by Jo Parker, DUCKS, Dulwich College
Rationale
Children
often start a school setting from the age of 3 when in Nursery. All children at
this age enjoy books, listening to stories and spend time independently looking
at books in the reading area. When offering to read or being asked by the
children to read a story, the children in this setting gather around and are
eager to listen to the story and the group size always increases. When with
Reception aged children, 4 – 5 years, I was surprised and often shocked to hear
children at this age telling me they were no good at reading. They were developing a negative attitude
towards reading and the children would make comments to back up these beliefs.
I was intrigued to know why? What had
happened in these early years, and why did these children see themselves as not
good at reading? To guide the early stage of my inquiry, I developed the exploratory
research question:
Can children in
these early years talk about how they learn to read?
From Reception, children start taking home books from a
reading scheme that has often been selected by the teacher. It usually has a
sticker or code that indicates a level. As children move through the Infants’
school setting this levelling book system moves with them. Children often share what colour or level
they are on and they can tell you who is the ‘best’ reader or who is the
cleverest because they can read the best! When in Year 2 I have had children
tell me in an excited voice that they are now a ‘free reader’. What does this
mean to the child? They now can choose to read any book from a non-colour coded
level and that they can now read! I wondered: what would happen if we removed
all the colours and levelling off all the books and allowed all children to be
‘free readers’. Would this help all children develop a positive attitude
towards reading?
With these ongoing observations, staff discussions and
research from the Rose report on the Independent review of the teaching of
early reading (March 2006), which highlighted the importance of developing
children’s positive attitudes to literacy, I chose this theme to research.
I specifically choose to target this research project with
children in Year 1. I believe this age group can articulate their experiences
of reading more fluently than those in Reception and would have more
understanding of when lessons in reading occurred at school; therefore, they would
be able to discuss their experiences of learning to read in more detail. In
addition to their teacher and child reading sessions, Year 1 have a volunteer
adult who comes to school twice a week called Mrs Y, who spends time reading
1:1 with the children. To guide my
project further, I developed two evaluative research questions:
What can we do to increase positive attitudes towards reading?
How can leadership best support the teaching of reading?
Baseline data
At the
beginning of the academic year, each child in Year 1 and 2 take an online
computer-adaptive assessment, InCAS.
This covers Reading, Spelling, Mathematics, Mental Arithmetic and
Developed Ability and Attitudes. I used
the ‘attitudes to reading’ as the baseline data for this research.
Using a 5 point sliding scale and data collected from InCAS,
the below graph show results on attitudes to reading. This baseline analysis
revealed that the majority of pupils in year 1 have a positive attitude to
reading; however, 17% of the pupils rated their reading and learning as 3 or
lower. The question is, why?
Would these children be able to articulate their feelings about reading?
Intervention and intended impact
I decided
to form a focus group comprised of pupils from both ends of the scale, to
gather an understanding as to what influenced their positive and negative
attitudes towards reading.
I hoped to
achieve and understand what were the triggers and experiences that formed these
attitudes for the children, in order to help ensure that practitioners and the
learning environment facilitate a culture in which all children develop a positive
attitude toward reading.
Quantitative
Data was collected from: InCAS (Computer adaptive assessment), PASS
(Pupils attitude to Self and School) and Running records, taken by the teacher
which capture what the children know and understand about the reading process.
Qualitative Data was collected from: Learning conversations
w/ pupils and practitioners, questionnaires and discussions, data driven dialogue
with teachers and focus groups.
The Year 1 Focus Groups were taken from both ends of the
above sliding scale on attitudes to reading
- A, B, C D, E negative attitude towards reading
- F, G, H I, J
positive attitude towards reading
I interviewed this group of children using a range of
open-ended questions and developed a questionnaire using a sliding scale,
similar to that used in the qualitive InCAS online assessment.
The following data was collected from:
- Interviews
- Questionnaire
Do you enjoy reading at school? 74% say 5/5, 13% say 4/5, 13% say 0/5
Is learning to read
easy?
“I can read lots of words!” said G.
“No it is not, there is always tricky words and I just can’t read them” answered Child A.
When do you enjoy reading
at school?
