D. Rose and J. Martin: Learning to Write, Reading to Learn: Genre, Knowledge and Pedagogy of the Sydney School.

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In the discipline of literacy education, the theory and practice of Sydney School headed by J. R. Martin hold a prominent position and have exerted far-reaching influence around the world. Considering its wide influence, it is quite unthinkable that during the past three decades there has been no publication summarizing the development of the school’s theories and practices that have been implemented. This book presents a comprehensive theorization of the school’s research work in literacy education. The structure of the book is straightforward. It includes six chapters, divided into three parts. Part One includes the first chapter that focuses on the general context of the genre-based literacy pedagogy of Sydney School. Part Two includes four chapters that introduce the theories and practices in the three phases of the school’s existence. Part Three consists of a single chapter that presents a summary of the school’s pedagogy for literacy education. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the general context of Sydney School’s genre-based literacy pedagogy. The term genre was originally used to theorize the types of student writings and is now defined as a staged, goal-oriented social process. The basic principle of Sydney School’s literacy teaching philosophy consists in providing learners and teachers with explicit knowledge about the sort of language used in curriculum writing/reading and in teaching–learning interactions. The aim of the genre-based pedagogy is to facilitate a more equitable distribution of knowledge to students, while knowledge here refers to the knowledge of the school curriculum to which reading and writing provide access. Learning in school is explored on the basis of Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic device (Bernstein 2000). Learning activities are presented as a cycle consisting of five general elements (preparation, focus, task, evaluation, and elaboration), while teaching sequences are explained in the form of a spiral curriculum of learning cycles. As a result, teaching–learning cycles are created on the basis of guided teacher–student interactions.