Early Literacy Work with Families

Policy, Practice and Research

Cathy Nutbrown, Peter Hannon, Anne Morgan

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781446233436
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

`The ?Raising Early Achievement in Literacy? or REAL project was the result of a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, Sheffield LEA and schools and centres across the city of Sheffield, starting in 1995. For those interested in developing their own projects in this field it will provide essential information. It contains many examples of work carried out this in this project.

Many examples are given that could prompt practitioners to identify ways in which they too could focus their own input with children or help their parent group to interact with their children?s developing literacy? - Early Years Update

`A "must read" for practitioners, policy makers and researchers interested in the detail and the theory underpinning this important family literacy initiative? - Neil McClelland OBE, Director, National Literacy Trust

`The REAL Project is one of the best conceptualized, most intensively documented and successful British family literacy initiatives and the book provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of this powerful project. It is essential reading for anyone working alongside families to promote children?s early development? - Professor Nigel Hall, Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University

?The project described in detail in this book is arguably the most important and well-researched UK initiative for developing early literacy work with parents of young children.

...

Readers will find inspirational case studies... There are illuminating insights into children?s perspectives on family literacy, including good news about fathers and boys.

...

Don?t miss it!? - Marian Whitehead, Nursery World

Anyone involved in the field of early-childhood literacy should be familiar with the work of the REAL (Raising Early Achievement in Literacy) Project. Here, leading members of the project team Cathy Nutbrown, Peter Hannon and Anne Morgan, discuss the research. An essential guide to the subject, this book will be of great practical use to all in the field of early childhood literacy: students, practitioners and course leaders on literacy and early childhood courses.

The authors discuss the policy contexts of early-childhood and literacy today and use their experience of the REAL project to discuss and illustrate practical research and evaluation strategies for family literacy workers. They examine the issues from all perspectives: teachers, parents and young children. The book concludes with examples of how the theoretical framework of the REAL Project (ORIM) has been used by other practitioners and an examination of the implications of such work for the future of early-childhood and literacy policy development.

The book also includes:

-An informative update on research in the field

-A description of the family literacy programme

-Useful activities for family literacy work

-Guidelines for interviewing parents and children

-Suggestions for how to evaluate family literacy work

-Ideas for practical sessions for professional development for family literacy workers

-A Guide to further reading

This is an important book and should be read by anyone wishing to keep pace with the field of family literacy in early childhood education.

PART I

Early Childhood Education and Family Literacy: Policy Contexts

The first part of this book documents the range of policies which contribute to the context for developing early literacy work with parents of young children. Chapter 1, Policy contexts, tells the story of early childhood education and its changing nature. It sets the scene for the book and gives examples of a variety of settings and services where parental involvement in their children’s learning is integral to practice. This is followed by Chapter 2, Family literacy programmes, which provides an overview of a parallel set of developments which since the early 1980s have led to a range of practices in schools and other early childhood education and care settings to support parents in their roles as early literacy educators of their children.

1	Policy contexts

Chapter summary

• Introduction
• The changing nature of early childhood education
  • policy developments in curriculum and pedagogy; observing the literacy hour
  • policy developments in systems and services
• Parental involvement in their children’s learning
  • parents and early literacy development; developing a home-school writing project

Introduction

This chapter sets the scene for the book through discussion of the many policy developments through the 1990s and early 2000s that have been responsible for a reshaping of early childhood education in the UK, both in terms of settings and services and in terms of the curriculum children experience. The breadth and range of programmes and initiatives to involve parents in their children’s learning, and specifically in early literacy learning, are illustrated with examples from a range of settings and services.

The changing nature of early childhood education

Early childhood education policies of the 1990s and early 2000s have brought radical change to curriculum and pedagogy and to state-funded systems in all four countries in the UK, for example:

• Sure Start (Glass, 1999) represents massive investment and innovation in early years provision across the UK.
• Birth to Three Matters (QCA, 2003) has established a framework for effective practice in work with babies and toddlers.
• The Review of Preschool Education in Northern Ireland (DENI, 2004) is an indication of how curriculum can be developed to support the fulfilment of key aims for a society. This review examines structures, systems and practices in settings.
• The Foundation Stage for 3–5 year olds is being developed with the creation of Foundation Stage units where children aged 3–5 years are taught together through a curriculum which favours play as an approach to learning and where educators assess children’s learning through observation rather than formal assessment (QCA, 2000).
• The Foundation Phase 3–7 being developed in Wales (QCAAW, 2004) shows how country can draw in various experiences across the world, firstly to redefine ‘the early years’ and secondly to propose a system of early education which is designed to enable all children to reach their potential and limit the possibility of creating educational failure.
• In Scotland (Scottish Executive, 2003), refreshing approaches to assessment in the early years have been informed by a view of early education curriculum which is informal, individualistic and diverse.

