Teachers as readers: building communities of readers

Given the narrow scope of primary teachers' knowledge and use of children's literature identified in Phase I of Teachers as Readers (2006–2007), the core goal of the Phase II project was to improve teachers' knowledge and experience of such literature in order to help them increase children's motivation and enthusiasm for reading, especially those less successful in literacy. The year‐long Phase II project, Teachers as Readers: Building Communities of Readers, which was undertaken in five Local Authorities (LAs) in England, also sought to build new relationships with parents and families and to explore the concept of a “Reading Teacher (RT): a teacher who reads and a reader who teaches” (Commeyras and colleagues). The research design was multilayered; involving data collection at individual, school and LA levels, and using a range of quantitative and qualitative data research methods and tools. This paper provides an overview of the Phase II research. It suggests that teachers need support if they are to develop children's reading for pleasure, and enhance their involvement as socially engaged and self‐motivated readers.     

“Poetry? Of course we do it. It's in the National Curriculum.” Primary children's perceptions of poetry

What can listening to children's ideas about poetry teach us? This article considers ways in which exploring primary‐aged students' perceptions of poetry can inform teachers' work with children. Using strategies from earlier studies in secondary schools, a small‐scale project with Year 6 students revealed their complex and sometimes contradictory ideas. These ideas reflect some of the current debates around the nature of poetry and ways of teaching it. The children's ideas are analysed with critical attention paid to the impact of the view of literacy in England's National Literacy Strategy on the teaching and learning of poetry.     

We read,we write: reconsidering reading–writing relationships in primary school children

The extent to which children's reading experiences influence their writing production is not well understood. It is imperative that the connections between these literacy practices are elucidated in order to inform the development of stimulating curricula and to support children's development. This paper presents new data and key findings from a project investigating relationships between children's free choice reading and volitional writing in Key Stage 2 (9–10 years). The data were collected in two primary schools in northern England, using mixed methods. Quantitative data were collected using an online reading survey taken by 170 children, and qualitative data were provided through independent writing journals maintained by 38 participants. Through analysis of the data using a multiliteracies approach, we demonstrate that the writing that children choose to do is influenced by the texts they encounter as readers in terms of content, text type and linguistic style. The child readers in this project encountered texts in different media and created texts in a range of genres. By examining a sample of children's written texts from the data set, we show that children's interactions and transactions with texts as readers and writers are complex and multiple. Children creatively work across media, and in doing so the boundaries of traditional text genres and styles are redeveloped and redesigned. These findings highlight the importance of providing children with opportunities to freely choose and create texts and recognising the wide variety of text experiences that children bring to their classroom learning.     

Systematic review of young children's writing on screen: what do we know and what do we need to know

Writing is part and parcel of children's active meaning‐making on and with screens, but it has been relatively neglected in the literature focused on children's digital literacies. This study synthesises existing empirical evidence focused on young children's (aged between 2 and 8 years) writing on screen and identifies the relationships between dominant themes in published literature and contemporary theories of children's technology use. A systematic literature review that included studies from diverse disciplines yielded 21 papers. Constant comparative analysis generated five themes that indicate four key directions for future research. We call attention to researchers' theoretical framing to supplement mono‐disciplinary approaches and single levels of analysis. We suggest that future research should provide greater specification of the purpose of children's writing on screen and the different types of tools and applications supporting the activity. We also highlight the need for interdisciplinary approaches that would capture the composing stages involved in the writing process with and around screens. Finally, we point out possible age‐related differences in documenting and reporting the composing process in classrooms. Overall, limitations in the current evidence base highlight the need for research conducted from a critical perspective and focused more directly on multimodality.     

Kindergarten reading and writing curricula in the European Union

The aim of this study was to examine whether the current literacy programmes in European Union kindergarten curricula support and enhance young children's reading and writing development. This study investigated whether the kindergarten curricula of 10 European countries: Britain, Belgium, France, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Sweden set appropriate goals for young children's acquisition of literacy, provide methodological guidelines that support children's active engagement in reading and writing activities, provide a print‐rich classroom environment, emphasise the communicative nature of reading and writing and use play in the learning process. The comparative data analysis showed that European kindergarten curricula seem to support and enhance young children's reading and writing development, and that early literacy acquisition is based on the principles of the new perspective of the emergence of literacy.     

