Comenius Project dissemination event

http://www.um.es/childrensliterature/site/

Acknowledgments

IcelandProf Kristín Aðalsteinsdóttir Guðmundur Engilbertsson SpainDr Purification SanchezDr Pascual Perez-Parendes

TurkeyDr Ayten Kiris Nihan Erol Prof Hamza Keles UKDr Penelope Harnett Dr Elizabeth Newman Dr Cathy Butler Jane Carter

Outline of the afternoon

• Introduction and welcomes• Current children’s literature • The research findings, explored using the

children’s CPD pack • Guðmundur Engilbertsson – lessons from

Iceland: vocabulary teaching • Strategies and approaches for the classroom -

the second CPD pack

Introduction • A research project involving

four countries – Iceland, England, Turkey and Spain

• Over 6000 children and about 250 teachers completed an on line survey about their reading habits, preferences and details of the learning and teaching of children’s literature

• About 150 children and their teachers talked to researchers in each country

Aims of the Project• Cross national project based

on a comparison of the use of children’s literature - reading, learning and teaching

• Adaptation, development and dissemination of practical and effective pedagogical strategies

• Encourage diversity and respect for cultural difference

• Establish a website• Produce CPD materials • Demonstrate the impact and

sustainability of the research

Why is it important?

1. OECD international comparisons• ‘The evidence showed that the ‘will’ to read needed to be developed alongside the

‘skill’ to read because each feed off each other.’ (Lockwood, 2008:4) • ‘being an enthusiastic reader’ and ‘being a frequent reader’ were more significant in

terms of advantage than ‘having well-educated parents’ (OECD, 2002:3)

2. The more you read literature the better you get at reading (Krashen, 2004)

3. Philip Pullman ‘we are creating a generation of children who might be able to make the right noises when they see print, but who hate reading and feel nothing but hostility for literature.’

4. Evidence that reading comprehension is ‘done’ but not taught • Snow and Sweet’s (2003) ‘the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing

meaning’.

Some headlines…..

Across all participating countries• The number of family books in the home had a strong impact on

a range of reading activities and attitudes• Socio economic background was a strong indicator of reading

attitudes and activity• The decline of traditional literacy practices - the bedtime story (or

equivalent) • Children and teachers’ perceptions of purposes of classroom

reading activities are often different• The funny book is supreme! • English teachers selected books to use with children based on

what they read as a child (73% - significantly more than other countries)

What do we know about children’s literature – some good reads?

Some challenging and unusual texts

Not forgetting poetry...

Your favourites?

Share your

current favourite for the age group you teach – what are you reading to your class and what other books are you recommending?

Useful websites:• http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/schools

_teaching

• http://www.justimaginestorycentre.co.uk/

• www.achuka.co.uk• www.booksforkeeps.co.uk• http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.

org.uk/Home

• www.readingzone.com• www.sla.org.uk• http://bookahead.org.uk/ • http://www.wordsforlife.org.uk/primary • http://www.cool-reads.co.uk/

Sharing the findings – CPD packhttp://www.um.es/childrensliterature/site/

Aims of the CPD pack • To enable children to investigate how children’s

literature is used and read in different countries • To encourage children to reflect on their own

experiences and to link these to experiences of children in other parts of Europe

• For children to offer their perspectives and recommendations for promoting reading and so valuing children as partners in the Comenius Project

Your mission

You have been selected as ‘Reading Ambassadors’ to offer your recommendations to governments on helping children become interested and effective readers who read for pleasure and purpose.

This project is funded by the European Union

Can you locate the four countries involved? Iceland, Spain, Turkey and England

Children and their teachers completed a survey about reading and literature in four cities in each of the four countries.

• Murica, Spain• Akureyri, Iceland • Ankara, Turkey• Bristol, England

Activity 1

What sort of reader would you say you are? I love to read.It’s okay to read.I don’t like reading.

Can you predict the country that had the highest percentage of children who said ‘I love to read’?

Reading ambassador recommendations

Governments are trying to increase the number of children who say they ‘love reading’ as research shows that if you love reading, you read more and if you read more, you get better at reading. Governments also know there are other benefits to reading, including developing a person’s understanding of the world and problems and issues in the world as well as preparing someone to use their reading in the jobs they will do in the future and as a way to relax.

What are you recommendations for government. How can they increase the number of children that say they ‘love’ to read.

Activity 2The bedtime story and being read to at school

Children were asked how often someone at

home read to them in the evening before they went to sleep and how often their teacher read to them at school.

Why do you think the researchers were

interested in finding this out? Look at the statements and decide if they are true or false.

Reading aloud How often does someone in your

family read for you in the evening before you go to sleep?

Answer: Never• Iceland – 47.4%• Spain – 55.4%• Turkey – 41.9%• UK – 48.8%

Does your teacher read aloud to you,

Answer: oftenIceland – 58%Spain – 50%Turkey – 63%England – 44%

Recommendations

If hearing stories read aloud is important, what are you reading ambassador recommendations to government to encourage reading aloud to children?

What are your top 10 books for reading aloud?

