Description: I work with Early Years children and act as a consultant for Early Years Education, literature and literacy and occasionally RE. With an MA in Education, particular interest in picture books, poetry and books with a 'spiritual' dimension, I have spent all my career furthering the role of literature as a vehicle for literary (and…
I work with Early Years children and act as a consultant for Early Years Education, literature and literacy and occasionally RE. With an MA in Education, particular interest in picture books, poetry and books with a ‘spiritual’ dimension, I have spent all my career furthering the role of literature as a vehicle for literary (and literacy) development and am the author of Learning to Read with Picture Books.
Over the past few years I have become very concerned with the narrowly conceived, prescriptive views of literature being promoted to teachers and hence, to children. This present pre-occupation in far too many schools, with a largely functional approach to literacy and emphasis on the mechanistic ‘bit-parts’ aspects, means that it is all too easy for the unique and fundamental role of literature in developing the imagination and in children’s meaning making, to be overlooked.
Essentially I see story as a kind of ‘sacred space’ – a place from which to become aware, to contact the spirit – that essential spark within. However, for literature to play that role in education of the imagination, it must take centre stage in the curriculum and be viewed, not primarily as a way of doing, but rather, as a way of being, or of helping children to be and to become.
Dave Cousins Author Website - Dave Cousins children's author
JULIA RAWLINSON - CHILDREN'S AUTHOR - Home
voiceinthedesert.org.uk
Momo celebrating time to read
A Hatful of Dragons - Vikram Madan - Artist & Author
A Hatful of Dragons - Vikram Madan - Artist & Author
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