Making a crisis out of a drama: the relationship between English and Drama within the English curriculum for ages 11–14

This paper critiques a recent initiative arising from the British Government's National Literacy Strategy for secondary schools. The initiative focuses on Drama within the English curriculum for 11–14‐year‐olds (Key Stage 3). Taking issue with the imposition on Drama of the objectives‐led curriculum model of the Key Stage 3 Framework for teaching English, I examine whether the ‘focus on Drama’ during 2003/04 has led to a higher profile for Drama within English and facilitated curriculum collaboration between English and Drama teachers, as claimed. The article draws on evidence from a small‐scale research project involving student teachers of English and Drama on teaching practice in London schools. I conclude that the KS3 Framework model of curriculum development and training does not promote collaboration in English and Drama teaching that is genuinely creative, and I identify some approaches which could offer an alternative.     

The Story Engine: offering an online platform for making ‘unofficial’ creative writing work

This article describes the outcomes of a research project conducted at the Ministry of Stories (a London‐based writing centre) which sought to develop an online, mentor‐assisted, writing platform. Across a 3‐month period, at four different sites across the UK, more than a hundred Year 7 pupils took part in the project, using the platform to write stories and get feedback from mentors who came from a variety of backgrounds. For reasons of space, pupil/mentor interactions are not discussed extensively in the article; however, these stories were collected and analysed alongside a range of other survey and interview data to establish how creative writing might be developed through online mentoring, the use of an online interface and the intersection of both these tools. The article seeks to answer some questions raised by the data collected in the project, and in turn, uses both the questions and the data to interrogate some of the discourses which surround the teaching of creative writing both in and outside the classroom, and in particular the tensions that occur between the teaching of writing skills, ‘official versions’ of writing in the classroom and children's use of their own cultural resources in creative writing.     

Writing and writer identity: the poor relation and the search for voice in ‘personal literacy’

The teaching of writing has been a relatively neglected aspect of research in literacy. Cultural and socio‐economic reasons for this are suggested. In addition, teachers often readily acknowledge themselves as readers, but rarely as writers. Without a solid grasp of compositional processes, teachers are perhaps prone to adopt schemes that promote mechanistic writing approaches, which are reinforced by top‐down discourses of literacy. This ‘schooling literacy’ is often at odds with children's lives and their narratives of social being. After discussing theories of writing, tensions between ‘schooling literacy’ and ‘personal literacy’ are debated. It is suggested that the disjuncture of the two exposes gaps that provide teachers with spaces in which to construct a writing curriculum embedded in children's language and funds of knowledge. The elevation of this ‘personal literacy’ is viewed as an imperative to enhance children's identities as writers, as well as their engagement with writing.     

Txt msg n school literacy: does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children's literacy attainment?

This paper reports on two studies which investigated the relationship between children's texting behaviour, their knowledge of text abbreviations and their school attainment in written language skills. In Study One, 11–12‐year‐old children provided information on their texting behaviour. They were also asked to translate a standard English sentence into a text message and vice versa. The children's standardised verbal and non‐verbal reasoning scores were also obtained. Children who used their mobiles to send three or more text messages a day had significantly lower scores than children who sent none. However, the children who, when asked to write a text message, showed greater use of text abbreviations (‘textisms’) tended to have better performance on a measure of verbal reasoning ability, which is highly associated with Key Stage 2 (KS2) and 3 English scores. In Study Two, children's performance on writing measures was examined more specifically. Ten to eleven‐year‐old children were asked to complete another English to text message translation exercise. Spelling proficiency was also assessed, and KS2 Writing scores were obtained. Positive correlations between spelling ability and performance on the translation exercise were found, and group‐based comparisons based on the children's writing scores also showed that good writing attainment was associated with greater use of textisms, although the direction of this association is nor clear. Overall, these findings suggest that children's knowledge of textisms is not associated with poor written language outcomes for children in this age range.     

