Reading on Screen: Exploring Issues in Reading for Information with CD-ROM

This article describes the insights gained by a group of primary teachers investigating the implications of CD-ROM for English with their KS2 pupils. As part of the IT in English project, they researched pupils' use of the CD-ROM and its effect on their learning. They developed effective strategies to help pupils cope with the reading demands and edit their own texts. Positive effects on critical reading, collaboration, and use of conventional information books were observed.     

A right to be heard: learning from learners with additional needs in literacy

This study aimed to explore the consultation experiences of pupils who have additional needs in literacy. An opportunistic sample of eight schools – four in Northern Ireland and four in the Republic of Ireland – were chosen by the researchers; selected pupils were receiving additional literacy support. Focus group discussions and arts‐based creative methodologies were used through which visual and verbal stimuli supported and extended the narratives of the children. The findings showed that pupils have a capacity for self‐reflection and metacognitive talk around literacy. They had a keen awareness of their specific difficulties and the reading strategies they use. However, they wished for greater choice in how literacy support is organised and for more information about individual reading targets and scores. There was a great desire among pupils for consultation at meetings concerning their progress. Involving pupils in planning and evaluating their literacy learning needs as a fundamental right raises questions about teachers’ current protectiveness of pupils with additional needs.     

阅读在小学生品德养成过程中的运用

阅读是人类学习前人优秀文化的一种最有效最迅速的方法。阅读广泛地运用在各门学科的教学上,但阅读作为小学生品德养成的一种方法,还没有普遍开展开来,因此需要教育人士在观念上进行改变和接受。目前,对于阅读成为小学生品德养成的方法要取得良好成效,主要是阅读内容的把握和阅读方法的适当。分级阅读标准目前来说在我国虽然尚未达成标准共识。由于我国开展分级阅读的进程比国外晚20多年,但就阅读研究所推荐书目,以及中国儿童分级阅读研讨会研讨的标准具有很强的代表性。对于阅读方法方面,主要是分级阅读、分享阅读、亲子阅读以及响应国家的“全民阅读计划”的号召,学校、社会、家庭积极开展各种阅读活动。阅读作为品德养成的方法,虽然在理论上有科学的理论依据,在实践中有教育家的大力实践并取得惊人成效,但开展起来还是遇到各种问题。面对这些问题我们都必须通过紧扣阅读内容和阅读的有效方式来解决,并且还要在应试教育的大环境下找到与阅读相适应的平衡点。当然,阅读作为一种小学生品德养成的方法,它也只是众多品德养成方法中的一种,不能将其与其他方式硬性割裂,它们是统一和交融的,在品德养成过程中,可以采用其中的几种综合一起使用。     

Peer tutoring in reading in Scotland: thinking big

A large‐scale randomised‐controlled trial of reading tutoring in 80 schools in Scotland used the Paired Reading (PR) technique. On long‐term evaluation, cross‐age PR was significantly better than regular teaching, but same‐age was not. On short‐term evaluation, PR pupils did significantly better than control pupils in both years, and cross‐age and same‐age were similarly effective. Low socio‐economic pupils, lower reading ability pupils, girls and reading with maths tutoring groups did significantly better. Implementation was good in parts, but some important aspects of technique were rare. Reading gains were significantly greater for those with mistakes about every 2 minutes and those who stopped reading to talk every 5 to 7 minutes. Significant gains in self‐esteem were seen in same‐age and cross‐age groups, and for tutees and tutors, but not for controls. The relationship of achievement gain to quality of technique and socio‐emotional gains is discussed, with implications for practice.     

Using OVIP online: a teacher-mediated computer-assisted programme for pupils with reading difficulties

School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered the overriding need to create engaging online learning environments to facilitate students' learning. This paper focuses on the online evaluation of Own-Voice Intensive Phonics (OVIP) approach, a computer-assisted instruction programme used during the COVID restrictions to help 15 pupils aged 7–12 with reading difficulties improve their reading. Analysis of Single Word Reading pre-and-post-test revealed a 3.2-year mean word reading age gain over a 19- to 22-week period. Questionnaire data from pupils and parents and the end of OVIP session and parent-reported data at a one-year follow-up demonstrated an overall increase in pupil reading skills and self-confidence that transferred into wider confidence and engagement for some pupils. Findings indicate that OVIP might be an effective teacher-mediated programme in supporting pupils with reading difficulties to enhance their reading skills through online tutoring. Further research is necessary to compare teacher-mediated own voice approaches to unmediated programmes, using a larger sample.     

Attitudes to Reading in English Primary Schools

This article reports on a two‐year research project investigating attitudes to reading held by teachers and pupils in a sample of English primary schools. The project draws on international and national surveys of reading engagement and the findings of previous research, but seeks to provide more detailed data relating to the attitudes of individual children and the strategies used by individual schools and teachers whose pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to reading. Results are related to previous research literature on reading motivation and attainment, and to motivational theory. In conclusion, it is argued that strategies which promote positive attitudes to reading need to be used alongside the teaching of reading skills in any effort to raise attainment.     