These large-scale initiatives demonstrate how central policy-makers now recognise the importance of strategic investments in early childhood education and care. Amidst this nationwide interest on a scale never before witnessed, and at a time of great investment – of money, energy and belief – early childhood educators are charged with multiple responsibilities. They must maintain and develop the quality of education and care experienced by young children and, in many cases, develop new programmes of provision for families, pioneer new approaches and enhance their own professional knowledge and development.

This section summarises some of the policy developments that have changed the landscape of early childhood education and care; first in terms of curriculum and pedagogy and second in terms of systems and services.

Policy developments in curriculum and pedagogy

The recent history of state-prescribed curricula for children below the statutory school starting age began in 1996 with The Desirable Outcomes of Nursery Education on Entry Compuhory Schooling (SCAA, 1996). Subsequent revisions (perhaps in the context of unrelenting challenge and persistent lobbying by some early childhood educators) resulted, in 2000, with new government ‘guidelines’ for a curriculum for children aged 3–5+ years (QCA, 2000). These guidelines, while not compulsory, were the focus of inspection of provision. State-required assessment was introduced in 1998 (SCAA, 1997) under the National Framework for Baseline Assessment. Four-year-old children in England and Wales (below the age of compulsory schooling) were to be assessed a few weeks after entry to school. The system was heavily criticised (Nutbrown, 1997) and, in 2003, National Baseline Assessment was replaced with the Foundation Stage Profile, a system of assessment based on practitioner observation over time, to be completed by the time children leave their reception classes. This marked an improvement on the brief summative assessment administered at the start of the reception year. Though some schools chose to maintain an ‘on-entry’ assessment in order to calculate the value added by the school to the child’s achievement at a later date, this was no longer nationally required or reported. These changes were, arguably, a result of early childhood educators remembering important lessons from previous experience and philosophy, and refusing to reject what they learned from the writings and influences of earlier pioneers.

During this period (from 1996 to 2002) other policies influenced what was taught and how it was taught in the early years. The National Literacy Strategy (DfEE, 1998) and, in the following year, the National Numeracy strategy (QCA, 1999) strongly influenced pedagogy, promoting whole-class and differentiated independent work for small groups – even for the youngest children. A key feature of these policies, too, was the ‘pace’ of the lesson. Teachers were encouraged to keep the lesson moving. Whole-class teaching, groups of young children working at set, ‘pencil and paper’ tasks, often without adult support, and fast pace were alien teaching strategies for many early years teachers and the children they taught, and the impact on many reception classes was strongly felt. The daily ‘literacy hour’, which usually took place in the early part of the morning each day, changed the face of literacy teaching. Although the ‘hour’ was not compulsory in the reception class, the high-profile introduction of the National Literacy Strategy and the intensive work of local literacy consultants meant that most reception teachers and headteachers felt obliged to introduce the literacy hour in the reception class.

The following observation (made by Cathy Nutbrown in 1999) of a reception class literacy hour shows how some children were receiving this (then) new form of literacy teaching.

Observing the literacy hour

(names and identifying details changed)

9.10 a.m.

Reception children (children who began reception in January, 3 weeks ago, all aged 5:1–5:4).

Teacher: ‘You did ‘T’ brilliantly yesterday. We’ll do a new letter today. We will do this letter: [writes Ss on the whiteboard]. What letter is this?’

Danny: [thrusts his hand in the air] ‘S and s’ [saying the letter name and sound].

Teacher: ‘Well done – you said the letter name and sound – well done. Which one is a capital?’

Someone eagerly identifies the capital.

It is a minute into the lesson – three boys sit to the right of the group of 21. One picks his nose, one reaches between his legs and plays with his trousers, the third plays with the cord on his jumper. A single girl – alone in the middle of the group plays with her hair – adjusts and re-adjusts her Barbie hair band. Another boy – also sitting apart from the group – plays with his ear. The arc of eight children in the front thrust their hands in the air and list words beginning with S: Sun Snake Sunflower Six Snooker (winning a ‘that’s a good one’ from the teacher).

The boy in the trio at the far right stops playing with his trousers and starts twiddling with his hair – his hand as if raised to offer a word beginning with S (but it is not).

More words: Seven Salmon.

Teacher: ‘Salmon’ [pulls a face as if to say ‘what made you think of salmon?’].

Leighton (playing with his hair) is picked to offer a word – he looks blank and says ‘Zebra’ (I think – not baa).

Teacher: ‘Not quite – good try.’

Someone else offers ‘sugar’, sugar is listed.

They are all asked to read the whiteboard while the teacher points to the words:

Sun Snake Sunflower Six Snooker Seven Salmon Sugar.

Teacher: ‘We need two more words beginning with S to make ten.’

Yusef offers: submarine.

Aaron says: stairs.

They are added to the list. The class is asked to read the list: Sun Snake Sunflower Six Snooker Seven Salmon Sugar Submarine Stairs.

I notice that Leighton (still playing with his hair) is puzzled; perhaps he’s wondering what happened to his Zebra – his teacher had said ‘good try’ but still his Zebra was not on the list.

