Gordon Wells

The Meaning Makers is about children’s language and literacy development at home and at school. Based on the Bristol Study, “Language at Home and at School,” which the author directed, it follows the development of a representative sample of children from their first words to the end of their primary schooling. It contains many examples of their experience of language in use, both spoken and written, recorded in naturally occurring settings in their homes and classrooms, and shows the active role that children play in their own development as they both make sense of the world around them and master the linguistic means for communicating about it. Additionally, this second edition also sets the findings of the original study in the context of recent research in the sociocultural tradition inspired by Vygotsky’s work and includes examples of effective teaching drawn from the author’s recent collaborative research with teachers.

Learning to Talk and Talking to Learn

The Meaning Makers

99 Surefire Checklists (A&B Crime)

Be a Successful Writer

Anne Edwards

This edited volume addresses the potential of Cultural Historical Activity Theory as an analytic tool in debates over higher education reform.

Pedagogy in Higher Education

What can Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) contribute to the solution of the problems facing higher education today? This edited volume brings together the work of an international group of scholars and researchers to address this important question. Drawing on contemporary interpretations of CHAT, the contributors take on a wide range of issues, ranging from pedagogy to administration and from teacher preparation to university outreach. An introduction presents the key principles of CHAT. Subsequent chapters address such issues as effective ways of teaching large undergraduate classes, providing support for struggling writers or for students with disabilities, opening up opportunities for students from historically underserved communities, preparing students for the professions, and building bridges between higher education and the wider community. Readers with an interest in higher education will encounter ideas in these chapters that will prompt them to rethink their role in preparing today's students for tomorrow's challenges.

A Cultural Historical Approach

After more than a decade of research the Bristol Study of Language Development has assembled a corpus of data on the language development of children aged one to five years that is representative both in terms of the sample of children studied and of the situations in which their spontaneous speech was recorded. In this book Gordon Wells, who directed the project, presents a detailed account of the common sequence of development that was observed, specifying the ages at which linguistic categories emerged and the frequencies with which they were used at successive ages. The data have been rigorously analysed and the book also advances possible explanations for the developmental sequence identified. Variations within the overall pattern did of course occur and some of the more salient aspects are also discussed. The latter part of the book discusses the influence of environmental factors and in particular the role of adults in facilitating language development.

Language Development in the Pre-School Years

a practical guide to writing--and selling--non-fiction articles.

The Craft of Writing Articles

Guy Claxton

United by the belief that the most significant factor in shaping the minds of young people is the cultural setting in which learning takes place, the twenty eminent contributors to this volume present new thinking on education across the boundaries of school, home, work and community.

Sociocultural Perspectives on the Future of Education

Learning for Life in the 21st Century

Many long to write a book. They dream of having a book on their shelves, with their name on the cover. Many dream of writing a novel, but the competition is fierce. The proportion of non-fiction to fiction books however, is at least five or six to one. Which would you choose to write? There is a huge demand for non-fiction books, so if you consider yourself an expert on a certain subject you could write a book about it and have a good chance of getting it published. Writing Non-Fiction Books: The Essential Guide will show you: How to convert your knowledge into a book proposal How to find an interested publisher before you write your book How to write your book for the target readership How to present your typescript to the publisher How to cope with editorial changes, proof reading and indexing Whether you are a beginner or an established writer, this step-by-step guide will lead you along the path to success and publication.

The Essential Guide

Writing Non-Fiction Books

This book draws from six years work by the Developing Inquiring Communities in Education Project (DICEP) to provide a range of practical, replicable methods for building collaborative communities, in which democratic principles of education may be realized. Recognizing that each classroom is unique in its makeup, its context, and its history, these seasoned teacher-researchers rely heavily on discourse, both spoken and written, to engage students in the active learning process. Their findings are striking and clear, and testify to the exciting potential that dialogic interaction and collaborative knowledge building have for the field of education. Key features of this book are: identification of appropriate research questions; real-life teaching strategies based on extensive hands-on experience in the field; and workable suggestions for facilitating inquiry-based learning and teaching.

Gordon Wells

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