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 PrintableVersion Using the Bible in Literacy Teaching - Book 1 - Lost and FoundUSING THE BIBLE IN LITERACY TEACHING Hands up any parent or teacher who doesn't know about the Literacy Hour. Well, you must have been asleep in class for at least a year! Every primary school in England is required to operate the Literacy Hour, following a curriculum prescribed in detail. One result has been a demand for teaching materials designed to fulfil the new requirements. These books have been produced to introduce Biblical stories and themes into the Literacy Hour and provide links to Religious Education. There are two books for Key Stage 1 (ages 5-7) and two for Key Stage 2 (ages 8-11). The first of each pair is based on stories from the Bible, while the second introduces Bible background material from the New Testament for Key Stage 1 and the Old Testament for Key Stage 2. Book 1 tells the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. The texts are produced in a 'Big Book' format for use with a whole class, with materials for visual aids. Teachers' notes give specific ideas for literacy activities based on the stories, such as work on rhyming patterns (word level), punctuation (sentence level) and prediction (text level), plus ideas for RE follow-up on themes such as God's love and forgiveness. Initially, I was puzzled to find the heading 'Fiction/Narrative' on the front cover. A visit to the Stapleford Centre's website informed me that they were concerned to encourage the 'respectful use' of the Bible in schools, but the strict guidelines of the national literacy strategy posed a dilemma. The strategy divides text into two categories: fiction and non-fiction, and the teaching approaches that are most effective with Bible stories are those specified for the fiction strand. So teachers are forced to include Bible stories as fiction, when Christians hold that the Bible narratives are historical. The Stapleford Centre is currently campaigning for the categories to be changed from 'fiction/non-fiction' to 'narrative/non-narrative'. It's refreshing to find such well-produced, carefully researched teaching material based on the Bible. This series deserves to be widely used in primary schools. Miriam Sampson© Evangelicals Now - December 1999 |
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