Books I have written

or edited

I have linked each book either to the relevant page on Amazon, or to its page on the publisher’s website.

Just click on each book cover to follow the links.

Primary English TTP

Primary English: Teaching Theory and Practice

This is the essential teaching theory and practice text for primary English, covering the important skills of classroom management, planning, monitoring and assessment and relating these specifically to primary English. This ninth edition includes a new chapter on online and ‘blended’ learning and primary English.

Primary English KU

Primary English: Knowledge and Understanding

Secure subject knowledge is the foundation of confident, creative and effective teaching. This comprehensive text covers subject knowledge from each part of the primary English curriculum and the new edition includes a new chapter on children’s common misconceptions in English.

Essential P English

Essential Primary English

This book is an essential guide to teaching the Primary English curriculum, including the theory and subject knowledge that underpins it. It covers the whole of the Primary English curriculum with a focus on less-developed aspects such as spoken language, comprehension and grammar.

Extending knowledge in practice

Extending Knowledge in Practice: Primary English

The biggest concern for many on initial teacher training courses is subject knowledge and translating that into effective teaching. This book builds on the core subject knowledge covered in the Achieving QTS series and relates it to classroom practice. It supports trainees in extending their knowledge of English and applying it to planning and implementing lessons.

literacy across curriculum

Teaching literacy across the primary curriculum

Teaching literacy across the curriculum can enhance effectiveness of learning and teaching, and this book demonstrates how this can be achieved. It explores approaches to teaching and developing literacy in a range of subject areas and is suitable for trainees and qualified teachers who wish to improve their practice and understanding of teaching literacy.

Literacy using texts

Teaching and Learning Literacy: Using texts to enhance learning

This book is based on the idea that the purpose of literacy teaching is to enable pupils to understand and create meaningful, whole texts. It deliberately takes a cross-curricular view of literacy and explores in-depth the processes involved in both understanding and composing a range of text types, avoiding the temptation to segment literacy skills, thereby losing sight of the overall purpose.

teaching of reading

The Teaching of Reading

An introduction to the teaching of reading in primary schools, written specifically for beginning teachers at a time when official policy on teacher training is that teachers should ONLY be taught how to teach reading in one way. This book was produced through the Kindle publishing system and is only available from Amazon. 

looking at literacy

Looking at Literacy

I have researched and written about a range of topics connected with the nature and teaching of literacy and, in this book, I have collected together some of my most important and influential articles in a career spanning almost 40 years. The book was produced through the Kindle publishing system and is available only through Amazon.

literacy in secondary school

Literacy in the Secondary School

In this book we tried to apply the lessons we learnt through our Extending Literacy (EXEL) project to the teaching of literacy in secondary schools. It contains contributions from a number of secondary colleagues writing about the work in their schools.

Extending Literacy

Extending Literacy

One of the most problematic areas in the teaching and development of literacy appears to concern children’s interactions with non-fiction books. Many surveys and reports have commented on the tendency for children to do little more than copy out sections of non-fiction texts. In this book we outline the thinking behind the EXEL project and describe the many useful teaching strategies and approaches which were developed in collaboration with primary teachers across the country.

classroom interaction

Classroom Interaction and Social Learning

Today’s classroom presents a wealth of opportunities for social interaction amongst pupils, leading to increased interest in teachers and researchers into the social nature of learning. Through case studies, this book highlights the use of new analytical methodologies for studying the content and patterns of children’s interactions and how these contribute to their construction of knowledge.

teaching literacy effectively

Teaching Literacy Effectively

This book discusses the implications arising from our research into what constitutes an effective teacher of literacy. We were able to identify what effective teachers know, understand and do which enabled them to put effective teaching of literacy into practice in the primary phase. By identifying the strategies used by these teachers, we showed how these can be applied by other primary teachers to improve their teaching of literacy.