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This article discusses the detailed analysis of utterances in two classes where the pedagogy enshrined in the UK government's Literacy Strategy was followed. The pedagogy is set out in The National Literacy Strategy: framework for teaching (DFEE, 1998) which provides termly objectives for each year for word, sentence level and text work. General evaluations of the strategy are discussed in the context of scrutiny, undertaken by researchers, of what was happening in classrooms. Following a brief discussion of methodological issues, a framework for the analysis of the pedagogic discourse of the Literacy Hour is outlined. This framework is applied to transcripts from two classrooms. A discussion of the data, focusing on issues of gender, of pupils with special educational needs, and of pace, offers tentative analysis of what is currently happening in English primary schools. The making of a 'reduced' curriculum experience for pupils with special educational needs and of the differentiated curriculum for boys and girls are illustrated. Issues of the pace of the lesson for different groups and implications for literacy teaching are discussed.