Early Years Reading: getting young readers passionate about books
Literacy hour routines involve shared reading and writing of whole texts and word and sentence level activities. In this second article in BfK’s ‘Learning to Read’ series, Alison Kelly argues that these routines must serve the bigger purpose. We must never forget the need to ‘cultivate’ young readers so that they become genuinely involved with and reflective about texts. In bringing this about both imaginative teaching and quality children’s books are crucial.
Pascal Biet’s brilliant picture book, A Cultivated Wolf, begins with a hungry and penniless wolf happening upon a farmyard of literate animals. They send him on his way with the riposte that ‘This is a farm for cultivated animals’. Much offended, the wolf decides to learn to read and returns three times to show off his efforts. The passage from his laborious decoding of ‘Run, wolf! Run!’ through to his final enthralling entertainment of the farm animals as he reads to them ‘with confidence and passion’ is a superb demonstration of Brian Cox’s famous dictum that ‘Reading is much more than the decoding of black marks upon a page’ (1991).
I start with this because any discussion of the reading process must be rooted in quality children’s literature and because the wolf’s journey to becoming a confident and passionate reader demonstrates the orchestration of knowledge that skilled readers deploy and inexperienced readers have to learn about.
Graphophonic approaches, predicated on a view of reading as being entirely to do with oral and visual stimuli, dominated the teaching of reading in the first half of the twentieth century. It was not until the advent of psycholinguistic thinking in the 1960s that this view was broadened. Proponents of this approach showed that readers have to draw together, or orchestrate, different cues. To the graphophonic cues they added the semantic cue (i.e. meaning) and the syntactic (i.e.grammar). These insights, alongside rising concerns about the need for texts that reflected a multi-cultural society, led to the understanding that young children need richer texts if they are to draw on all of these cues in their early reading efforts.
This theoretical model of cue-systems informs the current teaching model offered by the National Literacy Strategy. The metaphor is of four searchlights all of which are needed to cast light on the text. The searchlights map on to the cue-systems thus:
Cue-system Searchlight
Semantic Knowledge of context Syntactic Knowledge of grammar Graphophonic Phonic( sounds and spelling)
Word recognition and graphic knowledge
Broadly, the psycholinguistic model privileged meaning over graphophonic cues whilst the National Literacy Strategy’s gloss on the searchlight model focuses on graphic and phonic cues. This emphasis is also reflected in the percentage of time allocated at Key Stage One word level work (which includes phonics) in the Literacy Hour. There are criticisms of the searchlight metaphor which could be seen as offering a mechanical image of switching on ‘glaring lights that hunt and pin down the text mercilessly’ (Ferguson, 2002).
We need to remember that children learn in different ways, some favouring the ‘big shapes’ in reading, others the smaller units (Barrs, 1991. So teachers need to offer balanced teaching predicated on their children’s needs. We are privileged to know more now about the reading process than ever before and to have access to the most wonderful books; it is these intellectual and physical resources that should guide our work with children.
Shared and guided reading routines
o turn to the books then – big and small. Two key teaching routines – shared and guided reading – underpin the teaching of reading in the Literacy Hour and these routines teach children how to draw on the searchlights. The books that teachers choose for these routines – enlarged for Shared Reading and in differentiated sets for Guided – are critical.
Shared reading is a long-established and robust routine, first developed by Don Holdaway in New Zealand in the 1970s. Reflecting on the benefits of bed-time stories, Holdaway imaginatively recreated the intimacy of these early book encounters by enlarging popular stories for classroom use. In Shared Reading, teachers model the reading process to children; it is a context for making reading strategies explicit. The teacher leads, pointing at the text, with the children joining in. She or he will interrupt the reading from time to time, inviting the children to predict what is to come or to use phonic strategies to decode a particularly tricky word. Key words, parts of words or letters may be masked, thus engaging children’s use of more than one cueing strategy as they have to check predictions against meaning.
Shared Reading can be a collaborative and inclusive venture offering the most inexperienced child the chance to participate, even if at the level of echoing the other children. Now a central plank of the Literacy Hour, the publication of enlarged texts (‘Big Books’) has expanded enormously to encompass many different genres and authors.
Brian Wildsmith’s classic picture book All Fall Down (sadly currently out of print as a big book but available in standard format) offers rich opportunities for children to predict, drawing from the skilful revelations that the illustrations offer set against a minimal and cumulative storyline. Here the children’s contextual and grammatical searchlights are activated by the power of the narrative carried in images and words.