- 50% said with Mrs Y
- “Every time!” Child J.
- “Not at all!” said Child D.
Emotional intelligence is a key component to our teaching
and the children are all very familiar with the mood meter.
Thinking of our mood meter, when learning to read with a teacher or in a group how does it make you feel?
Mrs Y is a volunteer who spends 1:1 time reading with children. I thought this was a key response from the majority of children in the focus groups. Mrs Y gives each child time and she has a rapport with each child, always asking them about their hobbies and interests before the reading begins.
The data
collected from the voice of the children is powerful in the message it delivers
and the impact our volunteers have with the time and experience they offer our
children.
Following this data collection, through leading after school
staff team meetings I involved all teachers from Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and
Year 2 in the following:
Intervention for all teachers
- Learning visits followed by learning
conversations - Targeted PD (CPD) sessions on Guided Reading
sessions and how to use a Running Record to accurately analyse children’s
reading - Data-driven dialogue conversations
Data-driven dialogue conversations led to teachers looking
at ways we teach reading, improving the learning environments to become
literacy rich, implementing changes in timetabling and discussions in better
use of teaching assistants and training.
Conclusions
McKenna, Kear & Ellsworth (1995) completed a national
survey but they highlighted different types of reading attitudes, including attitude
towards recreational reading and attitude towards school related reading. They
discuss attitude in terms of a hierarchy from general interest to specific
genres and interests. In terms of this project, it is best to think of
attitudes in terms of a global attitude towards reading in general, and how
positive and negative attitudes toward reading develop in young children.
There is little evidence in the research literature on
factors that affect young children developing their attitude, confidence and
attainment when learning to read. McKenna, Kear & Ellsworth cite Mathewson (1994),
who suggested that attitude is a set of factors influencing an
individual’s attention to read. Mathewson’s main idea related to “the role of
attitude as a factor during the act of reading and during the period when one
learns to read”. This report notes that if a child’s cultural environment
encourages, models and reinforces reading, more positive attitudes should
result.
I felt this was very evident when 50% of the children stated
enjoying reading with Mrs Y as the experience they have contributes and
influences their developing attitude.
As stated in the Northern Ireland Primary Curriculum, 2007:
“Children should be given opportunities to develop their confidence and
independence through enjoyable reading experiences…” as the data shows, Mrs Y
offers an enjoyable reading experience.
Rose (2006) agrees that parents and carers, along with settings and
schools, do much to foster reading attitudes.
Next steps
- Increase our reading volunteers’ program
- Possible future reporting on Characteristics of
Effective Learning throughout KS1 that builds on the existing reporting in EYFS - Promote positive reading at home, remove level
reading books - Timetable guided reading sessions
- Design & Organise the Learning Environment
- Assess & monitor change in attitudes
- Can children’s
attitude towards reading change?
Evaluation
To find time for
teachers/practitioners to meet, plan, reflect and implement ideas was a
challenge when conducting this project. In an infant school setting, all
practitioners teach all subjects and with a busy timetable it often is
difficult to just focus on the one area. Subject coordinators often work in
isolation with not much success in delivering new initiatives. Introducing
development groups across the school will allow teams of colleagues to
collaborate, reflect on areas of the curriculum, implement new initiatives and identify
steps needed to enhance the children’s learning across the school.
The data driven
dialogue conversations with teachers/practitioners sparked much discussion and
led to initiatives in training for guided reading and encouraged teachers/practitioners
to revaluate the learning environment in terms of being literacy rich and
changing the timetable to offer quality reading sessions.
The impact
of my research has been to facilitate teachers/practitioners to discuss the
data collected, evaluate and reflect on the comments and questionnaire
responses from the students. It has created a platform of discussion and
encouraged change in the way facilitators will set up their learning
environments. Most of all, it has ensured that the weekly timetable allows time
for enriched and purposeful group reading and expand our volunteers program.
References
ABC
Literacy, 2007, Northern Ireland Education Board. Reading Guidance for Key
Stage 1.
McKenna,M,
Kear,D and Ellsworth,R. 1995, Children’s Attitudes toward Reading: A national
survey. pages 934 – 956
Rose, J.
2006. Independent review of the teaching of early reading.