Observing Primary Literacy

Margaret Perkins

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781526413130
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Elementary Education

Making sense of what a teacher observes in the classroom is vital to their development as a new teacher and a fundamental aspect of high-quality literacy teaching. By providing real-life case studies that analyse what underpins interactions between teachers and children, this book will help them understand literary learning processes and develop their own practice.
Key features of this second edition include:

• A new chapter on teaching grammar, spelling and punctuation
• Links to the National Curriculum in England and the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland
• Expanded discussion on teaching phonics
• Clear guidance on how to undertake assessment without levels.

1 Understanding Texts

Texts are at the heart of literacy. All the observations in this chapter explore what counts as a text in literacy teaching and learning, teachers’ knowledge of texts, and the place of texts within the school and classroom.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) report Reading by Six: How the Best Schools Do It (2010) has at its heart the belief that learning to read is the most important thing that schools can teach children, and looks at 12 schools which are deemed to be successful in this. The summary of findings and recommendations attributes the success of these schools to ‘a very rigorous and sequential approach … through systematic phonics’ (Ofsted 2010: 4). This is clearly very important, and in Chapter 3 we consider some observations of strategies for teaching reading, including phonics. However, it is interesting that Ofsted makes no mention in the summary of findings and recommendations of what children read, and it is this which is the focus of this first chapter. I have deliberately called the first chapter ‘Understanding texts’ because it seems to me essential as teachers that we consider how the texts we use impact on children learning to be both readers and writers.

If I reflect on my own behaviour as a reader, I know that what I read greatly affects how I read. There are some novels which I read really quickly, skimming over descriptive passages because I only want to know what happens; yet I have just finished re-reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion and I read that really slowly, savouring in the delights of Austen’s language. If I am reading a magazine, I skim over the text to get the gist of the subject matter, but, if I am reading an academic textbook or article, I will read slowly, frequently re-reading sections and sometimes reading aloud to make sure I truly understand. Think about your own reading behaviour and note how the text you are reading affects how you read.

My knowledge of texts also affects how I write. In writing this, I am imagining I am talking to my current group of students. I have particular faces in mind and am remembering how they respond in lectures. I am also remembering other textbooks I have read for trainee teachers and am recalling their style and ‘voice’ as I write. Earlier today I wrote a reference for somebody and wrote in a very different style; I used a set format and thought carefully about how each word would be interpreted. I have also been working on an article for an academic journal and before writing looked at several past editions of the journal, reading other articles to see the style of writing that was acceptable. This emphasises again the centrality of the text in the processes of reading and writing.

What counts as a text?

It will be clear from the previous two paragraphs that I read and write a variety of texts, and there are even more which are an integral part of my daily life. Just this morning I have read and written emails, updated my status on a social network site and read the statuses of friends, looked for information on lots of different Internet sites, read the post and yesterday’s newspaper, checked my diary and written in two new appointments, written notes on sticky pads as I took phone calls, read and sent texts on my mobile phone, looked on a spreadsheet to find information for the accountant and checked the label on the yoghurt for the sell-by date. All that happened in the space of four hours. The texts I read and wrote were all very different in their purposes, formats and audiences. My children read and create an even greater range of texts, using, among other things, pencils, keyboards, visual images, sound, photographs and film. It is now common to look on YouTube to find instructions or information rather than in a traditional book, and communication takes place through Twitter, Snapchat, etc. We are encouraged to scan QR codes to access information and coding is now a part of the National Curriculum in England. We must assume that this has huge implications for literacy teaching and learning.

The English National Curriculum (DfE 2013) puts emphasis on enabling children to develop pleasure in reading and states that this happens through encountering a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction. It is interesting that in this curriculum there is no explicit discussion of the nature of texts and there appears to be the implicit assumption of print-based continuous text. The Scottish curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive 2004), specifies that children should encounter both continuous and non-continuous texts, including both traditional formal prose and oral, electronic or film texts. The curriculum document defines a text as ‘the medium through which ideas, experiences, opinions and information can be communicated’ (p. 23).

What is common about all these different kinds of texts is that in both reading and creating them the communication of meaning lies at the heart of all that is done. Texts may use a variety of methods or modes to convey or express meaning – words, pictures, images, photographs, video clips, sound files, hyperlinks. Some texts use several of these and they are known as multi-modal texts. Reading and creating a multi-modal text requires many more skills than reading or writing written texts, and children in the twenty-first century need to be skilled in all these modes of communication. The knowledge required to be an effective reader and writer today is very different from when I learned a long time ago and I am often conscious that I am catching up in my skill base.

Whatever the nature of a text, what we are reading or creating matters and it is through encounters with texts that children learn what it is to be a reader and writer. Over 20 years ago Margaret Meek wrote a very influential book about this very thing, and in more recent times Vivienne Smith has written about why texts matter for the way in which children become readers.