Traditional stories, with their familiar patterning and repetition, offer powerful opportunities for young readers to both draw on and extend their knowledge of the shape and language of such stories. Vivian French’s retelling of the The Three Billy Goats Gruffoffers a lively rendition of this well-patterned tale; her text retains the rhythms of its oral origins and makes skilful use of repetition with its different coloured lines of text, differentiated so that all can participate.
For Guided Reading the books are smaller but the children’s role is greater. This is where the children take over from the teacher’s lead and, working in differentiated groups, read as independently as they can. Sets of books for Guided Reading are available from reading scheme publishers but many teachers prefer to exert their professional judgement and assemble sets of books they know work well for their children.
Organisation of this routine varies with some teachers asking the children to read together (but not in unison) so the teacher can tune in to individuals as they read; other teachers prefer the children to read in turn. As with Shared Reading, the teacher’s intentions for the session need to be clear and, across a week, will typically cover all the searchlights.
Whatever the text, the session starts with a reminder of reading strategies and some ‘warming-up’ of the text (e.g. anticipating difficult vocabulary). So a Reception class teacher embarking on guided reading of Martin Waddell’s hilarious The Pig in the Pond will need to alert her children to the farmer’s name – ‘Neligan’ – prior to their reading. Looking at the cover, which depicts a delighted pig diving into water sending a panicky goose flapping off, is all that is needed to prompt the children’s speculations about the story’s content. Reading the first page of the book together and blending the phonemes in ‘Neligan’ will ensure the children can tackle the subsequent reading as independently as possible.
For children ready to make the transition from picture books to more sustained text, Katie Daynes’ quirky retelling of The Elves and the Shoemaker does the trick. There is enough of the traditional story to scaffold the reading but this version is refreshed with additions such as the arrival of a rival shoe seller whose cheaper, poor quality products threaten the livelihood of the protagonists; cue the magic elves! Divided into chapters, the story is enhanced by Desideria Guicciardini’s illustrations peppered with witty speech bubbles. The chapters offer natural pausing points for a guided reading session with opportunities for reflection and prediction. This little hardback edition comes complete with silk bookmark and is competitively priced. It has the feel of a proper ‘chapter book’, so important for children at this stage of reading.
Word level routines
by encouraging the children to substitute other words, real or nonsense, that rhyme with ‘bee’. Research in the 1980s and 90s (e.g. Goswami and Bryant, 1991) has shown just how important rhyme is in the early years as it develops the phonemic awareness needed if phonic strategies are to be effectively employed.
Reading aloud is important
Sammy’s teacher is reading a book to her nursery class. ‘It’s called Big Bad Wolf is Good,’ she tells them. ‘No!’ says Sammy, ‘Can’t be, big wolf is always BAD.’ I conclude with this anecdote because I want to reassert the importance of reading aloud, a key routine that is in danger of being marginalised. This teacher has not even begun to read the actual story aloud but already we can see Sammy’s intertextual understanding and his absolute engagement with the routine. It is vital that children are attuned to the rhythms and voices of texts and we know that hearing written language read aloud expressively can do this (Barrs and Cork, 2001). Reading aloud nourishes children’s grammatical and contextual awareness; it allows them to experience books that they might not manage alone and it is particularly supportive for children learning English as an additional language who are still tuning into the structures and shapes of the new language.
For nourishment of grammatical and contextual awareness, a perfect book for reading aloud is Tony Ross’ and Jeanne Willis’ wicked little love story – Tadpole’s Promise. It starts eloquently and promisingly: ‘Where the willow meets the water a tadpole met a caterpillar. They gazed into each other’s tiny eyes… and fell in love. She was his beautiful rainbow and he was her shiny black pearl.’ But then the tadpole promises the caterpillar he will never change thus ensuring the most captive of reading audiences as they watch the inevitable changes that unfold. The final gasp-making twist (student teachers have shrieked!) is all the funnier for being juxtaposed against such poetic language.
We started with a wolf so it is fitting to end with one too. Sammy remains absorbed and intrigued as the Big Bad Wolf in Simon Puttock’s tale makes desperate efforts to impress the other animals with his intended change of character. But the pages are littered with fleeing animals all of whom have done their reading too and know that wolves are always up to no good; Sammy spots them all. Hearing the text read aloud and appreciating the non-verbal jokes held in the pictures are crucial reading lessons (Meek, 1988). Teachers’ understanding of the complexities of the reading process, their children’s learning styles and needs and their knowledge of powerful texts and routines all have a part to play in creating confident and passionate readers.
Alison Kelly is Senior Lecturer in Education (English Education) at Roehampton University and co-author (with Judith Graham) of Reading Under Control: Teaching Reading in the Primary School, second edition 2000, David Fulton Publishers.