Reading-Writing Connections: the Importance of Interactive Discourse

Margaret Meek (1988) has described how children borrow ideas from literature through ‘unteachable’ lessons. In this article, I examine how children's written work is enhanced through ‘teachable’ lessons, where the teacher draws attention explicitly to aspects of literary texts and where children explore and evaluate literature through group reading and discussion. The ways in which children transfer the knowledge of literary devices, gained through group discussion, to their own writing are examined. The relationship between group evaluations of texts and children's writing development is explored with reference to the work of Year 6 children. This illustrates how critical reading and group discussion can raise primary children's metalinguistic awareness and develop their understanding of the stylistic features of narrative texts.     

My Place: Exploring children's place-related identities through reading and writing

This paper considers how children perceive and represent their placed-related identities through reading and writing. It reports on the findings of an 18-month interdisciplinary project, based at Cambridge University Faculty of Education, which aimed to consider children's place-related identities through their engagement with, and creation of, texts. This paper will discuss the project, its interdisciplinary theoretical framework, and the empirical research we conducted with two classes in primary schools in Eastern England. A key text used in our research was My Place by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins. Drawing on our interdisciplinary theoretical framework, particularly Doreen Massey's notion of place as a bundle of trajectories, and Louise Rosenblatt's notion of the transaction between the reader and the text, this paper will examine pages from My Place, children talking about how this text connects with them, children talking about their sense of place, and maps and writing the children produced based on their place.     

‘Back to the future’: the impact of political ideology on the design and implementation of geography in the National Curriculum

ABSTRACT

The use of drama to promote children's engagement with and motivation to study history is now commonplace at sites of historical interest and in many primary and secondary classrooms. Researchers interested in this area have often measured children's engagement and interest through the oral contributions made both during the drama and afterwards in discussion, whereas the written responses of children to their experience of history through drama have not been systematically analysed. OFSTED has recently reported that while they have observed many examples of high standards of oral work in history, the standard of writing at Key Stages 2, 3 and 4 has been disappointing by comparison. This article seeks to provide direction for teachers trying to develop children's historical writing through drama, and shows how drama can be used to promote analytical as well as empathetic responses to historical questions and problems.     

Interactive whiteboards and talking books: a new approach to teaching children to write?

This article presents work undertaken with a class of Scottish Primary Six children (aged 10) to investigate the use of interactive whiteboard technology and interactive talking books in whole‐class writing lessons. The paper reports on a research project with three aims: to investigate how the use of an interactive whiteboard to reflect on the language and style of professional authors influenced the children's own writing; to examine the effect of this experience on the writing and behaviour of children with additional support needs; and to identify the advantages and disadvantages of using such technology in whole‐class writing lessons. The resulting evidence suggests that while some children benefited from the approach, teaching children to write through examination of professional models of writing in whole‐class lessons did not promote the most effective learning even where the text was provided in such an interactive medium. The implications of these results for practitioners who wish to use talking books and whiteboard technology to teach writing are discussed.     

If I had a magic wand I'd magic her out of the book: the rich literacy practices of competent early readers

This article explores the reading behaviours of 10 young competent nursery and reception children, The 10 children were selected from a group of 54 case study children involved in the national Bookstart evaluation study, Bookstart: Planting a Seed for Life (2005). This group of young readers, from different socioeconomic groups, were identified as reading in advance of their peers. The first part of this article explores the children's attitudes to reading, their responses to selected texts and their understanding of early phonological and letter knowledge. Second, the article reports on the findings from interviews with the parents of these children in order to illuminate the home literacy events that shape these young children's reading competences. This article is based on the larger scale national evaluation study of the Bookstart project, Bookstart: Planting a Seed for Life (2005). The evaluation was set up to explore the effectiveness of the Bookstart programme and the impact of early book giving on the first national cohort of Bookstart children as they entered school. View all notes     

Teachers as writers: learning together

This paper reports upon the insights gained through working with teachers as writers at their own level. As part of a two‐year research project into the development of children's voice and verve in writing, a group of fourteen teachers' reflective journeys as writers were documented. Two other groups of teachers and one group of student teachers also took part in writers' workshops across the same period. The data encompassed: questionnaires, observations and teacher commentaries on their own writing, as well as interviews. A number of issues emerged, including: the tension between public and private writing and the security of the writing environment; authenticity in modelling writing; the importance of re‐reading writing at the point of composition; the significance of choice and autonomy in writing and the potency of drama as an ideational and reflective tool. The consequences for classroom practice are also considered. It is argued that in order to enhance the teaching of writing, teachers and student teachers need real opportunities to write at their own level and reflect upon the process.     

