Reading is in the news they say we need a revolution - lets revolt!

 

A new "report" by The Grattan Institute has hit the media this week. It is early in the Australian school year, teachers are just meeting their new classes and adjusting to yet more new syllabus documents. The timing of this is so awful and this report fills me with rage and dismay. 

Think about these awful sensational newspaper headlines: 

• ‘We need a reading revolution’: Schools urged to chase more ambitious targets; 
• “Productivity? Ensure kids can read”; 
• One-third of Australian children can't read properly as teaching methods cause 'preventable tragedy', Grattan Institute says; 
• One in three could be left behind without revolution to end reading wars 
• Poor reading skills costing economy billions

YES of course we want all children to succeed with reading. BUT there is SO much more to this than learning rote skills or parroting phonics or other forms of whole group mass instruction.

Children need;

• BOOKS - these can come from libraries especially SCHOOL libraries. Children need access to the best books we can give them and today there are millions of these - please stop talking about antiquated favourites such as Enid Blyton - the world has moved on. Every bookshop and library is filled with book treasures. I have 3000+ on this blog for example. We live in an age when there is an explosion of books being published for children. 

• BOOKS and CHOICE - someone needs to purchase books, and organise them and promote them - this is the role of the TEACHER-LIBRARIAN - and every school should have a trained person in this important role. Readers also need choice and this comes from their school library which can hold many more books than could ever be placed in a single classroom.

• TIME - children need to be given time to read - how can they develop stamina, and more importantly discover that reading is a wonderful activity well beyond just something we do for information. The goal of reading for pleasure should be a top priority in all classrooms.

I have talked about reading on this blog previously:

• Libraries, books, time for reading, and more
• The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller
• Sydney Morning Herald article "Children are forgetting the joy of reading books"
• Wisdom for Teacher-Librarians (and teachers too)
• Back to school - Read to your class (please)

Please please please - Watch this video from Colby Sharp - he identities FOUR things we need to do develop lifelong readers, to help students see a purpose for reading. To help them fall in love with reading! TIME, ACCESS TO BOOKS, CHOICE, COMMUNITY (the classroom community filled with kids who love reading, who inspire others to read, who talk about reading and see it as a wonderful activity). 

Here are two wonderful letters written in response to The Grattan Institute report by retired Teacher-Librarian Sharon McGuinness 

Two weeks into the new school year, and we have a new report on the teaching of reading. Jordana Hunter calls for a 'reading revolution' but fails to realise that such a revolution cannot take place without developing a love of reading for enjoyment as an essential part of her reading guarantee.  This means a whole school approach in adopting a reading culture, providing rich experiences where students can choose and read the books they want, from a school library selected by a professional who can respond to the students' specific reading needs. Don't ignore the role that developing an enjoyment of reading plays alongside acquiring reading skills. That's the real reading revolution we need. Sharon McGuinness, Thirroul

I want all kids to read well and confidently but also for enjoyment and all their lives. Even though it is claimed to be a myth, the structured literacy approach can lead to “readicide” when the teaching of reading is overly dependent on “readers” and whole class “read alouds”, which is boring and monotonous. All students learn to read differently, it’s not by osmosis, it’s not by whole language alone and it’s certainly not via structured literacy ie direct instruction alone. Teachers don't need more 'methods' tell them they are doing it wrong, they need to be able to tailor their teaching to suit the needs of the children in their class. They also need more funded learning support staff in every classroom, while every school needs a professional teacher librarian and funded school library to support wide reading needs of the entire school. The reading wars will not be over until each is guaranteed Sharon McGuinness, Thirroul

Look at this six-point solution from the Grattan Institute - I sigh and sigh - where are the books, where is the library, where is the reading passion, where is the purpose. Comprehension is barely mentioned. We do not need more testing!!!

The Grattan report calls on all Australian state and territory governments, and Catholic and independent school sector leaders, to commit to a six-step ‘Reading Guarantee’:

1. Pledge that at least 90 per cent of Australian students will become proficient readers.

2. Give principals and teachers specific guidelines on how to teach reading in line with the evidence on what works best.

