the srtt -oelp consultation report 05.08. 2014...may 02, 2015 · report of consultation on reading...

Reading Comprehension

R

organised by

and Organisation for Early Literacy Promotion

Reading Comprehension

Report of the Consultation

organised by Sir Ratan Tata Trust - SRTT

Organisation for Early Literacy Promotion -

April 23 to 26, 2014

Written and submitted to SRTT

by

Keerti Jayaram

OELP

SRTT

OELP

Report of Consultation on Reading Comprehension, SRTT –OELP – April 2014 2

Acknowledgements

Our thanks go to Sir Ratan Tata Trust for making available financial support for this consultation.

Resource persons: We are grateful to the following resource persons for presenting meaningful and

thought provoking sessions, and for sharing their insights during the follow up discussions:

Dhir Jhingran, UNICEF; Sujata Noronha, Bookworm, Goa and SRTT; Shobha Sinha, Department of

Education, Delhi University ; Shailaja Menon, Azim Premji University; Amrita Patwardhan, SRTT;

Keerti Jayaram, OELP.

Participants: Thanks to the following participants for their depth of involvement in the discussions

and for making these four days meaningful:

Participants from SRTT and SDTT partners: Vidya Ghugari from Centre for Learning Resources,

Pune; Shiv Narayan Gour and Ishrat Jahan from Eklavya, Madhya Pradesh; Manish Jain from

Himmotthan Society, Uttrakhand; Surender Parmar and Rais Khan from Jan Sahas, Dewas, MP;

Jeevan Mendonsa from Jan Sewa Mandal, Nandurbar, Maharashtra; Mounesh Nalkamani and

Chitkalamba from KSU (Kalike Samruddhi Upakram), Karnataka; Neela Apte and Sajitha.S. Kutty

from the LiRIL Research Team; Shivani Taneja and Hari Darshyamkar from Muskaan, Bhopal, MP;

Archana Kulkarni and Abha Basargekar from QUEST (Quality Education Support Trust),

Maharashtra; Namrata Ghosh and Atanu Sain from Vikramshila, Kolkata, West Bengal.

Delhi participants: Nita Aggarwal, Read Alliance; Sunisha Ahuja, Technical Support Group,

EdCIL, MHRD; Sunita Singh, CECED Ambedkar University, Delhi; Usha Sharma , NCERT,

Department of Elementary Education.

SRTT team: Ajay Gupta ; Amrita Patwardhan; Benny George; D. Shiv Kumar; Sujata Noronha;

Ujwal Banerj.

OELP Team: Arti Sawhny; Bhivaram Jat; Keerti Jayaram; Kiran Dubey; Pukhraj Mali

Thanks are offered to:

– The founder, O.P.Jain and staff of Sanskriti Kendra, for providing a nurturing ambience for

the consultation. Special thanks to Munnilalji, Sangeeta and others from the Sanskriti Kendra

for looking after all the participants and ensuring that the consultation went off smoothly.

– To Md. Arif from Eklavya –Pitara, Delhi and his colleagues, and to Tultul Biswas from

Eklavya, Bhopal for providing access to a rich display of children’s literature during the

consultation which enriched the discussions.

– To Sujata Noronha for adding value to this report through perceptive and insightful feedback

on the draft report.

Consultation organisers – SRTT and OELP

-------------------

Bringing the outdoors into the reading classroom Tree treasure hunt – On the first day, participants were given tree clue cards to read in pairs. In their spare time they used these clues to look for their special tree friend. Finally! when each pair found the tree that matched their particular clues they were asked to locate it in the correct place on a map; which in this case was the map of the consultation venue- Sanskriti Kendra. Soon the Kendra map soon got filled up with a host of tree friends!

Report of Consultation on Reading Comprehension, SRTT

Everyday a little deeper

Everyday a little wiser

Mighty roots

Spreading branches

Leaves, flowers

Seeds of new understanding

Report of Consultation on Reading Comprehension, SRTT –OELP – April 2014

Everyday a little deeper

Seeds of new understanding

3


Contents

Underlying theoretical and pedagogical perspectives 5

The idea of the consultation 10

Objectives 10

Overview of the sessions 11

Session 1: Understanding is missing from the Indian classrooms 11

Session 2: Read Aloud 13

Session 3: Response to literature 22

Session 4: The LiRIL Study-sharing of experiences 24

Reading Comprehension – process and pedagogies 28

1. Understanding the reading process 28

2. Awareness of one’s own reading behaviours 31

3. Reading strategies 33

4. Classroom instructional practices for teaching reading with comprehension 35

Building shared understandings 38

Comprehension strategies for the reading classroom 39

An enabling classroom reading environment 42

A field experience 43

Challenges 44

The way forward 48

Appendices

Appendix 1 – Consultation schedule 52

Appendix 2 – The concept note 54

Appendix 3 – The participants 61

Appendix 4 – Resource persons 63


Underlying theoretical and pedagogical perspectives

In 1993, the Yashpal Committee in its report on Learning without Burden highlighted the

meaningless and joyless nature of school based learning in India. In his introductory letter

addressed to the HRD Minister, the Chairman of the Committee, Professor Yashpal writes:

“In regard to the burden on children, the gravitational load of the school bag has been

discussed widely in the media, and even in Parliament. After this study I and most of my

colleagues on the committee are convinced that the more pernicious burden is that of non-

comprehension. In fact the mechanical load on many of our students in Government and

Municipal schools may not be too heavy, but the load of non- comprehension is equally cruel

. . . I personally do believe that "very little, fully comprehended, is far better than a great

deal, poorly comprehended".

More than two decades later, educators are still grappling with the issues of non

comprehension and the inherent complexities that are involved with reading comprehension.

Teaching reading is more than rocket science.

It is an enormously complex act.

- Donald. N. Langenberg Chair, National Reading Panel

(Based on a statement made to the U.S. Congress) 1

Research based literature has been attempting to unpack the term ‘reading comprehension’

and understand the various component elements and ways in which these need to be built up

through informed classroom practice.

In recent times there is a clearer acknowledgement that reading comprehension can be and

needs to be taught in ways that are meaningful for children, and that it is essential to equip

teachers with sound pedagogical practices so that they are able to adequately support young

learners to build strong foundations for reading, writing and learning with understanding,

especially during the early years of schooling (see Appendix 2: Concept note). These

pedagogical practices need to emerge in organic ways which are rooted in classroom realities.

This becomes even more critical in the case of a large number of first generation school goers

1Testimony of Dr. Donald .N .Langenberg to the U.S. Congress (September 26, 2000) , See National Reading

Panel, Press Release http://www.circlesolutions.com/nrp/Press/langenberg.htm


who are transiting from oral language to literacy and from their home languages to the

language of classroom transaction. Clear goals for early literacy need to be articulated, so that

pedagogically sound reading and writing instruction is addressed as a crucial requisite for

building the foundations for meaningful learning in school and in later life. Concerted efforts

need to be made at all levels to introduce sound practices into early literacy classrooms in

ways that are sensitive and responsive to the diverse learning needs of young learners.

What are children’s natural ways of learning to read?

The first important step of reading begins when a little infant begins to understand the

difference between a real object and its mental image. In other words, she enters the world of

symbolic representation. Gradually over time this understanding becomes more sophisticated

and the next big step occurs when as a little toddler, while identifying pictures of objects, she

understands that these are no more than iconographic representations of reality on a book’s

page. Much later, she succeeds in pointing at and talking about the picture’s elements

detached from her personal experience: she now knows that there is a difference between her

own story and that of the book. At this point the child points to the elements not only of an

isolated picture, but of all the set of images that she can use as support to tell, the entire story

of the book as a narrative. In this moment of development a child can make a true visual

reading of a picture book, based on the pictures. She learns to read the pictures’ grammar,

and this prepares her for the later reading of texts. As the child advances further, she begins

to engage with the letters, as graphic elements, that come together to form meaningful words;

then sentences; then paragraphs and chapters of a book. (Denise Stockhar, 2006)2

In her book “Children’s Minds” 3

, which is considered by many to be a classic; Margaret

Donaldson (1978), has emphasised the importance of recognising and understanding

children’s natural learning behaviours. As a part of her research, Donaldson examined

children’s responses to intelligence test items. The children’s responses led her to the

important conclusion that, as adults we are often in danger of forgetting just how abstract –

and symbolic – much of what we present to children in schools really is. She has emphasised

the need to understand that children’s thinking is not inferior to adults; rather that it is

2 Stockar, D. The Importance of Literacy and Books in Children's Development - Intellectual, Affective and Social

Dimensions http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=718

3 Donaldson, M, (1978). Children’s Minds, Fontana paperbacks : 80-82


different in form. Their thinking is ‘embedded’ in real world contexts and in their real

experiences. The responses that children make based on their experiences have meaning for

them and are more akin to their natural common sense, whereas much school activity is ‘dis-

embedded’, or is based on thinking which is divorced from a real context in which children

can see any real purpose and meaning. These natural learning behaviours need to be

understood so that teachers can effectively facilitate meaningful transitions from spoken to

written language in the early school years.

Children’s thinking is embedded in their experience

The ‘embedded’ aspect of children’s thinking has been captured graphically by R.K. Narayan

in the extract below from his well known book Swami and Friends4: This extract, though a

little long, is useful as it throws light on the embedded nature of a young boy’s natural ways

of learning, and how this makes it difficult for him to read a de-contextualised written text.

“Rama has ten mangoes with which he wants to earn fifteen annas. Krishna wants

only four mangoes. How much will Krishna have to pay?”

Swaminathan gazed and gazed at this sum, and every time he read it, it seemed to

acquire a new meaning. He had the feeling of having stepped into a fearful maze . . .

His mouth began to water at the thought of mangoes. He wondered what made Rama

fix fifteen annas for ten mangoes. What kind of man was Rama? . . .

“Have you done the sum?” father, asked, looking over the newspaper he was reading.

“Father, will you tell me if the mangoes were ripe?”

Father regarded him for a while and smothering a smile remarked:” Do the sum first. I

will tell you whether the fruits were ripe or not, afterwards.”

Swaminathan felt utterly helpless. If only father would tell him whether Rama was

trying to sell ripe fruits or unripe ones! Of what avail would it be to tell him

afterwards? . . .

“Father, I cannot do the sum” Swaminathan said pushing away the slate. . .

. . . “you seem to be an extraordinary idiot. Now read the sum. Come on. How much

does Rama expect for ten mangoes?”

“Fifteen annas of course”, Swaminathan thought, but how could that be its price, just

price? It was very well for Rama to expect it in his avarice. But was it the right price?

And then there was the obscure point whether the mangoes were ripe or not. If they

were ripe, fifteen annas might not be an improbable price. If only he could get more

light on this point!

“How much does Rama want for his mangoes?”

4 Narayan, R.K, (1998). Swami and Friends, Indian Thought Publishers, Mysore : 86-87


“Fifteen annas”, replied Swaminatan without conviction.

“ Very good. How many mangoes does Krishna want?’

“Four”

“What is the price of four?”

Father seemed to delight in torturing him. How could he know? How could he know

what that fool Krishna would pay?

- R.K. Narayan

Extract from “Swami and Friends”, 1935.

_______________________________________________________

Many of us have had similar experiences with young children who come to school well able

to think and reason about the world in ways that make sense to them. Margaret Donaldson

(Ibid) explains that what children have to learn to do in school is to think and reason in “dis-

embedded contexts” . . . in other words, school demands that children need to learn new ways

of thinking which are based on the use of symbol systems such as written words and pictures,

and more importantly which deal with representations of the people, places, ideas and events

which are a part of a world that lies beyond the children’s immediate experience and more

tangible day to day world. The above extract illustrates the manner in which young

Swaminthan’s inability to connect with dis-embedded written texts becomes a stumbling

block and prevents him from understanding and responding in ways that are expected from

him in school. The representational aspect of written language requires a distancing that

makes it different from the spoken forms, especially since written texts can be about events in

the past or future, or about distant lands which are out of reach for the child. These aspects of

the written form can pose problems for young children who have so far been used to talking

about things which are in their immediate environment and which they can point to and show.

Children have to learn to engage with de-contextualised language

Research based literature explains that the shift from oral language to written language, does

not come naturally to children. Read-Aloud sessions provide children with opportunity for a

pleasurable engagement with written language. Teachers need to be able to appreciate the

significance of this aspect of Read-Aloud and scaffold young children’s reading experience to

make it a meaningful experience which they look forward to with eagerness. Jim Trelease in

his well acclaimed Read Aloud Handbook5 cautions parents and teachers against focusing

5 Trelease, J. The Read –Aloud Handbook (1982).Penguin Books Ltd. Harmondsworth.


exclusively on teaching children how to read and forgetting to focus on getting children to

want to read. He reminds us that the desire to read is the real magic ingredient if we truly

want to get children to become readers. “Few children learn to love books by themselves.