The teacher begins work with the big book. He points to the title: ‘What is it called?’

Children chant out the title.

Teacher holds up a speech bubble: ‘What is this?’

Josh has his hand up: ‘Speech bubble.’

Teacher: ‘Let’s read it.’

The children chant this (now) familiar text – it is Wednesday and they have been using this book since Monday. Most of them have learned some of the repetitive lines. Children at the back are chanting the words – they know the words – they are not looking at the text, or at the teacher’s pointer. Aaron is yawning. Andrew returns to his trousers. Danny puts the speech bubble on the page. Danny is with this – into it – saying every word – pushing his hand into the air at every opportunity to respond to a question.

The chorus of confident readers starts the text on the next page. The back row of this haphazard arc join in, a phoneme or so behind.

Reece removes and checks his glasses, checks his shoelaces (glasses in hand). Children are repeating the text ‘by heart’ – but many are not even looking in the direction of the book. A few heads are being scratched. Several cardigans are being buttoned and unbuttoned. Aaron is still yawning.

The emphasis on the current page is on the letter ‘h’ – with ‘huh’ sound (not easy in the dialect of this northern city).

Eventually the teacher says; ‘Mark – where does this [speech bubble] go?’

‘Near the ’en [hen]’ says Mark.

Teacher: ‘Well done Mark – near the ’en’ [pointing to the picture of the hen].

Alex sticks the next speech bubble on the page – confident and swift. Alex, it seems, knows about speech bubbles.

Last page – Aaron gets to stick on the speech bubble – in the wrong place.

(He had not realised that it matters where on the page these speech bubbles go.)

Aaron looks puzzled when the teacher asks another child to try. He looks puzzled and then he looks at his feet. Then he helps Reece check his shoelaces. Alex places the speech bubble on the right place (yes, she knows about speech bubbles).

Aaron misses this – he is still sorting out Reece’s shoelaces.

Mikala fixes her Barbie hair band.

It is time to go into groups. The teacher announces Jobs for Today’. Yellow group will make a picture of S words using paper in the shape of stairs (the ten ‘S’ words written on the board are rubbed off). Children work with dictionaries – they have a helper who explains their task and keeps them going. Yellow group start.

The teacher is sorting out the rest of the groups. Green group are starting on a ‘T’ poem – they are waiting … Blue group are at their table … waiting. Green group must highlight all the T’s and t’s in the T poem. Three children are listening at the listening station – wearing headphones. Two children have an alphabet jigsaw on the carpet.

Tina and Hanna bump heads – Tina cries – she’s banged her nose. The two adults are engaged with their groups – they do not notice Tina (I alert the helper). Tina sits with the helper while the helper continues with her group. The teacher is using single words on cards.

This is

Tina goes to the ‘This is’ table but she has missed the two minutes of teaching This is so she sucks her hair – she does not seem to know what she is doing.

The children have finished their T poem and go to the two adults, who break off from their groups to check their work. One girl plays with a jigsaw alphabet game alone – saying letter sounds and names of objects (correctly) as she fits them together.

Corey rolls on the floor and intermittently fits pieces of an alphabet jigsaw together he does more rolling than fitting – rolling between a set of number dominoes and the 26 pieces of the alphabet jigsaw.

The S pictures are going well – with continued adult support.

Corey is now playing with the plastic bag which contained the alphabet jigsaw – he rolls around the carpet – picks up a few letter pieces – tries to match them to the baseboard of the jigsaw – he now has two pieces in.

The teacher tries to teach Tina This is (she missed that when she banged her nose and has since struggled with the activity).

Lindsay is staring – staring straight ahead – in her own daze … She adjusts her knickers – pulls up her left sock (different in pattern from the right). She fits a picture of a ball with the letter d – a bit of pressure makes it go – so that must be OK then …

The teacher talks to the children on the carpet: ‘I’ll be there in two seconds …’ [He has perhaps realised that the two boys doing the letter dominoes have done nothing yet – but roll.]

It is 10 minutes to 10 – they have been rolling for 15 minutes.

The ‘This is’ group are trying to find the word horse out of a choice of horse, bull, boy.

Yusef is correct – he looks surprised! He got it right – but has no idea why he’s right.

The domino boys find the plastic bags.

Corey stops rolling and calls the teacher (calls his name eight times). He has found S in the jigsaw – which he has now two-thirds complete (in the last 60 seconds).

Corey tells his teacher: ‘Look – a “S”.’

‘Well spotted’ says the teacher (he’s distracted – he needs to get to the domino boys).

The...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Biographical details
• Part 1 Early Childhood Education And Family Literacy: Policy Contexts
• Part 2 Developing A Family Literacy Project: Practice And Experience
• Part 3 Evaluation And The Perspectives Of Participants
• Part 4 The Future For Early Childhood Education And Family Literacy
• References
• Index