wray, D., Coates, L., Moore, G., Griffiths, V. (2017), Primary English: Teaching Theory and Practice(8th Edition). London: Learning Matters.

Myhill, D. Jones, S. and Lines, H. (2016), Essential Primary Grammar. Maidenhead: Open University Press.