Vera Southgate Popular Books

Vera Southgate Biography & Facts

Vera Southgate (10 March 1916 – 23 March 1995) was a British educationalist who dedicated herself to improving how children were taught to read English from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, a period when many different methods were practised, including the initial teaching alphabet, phonics, and whole language. Vera Southgate was a prolific author of academic papers, developed the Southgate reading tests, and even served on the Bullock government inquiry. She also evaluated the initial teaching alphabet on behalf of the British government. Her final major research project was a five-year study aimed at improving the reading skills of older children. The resulting publication, Extended Beginning Reading, won the UK Reading Association's Book of the Year award. Vera Southgate wrote over fifty primers and reading books, often included in basal reading schemes. These books provided a structured, step-by-step approach to teaching children to read. She gained widespread recognition for the Well-loved Tales, a Ladybird-graded reading book series, which sold 80 million copies but reached a much larger audience through schools and libraries. Thanks to her contributions, Vera Southgate was named the 7th president of the United Kingdom Reading Association and was posthumously inducted into the association's Hall of Fame. Personal life Vera Pigg was born on March 10, 1916, in County Durham. Along with her sister Mary, she trained and became a teacher. In 1942, she married Arthur Southgate and stopped teaching to become a housewife. Unfortunately, Arthur died in 1948, leaving Vera a widow at the young age of 32. She returned to work and moved to Manchester, where she met Douglas Thomas Booth. They got married in 1961, and Vera became known as Vera Southgate-Booth. However, she continued to publish under her widowed name and was publicly known as Mrs Vera Southgate. Vera had no children, but she had a close relationship with her sister and her nephews. Her nephews often visited her at her holiday home in Llanbedrog, where she read to them from the Ladybird Well Loved Tales, which she had retold. In 1980–81, Vera retired to the coast with her husband at Sidmouth in Devon. After Douglas died in 1986, Vera returned to County Durham to be with her extended family. She eventually died on March 23, 1995, in Consett, County Durham. Teaching After her initial schooling, Vera Southgate trained as a teacher and by 1939 had taken up a teaching post in Seaham, County Durham. From this start, Vera went on to teach at infant, junior, secondary, and special schools which provided her with a broad experience of teaching children. Having established a base of sound teaching experience, Vera went back to furthering her education by attending Birmingham University where she initially studied for a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) in social studies then followed up with a Master of Arts (MA) in Education. Vera also acquired a Diploma in Psychology (Dip Psych) These qualifications enabled her to become the Head of the Remedial Education service which enhanced her experience and reputation even further allowing her entry into academia. Academic career By 1957, Southgate had taken up a post as a lecturer in curriculum development at the School of Education at the University of Manchester, where she initially focused in the organisation of teacher training for teachers already in-service at Primary Schools. Over her academic career Vera specialised in the pedagogy of reading, by 1969 her research had already been published in several books and over 70 papers in learned journals, the major works are listed below. Vera also extensively lectured on this subject both in the UK and abroad, including international conferences. On her retirement in 1980, Vera Southgate donated her library of children's reading books, a collection of 2,589 books which Vera had accumulated over her two decades of study, to the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Vera Southgate continued to be accredited in academic publications for work previously done and she also continued to publish and speak until 1986, as detailed: – Published academic works The major academic works authored or co-authored by Vera Southgate were: – 1959;- Southgate Group Reading Tests (supplemented by a Manual of Instructions) by Vera Southgate, London: University of London Press 1969;- i.t.a.: an independent evaluation by F. W. Warburton and Vera Southgate – London, J. Murray 1970;- Reading - which approach? by Vera Southgate and Geoffrey R. Roberts, London: University of London Press 1972;- Beginning Reading by Southgate, Vera, London: University of London Press 1981;- Extending beginning reading by Vera Southgate; Helen Arnold; Sandra Johnson; Schools Council (Great Britain), London: Published for the Schools Council by Heinemann Educational Books 1983;- Planning for Reading Success; - Children who do read (Book 1) by Vera Southgate 1984;- Planning for Reading Success; - Reading: teaching for learning (Book 2) by Vera Southgate Vera Southgate prolifically published academic articles and papers in education journals with the more noteworthy listed: - 1958;- The construction and applicability of a group reading test for children of low reading ability by Vera Southgate, University of Birmingham M.A. 1963;- Augmented roman alphabet experiment an outsider's report, by Vera Southgate, article in Educational Review (1963 November) 1965;- Approaching i.t.a. results with caution, Vera Southgate article in Educational Research (1965 Feb) 1967;- A few comments on ‘reading drive, by Vera Southgate, an article published in Educational Research (1967 Feb) 1967;- Variables affecting aesthetic appreciation, in relation to age, by E E Rump; Vera Southgate, Article published in British Journal of Educational Psychology (1967 Feb) 1968;- Identifying Major Problems in Reading in England, by Vera Southgate, an article published in: Int Reading Assn Conf Proc Pt 1, v13 n863-70 1968;- Formulae for beginning reading tuition by Vera Southgate, an article in Publication: Educational Research, v11 n1 (1968 November): 23–30 1970;- i.t.a.: what is the evidence? a book for parents and teachers. by Vera Southgate 1972;- Literacy at all levels: proceedings of the eighth annual conference of the United Kingdom Reading Association, Manchester 1971, by Vera Southgate 1973;- How important is the infant reading scheme? by Vera Southgate; Christine Y Lewis, an article in publication; Literacy, v7 n2 (1973 June): 4-13 1973;- The Language Arts in Informal British Primary Schools by Vera Southgate, an article in publication; The Reading Teacher, v26 n4 (1973): 367-373 1973;- Reading: three to thirteen by Vera Southgate, an Article in Publication: Education 3–13, vol.1 no.1 (1973 April): Pages 47–52 1977;- Beginning Reading in England by Southgate, Vera, 1986;- Resources for reading : does quality count? by United Kingdom Reading Association including contributions from Vera.... Discover the Vera Southgate popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Vera Southgate books.