Resources - Book

The Primary English Encyclopaedia: The Heart of the Curriculum

Summary: Author: Mallet, Margaret Publisher: David Fulton Publishers Issue no/ISBN: ISBN: 1 85346 777 4 Cost: £16

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Review

Hard though it is for a mere visitor to primary schools to judge, this encyclopaedia seems to offer an extraordinary demonstration of the range of concerns and information primary teachers must track. From 'Literacy Hour' to 'Phonic Knowledge' to 'Website and Primary English', the information it contains embraces: practical aids; technical terms from poetics, English studies and linguistics; educational theory; contemporary legislation and practice. Thus, 'Motivation' sits alongside 'Multiculturalism' and 'Multi-layered text - see under picture book'.

Unusually for an encyclopaedia, Primary English is not simply edited but single-authored by Margaret Mallett, who trains teachers at Goldsmiths College, London. I would have liked to know a little more about her, since she is a masterful presence in these pages. In her preliminary note, she tells us that the book came out of that teaching experience: her students frequently expressed the desire for a 'first-stop' reference text to guide them towards or into some aspect of primary school English teaching. The encyclopaedia certainly does that. The main body of the work is an alphabetical guide to terms, with seventeen entries on such broad topics as 'Bilingualism' and 'Writing' having more substantial treatment, including classroom examples.

All the entries in the alphabetical guide are thoroughly cross-referenced. As a result I found I had a strong sense that I was unlikely to get lost either between references or due to their inexactitude. This systematic marking of correspondences allows Mallett to solve the problem the linear model of alphabetisation always poses: which is that it strips away the more natural grouping of information by sub/genre and similarity, often substituting a sense of strained reliance on almost arbitrary titles. There's no such sense of strain here: instead one suspects these topics and their neat definitions have been refined over years of teaching the material.

Reading and browsing this guide as a practising writer as well as a writer working in schools, I found myself learning a great deal, especially of material from those complementary aspects of our subject - educational theory, especially around literacy, for example - which we as writers don't access unless we do some form of teacher training ourselves. This is as it should be: and puts us in a position possibly not dissimilar to that of the student teachers at whom the encyclopaedia is aimed.

In her preliminary note on how to use the encyclopaedia, Mallett emphasizes that it is a 'first port of call', and a high proportion of the entries have further reading referenced. Moreover, this whole section is so cleanly and well laid out it's a pleasure to use. However, this isn't all. Mallett also provides an alphabetical 'Who's Who in Primary English'. In effect she has simply grouped the entries on people: but her strategy works well. It adds another kind of clarity to those already working in the text. Mallett also provides an urgent, empowering 'Introduction' and a useful at-a-glance list of entries.

As reviewers will, I went to the terms I felt comfortable with myself to see how Mallett mastered them. And though I might have wanted to tighten the definitions of 'Haiku' and 'Metre', for example, each entry seemed a confident demonstration of the clarity with which she writes. Here, for example, is 'Syllable'. "A syllable is part of a word that is pronounced as one beat. In the word 'subject' there are two syllables 'sub' and 'ject'." Rhyme is "a literary term to refer to words which are the same or similar in sound".

In its sheer organisation of material, its accessibility and its accuracy, the Primary English Encyclopaedia is a tour de force. It's also that much rarer phenomenon, a useful one. I warmly recommend it.

Fiona Sampson

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