The Countdown Series provides all the support you need in helping pupils to improve their literacy skills. It is a comprehensive and flexible resource which you can use in different ways, and includes:

• Over 100 stand-alone modules that cover all aspects of writing and understanding non-fiction, poetry and creative writing;
• A countdown flowchart providing an overview, showing how modules are linked and allowing teachers and pupils to track their progress;
• Photocopiable activity sheets for every module that show how to make decisions and solve problems that writers face on the journey to a finished piece of work;
• Teacher's notes for each module, with tips and guidance, including how modules can be used in the classroom, links to other modules and curriculum links, and advice on helping and guiding pupils in their writing;
• A self-study component so that pupils can make their own progress through the material. This option gives young writers a sense of independence in thinking about their work and, through offering a scaffolding of tasks, encourages confident and effective writing;
• 'Headers' for each module showing where along the 'countdown path' you are at that point.

In short, the Countdown Series Set saves valuable planning time and gives you all the flexibility you need in helping pupils to to become confdent with literary techniques. The structure of the book allows teachers to utilise the modules for 'self-study', as a longer programme following the 'countdown' structure, or to dip into the book for individual lesson activities and ideas to fit in with wider programmes of study.