Reviews

Moyle, Donald (compiler) (1979) Teaching Reading. Peddie, W. S. & White, G. R. (1978). Testing in Practice–a guide to the preparation and marking of tests, formal examinations and informal assessments. Drummond, Don and Wignell, Edna (Editors), 1979. Reading: A Source Book. Roswell, Florence G. and Chall Jeanne S., (1979). Roswell Chall Diagnostic Reading Test of Word Analysis Skills.     

An Unfortunate Distraction: the real books debate, 10 years on

This paper re‐examines some aspects of the ‘real books‐reading scheme books’ debate which erupted into the British literacy education field a decade ago. It argues that the debate was not only over‐polarised but that it did not take appropriate account of a scholarly review of related research by Professor Jeanne Chall which had been published a few years earlier. Subsequent research has further supported Chall's arguments. The paper indicates how the use of reading scheme and real books can be reconciled in curriculum programmes which are sensitive to how learning needs change in the course of early literacy development. It also notes the related significance of some current developments in the field, such as the National Literacy Project and the Literacy Task Force.     

The New Geography

Jackson, Philip W. Life in the Classrooms. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc.; 1968, 177 pages. Reviewed by E. Graham Pogue.

Chall, Jeanne S. Learning to Read: The Great Debate. New York: McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1967. Reviewed by Peggy Ransom.     

An Integrated Taxonomy of Student Reading and Learning Development

Abstract

Universities and colleges place entry requirements on the students who join their courses which incorporate implicit conditions, such as literacy skills, as well as subject‐specific academic abilities. As a consequence reading skills are often taken for granted in the teaching of tertiary students. Biggs and Collis have presented a well‐argued, and empirically validated, taxonomy of student learning development. Chall has identified the stages of reading development through which individuals may pass during their lives. This study links these two models of intellectual development in order to produce an integrated taxonomy of the reading and learning development of students. The combined classification is used to discuss practical ideas for tutors in facilitating their students’ intellectual development. The suggestions propounded include the increased use of transferable skills courses, customised reading lists and devolved responsibility for administering access to textbooks.     

Reasoning as a Pedagogical Tool: Tolstoy’s Real Happening Stories for Children

Viewing Tolstoy’s works from psychological and intellectual perspectives demonstrates his approach to children’s literacy and especially the development of reasoning, which he presents in his writing for children and the stories he includes in his New ABC book (1875a) and four Readers (1875b). This article examines Tolstoy’s reasoning approach in education and its application in his real happening stories for children. Some of Tolstoy’s ideas about upbringing that are expressed in his stories are similar to ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and a Swiss developmental physiologist contemporary to Tolstoy, Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Tolstoy’s real happening stories treat situations that a child might actually experience; they propose and teach scenarios that might influence a child’s or an adult’s thinking about ways to obtain an education. Thus, in Tolstoy’s approach to children’s education, reasoning becomes a pedagogical tool, used to develop knowledge, experience and critical thinking ability.     

“Jesus Loves Me, This I Know”: Finding a Rainbow God in Contemporary Adolescent Literature

This article explores four adolescent novels published between 1999 and 2010 specifically for the intersections of Christian faith and lesbian and gay sexual identities. Using cultural, queer, and ideological theories, the piece makes distinctions between progressive and traditional depictions of both Christianity and LGBTQ teen protagonists in Nancy Garden’s The Year They Burned the Books (1999), Laura Torres’s November Ever After (1999), Alex Sanchez’s The God Box (2007), and Mark Hardy’s Nothing Pink (2008).     

Pictures in Pictures: Art History and Art Museums in Children’s Picture Books

Children’s picture books that recreate, parody, or fictionalize famous artworks and introduce the art museum experience, a genre to which I will refer as “children’s art books,” have become increasingly popular over the past decade. This essay explores the pedagogical implications of this trend through the family program “Picture Books and Picture Looks” conducted at the Art Institute of Chicago. Program sessions were observed to learn the extent to which picture books featuring the painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 (Seurat) informed and impacted children’s experiences with the original artwork. The books Katie’s Sunday Afternoon (Mayhew, 2005), Babar’s Museum of Art (De Brunhoff, 2003), and Willy’s Pictures (Browne, 2000) provided the foundation for the program. In addition to these three books, The Dot (Reynolds, 2003), which does not include a reference to La Grande Jatte (Seurat, 1884–1886), acted as a “control” variable. This research demonstrates that while most picture books can be used to establish a level of comfort in an environment that is new to children, those that directly referenced the painting provided a base level of knowledge from which children could confidently draw upon encountering the original work. The research further indicated that, when used in conjunction with original artworks, children’s art books provide unique and distinct entry points for talking about art. The inclusion of artwork in children’s picture books elicits an enthusiasm and recognition that enhances the museum experience, and such books can be effective tools for enabling reflective, imaginative experiences with art.     

