Poetry For Early Years. PCET Wallcharts in collaboration with NATE. pound;8.95 each. Rivers. Science and Technology at the Fairground. Greek Heroes. The Night Sky. PCET Wallcharts. pound;8.70 each.
Science and Technology at the Fairground Activity Book. PCET pound;7.95Pictorial Charts Educational Trust, 27 Kitchen Road, London W13 OUD.
Primary teachers from the Fifties will remember two vintage Birmingham authority physical education handbooks - Planning the Programme and Moving and Growing. A godsend to the non-specialist, they explained, with photographs, exactly what to do in your PE lessons. Some of them are no doubt still in use, battered and much-loved.
They can now be retired, because these two PE volumes are more than capable of doing a similar job for the current national curriculum and Scottish guidelines. There are lesson plans, photocopiables, assessment activities, all the necessary safety points and, above all, lots and lots of ideas.
Importantly, they pay full attention to differentiation and progression through the year and from one year to the next. (There are no photos, though, and the middling-quality artwork is a poor substitute.) A typical lesson plan on “travelling” sets out necessary previous skills, some background information, reminders about preparation and a list of resources. The lesson itself is comfortingly headed “What to do” and is followed by ideas for extension and a section on assessment opportunities.
The two art books follow the same structure. Between them, they do much to convince the teacher not only that art can be managed by the non-specialist, but that it can have progression, differentiation and a rigorous approach to the teaching of skills, starting with “Experimenting with Line” in key stage 1 and going on to improvisational activities based on the work of Kandinsky at the end of key stage 2.
Each of these volumes has photocopy masters, and sets out links to the national curriculum and to Scottish 5-14 requirements.
Gerald Haigh