Do you like dogs or writing? Identity performance in childen's digital message exchange

Over a number of years we have been investigating ways in which e‐communication can contribute to children's writing development and how new technology re‐frames our understandings of writing in the classroom (Merchant, 2003; Burnett et al, 2004; Burnett et al, 2005; Merchant, 2005). Here we analyse the digital writing of pupils from two linked primary school classes (Year 3–5) in the North of England. Part of the project involved the pupils in communicating about themselves and their interests to email partners of the same age. In this article, we track children's identity performance in informal message exchange and show how this contributed to a final knowledge product. We explore how work that had its origins in representing children's lives and identities reflected their position in wider cultural worlds. This perspective causes us to question whether there are there sufficient opportunities for pupils to explore and express ‘who they are’ in the current content‐driven curriculum where public genres are central and personal voice is peripheral.     

Children's concepts of gears and their promotion through play

The mechanical transmission of motion, which is observable in gears’ turning direction (TD) and turning speed (TS) can be understood as part of the core concept “force and motion”. Previous studies have suggested that most children before the age of nine have naïve concepts of gears’ TD and TS. However, these studies relied on children's explanation data and might have therefore underestimated young children's potential. Moreover, these studies did not examine whether preschoolers can overcome their naïve concepts through teaching. Recently, educators have proposed guided play as an educational approach that combines children's play with teacher guidance in a purposefully designed environment. We conducted two subsequent studies. In Study 1, we investigated the children's (naïve) concepts of gears’ TD and TS with a cross‐sectional approach using a nonverbal test procedure. This study comprised 248 children aged 5–10 years and 73 adults. The results showed that the proportion of children with adequate concepts increased with age. More specifically, 7‐ to 8‐year‐olds differed significantly from 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds, indicating a developmental shift around this age. However, naïve concepts of TS were more persistent with age than naïve concepts of TD. Altogether, the results indicated the potential to foster 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds’ concepts of both TD and TS in an intervention. Thus, in Study 2, we developed and tested a guided play intervention to foster 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children's concepts of TD and TS. We conducted a prepost‐intervention design with a guided play group (n = 19) and a free play group (n = 21). The results suggested stronger learning gains in the guided play group (d_TD = 0.337, d_TS = 0.758) than in the free play group (d_TD = 0.224, d_TS = 0.158).     

Learning to Write: Plowing and Hoeing,Labor and Essaying

In this paper Amanda Fulford addresses the issue of student writing in the university, and explores how the increasing dominance of outcome‐driven modes of learning and assessment is changing the understanding of what it is to write, what is expected of students in their writing, and how academic writing should best be supported. The starting point is the increasing use of what are termed “technologies” of writing — “handbooks” for students that address issues of academic writing — that systematize, and smooth the work of writing in, Fulford argues, an unhelpful way. This leads to a reconsideration of what it means to write in the university, and what it is to be a student who writes. Fulford explores etymologically the concept of “writing” and suggests that it might be seen metaphorically as physical labor. Writing as physical labor is explored further through the agricultural metaphors in Henry David Thoreau's Walden and through Stanley Cavell's reading of that text. In making a distinction between writing‐as‐plowing and writing‐as‐hoeing, Fulford argues that some technologies of writing deny voice rather than facilitate it, and she concludes by offering a number of suggestions for the teaching and learning of writing in the university that emphasize the value of being lost (in one's subject and one's work) and finding one's own way out. These “lessons” are illustrated with reference to Thoreau's text Walden and to American literature and film.