Someone has to lure them into the wonderful world of the written word”6.

Taking these ideas further, Beck and McKeown7 have found ‘Read Aloud’ to be an effective

way of capturing the attention of children and getting them to engage meaningfully with the

content of written texts. The most valuable aspect of such read-aloud activity is that it gives

children enjoyable experience with de-contextualized written language; and pushes them to

think and engage with the deeper aspects of ideas and events referred to by written words,

which are beyond their immediate reach. The authors draw attention to the fact that young

children need to be provided texts that are conceptually challenging and can absorb them

meaningfully and thoughtfully with written content. Children come to school with fairly

advanced listening and speaking skills. Since their word recognition abilities are limited and

they are not able to read challenging written texts on their own, Read-Aloud, if done well,

can become an important activity for facilitating this aspect of their literacy development.

The challenge that teachers face quite often during read- aloud sessions is that young children

tend to ignore the written text and may in fact respond to questions on the basis of pictures or

their earlier related experience. They can derive information more readily from these sources

in comparison to the written text language. In their paper, Beck and McKeown emphasise the

importance of limiting the questioning and conversation during the reading so that the focus

remains on the story or linguistic content that is being read aloud. They suggest that

conversation based on the story be shifted to after the read aloud is over so that children do

not get distracted and remain absorbed with the written words which capture the story.

____________________________________

Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?" Instead, they demand: "How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?" Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943 6 Orville Prescot. Quoted by Jim Trelease in The Read- Aloud Handbook (1982), Penguin Books Ltd :41

7 Beck, Isabel L.& McKeown, Margaret G. (2001). Text talk: Capturing the benefits of read-aloud experiences

for young children. The Reading Teacher, 55(1): 10–20. © 2001 International Reading Association


The idea of the consultation The main idea of spending four days during the Consultation, sharing and discussing ideas

and experiences related to Reading Comprehension, with a select group of SRTT partners,

academics and experts, was to collectively explore various dimensions of this critical

component of early literacy and understand some of the complexities involved. The

Consultation was held from the 23rd

to the 26th

April, 2014 at the Sanskriti Kendra on the

outskirts of New Delhi. It was a follow up of an earlier consultation which took place in April

2011 on the broad area of Early Literacy.

We spent four days trying to build deeper shared understandings based on our experiences

with children and our engagement with current literature. There was agreement in the group

that reading for meaning – or comprehending is the goal of every reader. It is also the goal of

our engagement with early literacy. We want our children to not only understand what they

read but also to enjoy texts, interpret them and apply their learning from reading to other

areas of learning in school and in the real world. The consultation aimed to use the benefit of

the experience and expertise available within the group of participants to understand the

complexities of the reading process and identify some ways in which we can best equip our

children to become active, thinking and engaged readers who read with understanding.

Objectives

• To build conceptual clarity in the area of reading comprehension and response to

literature with a focus on the early school years.

• To identify the implications that some recent research perspectives on reading

comprehension have within our learning situations and contexts.

• To understand the various important dimensions of reading comprehension and the

underlying complexities.

• To identify ways of supporting instructional practices and approaches which equip

young children to build strong foundations for reading and writing with

comprehension inside early grade classroom with our specific contexts.


Overview of sessions

Session 1: Understanding is missing from the Indian Classroom

– Dr. Dhir Jhingran

This session was a consolidation of the resource person’s firsthand experience of classroom

based observations and insights based on his in depth engagement with the multiple

dimensions of Early Reading. The classroom practices and learning conditions which were

shared by him through film clips, portrayed bleak and sterile classrooms in which most

learners are either passive or involved in meaningless copying, memorisation or other

mechanical work. Teachers mostly pay attention to one or two learners while the rest are left

to fend for themselves. The session, explored various dimensions of learning disparities and

reading non comprehension within Indian classroom, including causal factors and beliefs

through film clips which helped to locate the discussion in real classrooms. Effective

practices that are required for bringing in meaningful learning and reading comprehension

were then suggested along with the underlying thinking that is inherent within them. A broad

overview of the session is presented below:

Session highlights

A key point that was highlighted in the presentation is that the existing scenario on

Early grade reading within the country suggests low reading levels and high variance

(Grade 2). It was suggested that a good entry point for dialogue around diversity and equity

is disparity in learning. Some factors leading to disparity in learning were shared. These

include factors related to: the family environment (SES); lack of preschool experience;

language related issues; systemic issues; poor quality of schooling with mindless teaching-

learning processes being prevalent inside classrooms.

Some important beliefs that were shared about ‘learning to read’ included the

following:

- Reading is not natural (like speaking)

- Children need not learn all letters before they are ‘allowed’ to read

- Comprehension is the only goal of reading

- Oral language development is the foundation of reading

- Storybooks are very useful in developing motivation and fluency in reading


Reading Comprehension was viewed as the process of deriving meaning from connected

text. Comprehension was considered as the only goal of reading. It needs to be actively

taught from the beginning. Different levels of comprehension need to be addressed.

What helps reading comprehension?

Reading fluency is the bridge between word recognition and comprehension. In order to be

able to read with comprehension, fluency is essential. Research findings have established that

fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding of words; therefore they can focus

attention on meaning. Less fluent readers must focus attention on recognizing words,

leaving them with little time and attention to focus on meaning. Learners require the

following to be able to comprehend a text that they are reading: Relevant background

knowledge; adequate vocabulary; knowledge of the language structure and verbal reasoning

and thinking.

Some effective practices for teaching early literacy and comprehension that were

shared:

- Understanding the role and objectives of work with language

- Recognising the significance of oral language development and using listening

comprehension as a starting point

- Keeping expectations from children high

- Actively engaging students in meaning-making activities which include deeper,

inferential thinking, and opportunity for verbal reasoning and thinking; not the

parroting of fixed ‘textbook’ answers

- Building the background knowledge of children, as there is a direct connection

between background knowledge and reading comprehension

- Developing strong competence in standard language (BICS/CALP)

- Reading aloud and shared reading with discussion

- Adjusting teaching to students’ reading levels

- Enabling access to a variety of graded and interesting reading materials in the

classroom as well as provision of dedicated reading time

Some suggested classroom instructional practices for the effective teaching of reading

are:

- Differentiated, small-group instruction for some time each day


- Allowing adequate time for practice, revision and consolidation

- Focused attention to struggling readers

- Motivating students to read and write

- Scaffolding for any new skill or task

- Regular assessment during the course of teaching- Testing is always done in the

standard language, when levels of comprehension are much higher in the standard

language.

- Spiralling, beginning from a lower level;

- Opportunity for peer learning

- Summer camps, books during holidays and remedial teaching, if needed

- Parental involvement

Giving opportunities for using comprehension strategies was suggested, such as:

• Asking questions about text; children asking questions; discussion

• Encouraging children to use prior knowledge

• Retelling

• Summarizing

• Using graphic organizers (Flow charts, timelines, concept maps etc.)

The session concluded with the thought that comprehension is also about knowing the

language deeply. Just speaking the language is not enough.

Session 2: Read Aloud – Ms. Sujata Noronha

Read-aloud has long been established as an important part of the development of children’s

literacy skills. Successful read-alouds don’t just happen; they are the result of careful

planning, with attention being given to details along multiple dimensions of a reading

experience. In this session the modelling of a read–aloud story by the resource person gave an

opportunity to the diverse group of consultation participants to experience some subtle and

nuanced ways of weaving strategies and planned elements into a ‘read aloud’ so that it can

become a rich and multidimensional language and literacy experience.


The book that was used for the read-aloud is:

Tomás and the Library Lady

Summary of the story plot:

Tomás is a child of migrant farm workers, who travel between Texas and Iowa in summer for

picking fruits and vegetables for farmers. His younger brother and grandfather accompany

them. Tomás loves the stories his grandfather, Papá Grande, tells. His grandfather encourages

him to go to the library for more stories, and with excitement and some apprehension, Tomás

agrees. There, a kind ‘library lady’ introduces Tomás to the wonderful of books and reading.

Tomás spends many summer days reading at the library, and also teaching the library lady

some words in his native Spanish. Every evening at home, he delights his family by reading

library books to them in English. At the end of summer's he visits the library with a farewell

gift for the librarian, and a new sad word ‘adiós’. The library lady also has a gift for Tomás -

a book of his own to take with him to Texas!

Tomás’s story was inspired by the real-life experience of Tomás Rivera, a son of migrant

workers who grew up to become Chancellor of the University of California,

The story is written by Pat Mora and illustrated by Raul Colón. The book is published by

Dragonfly Books, New York

Session highlights

Before the modelling of a read aloud story, Sujata Noronha invited the audience (in this case

the consultation participants) to look out for some of the implicit strategies that she was going

to be weaving into this sessions. The participants were encouraged to observe and identify

some aspects of the planning and especially the more implicit strategies that she was going to

use. This provided them with useful firsthand experience and insights about the multiple

dimensions along which a story can be explored. Some of these planned strategies were later

elicited from the group and made more explicit in the post reading discussion to reinforce the

fact that the effectiveness of a read aloud depends upon a number of factors, which include:

• Careful selection of high-quality texts

• The build up to the actual reading

• The seating arrangement

• A variety of questions or prompts which involve children and get them to respond and in

different active ways

• Building new concepts or vocabulary based on what children already know

• Predictions by children of what they think might happen or come next in the story


•Talk that ties the book to life beyond the classroom or the here and now.

In the section below an attempt has been made to recapture and highlight some dimensions of

the planning and strategy use that were modelled by Sujata Noronha during the read aloud.

Before the Reading

The book selection - is extremely important. Sujata Noronha explained to the group that a

book is selected keeping a specific audience and purpose in mind. It is important to keep the

children’s interests in mind and ensure that thematically the content of the story is linked to

the children’s lives and experiences. Amongst other considerations while making a book

selection it can be useful to look at the possible - new concepts, vocabulary or ways of

thinking which are fostered through the content and illustrations of the book, so that the

children’s attention can be drawn to these in engaging ways.

During the post reading discussion, Sujata shared that one of the main reasons that she had

chosen Tomás and the Library Lady for this particular read-aloud session was that it offered

several threads which could connect to the experience available within this audience. After

much reflection she had arrived at the conclusion that this choice of story was replete with the

possibilities of exploring worlds that existed beyond the classrooms, and to which the

members of this diverse group could provide links. For example:

a) The multiple dimensions of family relationships - the relationship of a child and a

grandparent; responsibilities that children take at a young age to help their family; moments

of family bonding and sharing – sharing stories; sharing journeys; sharing work and

hardships / poverty; sharing celebrations- home made farewell gift.

b) Experience of migration –through the point of view of children and communities; which is

an experience that is close to many consultation participants

c) Experiences of cultural diversity and similarities – exposure to unfamiliar words

d) Bonding across social class – as witnessed between the boy and the library lady

e) Sharing a passion for books and reading- Children taking stories back to their community /

family – sometimes in our own work we don’t just connect with the reader and books, we

also make connections with the community when we send books home with the children.


The setting

A display of outstanding storybooks based on different library experiences provided a

suitable backdrop for the read aloud. These were referred to in passing by Sujata Noronha, in

ways that made them attractive – and encouraged readers to read more books related to the

topic of the read-aloud!

Seating is a critical consideration for a read aloud. It is important ensure that the seating

arrangement allows all the children to see the book. Having everyone seated close to the

reader in the group worked well. There was space for her to move around the group and show

them the illustrations after reading each reading episode. This helped to engage each person.

Story keeper: A child who has already read the story is given a story keeper badge and

requested to quietly keep the story to herself, and not spill it out to the other listeners

beforehand. This ensures that the experience remains intact for the other children and they are

actively engaged, while the story keeper is made to feel important.

Pre reading build up activities

We began with a lively and energising welcome game. Each one performed a “welcome”

action in a circle and attached it to his or her name.

Next, was a group activity in which the participants were required to find connections

between two seemingly unrelated word pairs. Some examples are: boy – dinosaur; work –

fruit; lady – library. These words had been selected from the story to be read aloud, and this

was an enjoyable and active way of engaging the group with some of the vocabulary they

were going to encounter a little later in the story. In doing so the participants were helped to

activate their relevant schemas for the read-aloud story. This activity had been planned for

ten minutes. It remained incomplete for some who would have liked more time. However,

Sujata Noronha chose to stop after the planned time of ten minutes. While sticking to time is

especially important with children, she explained that finishing an activity at such incomplete

points is also sometimes a good thing. Since “a little disequilibrium is energising”, and in this

case Sujata believed it will draw greater attention to the vocabulary in the story. This was a

planned strategy especially since this story has “many posh words”. This was a phrase that

children in some earlier read aloud session had used to refer to some ‘fancy’ words that they

had encountered in the story. Sujata used it to show how children add to the richness of a


literary experience and add to the warm feeling in the group, which is what makes these

literary experiences so special!

