UK Comenius Project dissemination event September 22, 2011

1. Comenius Project dissemination event http://www.um.es/childrensliterature/site/

2. Acknowledgments Iceland Prof Kristín Aðalsteinsdóttir Guðmundur Engilbertsson Spain Dr Purification Sanchez Dr Pascual Perez-Parendes Turkey Dr Ayten Kiris Nihan Erol Prof Hamza Keles UK Dr Penelope Harnett Dr Elizabeth Newman Dr Cathy Butler Jane Carter

3. 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

5. 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

7. Adaptation, development and dissemination of practical and effective pedagogical strategies

8. Encourage diversity and respect for cultural difference

9. Establish a website

10. Produce CPD materials

13. Socio economic background was a strong indicator of reading attitudes and activity

14. The decline of traditional literacy practices - the bedtime story (or equivalent)

15. Children and teachers’ perceptions of purposes of classroom reading activities are often different

16. The funny book is supreme!

18. Some challenging and unusual texts

19. Not forgetting poetry...

20. 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/

21. 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

22. Your mission This project is funded by the European Union 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.

24. Akureyri, Iceland

25. Ankara, Turkey

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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: often Iceland – 58% Spain – 50% Turkey – 63% England – 44%

30. 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

31. 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

33. The researchers asked children if they had the internet at home Is there anything interesting in the data? Activity 4 Diamond nines Reading ambassador recommendations What are your 3 recommendations to government about internet use and reading?

35. 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?

37. Tea and coffee

38. Guðmundur Engilbertsson

39. 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%).

40. 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

41. 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)

42. Not reading between the lines… But…. ‘Reading comprehension happens between the ears!’ Zimmerman and Hutchins (2003)

43. 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)

44. Any ideas?

45. Clues

46. The TinderboxCLPE based pack

47. Bookzips I wonder what… I wonder why…. I wonder if….. I wonder how…. I guess that…. I think that…..

48. 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?

49. 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

50. 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)

51. 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?

52. 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

53. 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

54. To finish……..

55. Acknowledgments Iceland Prof Kristín Aðalsteinsdóttir Guðmundur Engilbertsson Spain Dr Purification Sanchez Dr Pascual Perez-Parendes Turkey Dr Ayten Kiris Nihan Erol Prof Hamza Keles UK Dr Penelope Harnett Dr Elizabeth Newman Dr Cathy Butler Jane Carter