English Primary School Curriculum - which are the strands and which the strand units?

defenstration

re there 4 strands and 3 strand units or is it the other way around. I thought that recently they basically swapped the strands and strand units so that now there are 4 strands (Receptiveness to Language etc) and 3 strand units (Oral, Reading, Writing). Everywhere I go, I'm getting different theories on this!

kittex

I'm not familiar with the English system, as I teach in Scotland but isn't the Oral subdivided into Speaking and Listening? So some might say 3, some might view that as 4.

However, the DfES resource bank for the English system is below and would give you the most correct answer somewhere on it I'd say:

http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/default.htm?cookie%5Ftest=1

Trotter

English Curriculum Update

From the horses mouth.. the support material issued on the English curriculum states...

"One of the constant and most compelling findings arising from
teacher feedback during the review was the challenge of planning for
the English Curriculum. While some teachers reported that they were
planning effectively through the four strands (receptiveness to
language, competence and confidence in using language, developing
cognitive abilities through language and emotional and imaginative
development through language) and three strand units (oral language,
reading and writing), many teachers reported that they found the four
strands difficult to use. Instead many teachers reported that they
planned for English primarily through the strand units.

The NCCA has developed this English Curriculum: Additional support
material in response to teachers’ reported difficulties with the
structure of the English Curriculum. It re-presents the content of the
English Curriculum by replacing the strands with the strand units.

English Curriculum:
Additional support material
Introduction

In replacing the current strands with the strand units, only the
structure of the English Curriculum has changed. The content of the
English Curriculum remains the same, as does the alignment of the
content according to four levels – infant classes, first and second
classes, third and fourth classes and fifth and sixth classes. The
method of organising content in this additional support material is
still the strand but the strands have changed from four to three.

The strands are:
Oral language
Reading
Writing

The former strands now fulfil the role of strand units and are briefly
described below:

Receptiveness to language is concerned with the child’s willingness and
ability to listen, to be aware of the nuances of language and to
understand what he/she hears and reads.

Confidence and competence in using language is concerned with the
child’s ability to use and experience language with confidence and
success as a speaker, as a writer and as a reader.

Developing cognitive abilities through language is concerned with the
child’s use of language to learn. It encapsulates the curriculum
principle that the child not only learns language but also learns
through using and experiencing language.

Emotional and imaginative development through language is concerned
with the child’s emotional and imaginative response to the world
he/she encounters through talk, writing, play and drama. Reading and
listening also help the child to come to a better understanding of
him/herself and his/her relationships with others.
In this additional support material the content objectives of the

English Curriculum have been reorganised and aligned under the
three strands listed above. The four strand units provide the crosscutting
themes for teachers in planning and teaching English. The
content of the English Curriculum is presented according to this
alternative structure on the following pages for all four class levels."

kittex

Aha. When I read it, "English Primary School Curriculum", I thought he meant in England. D'oh.

So many PGDE info threads lately I'm on auto-pilot. Or is the grammar?

Trotter

kittex wrote:

Aha. When I read it, "English Primary School Curriculum", I thought he meant in England. D'oh.

So many PGDE info threads lately I'm on auto-pilot. Or is the grammar?

Thats ambiguity right there.. the day a lecturer told me to work on way of teaching a computer to recognise ambiguous language, I decided to finish my computers degree and teach something less mind numbing instead!!

When all else fails.. postgrad your way to happiness lol