Sujata explained that ‘picture walk’, or the practice of sharing the story pictures before the

reading, is a strategy she does not use, as she has found that it takes away from ensuring a

captive audience later on. Besides, she believes that a good listener can very quickly start

understanding stories that are read aloud well, and so does not need the support of pictures.

During the reading

The read aloud method that was adopted had minimum interruptions in the form of questions

or prompts during the actual reading. One page was read out at a time, after which Sujata

moved around the group and showed them the related illustrations. At these points the

conversation was kept fairly limited. The book was held in a way, that the audience can see

the pictures and the text. At a few crucial points, there was a brief pause and audience was

asked for a response, which was either a prediction; a question or brief comment. These had

been carefully planned, so that they occurred at crucial points. There was a short wait time for

a response, before moving on to someone else. It is important to point out that these short

planned interruptions helped to ensure the engaged attention and interest of each individual.

Since there weren’t too many of these and they were brief, the focus continued to remain on

the story that was being read out so that each listener was given the space which allowed

them to connect in meaningful, individual ways with the written text. As mentioned earlier,

after reading each page Sujata moved around and showed the book to each person; at times

pointing to something particular feature which was in focus by making a short pertinent

comment or engaging in a brief interaction.

Bringing the reading to a close

This was the time to capitalize on the richness of the text through interactive discussion. It

was the time to go beyond the story to talk about migrants, or about the real Tomás Rivera,

about “Latinos” and cultural diversity. With children one might ask the children what they

think of the book to determine whether to read it again. Depending upon the course of the

post reading discussion with the children the read aloud could be followed up with an

interesting and related post reading extension activity.


Read Aloud strategies that were modelled during the session

1. Using voice modulation for emphasis or sound imagery

Example 1: Text: “He missed his own bed, in his own house.”

The stress on the word “own” was important, as it helps the listeners to establish that the cot

that Tomás slept in was not his own bed, and that in fact he had travelled and was now in

another place. This fact has been implied in the text and had not been clearly stated.

Especially with young readers the voice modulation with the emphasis on the word “own”

could be a useful scaffolding to build understanding for readers who are not so adept with de-

contextualised written texts.

Example 2: The wind was howling, whoooooooo, and the leaves were blowing, whish,

whish . . .

The use of voice modulation to build up the imagery of the blowing wind made the whole

experience alive and scary, and captured the imagination of the listeners.

2. Drawing attention to language / vocabulary / unfamiliar words

Example 1: pointing to the name “Tomás” in the title and asking someone a simple open

ended question: What are you thinking?

This question was framed in an interesting way. It generated a variety of responses which

required the participants to connect with their prior knowledge, to reason and then finally

arrive at the conclusion that “Tomás is not a western name, it is not Asian, most probably it

is a Latin American name . . . probably the name of a Mexican boy”.

Attention was drawn to á with the accent mark and what it stood for. This planned active

interaction based on the cover text and illustrations helped all the other individuals in the

audience to reflect and build a deeper engagement with the setting and characters of the story.

In a sense it led the group into the story.

Example 2: pointing to the written words and picture on the cover and asking

Do you know another name for “library lady”?

Example 3: Points to the Spanish word ‘Pájaro’ while doing the action of flapping arms.

Do you know what the word for this is in English?

Example 4: Reads: “He would put the books in the sun to bake away the smell”.

Repeats: “bake away the smell” and asks - Does this phrase make sense?

Follow up Qs: What does baking do?

Do you put out some things in the sun? (Connecting with prior

knowledge)

3. Questioning

Note: In the section below please look at the way in which each question has been framed.

Factual questions ask for details about the text

Q: Any idea where they have reached? (Refers to information available on previous page)


Inferential questions encourage children to read between the lines of the text or draw clues

from the text to go beyond it:

Example 1:

Text: “Mama”, whispered Tomás, “if I had a glass of cold water, I would drink it in large

gulps. I would suck the ice. I would pour the last drop of water on my face. . . .

. . . He curled up on the cot in the small house that the family shared with other workers. ”

Qs: How is Tomás, feeling? What is the weather like?

Is it day or night? How do you know?

Example 2: Pointing to the picture of the “library lady” which accompanies the text -

Q: Was she a kind lady? Is there anything in the story to tell you she was kind?

Opinion questions invite children to tell you what they think

Q: Why do you think it’s a sad word? (With reference to the word adios)

Text-to-self questions are a bridge between the text and the child’s own experience Q1: What does baking do?

Follow up: Do you put out some things in the sun? Why? (Connecting with prior knowledge)

Text: “All of a sudden something grabbed the man. He couldn’t move”

Q2: What do you think grabbed the man? Has something like that ever happened to you

or some else you know?

Prediction questions ask children to tell you what might happen

Example 1: pointing to the picture of the library lady on the cover and asking “What kind of

person is she ?” (Predicting from an illustration)

Example 2: (prediction / inference at the word level)

Text: “I have a sad word to teach you today. The word is adios. . .” At this point Sujata

quickly shut the book and asked:

Q 1: Do you know what this sad word might mean? Group response: Good bye

Q2: How did you know?

Please note the above questions are getting children to use two comprehension strategies-

prediction, as well as an inference.

Example 3:

Text: “He looked at the library. Its tall windows were like eyes glaring at him. Tomás walked

around and around the big building . . . slowly he started climbing the steps . . . His mouth

felt full of cotton.

Tomás stood in front of the library doors. He pressed his nose against the glass and peeked

in. The library was huge! “

Q1: What do you think will happen now?

Responses: He’ll slowly go in

He’ll go back


Someone will take him in

The library lady will come and take him in

Sujata’s response: She goes back to the cover illustration and points to the Library Lady. “We

have a new character in the story. We don’t know when she will come into the story. Maybe

she will come in now” (Along with prediction, Sujata is also subtly drawing the attention of

the audience to the story form)

4. Building new knowledge and concepts

Example:

Q1: Any idea where he’s reached?

Response: Iowa

Q2: What is Iowa?

Q3: In which country? (Sujata informed the audience that with young children it is useful

to bring in a map to reinforce these concepts)

5. Making a comment / sharing an opinion/ question to draw the learners’

attention to a particular use of language

Example 1:

Title Text: Tomás and the Library Lady (points to the words “Library Lady”)

Q1: Do you know another name for “Library Lady”?

Q2: Why has the author used the words “Library Lady”? (Apart from drawing attention to

language use, this question is getting the audience to think about the author’s intent)

Example 2:

Text: “He would put the books in the sun to bake away the smell”.

Comment: First repeats the phrase - “bake away the smell”

“I think this is an interesting way to phrase it” (Gives a personal opinion to subtly

draw attention to an interesting use of language)

6. Using talk to connect to life beyond the classroom

Points at which the text provided entry points to life beyond the classroom were picked up

very briefly through a comment or question during the reading, to connect with the listener’s

previous related experience or knowledge. The discussion on these was kept to a minimal

during the reading. These threads were picked up in the post reading discussion. This requires

a sensitive understanding of the audience and especially in the case of young children the

discussion needs to be able to tap experiences that are meaningful for the children.


Example 1:

Text: “Papa Grande was the best story teller in the family” (notice voice stress on ‘best’)

Post reading discussion: family relationships, especially relationships between children and

older people; story telling

Example 2:

Text: “Early in the morning Mama and Papa went out to pick corn in the green fiends. All day they

worked in the hot sun. Tomás and Enrique carried water to them”

Post reading discussion: farm work; different crops; migration; children supporting family

In conclusion, perhaps it will be sufficient to remind ourselves that each audience, each

book selection and each reading situation is different. This read aloud experience provided an

opportunity to observe the highly skilled and sensitive use of different strategies; questions

and prompts so that there wasn’t a bombardment of questions and discussions in between the

reading, to distract the listeners from the story. Space was provided for each individual to

engage with the story in her own ways; and at the same time there was a gentle effort to lead

the audience into a deeper engagement with the written content and illustrations, through

carefully crafted questions and prompts at crucial points.

“The success we have in helping children become readers will depend not so much on our technical skills but upon the spirit we transmit of ourselves as readers”

- Adrian Chambers8

8 Quoted in Trelease, Jim. (1982). The Read Aloud Handbook, Penguin Books Ltd: 112


3. Response to literature – Dr. Shobha Sinha

Session highlights

This session underlined the need to acknowledge, accept and nurture a reader’s response to

literature. The resource person informed the participants that various perspectives on reading,

from the disciplines as diverse as psycholinguistics; cognitive psychology; socio-linguistics

and literary criticism, have coexisted since the mid sixties. Most of these perspectives view

reading as a constructive process in which the meaning does not reside solely in the text, but

is actively constructed by readers by drawing upon their prior knowledge and experience in

relation to the text. The writings of Louise Rosenblatt from as far back as 1938 have had a

profound influence on this thinking. Her major contribution was to draw attention to the

active role of reader in the processes making meaning from literary texts.

Rosenblatt challenged the assumptions of the then influential New Criticism perspective

which was emphasising objectivity in reading and had been dismissive of a reader’s

emotional and subjective responses to any literary text. The literature programmes initiated

by the New Critics in the earlier part of the last century consisted mainly of textual and

linguistic analysis of literary texts. The focus of these earlier perspectives had been

influenced by prevalent scientific thinking with an emphasis on maintaining objectivity. For

years the reader had been treated as an audience in the dark. Rosenblatt found this highly

problematic, as she did not believe that a literacy work could exist apart from the reader.

Her “transactional” theory of literature also known as the Reader’s Response Theory

examines both the reader and the text, and the nature of the literary experience in which she

believed the meaning is neither in the “text” nor in the “reader”, but is created through the

transaction between the two. For Rosenblatt, each reading is a lived experience or a

transaction between the reader and the text, in which a reader’s response is highly subjective,

emotional and dynamic. It can change depending upon the mood of the reader and the context

of the reading. Not only is each reading experience different for different readers, but each

reading of the same literary text can also be different for the same reader.

Rosenblatt distinguishes between what she sees as two different stances of reading – aesthetic

and efferent. Aesthetic reading is what we do for pleasure. Efferent reading, on the other

hand, is reading that we do to get information or to get things done. We use different reading

stances depending on the purpose of our reading. The same literary text may be read through


an aesthetic stance when we read for pleasure and through an efferent stance when we are

analysing the author’s use of language or literary devices. Literacy texts evoke responses

which have to do with the readers’ feelings and imagination and need to be dealt with

sensitively and differently from information texts.

Shobha. Sinha used her personal experiences of engagement with different literary texts to

capture the essence of the Reader’s Response Theory. She highlighted the need for each one

of us to reflect on our personal journeys with literature, especially with those literary texts,

whether stories, novels, poems or drama, that have had a deep influence on us. She cited an

example of reading a Walt Whitman’s poem on death, when she was gripped with the grief of

losing her own father. This was a completely different experience to the lifeless and

mechanical reading of the same poem as a part of her post graduate course material. This and

other examples were used to highlight the importance allowing readers to engage deeply with

prescribed literary texts within courses on literature. We need to remind ourselves that it is

only when we respond to literature through our lived experiences that we begin to make

deeper connections with it. It is through such personal experiences of making emotional and

subjective connects with literary texts that teachers are equipped to help children to do the

same. While dealing with young reader’s responses to literature in the classroom some

questions that we need to ask ourselves are:

- How do we bring this perspective into the classroom?

- What should the teacher’s role be?

- How can we provide children with a safe environment inside the class so that they

feel free to risk the sharing of their deeper and more vulnerable subjective selves?

All literature, and literacy, is born from the human need to tell stories, to tell stories about one self or about others, to tell stories about the world to better understand our existence, the others and the universe we live in. All the stories, the myths, the fables and the novels, including those addressed to children are, in fact, the result of this wish and this basic need: they help us to live, to survive; they help children to grow up and develop. -Denise von Stockar, 2006


Session 4: The LiRIL Study – sharing of experiences

– Dr. Shailaja Menon

& the LiRIL team: Abha Basargekar; Mounesh Nalkamani; Neela Apte; Sajitha Kutty

Literacy Research in Indian Languages – LiRIL, is a non intervention, longitudinal

research study based on empirical data of how children learn to read and write in Indian

languages and contexts across Classes 1 to 3. LiRIL has been initiated by Sir Ratan Tata

Trust in partnership with Azim Premji University. It is being conducted in Maharashtra and

Karnataka under the leadership of Dr. Shailaja Menon. This study emerged from the SRTT

Consultation held in 2011 during which a strongly felt need to generate knowledge-bases in

Indian languages was expressed. It is the first research study of its kind in the country. LiRIL

has completed two years of its pilot phase and is in the first year of its longitudinal phase with

qualitative and quantitative data being sourced at the child, classroom and community levels.

