Reading Under Control

Feeling in control is an experience teachers in the present climate have all too infrequently: even more so with the apparent rigidity of the proposals for the literacy hour. If we are to be in any sense in control of what goes on with regard to literacy in our classrooms, we need to be cognisant of the elements discussed in this book. Its contributors, who represent a wide range of interests and hence knowledge and enthusiasms, emphasise the crucial importance of being in control with regard to reading. For this to happen they posit that teachers need a secure base of knowledge and understanding about children and how they learn (and in this case how reading, in particular, is learned). They also need knowledge about books and resources in order to make an informed choice about what to offer, how to organise the materials and have an understanding of classroom practices through which reading is taught. The question of how best to move children forward entails scaffolding their future learning using where they are as a starting point: hence the importance of assessment as an enabling tool. All these elements and more are explored, examined and reflected upon in the five sections into which this volume is divided. The book begins with an historic overview (linked to broader theories about how children learn) of the ways the teaching and learning of reading have been approached. The emphasis is on the last forty or so years, and the various researchers and their models of reading offer a wide range of lenses through which one can look at children and learning to read. In conclusion the authors stress that research is a constant dynamic, the aim being to find the very best opportunities for children. In the section on resources for reading the book acknowledges the National Curriculum's insistence on a wide range of texts and the underlying recognition of the different kinds of reading these demand, but rightly points out areas of insufficient exploration. These include, most importantly for me, the whole question of literature and its role in developing the affective domain --- issues of equality, diversity and challenging assumptions. The teacher's role in planning for teaching and learning is explored in chapter three which is rich in ideas to reflect on. Planning is helpfully thought of in terms of continuous, blocked and linked experiences. There is a useful checklist for planning a read aloud session (I applaud the insistence on reading aloud throughout KS2) and pointers for using drama and role play as means of deepening children's understanding of texts and related issues and concepts. The whole area of phonics is addressed, including what teachers need to know, how to embed children's learning in meaningful (often textual) contexts, and the importance of rhyme and word play. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, sensitive, appropriate scaffolding and the transactional nature of making meaning underlie both this chapter and of course, the next which discusses the role of, and explores ways of, monitoring, assessing and recording children's reading. The final chapter focuses on meeting individual needs and its authors are (rightly in my view) dismissive of what they call a narrowed focus on to a 'bits and pieces' approach to underachievement. Reading Recovery is reviewed along with appropriate texts to offer and a discussion of what children who have underachieved need to know about reading. Those who have contributed to this book represent an extremely strong team of educators from the Roehampton Institute but I feel they fail to give sufficient attention to the importance of dispositions: not only those of the children towards reading, but of crucial importance in my view, a teacher's dispositions: a positive, indeed passionate, disposition towards literature (if teaching is to be inspired), and a disposition towards creating an enabling and empowering environment which embraces children as equal contributors in an open, enquiring, learning community. All in all though, this is a book to be highly recommended, not only to those at the beginning of their careers, but to everyone who seeks a thoughtful, balanced framework within which to set, and reflect on, their practice.