Literature and Literacy at Key Stage 3

Literature or Literacy?

There is a tension at the very heart of English teaching and nowhere is it more evident than at Key Stage 3. As English teachers, we have a responsibility to foster children's love of literature and also their capacity to function as literate members of society. We seek to empower young readers to be imaginative while recognizing the need for them to be accurate. We attend to appropriateness but also seek to foster insight. This chapter explores the tension between literature and literacy and the changing nature of English in the early years of the secondary school. I argue here that imagination and aesthetic response to literature are more central ...