Session highlights

This session presented comprehension as a complex construct and tried to unpack its multiple

dimensions through paired discussions and group work.

During pair work the participants were presented three vignettes, based on the actual

field experience of LiRIL, to which they were required to respond after discussion with their

partners. The dimensions of comprehension that were captured within these vignettes are:

• Vignette 1: Comprehension is often left out of the objectives of an early literacy

classroom.

• Vignette 2: Sequential model of literacy (decoding first, comprehension later) is

prevalent. Also, use of words that are meaningful to the child is not emphasized.

• Vignette 3: Importance of read aloud for comprehension is not understood.

Response: The participants expressed that these vignettes captured the ground reality within

their locations as well. As was presented in V1, most teachers / educators view early literacy

through the limited objective of teaching children to decode, with a focus on letter

recognition and correct pronunciation. Further, meaning is not the focus of most early grade

reading classes, and the vignette presented in V2 is applicable across most locations that were

being represented in this consultation; as was also the case of V3 since the significance of

‘read aloud’, especially for Classes 1 and 2 is not understood or being addressed.


Small group tasks were designed to enable exploration of different aspects of

comprehension which included:

– Reading comprehension difficulties

– Dimensions / strategies related to comprehension

– Addressing comprehension through the curriculum

– Genre and comprehension

Group 1: Children’s Difficulties with Comprehension

The Group was required to predict the likely difficulties that a third grader could have while

reading a given passage. When given a similar task the teachers in the LiRIL sample were

able to predict difficulties only at the word level (with unfamiliar vocabulary). They were not

able to analyze children’s sources of difficulties. Preliminary insights through qualitative

work with children indicated that children have difficulties on account of:

a) Vocabulary

b) Children are not used to hearing written language. The shift from oral to written discourse

causes a consequent change in the language structures such as syntax and clauses. Teachers

don’t even recognise this as an area of difficulty.

c) Identifying main ideas in a text. The children could identify details but not the main ideas.

d) Responding to explicit and implicit questions. Making inferences is problematic for

children. It does not exist in their repertoire. Further, the selections of passages in textbooks

do not always allow inference, and this aspect of questioning is not explored.

e) Home language and narrative cultures make it difficult for children to relate to or shift to

the school language.

f) Genre. Exposure to different genres within classroom is very limited.

Since decoding was a huge problem for the children within the pilot study sample, LiRIL had

to convert some tasks into listening comprehension activities, and convert oral tasks into a

conversational style.

This group’s responses and discussions based on the various tasks indicated that awareness of

the multi dimensional character of learner difficulties at various levels and on various

accounts are extremely important. The group members felt that this is a completely neglected

aspect within our education system and teacher capacities for predicting and identifying such

learning comprehension difficulties need to be strengthened.


Group 2: Dimensions / Strategies Related to Comprehension

The task given to the second group required them to frame questions which would assist

learners to comprehend two given text passages. They were also asked to explain how these

questions would help the learners with comprehension. The questions could be posed before,

during or after the reading and could be related to any aspect of comprehension that had been

listed in the LiRIL framework, for example: story events and sequence; identifying main

ideas or the author’s intent; making comparisons; inferring and so on.

The group response indicated that this task created awareness in the group members on the

significance of different types of questioning to get children to respond at different levels of

complexity, as well as along different dimensions of comprehension which had been listed in

the comprehension framework. For example, they realized that in our classrooms we never

ask children about the author’s purpose, or ask children to identify the main idea of a text.

Our expectations from children are very low. Children are much more capable than we think

they are, and different types of skilled questioning can help them to engage with texts in more

meaningful and deeper ways.

Group 3: Curricular Support for Comprehension

The task given to the group required them to analyze two sets of teachers’ instructions, the

first for teaching a poem and the second for picture reading. Based on their analysis they

were asked to decide whether these instructions were enhancing reader comprehension. Both

these texts had been taken from existing textbooks. In the follow up discussion, the group

said that they found that the text quality was poor. The connection between the activity

presented in the textbook through the accompanying instructions and comprehension was not

clear. The emphasis of the given instructions in both the situations was on recall. Shailaja

Menon informed the participants that the preliminary insights from LiRIL based on analyses

of the Marathi curriculum have shown

– A change in the Balbharati curriculum from June 2013.

– The new curriculum is trying to be more NCF compliant, and provides more

opportunities for meaning making.

The LiRIL Class observations undertaken in 22 government school classrooms, while

analyzing the aspects of comprehension within the new curriculum, show that most of the


teachers ignored textbook instructions related to comprehension. Wherever it appeared, it

appeared as “samjhaana” (explaining).

Group 4: Genre and Comprehension

The task given to the fourth group was to analyze texts from three different genres and

predict the difficulty that readers may have in comprehending each. The first was a dialogue;

the second was an expository text and the third was a narrative text.

The group felt that even though the first text presented a real conversation, the speakers are

unknown and the context is missing. Reading a dialogue without the background could pose

comprehension problems. The second text had unfamiliar vocabulary, and the main idea was

not clear. The linkage between the two paragraphs was also problematic. A supportive text

structure would have helped readers to comprehend this text better. The third text was found

to be the most appropriate by group four.

While piloting with 3rd

and 4th

graders, the LIRIL team found that dialogue was easier to

understand than the expository passage. Understanding character motives was also difficult

for children, but was easier than understanding dialogues. The larger question that was posed

to the participants to reflect upon was whether we are giving enough exposure to different

genres of texts within the language classroom.

The session concluded with the thought that if we want to ensure that our commitment to

reading and writing with understanding becomes a reality, we need to unpack the concept of

comprehension and approach it from different angles, such as specific comprehension

difficulties; text /genre; curricular support for comprehension and instructional strategies to

facilitate comprehension. At the same time we need to also recognise the significance of

considering and addressing the teachers’ knowledge and beliefs.


Reading Comprehension: process & pedagogies

1. Understanding the reading process

Activity: What’s the news today?

Two newspaper cuttings at increasing level of complexity, based on the

familiarity of the content, are presented to the participant’s one after the other to read.

In each case the participants are given two minutes to read followed by two minutes to

recall in writing what they read. The written responses to both the cuttings are then

shared in the larger group. The post reading discussion focuses on: the difference in

the two readings and how this impacted the actual reading processes. How did they

feel? Was there a difference? What does this have to do with children?

Reflections: Most individuals were not able to recall much in the case of the first, more

unfamiliar news item, and this made them a bit anxious; while most were able to recall the

entire information in the second, which related to a familiar topic. This experience brought

home the point that even for adults it is not enough to be able to decode texts. To understand

a text it is essential to have prior knowledge of the written subject matter. These reflections

on their own process generated awareness of the stress that many children undergo as they

struggle to make sense of unfamiliar texts, often in a language unknown to them.

Underlying theory: Frank Smith9 (1971) highlights the complex interconnections between

the act of reading and higher order reasoning and thinking. His work draws attention to the

fact that ‘reading’, in the much the same way as ‘seeing’, is not just a visual process. To

understand the inner ramifications of the reading comprehension process we need to

appreciate the important distinction between ‘seeing’ and ‘looking’. For Smith, ‘seeing’ has

to do with the higher mental processes involved in making sense or building understanding.

When we ‘see’, something we do much more than looking at it; we mirror what we are

looking at with earlier images and experiences that we have stored in our mind’s eye. This

enables us to make sense of it and to “see” it meaningfully and with insight. This process is

explained through the example below:

Read the information a) and b) presented in the box below very carefully:

a) 1300 b) WH0?

9 Smith, F.(1971) Understanding Reading. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston


Notice, that in the case of a) we read the symbol 0 as a number, BUT in the case of b) we

read exactly the same symbol 0, as an alphabet.

So, even though we are actually ‘looking’ at the exactly same visual symbol, we are ‘seeing’

it differently in both the above situations. In both cases our ‘seeing’ is influenced by the non

visual information which is stored in our brain. In this case the non visual information relates

to the context in which the symbol 0 is presented. In the first case, it has been included within

a set of numbers and in the second case within a set of alphabets put together as the

capitalised English question word, ‘who? Along with required punctuation.. The context in

both these cases influenced the way we interpret and ‘read’ the same visual symbol.

Smith explains that when we read we use different sources of information:

� information gained directly from the print through our eyes – visual information

AND

� information which is stored in our head as memory – non visual information, which

includes our knowledge of the world and about language and how it works

Schema theory provides a theoretical framework for above ideas.

Schemas were initially introduced into psychology and education through the work of the

British psychologist Sir Frederic Bartlett10

(1932), within a series of studies on the recall of

Native American folktales. He noticed that many of the recalls were not accurate, but

involved the replacement of unfamiliar information with something more familiar and based

on the prior knowledge of the readers. They also included inferences that went beyond the

information given in the original text. To account for these findings, Bartlett proposed that

people have schemata, or unconscious mental structures, that represent an individual's

generic knowledge about the world. It is through schemata that old knowledge influences

new information. Schemas can be culture specific. Some ways in which the concept of

schema influenced the understanding of the reading process are being briefly looked at below

Richard Anderson11

, an educational psychologist, played an important role in introducing

schema theory to the educational community. Anderson pointed out that schemata provided a

10

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2175/Learning-Theory-SCHEMA-THEORY.html 11

A useful introduction to Schema Theory is available in: Anderson, R.C. (1984). ‘Role of Schema in

Comprehension, Learning and Memory’. In R. C. Anderson; J. Osborn and R.J. Tierney (eds.) Learning to Read in

American Schools. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Hillsdale.


form of representation for complex knowledge. This construct provided a principled account

of how old knowledge might influence the acquisition of new knowledge and has emphasised

the role of reader based influences on the reading process. This view believes that reading is a

constructive process, in which the meaning of a text is not contained in the written words on a

page instead; the meaning is constructed by readers through a process of integration of the

written text with the prior background knowledge through which they view these texts.

Schemas, or internally organized knowledge of the world, thus provide a framework or basis

for comprehension. It is not considered enough for a reader to recognise individual words; to

comprehend a text a reader must continually construct or activate schemas to access meaning

while reading (Pearson, 1982)12

.

Instructional practices which have been influenced by the above thinking have suggested the

importance of connecting to a reader’s related earlier knowledge through pre reading

brainstorming discussions or other activities which tap the reader’s existing conceptual

knowledge, and by doing so activate the required, relevant schemas for the reading which is

to follow. In cases where such prior knowledge is not available in a readers’ experience, the

teacher needs to provide prerequisite knowledge to build the schemas. This is done through

exposure to related subject matter before the actual reading, through planned pre reading

activities. The theory has also highlighted the need to pay more attention to higher-order

processes which enhance a child’s thinking and verbal reasoning abilities and so facilitate the

meaningful engagement with a variety of written texts at different levels of complexity.

Approaches to reading based on the schema theory emphasize that reading involves both the

use of bottom-up information i.e. information from the perceived letters coming into the eye,

and the use of top-down information which consists of a meaningful representation of the

linguistic content from the written texts and its integration by the brain with other stored

previously stored information, so as to be able to make sense of it. The background

knowledge and experiences of readers thus came to be regarded as crucial elements in the

process of understanding written texts and in giving them meaning. Schema has served as an

important counter to purely bottom-up and decoding approaches to reading.

12

Pearson, D.P D (1982) A primer for schema theory; Vetta Review 84(5):25-33

Report of Consultation on Reading Comprehension, SRTT

Schema theory has provided a

Approaches, which are looking for ways of combining

2. Awareness of one’s

Activity: Read me . . .

The participants are given samples of

groups. Each group reads one pie

plenty of time to read it carefully

communicating. After the reading

processes as individuals, and then describe

read. The responses are discussed with

the reading processes, as well

behaviours.

Report of Consultation on Reading Comprehension, SRTT –OELP – April 2014

has provided a theoretical basis for more recent Balanced Reading

are looking for ways of combining bottom up and top down approaches

one’s own reading behaviours

re given samples of children’s beginning level writing

one piece of writing, such as the one shown above

time to read it carefully to try and understand as much of what the child i

After the reading is over the participants are asked to reflect on their

and then describe the exact process in the order

discussed within the group, to get a sense of some commonalities

, as well as to gain some insights about more individual

31

Balanced Reading

bottom up and top down approaches.

writings to read in small

above. They are given

as much of what the child is

reflect on their reading

order of how they had

group, to get a sense of some commonalities in

individualised reading


Reflections: The reading of an ‘inconsiderate text’ can be a useful opportunity to reflect upon

our own mental processes (meta-cognition). Children’s early writings often fall into the

category of such texts; since they usually do not follow writing conventions and can be

difficult to read. While reading such texts, the processes slow down and this provides an

opportunity to identify and reflect upon all the reading behaviours that we have engaged in.

Underlying theory: Ken Goodman (1967)13

proposed that reading is a tentative process in

which readers try to make sense of what they are reading through various informed guesses.

