Looking at effective teachers of reading

Figure 1.6: A teacher and children in class

Activity 1.7: An example of good literacy teaching

Timing: (We recommend that you spend 30 minutes on this activity)

Part 1

Teaching literacy effectively requires a considerable range of skills. As you read the next case study (Case study 1.2), write down:

  • all the things that the teachers do to support literacy
  • what the children actually did in the lesson.

Case Study 1.2: An example of good literacy teaching

The Grade 1 teacher Juba was talking at the end of the day with a colleague Tabitha.

Juba:
I’m so pleased with what happened today at school.
Tabitha:
What were you doing?
Juba:
The children had been looking forward to Tia’s grandmother, Grace, coming into school to tell a story. She told us a story called ‘Boxes on the Bus’. She brought a big cardboard box in with her.
The story was about all the different people who get on the bus. Each person is carrying a box. Sometimes the box is big and sometimes it is small. There is something in each box. Grandmother Grace asked the children to join in when she said ‘And in the box was a …’.
She asked the children to guess what was in each box on the bus. Sometimes it was something very small, like a button, and sometimes it was something very big, like a goat. Each time someone got on the bus with a box, Grandmother Grace asked a child to come to the front to think of an action. Praise pinched her fingers together to make a button and Innocent made up an action for the goat by ‘walking’ four fingers up his arm.
After she had told the story once, I asked the children to help Grandmother Grace tell her story. She chose two children at a time to come and do the actions with her and to repeat each part of the story after her.
Tabitha:
What did Tia think of having her grandmother come to school?
Juba:
That was one of the best parts for me. Tia is usually so quiet and sits at the back, and doesn’t join in. But today she was smiling and doing all the actions. She sat at the front and said proudly to her friend, ‘That’s my Grandma’.
Tabitha:
What are you going to do tomorrow about the bus story?
Juba:
I’m going to ask the children to tell me the story of ‘Boxes on the Bus’. Then we are going to make a big book of the story, with words and pictures. Also, I’ve also found another story about a journey on a boat to read to the children next week.
Tabitha:
You could bring in an empty box like Grandmother Grace and ask children to make up a new story.
Juba:
Good idea! We could do ‘Boxes on the Boat’ with different objects and animals.
 

This case study is also available to download. [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]

Part 2

Having read the case study, can you identify which parts of the lesson you already do? The children’s active participation in the lesson provides informal opportunities for the teacher to assess the children’s early reading development. Record in your study notebook one area of assessment that the teachers could choose to focus on.

Answer

Both the children and teacher learned a lot in this lesson.

The teacher:

  • talks to a colleague to reflect on her experience and share ideas for improving the lesson
  • invites someone from the community into the class to help her
  • creates the opportunity for children to talk and share ideas
  • encourages the children to think of and use physical actions to match the words they had chosen
  • encourages children to think of new words that they could act out
  • uses resources (proposing another story and planning to bring in a box)
  • chooses a context for the activity that is familiar to children
  • selects an activity that combines top-down and bottom-up approaches to reading
  • informally assesses the children throughout the lesson.

The children:

  • are all included
  • listen carefully to each other
  • think of different words
  • make up actions to match their word
  • use rhythm and rhyme
  • talk with each other
  • enjoy the lesson
  • are actively engaged in their learning
  • can make links with prior home experiences of storytelling.

This culturally relevant activity enabled all children to be actively involved and engaged, and we can imagine how much the children would have enjoyed this type of reading activity.

Something to think about: In your own teaching, how often do you do any of the things that teacher Juba did? What are you teaching next week? Which of these strategies could you use to make the lesson more enjoyable, help children learn to read more effectively, motivate children to want to read, etc.

Case Study 1.2 illustrates some things that teachers can do to support early reading. The prospect of being responsible for teaching a large class of young children to read can be very daunting. But if you talk it through with colleagues break it down into simple steps, it becomes more manageable.

A question of language

Where do reading activities fit into the weekly timetable?