在实践性阅读教学活动中让学生“活”“动”起来

新课标强调了语文实践的重要性,而实践性阅读教学活动把本来单调、枯燥、乏味的语文知识传授用生动有趣的教学形式组织起来,使学生乐学、会学,活学活用,达到寓教于乐,寓学于用的目的,让学生真正成为了学习的主人。同时,也使教师真正成为了学习的组织者和引导者。实践性语文阅读教学活动要注重活动的情趣性、自主性、整合性,使学生在课堂学习中"活"、"动"了起来,从而促进学生主动、生动、活泼地发展。     

在实践性阅读教学活动中让学生"活""动"起来

新课标强调了语文实践的重要性,而实践性阅读教学活动把本来单调、枯燥、乏味的语文知识传授用生动有趣的教学形式组织起来,使学生乐学、会学,活学活用,达到寓教于乐,寓学于用的目的,让学生真正成为了学习的主人.同时,也使教师真正成为了学习的组织者和引导者.实践性语文阅读教学活动要注重活动的情趣性、自主性、整合性,使学生在课堂学习中"活"、"动"了起来,从而促进学生主动、生动、活泼地发展.     

Guided reading: young pupils' perspectives on classroom practice

Guided reading is widely perceived to be tricky in English primary schools; prior research has found difficulties with teacher interpretation and implementation. The study reported here suggests that to understand the problems associated with it we should also take into account pupils' perspectives on their guided reading lessons. In this case, the pupils were 4–7 years old. The special challenges of accessing young pupil perspectives were addressed through co‐authored drawings, a type of graphic elicitation. The drawings, together with other collected data, generated insights into pupil perceptions of literacy practices, of the role of friends and ability grouping in learning to read, and of their teachers' organisational challenges. A socio‐cultural analysis of these data indicates that these pupils were sensitive to the social and cultural contexts of their guided reading lessons. It may be that precise official advice for guided reading in England, originating in the National Literacy Strategy documents in 1999 and the Primary National Strategy documents in 2003 and 2008, has been insufficiently sensitive to the complex teaching and learning contexts of guided reading and that this discrepancy has contributed to the identified difficulties. The paper concludes that some rethinking of the literacy practice of guided reading would be valuable.     

Exploring an intervention’s impact on everyday school activities

The focus of this paper is on a group of pupils with reading and writing difficulties who have been participating in an intervention study using assistive technology. That intervention study contained supervised training sessions with reading and writing tasks using an iPad with special supportive applications. The current study is a qualitative investigation of whether there has been any transfer from the intervention, to the pupils’ everyday school activities. Interviews with pupils and their teachers and observations during classroom lectures have been used to collect data. The results show that the pupils were positive to the assistive technology (the applications on the iPads), they found the apps easy to learn how to use and they appreciated the benefits they could give. Even so, only a few of the pupils had found use for and continued to use the tools after the intervention period finished. Possible reasons are that when the novelty wore off, students reverted to their usual study habits and that older students with many teachers and different classrooms were less able to adapt to using the apps. To improve transfer, it is suggested to introduce assistive technology earlier to students, in the younger grades, before study habits have been formed and to inform teachers about the use of AT in the classroom, including what is available and how it can benefit students.     

Reading assessments for students with ASD: a survey of summative reading assessments used in special educational schools in the UK

Schools have an obligation to assess the literacy skills of their students, and the provision of reading instruction to students includes the ability to measure progress in this area. However, the design of reading tests includes the ability not only to read words, but also the ability to verbalise them. This presents a particular challenge for practitioners working with students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who can be nonverbal in many cases. How this issue is generally overcome is currently unknown. A survey was developed, in the form of an online multiple‐choice questionnaire, in order to determine which tests are currently being used in the UK to assess the reading abilities of nonverbal students, and to examine the opinions of the education practitioners who use them, in relation to their suitability. Using the schools web directory, e‐mail invitations were sent to 1,050 special educational needs schools across the UK, and 70 schools responded to the invitation. Respondents suggested that the majority of practitioners hold little faith in the ability of current reading assessments to provide an accurate picture of reading ability for students with ASD, and this holds particularly true for nonverbal pupils with ASD. One purpose of education assessment is to establish a baseline of students’ ability in order to plan for lifelong learning and achievement. If there is an inability on the part of schools accurately to assess the reading abilities of nonverbal students with ASD, then it would be fair to assume that this could have a negative impact on the provision of learning opportunities for this population.     