These guesses are based on the readers’ knowledge of language; their knowledge of the text;

their knowledge of the world and their reading of the social and cultural context. This

perspective claims that while constructing meaning from a written text, readers are not

bound to words and alphabets alone, but they also use various other sources of

information or ‘cues’ to construct meaning. Some of these are listed below:

� semantic (or meaning)

� syntactic (sentence structure)

� grapho-phonic (letter formations and sounds)

� visual (picture , symbol / graphic)

� knowledge of the world i.e. information based on life experience or prior knowledge

� knowledge of the word i.e. vocabulary and concepts

Within more recent perspectives, the role of skilled decoding and proficient meaning making

processes have both been considered important for reading with comprehension.

Literacy learning involves a complex process of constructing meaning from written texts “. . . in reading and writing the reader potentially draws from all his or her current understanding and all his or her language competencies, and visual information and knowledge of printing conventions . . . Learners pull together necessary information from print in simple ways at first . . . but as opportunities to read and write accumulate over time the learner becomes able to read quickly and momentarily construct a somewhat complex operating system which might solve the problem in ways which extend both the searching and linking processes as well as the item knowledge repertoire”. – Marie Clay14, 2001:224 13

Goodman,K. (1967). Reading: a psycholinguistic guessing game. Journal of the Reading Specialist, 6(4), 126-

135 14

Clay, M.M.(2001).Change over time in children’s literacy development, Portsmouth, N.H.Heinemann


3. Reading strategies

Activity: What do good readers do?

As a follow up to the activity above, the participants were provided with a checklist of

reading behaviours undertaken by proficient readers which has been compiled by Neil

Luke and David Pearson15

. They were required to carefully read their own reading

processes / behaviours, which they had listed out individually during the earlier

activity of reading a child’s writing. Next, they compared these lists with the reading

behaviours listed in Luke and Pearson’s checklist and worked out a common group

list of proficient reading behaviours which had been agreed upon by all the individuals

within the group.

The purpose behind this activity was:

a) To have a readily available useful frame of reference while working with children

b) To reflect and see if these reading behaviours / strategies can be taught to the children we

work with.

Reflections: Each participant became aware of the reading strategies that he or she had used

for the reading the piece of child’s writing that was provided in Activity 2. The follow up

reflective process that occurred during Activity 3, created awareness of the range of strategies

that they had used as they struggled to read the child’s writing. The subsequent comparisons

of their own reading behaviours with those identified on the checklist made the participants

realise that many of these reading behaviours are in fact strategies that proficient readers use.

Awareness of these strategies helped them to understand how each of these facilitates

meaningful reading and the importance of getting children to learn to use these.

Some strategies used by different individuals to read children’s writings are:

- Using prior information: for example knowledge of the poem that the child had written –

as in the case of the sample that has been shown – this was linked to a well known children’s

poem in Hindi –“ Machhli jal ki rani hai”, and this knowledge was used to then try and figure

out the rest of the words

15

Duke and Pearson (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In Alan. E Farstrup and

S.Jay. Samuels (Eds.) What Research Has to Say about Reading Instruction, Third Edition; International Reading

Association.


- Using picture clues: “Sow hsee went bak” read as – So she went back – using picture clue

- Examining patterns in the spellings: hsee for she and wihs for wish (reversal of letters)

- Examining sound- symbol patterns: (graphophonic cues) for example one person

noticed that there child was using the Hindi letter /chhe/ instead of /jhhe/ in a recurring

fashion so chhal became jal and chheen became jeevan ( also used prior knowledge)

- Using earlier knowledge of words (semantic cues): for example BLN and UP and SKI,

even though present in different parts of the text were linked on the basis of their meanings

and sounds to read as: balloon up sky

- Looking for context clues with a sentence: Hsee was very very agri. Based on the clues

from the other words in the sentence, the word agri was replaced with angry

- Reading back and forth to use a familiar word to find the meaning of an earlier one

Reflections: In their research based article which accompanies the checklist that was referred

to in the above activity, Duke and Pearson (2002) draw attention to the widespread consensus

on the need for addressing reading comprehension. Over the past few decades there has been

an increasing agreement amongst researchers and practitioners that reading comprehension

strategies can be taught and must be taught ( See Appendix 2 : Concept note).

Reading is a mystery to those who cannot read . . . We know that reading involves a sampling of graphic information. As our eyes wade through shapes of letters, punctuation marks, combinations of letters in words and spaces between words, our mind does not have to handle all these graphic details. If this were the case, the mind’s capacity to process separate bits of information would be overloaded, and the speed at which most of us normally operate would become impossible . . . the competent reader’s eyes prevents such overloading by allowing only a limited selective intake of graphic data available in the text. He does not pay attention to the entire body of a letter or to all the letters in a word, or to all the words in a sentence. As he reads his eyes take into account a small proportion of the graphic details. He fills in the rest by intelligent guessing or prediction on the basis of his previous acquaintance with the shapes of letters, words, their meanings, their combinations and generally the world. - Krishna Kumar16, 1986 16

Kumar, Krishna (1986) The Child’s Language and the Teacher – A Handbook. UNICEF: 25


4. Classroom instructional practices for teaching reading with

comprehension

As mentioned in the earlier sections, there has been a growing realisation that young readers

can be effectively taught to use comprehension strategies to read different texts with

understanding. A diagrammatic representation of comprehension strategies presented by

Fountas and Pinnell (2001) 17

is given below:

Reflections: The participants expressed that the major challenge facing reading

comprehension strategies is the implementation by teachers in a natural classroom context

with readers at various levels. This is a new area for us, therefore we will need to explore

some of these ideas and work out practices that are relevant and feasible within our contexts.

However, planned read aloud sessions offer immense possibilities for weaving in different

comprehension strategies and seem to be a feasible option to explore within our young

learner classrooms in Indian contexts. In addition, there is need for planned opportunities

such as guided reading, shared reading, independent reading, along with dedicated time to

17

Fountas, I.C. and Pinnell, G.S (2001). Guiding Readers and Writers: Grades 3 – 6, Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann: 310


allow these different reading practices to be implemented. These classroom practices that will

need to be tried out and adapted in feasible ways, so that we are able to incorporate them in

informed ways into classrooms within our specific contexts.

4a. Strategies for engaging children with informational texts

The following two strategies, to be used with information texts, were modelled as examples:

a) K-W-L – An approach for activating and building readers’ schemas

i) The first step in this approach is K, which helps the reader s to access what they already

KNOW related to the reading.

ii) The second step is W, which helps readers to determine what they WANT to know.

iii) The final step is L to help each reader recall what they LEARNED from the reading

b) The use of a graphic organiser, in this case a Venn diagram. Venn diagrams

illustrate the relationship among categories. In this case, it was used to compare and contrast

the similarities and differences between two wild cats. Graphic organisers provide useful

frameworks for children to visually organise information in different ways, such as semantic

maps to categorise or classify; story maps to define relationships between parts of a narrative

or story; flowcharts to capture a process; timelines to show chronology of events and so on.

4b. Activity: Modelling comprehension strategies – The participants broke up

into five groups. Each group was given time to select a suitable book of their choice from the

displayed children’s literature. Based on this selected book, each group modelled a read aloud

in which they had woven in different comprehension strategies. The five books that were

selected are:

• The Coral tree

• Billee ke bache

• Where is Gola’s home?

• Haathi ki hichki

• Moon cake

Reflections: This was a useful opportunity to experience, share and reflect upon the different

comprehension strategies that were incorporated into each Read Aloud session. Each group

shared their understanding and creativity through their modelling of a Read Aloud. Each


group session was followed up with reflections, responses and suggestions. This was time to

consolidate and internalise some of the learning of the past few days and get a real feel and

much food for thought for the many journeys inside classrooms that lie ahead of each of us!

4c. Suggested classroom instructional practices

Teacher Modelling: Read Aloud / Think Aloud: Make Your Thinking Visible

When a teacher reads aloud a story, she is able to model comprehension strategies for

students. It is important to let children see what effective readers do inside their heads. For

example, when the fox says, "Look at that beautiful bird!" as a teacher you may be thinking,

“Who is the fox talking to? Is the crow beautiful? Why would the fox say that? Does the crow

believe it?” and so on. When you say these questions aloud while you read they show the

students how you reflect on the story, words, pictures, or language. Similarly they show

children how you begin to make predictions about what will happen next. It is best to think

aloud during reading (rather than when you have finished reading) at the actual point in the

story that raises questions in your head. In the first reading you may want to read through the

entire text, so that the children engage with the story with minimal distractions. In the second

reading you may want to think –aloud at points at which the thinking occurs.

A general framework for comprehension strategy instruction

1. Select the text: Choose an appropriate piece of text based on the interest and level of the

students while at the same time ensuring that they get to read a variety of texts.

2. Select the strategies: Determine strategies that are relevant to understanding that text.

3. Give a clear explanation: Tell students what each strategy is and why it is useful.

4. Model the strategy: Help students learn how, when, and where to use each strategy by

demonstrating or thinking aloud about the use of the strategies to better understand the text.

5. Support student practice: Work with students during guided reading, to help them figure

out how and when to use the strategy themselves. Engage them in discussion about how they

are applying the strategy; as necessary, provide corrective feedback.

6. Have students apply the strategy: In subsequent lessons, ask students on their own to

apply the strategy to other texts.

7. Have students apply the strategy along with other strategies so that they understand

that strategies are not used singly but are combined with other relevant strategies

Based on the framework presented by Duke and Pearson (2002:208–209; See ref. on page 33)


Building shared understanding – voices from the groups . . .

Our expectation from teachers has to be realistic . . .

- I pick up a lot of ideas from workshops, but then when I go to teachers in the classrooms, I don’t

know what to say. They have no resources; good books are not available. So what can they do?

- We have found when children start learning and understanding then the situation changes, and

teachers feel more motivated. When teachers feel involved they demand resources and books.

- It’s when we actually take this to classrooms that we get to know what methods can work in our

situations. We are trying these out, and though it takes time, these methods do make a difference.

How do we link a text with a child’s background knowledge?

- With children from different backgrounds, how will this be possible in our classrooms?

- Oral work; conversations with children. This is important; especially if we get children to

connect their experience with the content of the book which is going to be read. This helps

children to talk, share, listen and learn, and it connects them with the text in real ways.

- It’s something new. Our teacher’s don’t read. There is no reading culture.

- Getting teachers involved with books and reading can be challenging, but in our work area

we find that teachers are really looking for such ways. They just did not know how to engage

with the beginning classes, especially Classes 1 and 2.

We need to begin!

-Yes, but unless schools get enough resources and dedicated time for language and literacy,

especially in the early classes, it’s not going to work

- Early Literacy has not even been an agenda. People are clueless about how to engage beginning

level learners in Classes 1 and 2 with reading and writing.

- We have to change the mind set. It may be slow at first, but we have to make people realise that

this is important. It is a must if was want our children to become independent readers and writers.

- I feel we should continue sharing our experiences with each other as a group, and share

ideas that have worked, as well as the challenges we face. That will really help us.

How do we look at children’s errors and difficulties with comprehension?

- There is not much understanding of how children learn Indian languages. We need to actually

observe and document the learning processes inside classrooms.

- It’s not just a matter of language, it’s also a matter of culture, and there can be differences,

especially when teachers are from urban areas and children are from rural areas.


Comprehension strategies for the reading classroom

As adults, who work with children, we need to be aware that there are some things we can

do before, during and after reading which help us to read with better understanding. These

are ways of getting readers to engage more deeply with a written text, so that they actively

absorb and respond to what they are reading. These are known as comprehension strategies,

and they can be taught to children to enable them to read with greater involvement and

understanding. Readers normally combine reading strategies and do not use them singly.

Before reading

Set a purpose for reading

Before beginning to read ask children to think why they are reading this text.

Children need to understand that the purpose will decide how to read. For

example reading a story book for enjoyment is different to reading a book

to collect some facts. Children need to experience and understand these different ways of

reading and how they are linked to the purpose.

Preview the text (use the text structure)

This is a particularly useful strategy for reading information texts. Show children how to look

at the title, pictures, captions under pictures, headings, bold-faced print and other graphics,

before the reading. This helps children to get a sense of the text, i.e. to know how the

information has been organised and where they will find different facts.

Activate earlier knowledge and experience

Getting children to think about what they already know about the content of the book or story

they are going to read helps them to get involved with the reading. Getting children to

brainstorm about the subject matter before the reading is one way of doing this.

Predict

Show the book cover. Ask children think what might happen in the story, what words may be

used, or what information the text might contain. Later, during the reading they can confirm

if their predictions were correct. This is a useful strategy to get children hooked!

Ask questions

Ask children to look at the title and pictures on the cover and note down the questions that

come to your mind? When they read, they can look for answers to their questions. This also

gets the children to build a deeper engagement with the text.