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/childrens/GreatBookstoReadAloud/

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0000/0865/Storytelling_tips.pdf

Activity 3 How long do you spend reading and where do you read outside of school

“I love reading. I read everywhere – curled up in an armchair, slouching on the sofa, lying in the bath, half-dozing in bed. I always read on journeys. I even read walking along, though this is silly, and I shall doubtless walk slap-bang into a lamppost one day.”

Jacqueline Wilson

Country I don’t read

at homeI read for five minutes a day

I read for fifteen

minutes a day

I read for thirty

minutes a day

I read for an hour or more

a day

I don’t know how long I read a day

England

4% 17% 17% 15% 19% 28%

Iceland2% 8% 19% 11% 10% 50%

Turkey 2% 6% 9% 35% 38% 10%

Spain 1% 9% 20% 30% 19% 21%

The researchers asked children if they had the internet at home

Is there anything interesting in the data?

Activity 4Diamond nines

Reading ambassador recommendations What are your 3 recommendations to

government about internet use and reading?

8%

2%

36%

27%

92%

98%

64%

73%

0% 100%

England

Iceland

Turkey

Spain

No Yes

Favourite books

Children were also asked about their favourite books. Across all four countries these two books were popular:

The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer and The Harry Potter books by JK Rowling

What sort of books were popular?

Country Fantasy stories

Horror stories School stories Funny stories Adventure stories

England 54% 49% 25% 74% 66%

Iceland 48% 27% 39% 39% 61%

Spain 61% 43% 16% 61% 68%

Turkey 36% 50% 31% 65% 73%

Tea and coffee

• Guðmundur Engilbertsson

The second CPD pack – using children’s literature

More of our children can read, but more are choosing not to be readers.

• 77% of children who read for longer than an hour at a time are above average readers, while just 4% who read for over an hour are below the level expected of them.

• Only 30% of children who read for up to 10 minutes at a time are above average readers, with 20% below the reading expected level for their age.

• Text messages are the most popular thing for children to read outside of class with 60% saying they read texts outside of class at least once a month.

• Children who read text messages but not fiction books are twice as likely to be below average readers compared to those who also read fiction (10% versus 5%).

Real reading – reading for pleasure and purpose involves ….

• decoding the words and sentences; extracting the meaning; synthesising the topics to create a ‘logical structure’; identifying key ideas and drawing on prior knowledge to make meaning (creating a mental model of the text)

• You need to know about: vocabulary; literal and inferential comprehension; locating the main idea and evaluation

• 5 specific practices: prediction, questioning, clarifying, imagining and summarisation

The second CPD pack – using children’s literature

Core principles• To engage the reader in reading for pleasure• Using quality texts that offer possibilities • To ‘tap in to’ learner’s prior knowledge • To teach comprehension strategies • To be taught in a range of ‘social contexts’

(groups, pairs, role of the teacher)

Not reading between the lines…

But….

‘Reading comprehension happens between the ears!’

Zimmerman and Hutchins (2003)

7 keys to comprehension – what you teach, what you make explicit through modelling and

the release of responsibility • Creating mental images (including visualisation) • Using your background knowledge – making connections

(text to self; text to other text; text to same text; text to world)

• Asking questions (generating questions before, during and after reading to clarify, predict and decide what is important)

• Making inferences (including response, word games, predicting, wondering)

• Determining the most important ideas • Synthesising (putting it all together) • Knowing you ‘don’t get that bit’ and knowing what to do

about it. Zimmerman and Hutchins (2003)

Any ideas?

Clues

The TinderboxCLPE based pack

Bookzips

• I wonder what…• I wonder why….• I wonder if…..• I wonder how….• I guess that….• I think that…..

Using the pictures • What interests you in the

picture? • What can you tell about the

setting ?• When do you think the story is

set? • Where could this be?• What sort of stories do you

know with settings like this?• What sort of people might live

in a place like this?• What questions would you like

to ask the illustrator?

Readers theatre • Read the page aloud first then…divide

the text• Who is reading what? When are we all

reading? When is there one voice? Etc• Pauses and sighs • Chorusing• Repeating single words• Varying the speed and tone • Emphasising certain words –

onomatopoeia • Adding sound effects• Adding action

Dilemmas • Conscience alley• Or role playing the

judge and jury • Or speed sharing • Or room moving • Yes/no/why game

(actions or author’s approach etc)

Making connections

• Text to self• Text to other text• Text to same text• Text to world

• I wonder what you would do?

• Does this remind you of any other stories you have read?

• I guess that this was why the witch wanted the tinderbox – what do you think?

• What do I know about copper, silver and gold?

Summarising

• Text the story• Tweet the story so far (140

characters) • Give me a sentence • Police report – on the murder of

the witch ‘Tell me the facts - now give me the details’ or a 999 call

• Give the story another title • Choose one picture that sums up

the story• Words cost – and you have a £1

Where is the rest?

• All the CPD packs can be found on the website http://www.um.es/childrensliterature/site/ • One pack is just general ideas that can be used

with any text • Tinderbox specific pack• Children’s data CPD pack

To finish……..

Acknowledgments

IcelandProf Kristín Aðalsteinsdóttir Guðmundur Engilbertsson SpainDr Purification SanchezDr Pascual Perez-Parendes

TurkeyDr Ayten Kiris Nihan Erol Prof Hamza Keles UKDr Penelope Harnett Dr Elizabeth Newman Dr Cathy Butler Jane Carter