References
Barrs, M & A Thomas (eds) (1991) The Reading Book, London: CLPE
Barrs, M & V Cork (2001) The Reader in the Writer, London: CLPE
Cox, B (1991) Cox on Cox, London: Hodder & Stoughton
Ferguson, J (2002) Journeys to, from and around the text: an examination of young children’s individual responses to picture story books, London: University of Surrey Roehampton (MA dissertation, unpublished)
Goswami, U & P Bryant (1991) Phonological Skills and Learning to Read, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Holdaway, D (1979) The Foundations of Literacy, Gosford, NSW: Ashton Scholastic
Meek, M (1988) How Texts Teach What Readers Learn, Stroud: Thimble Press
Children’s books
A Cultivated Wolf, Becky Bloom, ill. Pascal Biet, Siphano Picture Books, 1 903078 30 X, £4.99 pbk
All Fall Down, Brian Wildsmith, Oxford, 0 19 272135 6, £2.99 pbk
The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Vivian French, ill. Arthur Robins, Walker, 0 7445 6852 8, £3.99 pbk
The Pig in the Pond, Martin Waddell, ill. J Barton, Walker, 0 7445 3153 5, £4.99 pbk, 0 7445 4391 6, £14.99 big book
The Elves and the Shoemaker, Katie Daynes, ill. Desideria Guicciardini, Usborne, 0 7460 6303 2, £4.99 hbk
Big Bad Wolf is Good, Simon Puttock, ill. Lynne Chapman, Gullane, 1 86233 320 3, £9.99 hbk, 1 86233 379 3, £4.99 pbk
Tadpole’s Promise, Jeanne Willis, ill. Tony Ross, Andersen, 1 84270 426 5, £5.99 pbk
DfES publications
DfEE (1999) Progression in Phonics, London: DfEE
DfEE (1998) The National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching, London: DfEE
Book lists
Recommended big books
The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson, ill. Axel Scheffler, Macmillan, 0 333 90176 2, £14.99 pbk
Anancy and Mr Dry-Bone, Fiona French, Frances Lincoln, 0 7112 1384 4, £14.99 pbk
The Best Book for Terry Lee, Virginia Loewen, ill. David Pearson, Kingscourt, 0 7327 2302 7, £21.95 pbk
Suddenly! Colin McNaughton, Collins, 0 00 301513 0, £15.99 pbk
Books for guided reading
Five Little Ducks, Ian Beck, Orchard, 1 85213 497 6, £4.99 pbk
The Noisy Way to Bed, Ian Whybrow, ill. Tiphanie Beeke, Macmillan, 0 333 98673 3, £4.99 pbk
Thomas, H. (Series ed) Literacy Centres, Leamington Spa: Scholastic
Online resource: www.roythezebra.com
Many reading scheme publishers offer quality sets of books for guided reading with teacher guidance provided. These are just a few: Rigby Star, Heinemann Storyworlds, Pelican, OUP: Web Guided Reading
Bickler, S & S Baker (eds) (2000) Book Bands for Guided Reading, London: Reading Recovery National Network in collaboration with NLS
Books to support young readers learning English as an additional language
Handa’s Surprise, Eileen Browne, Walker, 0 7445 3634 0, £4.99 pbk
Mr Gumpy’s Outing, John Burningham, Red Fox, 0 09 940879 1, £5.99 pbk
Owl Babies, Martin Waddell, ill. Patrick Benson, Walker, 0 7445 2166 1, £10.99 hbk, 0 7445 3167 5, £4.99 pbk
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen, ill. Helen Oxenbury, Walker, 0 7445 2323 0, £5.99 pbk
Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck, Lisa Westberg Peters, ill. Sam Williams, Macmillan, 0 333 96055 6, £4.99 pbk
Books helping children over the transition from picture books to stories in chapters
Bill’s New Frock, Anne Fine, Egmont, 1 4052 0060 X, £3.99 pbk
The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey, Scholastic, 0 439 01457 3, £3.99 pbk
The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, Jill Tomlinson, Egmont, 1 4052 1093 1, £3.99 pbk
There are several series of books that are particularly supportive for this transition:
Yellow Bananas, London: Egmont Children’s Books
Young Readers(Series 1 & 2), London: Usborne
Which books do experienced teachers of reading choose to inspire the very young to want to read? In the next article in this series Helen Bromley, a freelance Early Years consultant, discusses the power of narrative from the earliest stages and suggests picture books and storybooks that will involve and delight new readers.