Build background knowledge and concepts

In case the text that the children are going to read is about an unfamiliar topic about which

the children do not have any earlier experience or ideas; then it is important to first discuss

the topic and give children background information in different ways, such so that they can

connect to the reading that follows, with understanding.


During reading

It is important to for the adult / teacher to read the story or text

before hand and get familiar with it. Select a few crucial points for

asking questions; asking children to predict or for giving a prompt.

These should not be too many, so that the children remain engaged with the story or written

text and enjoy it. During the second reading children can look for unfamiliar words; discuss

bits of the story that they did not understand or particularly liked or disliked. They can also be

helped to connect the story to earlier knowledge or some related experience.

Visualise

Ask children to make a mental picture of what is happening or what they are reading about

Connect earlier knowledge and experience with the information in the text

Children can think about what the text reminds them of. Think of what they already know

about the subject or story. Think about how the text/ story that is being read is similar to what

they already know or what have experienced and how it is different.

Think about explicit and implicit information (make inferences)

Children can be asked to locate some information that is given directly. Then to also think

about what they got to know from reading that is not directly stated in words , for example

such as how a character's actions show feelings or why things may have happened based on

the clues the author gave. This encourages children to engage more deeply with the text.

Look for main ideas and details or descriptions which support or add information to the

main idea

Study words and cross-check their meanings

During independent or guided reading encourage children to figure out unfamiliar words.

They need to ask themselves, "Does this word look right, sound right, and make sense?"

Get children to underline unfamiliar words, and try and figure out their meanings

Reread

When children are reading and problems occur, they can be encouraged to return to the

beginning of a sentence or paragraph and read it again to get a better understanding. They can

also stop and think about what has happened in the story so far based on what information

has been given.

Predict and confirm

At crucial points in a story being read out children can be asked to predict what will happen

next, and why. Later they can confirm their predictions.

Monitor your reading - Skip, read on, and go back and check

Show children how sometimes you can skip an unfamiliar word and read to the end of the

sentence or paragraph, thinking about what would make sense. Then, go back and reread to

try to figure out the word


After Reading

Retell

Children can tell someone or write about what happened in the story, including the

characters, plot, and important events. If they have read a nonfiction piece, they can review

the information was presented.

Reread

Children can reread the text or a section of the text to help them understand it better.

Summarize

To summarize children can be taught to first identify the most important ideas in the text and

put them in their own words. While summarizing they will need to learn to eliminate

unnecessary information.

Use a graphic organizer

This involves get children to use of a story ma; a flow chart; Venn diagram; a semantic map;

classification chart or any other visual way to present the information from the text or story.

This helps children to think and sort out the information in the manner that the particular

graphic organiser requires

Draw conclusions / logical reasoning

Ask children to think about what predictions they made before and during reading. Look back

and think about what they have read. Consider how the information read relates to what they

already knew about the topic. Were their questions answered? Do they have more questions

about the subject? They can be asked to give their reasons for why certain things happened in

the way they did. What would have happened if something in the story was different?

Discuss and respond

Encourage children to talk with someone about what they have read. They can ask each other

questions or present their ideas and thoughts about different aspects of the reading and then

defend their opinions through logical reasoning. Children can also be asked to think of

different endings or what would have happened if something in the story had been different.

Write to support understanding

Ask children to write and draw about what they have read through a variety of related,

interesting extension activities, such as making a related whole class story, or writing poems

or doing some related activity and then sharing it through the written form

Plan a creative follow up or extension activity.

Such activities need to extend the story or text ideas in interesting and engaging ways which

make children think and connect more deeply with the content of what they have just read.


An enabling classroom reading environment Some reflections . . . “I have found classrooms that feel safe and warm and sincere, instil in children a desire to read and write. Trust seems to emanate from the teacher to each child and from one child to another. Most interesting are children’s perceptions of themselves- their good feelings about their abilities to read and write when they are in a secure environment”. - Susan Glazer18 “My years of experience with children in classrooms support the influence of nurturing environments on children’s positive perceptions about learning . . . Freedom to explore their feelings and ideas through the materials made available and the consistency of classroom routines and activities are all powerful elements that influence children’s impressions of reading and writing. Children need to be interested in and familiar with the displays and materials in the classroom. This motivates learning”. -Lesley Morrow19 Features of an enabling reading classroom –views of the participants . . .

• The class environment is non threatening and so fosters risk taking and collaboration.

• There is dedicated time of at least two hours for reading, writing and oral language

work, which include opportunities for attentive listening.

• The classroom has a variety of interesting and suitable displayed print which is within

the children’s reach; used actively and changed regularly from time to time.

• There is a variety of reading, writing and drawing material including books that are

available within easy access for the children.

• There is opportunity for children to read independently and to monitor their own

reading, along with opportunity for teacher guidance or peer group learning.

• The children use their home language freely and are gradually led to the use of the

school language in planned ways.

• There are planned opportunities for children to engage with unfamiliar words and to

use them actively to enrich their spoken and written language expression.

18

Glazer,S.M. (1992)Reading Comprehension. Scholastic Professional Books, NY:20 19

As cited in the above book by Glazer:20


• The environment provides opportunity to share and respond to reading and writing in

many constructive ways, through individual, group and whole class experiences, so

that all the children learn different ways of sharing and responding.

• Children feel a sense of ownership and shared responsibility towards their classroom.

• Children are eager to read and write and engage in class activities.

A field experience

OELP presented two film clips. These were based on their classroom experience over the past

month, i.e. during the month of March, 2014, of using comprehension strategies while

engaging Class 2 learners with a story from the textbook. These two short film clips were

presented as raw unedited footage. The OELP team explained that these had been filmed by

amateurs, so the quality of the filming was wanting, however they were being shared with the

intention of grounding the consultation discussions in actual classroom experience.

The first film clip captured a read aloud session based on a textbook story “Poonchh ki

sawari”. There was an animated pre reading conversation which drew upon the children’s

knowledge about different types of tails; how they are used; why are they different and so on.

The children were also asked to read the title and then predict what the story could be about.

Most of the children participated actively. This was followed by the reading of the story. The

post reading activity, not filmed, was the filling in of a story map, based on the story.

Reflections: Some participants felt the pre reading discussion was too long, and distracted

the children from the story; others felt that the discussion was animated, but could have been

shorter. Should there be discussion in between? Should vocabulary exercises be done before

or after the reading? Should the teacher explain the story to children who do not understand

Hindi? Should the children be taken through a picture walk before the read aloud? These

were questions that cropped up. The OELP team explained that these are questions that come

up all the time. This is an organic process of trying out what works best in the classroom.

The second clip gave a brief glimpse of a vocabulary exercise, which was done as a follow

up to a read aloud session based on a textbook story. In this particular class activity the focus

was on the strategy of actively engaging children from Class 2 in the process of meaningful

decoding. The children had been asked to underline unfamiliar words, in the text, in pairs,

with a focus on words with the half letters. They were then required to try and sound out


these words on their own and then try to arrive at their meanings from the context clues

available within the sentence or other parts of the text. The film clip showed the children

reading out the words which they had identified; indicating that many had in fact managed to

decode these words. When the teacher asked for words with half /se/, the children were

calling out words like: dosti; rasta; Rajasthan; Hindustan.

Reflections: Some consultation participants did not get the idea of this clip. Others found that

the children were enthusiastic and actively involved in the process of figuring out difficult

words on their own, and the strategy of getting children to actively decode unfamiliar words

in pairs, seemed to be working.

Challenges “Of all the challenges that teachers of young children face, the challenge of introducing children to reading is perhaps the most difficult as well as the most exciting. It is the most difficult one because reading is not a simple skill; it involves the combination of many skills and cognitive abilities. There is no single, fool proof method of teaching how to read. Every method has its own limitations, and no one call tell the teacher precisely what to do under the given circumstances. Yet the teaching of reading is an exciting thing. It is exciting because so much in the child’s life depends on it, and once the child has been introduced to reading and books in a successful manner, there is no end to what the child can accomplish“. - Krishna Kumar, 198620 Challenges perceived by the participants . . .

1. At home and in communities

• Parent and communities do not understand the value of building strong foundations

for reading and writing in the early years. A large number of children from vulnerable

backgrounds are irregular in school because of their circumstances.

• There is no culture of reading. Practices for building language and literacy in the early

years such as storytelling and read aloud need to be reinforced.

• Good reading material for children is not widely available nor easily accessible.

20

Kumar, Krishna (1986) The Child’s Language and the Teacher – A Handbook. UNICEF: 23


• Children are not being allowed the space to learn in their natural ways.

• Dominance of a TV and Bollywood culture even in small towns, kasbas and villages.

• Local knowledge systems and some good traditional child rearing practices are

getting eroded very fast.

• There is a culture of memorisation and learning for marks or grades.

2. In schools

A. Classroom

• There is a dominance of textbook based curricula with practically no time spent on

listening and oral activities which engage children. As a result oral language

development and concept formation in the classrooms, which are required for later

learning, are not being addressed adequately.

• Transition from home to school language is not planned.

• The focus on comprehension is almost completely missing. The elements of

comprehension are not understood. Existing teaching practices are ineffective for

building understanding or meaningful engagement with content.

• The nature of questioning in the classroom is very superficial.

• Importance of read aloud is not understood.

• Classrooms are sterile and unfriendly. The learning environment does not facilitate

any form of meaningful learning.

• Adequate time for meaningful activities which focus on different aspects of language

and literacy is not provided.

• Lack of social and emotional space in the classroom to respect children individual

experiences and cultural backgrounds.

B. Teachers

• Teachers do not read.

• Teachers view reading as sequential skills where decoding is to be emphasised and

comprehension will somehow follow.

• Classroom processes and teacher’s beliefs focus on rote learning, copying, recitation,

mechanical drill or decoding.

• Often the teacher’s focus is on just a few learners in the classrooms.


• Teachers are not equipped to deal with interactive classrooms with reflective practice.

Teacher training is highly inadequate and needs a complete overhaul.

• There is reluctance to change even though the existing is not showing results.

• Teachers are bound by rigid expectations and do not have autonomy. They are being

driven by centralised programmes. They are burdened with proformas and

expectations that are unrealistic,

• De motivated and disinterested teachers who are not equipped adequately to engage

children in meaningful ways with literacy and language learning- archaic methods of

teaching.

• Traditional values. Do not understand children’s natural learning behaviours and the

need for children to explore all the dimensions of language, i.e. listening, speaking,

reading, writing and thinking.

C. Material

• Exposure to a variety of meaningful print for children is not available in the school or

classrooms.

• Absence of access to a variety of appropriate reading material in different genres

which encourages children to read in their home languages and school language.

• Lack of resources including writing material, suitable display material and other

literacy resources.

• Need for audio visual material based on the documentation of classroom based best

practices for use as a resource and for training.

• Need for teaching resources- compilations of activities; posters, poems, children’s

writings, local stories, art and various forms of local knowledge, along with teacher

handbooks or audio visual support material.

3. Within the system

• Limited or no access to meaningful, engaging and age appropriate reading material in

the home and school languages, especially for early grade learner. Reliance on

textbook is problematic, especially in the early grades.

• Mismatch between curricular and teacher’s expectations from children – both are

highly problematic and not based on an informed understanding of children’s learning

behaviours within the Indian context. On the one hand, too much is expected and

given in the first two years and then the backlog is never addressed. On the other


hand, in real terms the teachers’ expectations from children, especially in the

beginning grades are very low.

• Need for multi dimensional pedagogies and innovative methods instead of the one

dimensional didactic methods. Suitable pedagogies are not in place.

• Teachers are not suitably equipped with the skills, strategies and materials which are

required to teach comprehension or understand children’s learning behaviours.

Teacher training is not addressing the vital area of early literacy and language

learning, and does not equip teachers for handling and addressing real learning needs

of children from diverse backgrounds. It is essential to overhaul the existing teacher

education programmes.

• Dedicated, adequate time for reading and writing and connecting with a variety of

books and reading material is not available in the school programme.

• There is a bombardment of approaches which have been developed outside

classrooms. These are not grounded. Teachers get confused. Yet, there continues to be

an absence of any credible challenge to the rote learning method.

• Expectations from teachers are not matched with adequate resources and need based

support.

• Bench marks are mostly textbook based. There is great variation in these across

locations, along with a lack of clarity.

• Pressure of large scale standardised testing and assessment formats which are de-

contextualised and lead to mechanical and meaningless assessment or learner

tracking.

• Distance between field realities and policy makers and donor organisations Vital to

influence policy makers and to take this up as a mission.

• Mushrooming of private school with no accountability despite RTE.

• Lack of research to provide a knowledge base for informed instructional practices and

training development programmes.

