FICTION STAGE 3. Evaluation Pack pound;49+vat.

NON-FICTION 3 Stage. Evaluation Pack pound;39+vat.

WRITERS’ WORLD. By Sylvia Karavis,Gill Matthews. STAGE 1 EVALUATION PACK pound;80. Heinemann.

Judging by the speed with which hands reached out to grab the books and the hush of concentration that descended on the Year 5 group at Pirbright county primary school almost immediately, Heinemann has scored another success with the new Satellite readers.

The series, intended for less-able readers in Year 5, has plenty of child appeal and, although it is perhaps a little self-consciously boy-friendly, I found the girls were every bit as enthusiastic.

The comic-strip format of Pyramid of Doom, by Nick Abdiz, and the more narrative Silly Stories from Here and There by Sean Taylor, were hot favourites, their fast pace and witty but simple narrative sure to motivate the struggling reader.

Interestingly, the non-fiction books were greeted less enthusiastically by the boys, although Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Fillpovic, was given top marks by the girls and How to Persuade People by Rob Alcraft was deemed “useful for anyone who wants to be a politician” - although I’m not sure that was praise.

Satellites are designed to work alongside the Literacy World programme and supported by teacher’s guides with daily lesson plans and photocopy worksheets specifically for the less-able reading group, but integrated into the class programme.

Compared with, say the Lighthouse Programme, or Writers’ World, the focus here is much more on content, with considerably less support for the processes of teaching and learning, an important omission perhaps, for children who are not finding literacy easy.

Writers’ World is described as an interactive writing programme for seven to 11-year-olds and again the target audience gave it a definite thumbs up, although their teacher winced visibly at the detailed daily lesson planning sheets.

The writer’s handbook invites the learner into a variety of individual or group activities, backed up by a source book in big book format - ideal for group work, although the text is too small for whole-class work.

A CD-Rom offers on-screen word-processing tasks which can also be printed as worksheets, and teacher’s planning and record sheets.

The teaching guide is closely allied to national literacy strategy objectives and the Scottish Guidelines, but links are also made to key stage 2 Literacy World and to a range of cross-curricular activities.

Intuitively, I bristle at the somewhat reductionist, rule-driven approach to writing, in which Writers’ World follows the literacy strategy trend, but this is a valuable resource and will be deservedly popular.

Julia Douetil

Julia Dou til isReading Recoverynational co-ordinator