Extended book resource

Rodney Martin, Managing Director of SA publishing company Era Publications has received the national George Robertson Award from the Australian Publishers' Association for distinguished service to Australian publishing.

Martin has been Era’s publisher throughout its 44 years and continues to work in this capacity with his publications sold into 44 countries and in 20 languages other than English.

From the early days, Martin chased export sales because, as he says, “It was too dangerous for me to remain a small fish in a small pool, and that remains true for Australia as a whole. But I also wanted Australia to play a more prominent role worldwide in children’s literature and education.”

Storyboarding is a planning technique that was used by early filmmakers for animated movies. The concept is useful for teaching early learners how to plan their writing – fiction and nonfiction. This article demonstrates how the technique can work in the kindergarten and primary classroom.

Vocabulary is the raw material of communication, and the English language today has the world’s largest word lode to be mined. This practical article demonstrates how etymology and wordplay can help children to increase their vocabulary and become word-lovers.

This paper addresses the difficulty many teachers face in implementing writing curricula that require a functional application of language conventions. It gives teachers practical insights and greater confidence in their understanding and teaching of writing.

This paper offers practical insights into teaching students how to use references to solve writing problems as part of the writing process.

Toon, Vapp and van Denham critically examine proposals made by Martin and describe how it alters their understanding of process writing and its potential.

What are regular and irregular high-frequency words? Why are they important to beginning readers? Which high-frequency words are introduced in the WINGS series and at what levels?

What process was used to determine the guided reading levels of all the books in the WINGS series? Who did the levelling? How can you be sure of their validity?

It is both possible and practical to contextualise the teaching of writing and associated skills in a way that truly reflects the writing process. This paper addresses the use of text models as a basis for teaching any aspect of writing and language knowledge in a manner that makes sense to students.