• The system need to support teachers by making expectations from teachers real and

then support them in real ways to make success achievable


The way forward

Suggestions from the participants:

Clear goals for early literacy need to be articulated, so that reading and writing instruction is

not viewed as part of the teaching of a particular language but they are looked upon as crucial

requisites for building the foundations for meaningful learning in school and in later life.

These needs to become a priority focus area in the early grades in primary all schools and be

addressed at all levels by all stakeholders.

It is important to engage with field complexities and bring about a constant and on-going

dialogue between the academia, policy makers and administrators and practitioners. Perhaps

the way to go about this is to begin with a few ideas that are rooted inside classrooms within

diverse locations and think them through in organic ways so that they are well informed and

yet grounded. Such classrooms practices then need to be modelled for teacher development

through the establishment of select observation sites. Mentoring support for teachers needs to

be in place. Effective classroom practices need to be shared through a variety of ways which

include the audio-visual media.

The ideas and suggestions put forth by the participants have been grouped under different

categories below:

1. Suggested follow up of the consultation

• While work in small groups continues, there is a need to meet periodically as a larger

group and share field experiences and actual classroom practices, so that the

indigenous discourse with reference to reading comprehension and related

instructional practices can be given shape and strengthened while ensuring that it is

grounded inside classrooms. Sharing of audio visual material could form a part of this

process.

• Explore the possibility of forming an IRA like Indian Reading Association.

• Regional level workshops with a focus on reading in vernacular and regional

languages may be organised, so that the issues of specific contexts get addressed and

indigenous context specific informed discourses get strengthened.

• Explore ways of generating an informed discourse on early literacy within policy

makers; state administrators; school managements and civil society at various levels

and through various fora.

2. Engagement with the system

• Ms. Sunisha Ahuja, senior consultant for Ed. CIL.–MHRD suggested that the

recommendations from this consultation be spelt out with clearly defined non-


negotiables and sent to her. She will put these forward to the concerned authorities so

that these could be taken into consideration while framing the guidelines for the

states. A smaller group was formed for this purpose and these recommendations have

been forwarded. They have also been shared with the SRTT – SDTT partners who

attended the consultation, so that they can take these up at their own level with their

State Governments / SSA.

• A list of participants has also been sent as an accompaniment to the above

recommendations, so that these can be shared with State governments, when they are

on the lookout for resource organisations.

• Systemic problems to be identified at our individual levels, along with suggestions for

addressing these. Participant organisations to strategize as to how to take these ideas

to government representatives /schools / teachers / parents. Plan for engagement with

DIETS and SCERTS wherever possible.

• Assessment patterns need to be changed, to allow learning to take place while making

expectations real. It is important to establish clear, indigenous benchmarks for

assessing reading, especially at Grades 2 and 3 levels so that success becomes

achievable for learners from diverse backgrounds. Professional work of high quality is

required urgently in this area so that we can engage with learner progress in reading

through informed ways.

• It is important to allow space for diversity and build clarity on how classrooms can be

made more responsive to issues of diversity and difference.

3. Research

• There is need for dedicated research for building knowledge on the issues of language

acquisition in all the Indian languages as well as for developing an informed

knowledge base on specific issues such as the impact of home to school transitions on

classroom learning and more specifically on reading and writing.

• Building a data base of local knowledge forms and their use for language learning in

the diverse Indian contexts. Smaller research studies, including ethnographic village

and school based case studies could be undertaken for this purpose.

• Promote meaningful action research to build a better understanding about children’s

natural language learning behaviours and their implications for reading and writing

assessment and learner tracking, especially for children who belong to the more

challenged sections of society.


4. Teacher Education

• Specific pedagogies for reading with comprehension should be a focus area of teacher

education and a collective strategy needs to be worked out for ways in which to

incorporate these within the existing pre-service and in-service teacher education

programmes, including SSA in-service trainings.

• There is a need for building an informed understanding in the neglected area of

reading comprehension and for changing the mind sets of teachers and teacher

educators. The existing teacher education courses need major overhauling so that they

can adequately equip, convince and support teachers with good practices for both

reading and writing through planned advocacy and networking.

• Setting up observation centres / model centres for teachers to observing classroom

practices / pedagogies and the accompanying enabling conditions which focus on

building foundations for meaningful reading and writing and comprehension. For this

purpose linkages between teacher education institutes and model observations sites

will need to be explored, with a priority being given to setting up high quality

observations sites within a select number of existing schools..

• Within teacher education the need for enhancing world knowledge and conceptual

understanding of teachers must be recognised. Ways of imparting and supporting the

continued enhancement of such knowledge needs to be a focus area.

• Strengthen mechanisms for providing meaningful support and on-site mentoring to

teachers

• Audio visual material demonstrating good practices to be developed and used for

teacher education.

5. Material

• Schools must also have access to good children’s literature and libraries. There is a

dire need for plenty of good quality and easily available reading material for young

developing readers and writers in their home languages as well as in the school

language. We need to strategize on ways of bringing these into the classroom. This is

an area we all need to focus on at our own levels, as well, in different feasible ways.

• Good advocacy material with a focus on different stake holders including policy

makers, education administrators, school managements, parents to be developed.

• Need to work on developing plenty of good children’s literature in regional and

vernacular languages.


6. Classrooms

• Ensure adequate time for literacy and language learning in Classes 1 to 3. At least one

and half to two hours per day to be introduced through the four / five block approach

for grades 1 and 2,( depending on feasibility for learning early language and literacy :

Oral Language Development (especially critical for second language learners and

speakers of dialects of the regional language), Read aloud, Guided reading, Word

study and Guided writing. Each of these blocks would take approximately 30

minutes/day to complete.

• Introduce read aloud in an informed manner while ensuring that reading is an

enjoyable and meaningful learning experience

• Plan for transition from home language to school language over a three year period

• Enrich the print environment and its active, planned usage within classrooms.

• Provide opportunities to children for self-expression

• Introduce practices supporting quiet time for children to work on their own.

• Focus on higher order learning skills right from the beginning


Appendices

Appendix 1: Consultation schedule -April 23-26, 2014

Day - session Session Title RPs & facilitators

Day 1 9:30 to 10am

Welcome and introduction to

the consultation

Amrita Patwardhan, SRTT

10:00 to 11:00 am

Opening session

Participants introductions

Introduction to the consultation

schedule

OELP

11:00 to 11:15 am Tea break

11:15 to 1:15pm Session 1

Understanding is missing from

the Indian classroom

Dhir Jhingran - UNICEF

1:15 to 2:15pm Lunch

2:15 to 5:30pm

Session 2

Experience sharing – SRTT

partners – and others

Focus: Perspective building on

RC. Challenges of comprehension

and ways in which various SRTT

supported and other programmes

address these.

5 facilitators

Amrita Patwardhan - SRTT

Sujata Noronha - SRTT

Shailaja Menon - APU

Shivani Taneja – Muskaan

Arti Sawhny - OELP

Day 2 9:30 to 11:00 am Session 1

A read aloud experience with

literary texts

Sujata Noronha- Bookworm /

SRTT

11:00 to 11:15 am Tea break


Response to literature

Shobha Sinha – CIE, DU


2:15 to 5:30 pm Session 3

The LiRIL Study experience –

focus on:

Comprehension based classroom

obs; listening comp;

points of breakdown; text types

Ways of addressing these across

different age groups;

Assessment.

Shailaja Menon - APU


Day 3 9:30 to 11:00 am Session 1

( in 3parts)

1. Understanding the reading

process (cueing systems)

Through an experiential activity

2. Activating schemas Activity

for reflection on our own reading

processes and awareness of meta-

cognition

3. Attributes of a good reader –

what do good readers do?

Keerti Jayaram - OELP

5 facilitators ( as above)

11:00 to 11:15 am Tea Break


Introduction to different

reading strategies / instruction

based on handouts - each group

reads about one or two strategies

and then shares with the others.



1:15 to 2:15 pm Lunch

2:15pm to 4:00 pm

Session 3

Modelling of strategies for

reading an information text

Keerti Jayaram -OELP


Discussions based on classroom

film clips

OELP team

5:00 to 5:30 pm

End of day -

half an hour

Selection of texts for group wise

modelling of strategies


Day 4 9:30 to 1:00pm Session 1

Group wise modelling of

strategies for reading a text



2:00 to 3:00pm

Session 2

Revisit response sheets / concept

note

or

Open session

Amrita Patwardhan -SRTT


3:00 to 4:00 pm Session 3

Way forward and summing up Amrita Patwardhan - SRTT


Appendix 2: Concept note for the consultation

The context

This Consultation is being organised at a time when there is a wide spread concern, in the

conversations around education in this country, about children ‘not learning’ in school. Some

of the recent documentation and discourse on education has viewed this as a crisis in

education. The outcomes of large scale assessments have continued to point out that large

numbers of children in different parts of India simply rote learning their way through school

without developing the basic skills for meaningful reading, writing and numeracy, (NCERT

Survey, 2012). Such children cannot therefore be called independent readers, writers and

thinkers.

If we focus on early grade reading and writing, the situation becomes complex when we look

at the diversity of learners, teachers and learning contexts across the length and breadth of

this country. Even though children are naturally wired to ‘make sense’ of their new

experiences; the differences between the school language and home languages; and between

the cultures of the school and the cultures at home can become a stumbling block for many

young school goers who are not able to relate to their unfamiliar and distant school

experiences in meaningful ways. Unless a conscious effort is made to connect school based

learning to the children’s lives and experiences a large number of young learners may

continue to view their engagement with reading and writing inside classrooms as something

to do with school and with the curriculum and relate to these in mechanical and meaningless

ways. More importantly, current literature on early literacy has highlighted that when young

learners are not able to experience reading and writing as something to do with their lives;

their thoughts or their experiences they do not build any inner connections with the texts that

they read or write in school and are therefore unable to comprehend these.

What is reading?

Reading is considered a constructive process, in which the meaning of a text is not contained

in the written words on a page instead; the meaning is constructed by readers through an

active interaction of their background knowledge and experience with the written words on a

page. The background knowledge and experiences of readers have come to be regarded as

crucial elements in this process of understanding written texts and in giving them meaning


(Pearson 2001). It is also becoming clearer through reading research that an individual reader

does not read in the same way. Each act of reading is influenced by three factors which

contribute to make reading a meaningful or meaningless experience. These are a) the text i.e.

its suitability in terms of level and content; b) the reader in terms of skill and the interest and

motivation of the reader which are influenced by the purpose for the reading and c) the

context or activity. Thus the act of reading is influenced by cognitive, linguistic, social and

affective factors. Features of the classroom, such as expectations of the teacher and the

comfort level of the learner are also important aspects since they determine to a large extent

how a reader will approach the text.

What about comprehension?

The National Reading Panel (NRP) was commissioned by the U.S. Congress to evaluate

thousands of research studies in the area of beginning reading. Based on their report,

Teaching Children to Read (2000), teachers and educators began to look at reading

instruction closely and identify classroom processes and pedagogies which facilitate

purposeful and meaningful reading and writing. This has led to the understanding amongst

reading professionals that children can be helped to read more efficiently by enhancing their

word identification skills, their fluency, their vocabulary and their comprehension strategies.

Within this body of work, comprehension, or the ability to read or listen and understand text,

is clearly recognized as one of the major goals of reading instruction (Duke and Pearson

2002).

Reading comprehension is considered an intentional and active process that occurs before,

during and after reading. There are two elements that make up the process of reading

comprehension, i.e. vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension. In order to understand

a text the reader must be able to read and comprehend the words used in a piece of writing. If

a reader struggles to read and understand words then the overall story or text will not make

sense either. This understanding of individual words or individual sentences is called local

comprehension. In addition to being able to understand each distinct word or sentence in a

text, the child also has to be able to put them together to develop an overall conception of

what the whole text is trying to say. During this process readers use their understanding of

words, which is called knowledge of words, as well as their prior experience or background

knowledge which is called knowledge of the world. This process of understanding the text is

called text comprehension or global comprehension. Research has also established the fact


that reading comprehension is affected by both an improvement in a reader’s vocabulary, as

well as an increase in prior knowledge related to the subject matter. In other words while

building reading comprehension both the ‘knowledge of the word’ and ‘knowledge of the

world’ are important and need to be addressed.

As far back as in 1978-79, Dolores Durkins spent several hours observing classrooms.

Through her well known and classic study she concluded that teachers were assessing the

students’ reading comprehension but not teaching them specific strategies to help them to

comprehend better what they read. Propelled by Durkin’s findings that most teachers test

comprehension but they do not teach it, along with the report of the NRP there has been a

consensus on the fact that comprehension strategies can be and need to be taught. Fountas

and Pinnell (2001: 277), however, have added a clarification which is important, I quote:

“While we believe strongly in helping students to become competent readers who can

use a range of comprehension strategies, we always keep in mind why we are doing it.