Mocking God and Celebrating Satan: Parodies and Profanities in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials

Given its stance against organised religion, it is perhaps not surprising that Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy His Dark Materials has, alongside the plaudits and praise, invited controversy and debate. Jacobs (The Weekly Standard, 2000), for instance, views the “anti-Christian” theme in Pullman’s work as both misleading and dishonest, whilst Hitchens (The Mail on Sunday, 2002) denounces it as atheistic “propaganda.” Of central concern to these critics, and others, is the impact of Pullman’s heretical understandings on impressionable young readers. I would suggest that such concern implies a somewhat questionable homogenisation of young readers, and fails to recognise the empowering potential residing in Pullman’s text. Indeed, by drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of “carnival,” a literary mode which subverts official culture through laughter and role reversals, it can be argued that far from indoctrinating the reader or promoting uncontested atheistic understandings, the heretical disruptions and inversions in Pullman’s religious theme encourage an altogether more positive and plural response.     

Children’s school placement in Germany: does Kindergarten attendance matter?

The positive effects of Early Childhood Programs (ECP’s) on children’s school success have been demonstrated in the literature. However, most studies were completed in the U.S.A., where ECP’s vary widely, based on differing auspice, regulation, cost, and other factors. In European countries, ECP’s are generally far more homogenous. This is particularly true for Germany where most programs are community-based Kindergartens operated under similar structural conditions.In this study, we examine the relationship between Kindergarten attendance and the 7th grade school placement of children in West Germany, differentiating associations for the children of German citizens as compared to those of immigrants. Using information from a representative population sample, the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), different models were estimated. The results indicate that there is no significant relationship between Kindergarten attendance of children of German citizens and children’s later school placement. However, for children in immigrant households the reverse is true: later school placement was significantly associated with Kindergarten attendance prior to school enrollment. Additionally, the analysis showed that controlling for Kindergarten attendance changed the level of significance for other well-known “school attainment determinants,” such as father’s education and household income.     

“Your Tern Now My Tern Later”: A Tribute to the Outlaw Writer Russell Hoban

Russell Hoban died in December 2011. In this article, Victoria de Rijke celebrates this mysterious writer’s huge contribution to children’s literature over 52 years; a career which began and ended with two mythological books: The Mouse & His Child (1967) and Soonchild (2012). Published in CLE over the years, Hoban wrote about the importance of myth and the writer’s “outlaw self”. This piece explores his unique thinking about the craft of writing fantasy and actuality, and argues for books in “nameless categories” which children and adults can appreciate together.     

Maternal scaffolding and children’s narrative retelling of a movie story

Five-year-old children (n = 31) watched a brief videotaped segment from a movie with their mother, discussed the movie story with her, and then retold it to an experimenter. The quality of the stories the children told was related to the scaffolding strategies used by their mothers. Children whose mothers focused their own and the children’s attention on the story, prompted the children’s memories with questions and explanations, talked about the characters’ emotions, corrected the children’s mistakes, and engaged in extended exchanges about critical topics in the story during the preparatory discussion told significantly better stories than children whose mothers did not use such strategies and children in a control group (n = 14) who did not discuss the story with their mothers. Children’s recall of objective actions in the story was most strongly predicted by joint mother-child attention, extended exchanges on critical topics, and the mother’s correction of the children’s mistakes. Children’s comprehension of characters’ internal states was most strongly predicted by the number of questions the mother asked, extended exchanges, and correction. These findings have implications for how adults can promote children’s ability to understand, remember, and narrate a story.     

Interest in spatial activities predicts young children’s spatial ability development: A two-year longitudinal study

Studies have indicated the important impact of spatial abilities on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) achievement. However, little is known about the predictors of individual differences in the growth trajectory of spatial ability. Children’s interest in learning activities plays a significant role in their ability development in literacy, math, and science. Therefore, the current study explored the role of children’s interest in spatial activities in their spatial ability development. We hypothesized that children’s interest in spatial activities would positively predict both the initial level and subsequent growth rate of spatial ability. The spatial ability of 197 Hong Kong preschool children (mean age = 52.72 months and SD = 3.30 months in the first wave of spatial ability assessment [Time 1]) was assessed four times over a two-year period, using a visual–spatial skills task. Their mothers ranked the children’s interest in various activities from 1 (most interested) to 13 (least interested) at Time 1. A growth curve analysis was performed to examine the relationships between interest in spatial activities at Time 1 and initial level and subsequent growth of spatial skills, controlling for parents’ expectations concerning spatial development, children’s interest in art activities, and demographics. The results showed that children’s interest in spatial activities significantly predicted their spatial ability growth (β = 0.252, p = .042), explaining 5.7% of the variance in growth, but was unrelated to the initial level of spatial skills. This finding highlights the importance of preserving and enhancing young children’s interest in spatial activities, among other activities, for the development of their spatial abilities.     