Metrical stress sensitivity in young children and its relationship to phonological awareness and reading

This paper reports two studies of young English‐speaking children's ability to cope with changes to the metrical stress pattern of spoken words and the relationship between this ability, phonological awareness and early reading development. Initially, 39 children aged 4 and 5 years were assessed on their ability to identify mispronounced words, including words that had their metrical stress pattern reversed. The children were significantly worse at identifying words that had their metrical stress pattern reversed than words that were mispronounced in other ways. The second study was a cross‐sectional comparison of 31 5, 6 and 7‐year‐old children's performance on the metrical stress reversal condition of the mispronunciation task. Measures of the children's written language skills and phonological awareness were also taken. The 7‐year‐old children outperformed the 5‐year‐olds on the metrical stress task. Performance on this measure was associated with most of the measures of phonological awareness and literacy, and was associated with rhyme awareness and spelling ability after age had been taken into account. Moreover, metrical stress sensitivity could account for variance in spelling ability after phonological awareness had been taken into account, and after vocabulary had been taken into account. This suggests that stress sensitivity may influence spelling development in a way that is independent of its contribution to phonological representations.     

Parent question use during shared reading time: How does training affect question type and frequency?

This study was designed to examine whether participation in a shared reading workshop alters the frequency with which parents ask their children questions during book reading sessions, particularly questions designed to strengthen component reading skills that they may not have known about before training. Participants in the reading workshop series (N = 57) were taught strategies for asking questions about story content and word structure to build children's language and literacy skills. Findings suggest that parents may be somewhat familiar with traditional dialogic reading strategies focused on story content and utilize them without instruction, whereas parents may be less knowledgeable about sound or print‐focused skills and do not employ strategies focused on word structure until instructed to do so. It is also notable that parents do not use all story content prompts equally. This information can be used by school psychologists to refine the messages educators share with parents about how to best support their children's reading development.     

探究培养小学生课外阅读兴趣的方法

小学生课外阅读兴趣的培养具有重要的意义。为了增加学生的阅读积累量,使其能在学习中发挥自己的能力,激发阅读兴趣,本文阐述了小学生课外阅读现状,提出了培养小学生课外阅读兴趣的方法。有效引导学生进行课外阅读,对学生的语文学习有着重要的意义,能使学生在今后的学习中具备完善的知识基础。     

The effects of computer technology in assisting the development of literacy in young struggling readers and spellers

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of MultiFunk, a computer program designed to assist reading, on the reading and spelling proficiency of struggling readers. Fifty‐two below‐average readers and spellers, in grades 5, 6 and 7, were randomly assigned as experimental and control groups (N?=?26?+?26). In addition, 114 classmates, who read normally, were included to compare changes in basic literacy development during the intervention. A pre‐test, intervention, post‐test, control‐group design was used to evaluate the effects of the software, using texts to suit the pupils’ own choices and interests. The findings indicate that computerized assistive reading has the potential to aid and support the development of basic literacy skills in a broad group of struggling readers and spellers. Issues concerning the MultiFunk text‐to‐speech technology are discussed.     

Writing the Unseen Poem: can the writing of poetry help to support pupils' engagement in the reading of poetry?

This article discusses a small scale project investigating the role of writing poetry in order to strengthen pupils' responses to reading and analysing poetry. This takes place within the context of preparation for a question on unseen poetry in a high stakes examination, in a contemporary climate where creative responses to poetry are reported to be less prevalent than analytical responses within an assessment‐focused curriculum. The project investigates strategies to inspire pupils to write their own poetry and to analyse the work of their peers in order to ‘put themselves in the shoes’ of the poet, supporting them in preparing for the examination question. It also involves teacher‐modelling of the writing and reading processes to support pupils in feeling part of a reading and writing community.     

美国公立小学的阅读教学

本文通过考察美国公立小学的阅读教学,发现美国语言教学中特别重视阅读习惯的培养,具体体现在阅读方式的指导和阅读材料的选择上,这些对于中国的语言教学都具有借鉴作用。     

Visuospatial working memory in adolescents with poor performance in mathematics: variation depending on reading skills

The first purpose of this study was to investigate whether the visuospatial working memory (VSWM) skills of 15–16‐year‐old pupils with difficulties in mathematics differ from those of their normally achieving peers. The goal was to broaden the view of the complex system of VSWM. A set of passive and active VSWM tasks was used. The study’s second purpose was to investigate whether pupils with mathematical difficulties differed in their VSWM skills based on whether they had signs of reading deficits or not. Results indicate that the pupils with poor performance in maths showed poorer performance on certain VSWM tasks. The group with deficits only in maths had less capacity for storing passive visual simultaneous information, while the group with difficulties both in maths and reading had deficits in both storing (passive visual and visuospatial information) and processing, and had less ability to control irrelevant visuospatial information compared to their peers of the same age. The results indicate a general VSWM deficit in pupils with both mathematics and reading problems and a specific VSWM deficit in pupils with only mathematics problems.     

谈小学低年级绘本阅读研究

绘本以鲜艳的色彩,鲜明的主题吸引了低年级学生的阅读兴趣。在低年级开展多种形式的绘本阅读,可以极大调动学生的阅读积极性,提高学生的阅读能力。