The bottom line is developing passionate readers – students who not only can but do

read, with a spirited enthusiasm that opens wide the doors of literature and yields the

riches of both fiction and nonfiction texts.”

The main aim of teaching reading comprehension strategies is to help readers interact more

completely with their reading and to make it a thoughtful experience. Stephanie Harvey and

Anne Goudvis (2007) explain it very well in their book called “Strategies That Work”:

“Reading comprehension is about much more than answering literal questions at the

end of a passage, story, or chapter. Reading comprehension is an ongoing process of

evolving thinking. When readers read or listen to a text being read aloud, they carry

on an inner conversation with the text. Readers respond with delight, wonder, and

even outrage. They question the text, argue with the author, and nod their heads in

agreement. They make connections, ask questions, and draw inferences to better

understand and learn from what they read or hear”. . .

The authors go on to say “We want our students to recognize how important their

thinking is when they read. It’s our job as teachers to convince students that their

thoughts, ideas, and interpretations matter. When readers engage in the text and listen

to their inner conversation, they enhance their understanding, build knowledge, and

develop insight.”

Even for very young preschoolers listening to stories or looking at and reading books can

become an active comprehension process. These young children can also be helped to listen

attentively; to use their prior knowledge to connect to, interpret and construct meaning about

what they listen to, look at or read. Questioning, predictions and other social interactions

during reading and read aloud sessions enhance children’s comprehension development


(Teale and Sulzby 1981). For example, book based conversations with the adults who read to

them can help these very young children to think, question and make deeper connections with

what they have read.

Some important comprehension strategies

The National Reading Panel (NRP) report, 2000, has identified comprehension strategies that

research has found to benefit readers and therefore need to be taught explicitly. Important

amongst these are:

- Prediction

- Activating prior knowledge ( connecting)

- Think aloud

- Using text structure

- Visual representation / graphic organisers

- Summarisation

- Questions / questioning

It is useful to understand that these strategies don’t occur in isolation, but two or three

different strategies often interweave as readers build a deeper engagement with a text. So,

readers may be taught to preview the text and raise questions or predict. They may at the

same time also be encouraged to connect the text to a related experience or other texts that

they have read. Finally, they will be helped to realise how questioning and connecting as

comprehension strategies have assisted them to read the text with a deeper understanding.

Skilled readers need to have efficient decoding skills. At the letter and word level readers

need to be aware that sounding out words and blending the sounds is how to recognize

unfamiliar words. They need to be able to automatically recognize most words that they need

to read so that they do not spend much effort in decoding and hence have a great deal of

cognitive capacity available for comprehending words meanings and ideas which are

represented by phrases, sentences and paragraphs. (Pressley, 2002:304).

Some ways in which comprehension strategy instruction helps readers Comprehension

strategy instruction helps readers to develop skilled and self regulated reading. In other words

they are able to monitor their reading comprehension so that they know when they understand

what they read and when they do not. Such readers are able to develop strategies to "fix"


problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Very young children in preschool or in

the early grades can also be helped to monitor their comprehension (Morrow et. al, 2009).

When children learn to monitor their comprehension they are able to:

• Be aware of what they do understand

• Identify what they do not understand

• Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own words

• Look back through the text

• Look forward in the text for information that might help to resolve the difficulty

• Use appropriate strategies to resolve specific problems in comprehension

The teaching of comprehension strategies helps readers to begin to think about how they are

reading and to regulate their own reading. Thinking about reading is different to thinking

while reading. In thinking about reading the reader is conscious of making connections; of

asking questions and looking for answers and of finding ways to understand a text in a deeper

way. This helps readers to have control over their reading. Such "thinking about thinking" is

an act called metacognition (Pressley, 2002).

How can reading comprehension strategies be taught?

The best way of teaching comprehension is through teacher modelling during read aloud

sessions and through guided practice. Different comprehension monitoring strategies may be

used during one reading episode. Before reading, readers can be taught to set a purpose by

raising some questions and then reading to look for answers. Readers may be shown how to

use ‘wh’ words to raise questions about the text before the reading. For example, why has the

story been given this title? Or where does the story take place? Questions may also be raised

based on the pictures in a book by taking a ‘picture walk’ before the reading. While they are

reading the readers are taught to actively look for answers to the questions that they have

raised earlier. During the actual reading, readers are also taught to monitor their

understanding by adjusting the reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text. They may also be

taught to go back and reread some parts that are not clear and try and "fix" any

comprehension problems that they may have. After reading, readers may be helped to check

their understanding through sharing or retelling of the text in their own words.


Response to literature

Louise Rosenblatt’s Readers Response Theory has viewed reading literature in terms of a

transaction between the reader and a text through which readers create the text by adding

their own meanings to that of the author’s. The transaction that each reader creates is

individual. In fact the transaction that the same reader creates during each reading of the same

text may also vary. There are a variety of responses to meaning and interpretations of the

same text depending on the reader’s background knowledge or the purpose and setting for the

reading. Each interpretation is considered equally valid. Rosenblatt distinguishes between

what she sees as two different types of reading – aesthetic and efferent. Aesthetic reading is

what we do for pleasure. Efferent reading, on the other hand, is reading that we do to get

information or to get things done. We therefore use different reading strategies depending on

the purpose of our reading. So, for example, the same literary text such as a poem or a story

may be read through an aesthetic stance when we read for pleasure and through an efferent

stance when we are analysing the author’s use of language. Literacy texts often evoke a

variety of responses which have to do more with readers’ feelings and imaginations and can

be different for each reader. They needed to therefore be dealt differently from information

texts.While responding to literature there are four paths to making meaning, namely, talking;

writing; reading and visually or through the performing arts. All these four paths help to

extend and deepen the engagement of a reader with a literary text.

A supportive classroom context

While reading comprehension strategies and response to literature are being considered as

important, other aspects of reading instruction also need to be borne in mind. Duke and

Pearson (2002) have listed some of these aspects out as the follows:

• Plenty of time spent on actual reading

• Experience with reading real texts for real purposes

• Experience with reading a range of genres

• An environment rich in vocabulary and concept development

• Plenty of opportunity and focus on building accurate and automatic decoding of

words

• Lots of time spent of writing texts for others to comprehend

• An environment which is rich in high quality conversations about texts


References

1. Duke, N.K. and Pearson, D.P. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading

comprehension. In A.E Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.),What research has to say

about reading instruction: Third edition :205-242, International Reading Association

2. Durkins, D. (1979), What classroom observations reveal about reading

comprehension; Technical Report No 106, Centre for Study of Reading, University of

Illinois, Urbana – Champaign.

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/.../ctrstreadtechrepv01978i00106_opt.pdf

3. Fountas, C.I and Pinnell, G.S. (2001). Guiding readers and writers - Grades 3 to 6,

Heinemann, Portsmouth,

4. Morrow, L.M; Freitag, E and Gambrell, L.B. (2009). Using children’s literature in

preschool to develop comprehension: Understanding and enjoying books (Second

edition), International Reading Association.

5. Pearson, D.P. (2001). Reading in the twentieth century. Michigan State

University/CIERA

www.ciera.org/library/archive/2001-08/0108pdp.

6. Pressley, M. (2002). Metacogniton and self-regulated comprehension. In A.E Farstrup

& S. J. Samuels (Eds.). What research has to say about reading instruction: 291-309,

International Reading Association.

7. NCERT Survey. (2012).National Achievement Survey Class V. New Delhi: NCERT

8. Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching

comprehension for understanding and engagement (Second edition). Stenhouse

Publishers

9. Teale, W.H. and E. Sulzby. (Eds). (1992.) Emergent Literacy: Writing and Reading,

Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation

10. The National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence based

assessment of scientific literature on reading and its implications for instruction

(National Institute of Health Pub. No 00-4769). Washington, D.C. National Institute

of Child Health and Human Development

www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/documents/report.pdf

Keerti Jayaram,

OELP


Appendix 3: Participants

S. No Name Organisation Email id

Representatives from SRTT - SDTT partner organisations 1

Vidya Ghugari Centre for Learning

Resources, Pune,

Maharashtra

[email protected]

2

3

Shiv Narayan Gour

Ishrat Jahan

Eklavya , Madhya

Pradesh

“

[email protected]

[email protected]

4 Manish Jain

Himmotthan Society,

Uttrakhand

[email protected]

5

6

Surender Parmar

Rais Khan

Jan Sahas, Dewas, MP

“

[email protected]

7 Jeevan Mendonsa

Jan Sewa Mandal,

Nandurbar, Maharashtra

[email protected]

8

9

Mounesh Nalkamani

Chitkalamba

KSU –

Kalike Samruddhi

Upakram, Karnataka

[email protected]

[email protected]

10

11

Neela Apte

Sajitha.S. Kutty

LiRIL Research Team

(SRTT- APU)

“

[email protected]

[email protected]

12

13

Shivani Taneja

Hari Darshyamkar

Muskaan, Bhopal, MP

“

[email protected]

[email protected]

14

15

Archana Kulkarni

Abha Basargekar

QUEST (Quality

Education Support

Trust),

Maharashtra

[email protected]

[email protected]

16

17

Namrata Ghosh

Atanu Sain

Vikramshila,

Kolkata,

W.Bengal

[email protected]

[email protected]


Delhi participants 18

19

20

21

Sunita Singh

CECED / AUD

Usha Sharma,

Nita Aggarwal

Sunisha Ahuja,

MHRD

CECED Ambedkar

University, New Delhi

Department of

Elementary Education

NCERT, New Delhi

Read Alliance,

New Delhi

Technical Support

Group, EdCil

MHRD, New Delhi

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

SRTT representatives 22

23

24

25

26

27

Amrita Patwardhan

Ajay Gupta

Benny George

D. Shiv Kumar

Sujata Noronha

Ujwal Banerji

Sir Ratan Tata Trust

“

“

“

“

“

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

OELP representatives 28

29

30

31

32

Arti Sawhny

Bhivaram Jat

Keerti Jayaram

Kiran Dubey

Pukhraj Mali

Organisation for Early

Literacy Promotion

“

“

“

“

[email protected]

[email protected]

“

“

“


Appendix 4: Resource persons Amrita Patwardhan is part of the elementary education portfolio of the Sir Ratan Tata

Trust. She has done her MPhil in Education from Central Institute of Education, Delhi

University. She represents the Trusts on the National Mission on Libraries. She is deeply

interested in early literacy and children’s literature.

Dhir Jhingran is presently Senior Advisor Education with UNICEF. He has worked in the

primary education sector for over two decades. He was Principal Secretary, Government of

Assam, and Director in the Ministry of Education HRD for 8 years. As Chief Programme

Officer for Room to Read, Dhir led the conceptualisation, design and implementation of early

grades reading programme in 9 countries in Asia and Africa. He has made a significant

contribution to programmes for education of children belonging to vulnerable and

marginalised group and different home languages; teacher professional development and

monitoring of school quality and student learning outcomes. Dhir has considerable

experience in research and evaluation. He has authored two books based on empirical

research. He holds a Ph.D in Education.

Keerti Jayaram is currently involved as Director of the Organisation for Early Literacy

Promotion (OELP), with field based interventions which are exploring ways of making early

literacy and language learning classrooms into meaningful, active and inclusive learning

spaces within rural state primary schools and community centres. She has several years of

experience in the fields of elementary education and early literacy as a teacher / learner and

educator in varying contexts and at various levels. Keerti also has experience of working with

children who are learning challenged. She has been involved in curriculum and material

development. She represents OELP on the National Advisory Body for Early Literacy set up

by the MHRD.

Shailaja Menon currently works as faculty in the area of Language and Literacy, School of

Education, Azim Premji University. She has her Ph.D. in language, literacy and culture from

the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and degrees in human development and psychology

from MSU, Baroda, and Delhi University, respectively. Shailaja has worked in various

educational settings in the US and in India. She currently leads a longitudinal research project

investigating the teaching and learning of literacy in disadvantaged districts of Maharashtra

and Karnataka (LiRIL). She has an abiding interest in imparting a love for language,

literature and literacy to children, teachers and teacher educators, and engages in a variety of

initiatives that help promote these.

Shobha Sinha is Associate Professor, Department of Education; University of Delhi. Her

research interests include emergent literacy; response to literature and literacy in the

classroom context. She is responsible for conceptualising and implementing the first graduate

and post graduate courses on Reading, in the country, which are being offered within the

education programmes at Delhi University. She is currently engaged with a study of literacy

development of first grade children from low socio-economic status backgrounds in

Jharkhand. She has been on several National Committees which include the Steering

Committee and Advisory Board, of the Reading Cell, NCERT and the National Advisory

Body for Early Literacy set up by the MHRD. She has published several academic articles in

Hindi and English.

Sujata Noronha is an educator who works with literacy and reading resources. She consults

for SRTT on Library and Literacy programs and is Director of Bookworm, Goa.

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