Read

Meek, M. (1988) How Texts Teach What Readers Learn. Stroud: Thimble Press.

Smith, V. (2008) ‘Learning to be a reader: promoting good textual health’, in P. Goodwin (ed.), Understanding Children’s Books: A Guide for Education Professionals. London: SAGE.

Stone, G. (2011) The Digital Literacy Classroom. Leicester: UKLA.

Reflect

How does the nature of the text affect the reading process?

The observations in this chapter put texts at the centre of teaching primary literacy, and the first observation concerns a unit of work where the study of texts informed children’s creation of their own texts.

OBSERVATION: The first two lessons of a Year 4 (ages 8 and 9) class unit of work with an author focus

This unit of work formed part of cross-curricular work in Design and Technology, Art and Literacy. The intention of the whole unit was for the children in the class to make their own books, hopefully inspired by a visit from the author, Paul Geraghty. He is a South African, now living in London, who writes and illustrates children’s books. The illustrations capture the light of Africa with its vibrant colours; they are bright and yet soft and full of curves. The stories are a strange mix of reality and anthropomorphism – they explore human values, relationships and emotions but within the context of real animal behaviour. Many of the stories are based on observed real-life incidents from Africa.

The first lesson of the unit took place on the morning of the author’s visit. There were two learning objectives:

• to be able to evaluate the work of an author
• to understand the relationship between text and images in a picture book.

The lesson began with an introduction to Paul Geraghty, giving a taster of information about him and informing the children that he was going to come and talk to them that afternoon. That generated a lot of excitement among the children.

Comment

It could be argued that the children were not given much notice of the author visit and there was limited time for preparation. The teacher would argue that the immediacy of the visit gave a sense of urgency to the lesson and the children were highly motivated and engaged. What do you think?

The teacher then read the book Over the Steamy Swamp to the class using a visualiser so that they could see the illustrations. This is a story bringing the food chain to life. A mosquito flies over a swamp; behind her hovers a dragonfly; behind her sits a frog; and so it continues. The strong illustrations are colourful and there is a humour to the whole text. After the reading the children were asked to talk with their partners and share first impressions of the book.

Comment

Notice how the teacher first asks the children to make a personal response to the book. It is really important that children are given the opportunity to do this before they begin any more detailed analysis of the text. Michael Rosen says: ‘We read because it either gives us pleasure or because there is something we want to know. In other words, we read for the meaning’ (2010: 2).

Note also that the children are asked to talk about their responses with their partners. We will see over and over again how important talk is in the learning process. It helps to clarify ideas, to extend understanding and develop thinking by engaging in debate.

An extremely useful framework for this has been established by Aiden Chambers. He suggests the following three ‘sharings’ as we talk about books we have read:

• Enthusiasms – what is it that excites you about the book? These enthusiasms can be either positive or negative and can relate to plot, setting, character, style or anything else at all.
• Puzzles – what questions do you have about the book? What is it you don’t understand? Are there any gaps for you? Where do you want to go ‘behind the scenes’?
• Patterns – what patterns or links do you notice as you read the book? Are there patterns in the language used, in the illustrations, in recurring elements of the plot, in characters’ behaviours or in links to other texts you have read or to real-life experiences?

I have used this framework with children from age 3 upwards, with students and with my peers when discussing books we have read.

Read more about it and the importance of giving children time to talk about books in:

• Chambers, A. (2011) Tell Me (Children, Reading and Talk) with The Reading Environment. Stroud: Thimble Press.

You might also want to look at the work Pie Corbett has done on ‘Book-talk’ (Corbett 2008a), which will give practical ideas on how to implement Chambers’s approach.

After the pair talk, the class were asked to get into their well-established literacy groups to evaluate the book. First, as a class they discussed what it meant to evaluate a book and what they needed to look for when reading. Their discussion yielded a list which included such questions as:

• Is the story exciting?
• Is it funny?
• Is the language good? Does it help me to make pictures in my mind?
• Do the illustrations add anything to the words? Do they tell a different story?
• Do the characters seem real? Can we believe what they say and do?
• What are the best and worst bits?
• Would I recommend this book to a friend?

Comment

The questions generated by this class would indicate that they have had a lot of experience in talking about and evaluating texts. A class is unlikely to come up with such questions without these experiences. Consider how this helps the children develop their reading skills and behaviour as readers.

The children then worked in their groups. Each group produced a written evaluation of the text. They worked together; one child was elected as scribe. The groups were of mixed ability and so those less co...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Observation and Reflection
• 1 Understanding Texts
• 2 Talk
• 3 Teaching Reading
• 4 Teaching Writing
• 5 Teaching Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
• 6 Literacy Across the Curriculum
• 7 Assessment and Planning
• 8 Teaching with Story
• 9 Teaching primary literacy
• References
• Index