“Neither can they Die any More; for they are Equal unto the Angels”: Secular Epiphanies in David Almond’s Counting Stars

Written before the successful publication of Skellig (1998), David Almond’s short story collection, Counting Stars, has attracted less critical attention than his more famous novels. Falling between fiction and autobiography, the earlier short stories are more firmly grounded in realism than the novels, which feature elements of fantasy or magical realism. Nevertheless, Counting Stars introduces several of the key themes and images that are explored in a more fantastic way in Almond’s later work, and is indicative of how this turn towards childhood concerns initiated his development as a children’s writer. This article explores Almond’s concern, in Counting Stars, with finding “magic in ordinary places” and his preoccupation with the nature of religious belief and spirituality. A close reading of these stories demonstrates the author’s use of both secular and religious imagery to express the individual’s potential for transcendence within the ordinary and everyday, a theme to which Almond frequently returns in his novels. Influenced by the poetry of William Blake, Almond uses Blake’s notion of co-existent “contraries” to emphasise the relationship of opposites such as physical and spiritual, real and imagined. In addition, the iconic image of the angel becomes the means of deconstructing the fixed concepts and binaries of the Catholic Church in order to achieve more diverse and imaginative meanings.     

Enid on Enid: Blyton’s Use of Arthurian Narratives in The Knights of the Round Table

The article begins by assessing Enid Blyton’s contribution to the Arthurian revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, setting this in the context of longstanding debates about the function of children’s literature. It goes on to argue that Blyton’s use of the story of Enid in The Knights of the Round Table (1930) has a personal significance which deserves attention. The article also suggests that other figures in the story—Enid’s father, her mother, and her husband Geraint—have parallels in Blyton’s life. In Alfred Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King,” the tale of Geraint and Enid concerns the early phase of married life—a phase which must meet certain criteria if children are to be forthcoming. But Blyton’s source might have prompted unease on her part, for it was in 1928—the year in which The Knights of the Round Table was serialized—that Blyton, who had not conceived after 4 years of marriage, consulted a gynaecologist.     

Caregiver-mother partnership behavior and the quality of caregiver-child and mother-child interactions

Parent-caregiver communication, particularly concerning the behavior and experiences of the child, is a means of linking the home and child-care contexts of the child’s experience and enriching the caregiver’s and parent’s capacity to provide supportive and sensitive care of the child. The Parent-Caregiver Partnership Scale was administered to 53 mothers of 3-year-old children and to the children’s primary caregivers in child-care centers (n = 20) and less formal child-care settings (n = 33) to examine relations of mother-caregiver communication about the child to the quality of caregiver-child and mother-child interactions. More communication between mother and caregiver about the child as reported by both mothers and caregivers was significantly related to more sensitive and supportive caregiver-child interactions in child care, even after controlling for the mother’s and caregiver’s childrearing beliefs that were related to partnership behavior and the quality of child care. The quality of mother-child interaction was significantly associated with the mother’s communication with her child-care provider about her child. After controlling for maternal childrearing beliefs, mothers who engaged in more partnership behavior with their providers were more supportive and sensitive with their children.     

Improving Language-Focused Comprehension Instruction in Primary-Grade Classrooms: Impacts of the Let’s Know! Experimental Curriculum

This quasi-experimental study was designed to test the impacts of a curriculum supplement, Let’s Know!, on the quantity and quality of language-focused comprehension instruction in pre-kindergarten to third grade classrooms. Sixty classrooms (12 per each of pre-K to grade 3) were enrolled in the study, with 40 teachers assigned to implement one of two versions of the experimental Let’s Know! curriculum and 20 assigned to a control condition, in which they maintained their typical language-arts curriculum. Classroom observations, 90 min in duration, were collected near the end of the first unit’s completion, about 4 to 5 weeks into the academic year. These observations were coded to examine impacts of Let’s Know! instruction on two outcomes: (a) teachers’ use of 18 language-focused comprehension supports and (b) general classroom quality. Study results using quantile regression showed that Let’s Know! teachers used a significantly higher number of language-focused comprehension supports during Let’s Know! instruction compared to the control teachers during language-arts instruction; the same finding was also true for general classroom quality. Quantile regression results showed the greatest differentiation in instructional quality, when comparing experimental and control teachers, for teachers in the middle of the distribution of general classroom quality. Study findings highlight the value of language-focused curricula for heightening comprehension-specific supports in pre-K to grade 3 settings.     

Fathers’ and mothers’ home learning environments and children’s early academic outcomes

The home learning environment (HLE) that children experience early on is highly predictive of their later academic competencies; however, the bulk of this work is operationalized from mothers’ perspectives. This study investigates the HLE provided by both mothers and fathers to their preschoolers (n = 767), with consideration for how parents’ practices relate to one another as well as how these practices predict children’s early academic outcomes. Using an SEM framework, results indicate that while, overall, mothers provide HLE activities more frequently than fathers do, both mothers (β = .18, p < .05) and fathers (β = .22, p < .05) make unique contributions to their preschooler’s early academic skills, but only for families where mother has less than a bachelor’s degree. For families where mother has a bachelor’s degree or higher, the effect of father’s HLE practices is not a significant predictor of children’s academics when considering mother’s HLE. For all families, fathers are providing a variety of HLE activities to their young children; and, although these may occur less frequently than mothers’ practices, they are particularly important for the academic development of children whose mothers have less than a bachelor’s degree. Practical implications are discussed.