3. Provide schools with the high-quality curriculum materials and assessments that teachers need to teach reading well.

4. Require schools to do universal screening of students’ reading skills and help struggling students to catch-up.

5. Ensure teachers have the knowledge and skills they need, through extra training, and by appointing Literacy Instructional Specialists in schools.

6. Mandate a nationally consistent Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, and regularly review schools’ and principals’ performance on teaching their students to read.

Here is the full report - I did a search for the word LIBRARY - it is not there - well it is there five times in the bibliography!

Then there is a whole layer of conversation to be had from the cartoon image that accompanied the Sydney Morning Herald letters I have quoted above.

Image source: Sydney Morning Herald 14th February, 2024 John Shakespeare

I have talked about the enormous impact of devices on our children in a previous post. The Grattan report does NOT mention the school library but it does mention the word VOCABULARY 25 times. If parents and other adults are not talking with and reading to our children then of course they never develop their vocabulary knowledge. This is another aspect of reading and in my view it cannot be taught in isolation. Children need to hear rich language in books and in conversations and from that they will use these words in their own communication - talking and writing. 

This important point is buried in the report in table 2.1 page 24 For beginning readers, as well as reading decodable texts for independent practice, rich texts should be read together, led by the teacher, so all students are exposed to new and more complex vocabulary, sentence structure, non-literal language, and background knowledge.

Where will these RICH TEXTS come from?  The school library is the best place surely. 

Here are two more letters to our Sydney Morning Herald from this week:

I, too, was lucky to be able to read before attending a one-teacher school in 1940 where phonics and drill in basic arithmetic were the morning schedule. My teacher training course covered a suite of reading strategies I used successfully as a primary teacher. However, my years as a special school principal and later a researcher in reading, revealed that a proportion of children find reading quite difficult. They need carefully structured lesson plans which include phonics together with strategies to ensure that there is joy in reading through stirring the imagination. ...  Trevor Parmenter, Breakfast Point

In my many years of visiting scores of schools as a researcher I never met one teacher who did not appreciate that phonics is a useful, indeed necessary tool in teaching reading but it is limited and is one aspect of a suite of measures emphasising reading for meaning rather than decoding. Many words cannot be “sounded out”. A balanced approach takes into consideration children’s prior learning, home background, their interests, local contexts, the joy of a story or poem, and more. In ensuring “kids can read” comprehension and love of reading to learn are what matter. Ron Sinclair, Windradyne

Apologies for all the capital letters in this blog post - but I think this reflects my rage over this issue.

Sparrow girl by Sara Pennypacker illustrated by Yoko Tanaka

...a powerful message that one small person 

can make a big difference.

In our library sessions last term my senior classes explored a number of picture books with an Asian setting.  With each book we looked in detail at the author's inspiration, other works by the author and illustrator, background information about the story (many of which were based around real events and people) and took time to talk about cover images and book design.

One of the books that elicited the most discussion was Sparrow Girl.  Just like my students, I had no idea Mao declared war on sparrows along with rats, flies and mosquitoes.  This time was called the four pests campaign.  It is easy to understand the science of why this had such terrible effect. Killing 30 billion sparrows led to a catastrophic famine leaving 30-40 million people dead.  Here are a set of lesson notes for this book.  For more information about this book read this review.

Before reading this book we talked briefly about Mao and his ideas and then watched this short. but disturbing film from Germany where you can see people beating drums and killing the sparrows.

"They're like teardrops. The sky is crying birds." - Ming-Li

The hero of this fictional account by Sara Penny Packer is little Ming-Li.  She cannot understand why the sparrows are considered bad.  With her brother's help she rescues just seven precious birds.  The crops fail.  Ming-Li tells her father her secret.  She has saved a handful of sparrows.

"Your daughter brings us a miracle!' ... From this day, sparrows will be safe in our village. And we will tell everyone we meet from other villages about the wisdom of the Sparrow Girl."

Sara Pennypacker is the author of the terrific junior series Clementine and also the books about Stuart along with the wonderful senior novel Pax.  Yoko Tanaka has done many books but one we are reading at the moment is The Magician's Elephant as we prepare for the visit by Kate DiCamillo to our city next month.

Over the next few days I will talk about some of the other books we explored this term.

The name at the end of the ladder by Elena De Roo

I always enjoy books set in the future involving draconian controls imposed by a corrupt government. The name at the end of the ladder only hints at this but I did enjoy the premise that names are dangerous and so children have to wait until they turn twelve when they can 'choose' a name.  I say 'choose' because it seems there really is no choice.  The authorities or Investigators have created a safe name list and even though they give lip service to the idea of matching the name with the child this clearly is not really their practice.

"Here at the Name Bank we pride ourselves on our efficiency.  We'll have a name chosen for you in no time at all... He sounded friendly enough but September's gut told her otherwise. The words 'chosen for you' and 'assigned' didn't sound promising."

Until the age of twelve children are named by the month of their birth and so as this story opens September has just turned twelve and so she has an appointment with The Name Bank.  This appointment does not go well but as she is leaving, September, opens a lolly wrapper and reveals the words :

"Winner!

Play the game to choose your name!

Collect your prize from basement level 4, room 449."

September does indeed have to play the game. She plays the game using herself as a counter.  It is a game like snakes and ladders and after each turn the player is presented with a tuning fork and a new name.  Each of these names has severe consequences for September and then she realizes to reach the final square, where the perfect name awaits her,  the player must throw the exact number.  She hears the voices of other children and realizes they are trapped in the game.  Time is running out.  She has some help from a boy called August who is also playing this game but so much depends on that final roll of the dice.  Her father would be a brilliant ally after all he works for the Council of Knowledge but she is afraid to tell him the truth.

Here is a set of teaching notes from the publisher.  Here is the author web site.  You might also enjoy The Museum of Thieves, Finding Serendipity, Among the Hidden or Forbidden Memories.

If you enjoy fast paced action, board games, solving puzzles, the triumph of good over evil and strong-minded characters like September you will enjoy The Name at the end of the Ladder.

Who's in charge

Here is my first review of a non fiction book. Everything about this book is yelling out the word quality. The title Who’s in charge? The cover layout. The foreword – something I don’t always read. The table of contents and finally the fabulous easy to read and engaging text on a complex and difficult subject – politics, leadership, governments, voting, democracy and so much more.

Using bright relevant graphics, different sized fonts, cartoons and catchy headings, Who’s in charge is a book that you will want to read from cover to cover in one go. Later you might return and dip into the sections that are of interest and there are so many all easy to find using the extensive index.

If you are trying to explain any aspect of government or politics to a young student then this is the perfect book. I especially enjoyed the pages that explain left or right, socialism versus conservatism. This is a book from the UK but it is full of international examples and since it was published in 2010 it is very up to date.

In conclusion I will quote from the foreword :

“Half the people in the world live in a democracy… but even in a democracy, millions of people have no effective voice at all. Perhaps they don’t vote, … or don’t follow the news so simply don’t know what’s going on. The truth is, politics only works when people put in the (small) amount of thinking needed to take part. It is messy, but often exciting … do you want to get involved, or just made to follow someone else’s rules?”

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

I often find myself drawn to read books with a futuristic setting. I love this kind of book and Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix did not disappoint. In fact I sat down just two hours ago and swallowed down the whole book in one quick sitting.

Luke is the third child living in a world where only two children are permitted. The world has experienced severe famine and in response the totalitarian government have laid down numerous rules about food production, farm management and family size. They even have Population Police who supposedly monitor computers and televisions hunting out third children. The politics of this book is also intriguing as we gain insights into the enormous corruption of the government.

Luke lives a totally isolated life hidden inside his own house. The situation has been made worse when urban sprawl changes his neighborhood and a new housing estate is built right behind the family fence line. This is where the book opens, as we discover Luke will now have to stay inside at all times.

“There was a law against Luke. Not him personally – everyone like him, kids who were born after their parents had already had two babies. Actually Luke didn’t know if there was anyone else like him. He wasn’t supposed to exist.” Page 6

Then Luke’s world is turned upside down when he meets Jen, a third child, living next door. She gives him a new world view and the courage he will need to take his first steps into this frightening world.

Yes there are sequels in fact there are six more books but at only 150 pages each this is fine, in fact I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book Among the impostors.