Reading Stories with Young Children PDF
Preview Reading Stories with Young Children
Reading Stories, A5, 7mm spine_Lifelong Learning John Fi#6BF35 17/12/2012 10:57 Page 1 reading stories with reading stories with young children young children R E A D I Robin Campbell N Robin Campbell G S T O It should be obvious that reading stories with young children greatly assists their literacy development, yet this often appears to R be forgotten in the rush to add still more new activities to the I curriculum. Reading stories with young children seeks to redress E the balance, focusing on what remains the most important basic S requirement for learning. W The book explores the ways in which reading stories with young I children can best enhance their literacy skills. The text provides T examples of how to enthral children by reading them stories and H provides practical suggestions about follow-up activities that will develop the listeners’ literacy. The extensive examples drawn from Y home and school will make this book an essential resource. The O links into writing, drawing and making, as well as to other U curriculum areas are made explicit. N Teachers of young children, teaching assistants and all those who G work with young children will find this book invaluable. Parents too will be interested to note how the readings with their own children C are subsequently developed in educational settings. H Robin Campbell is emeritus professor of primary education at the I L University of Hertfordshire. A primary school teacher and head D teacher before teaching at university, he has had fifteen books R published including Literacy from home to school: reading with Aliceand Phonics Naturally. E N ISBN: 978-1-85856-452-4 Trentham Books www.trentham-books.co.uk Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page i Reading Stories with Young Children Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page ii Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page iii Reading Stories with Young Children Robin Campbell Trentham Books Stoke on Trent, UK and Sterling, USA Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page iv Trentham Books Limited Westview House 22883 Quicksilver Drive 734 London Road Sterling Oakhill VA 20166-2012 Stoke on Trent USA Staffordshire England ST4 5NP ©2009 Robin Campbell All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. First published 2009 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN:978 1 85856 452 4 Designed and typeset by Trentham Print Design Ltd, Chester and printed in Great Britain by Page Bros (Norwich) Ltd. iv Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page v Contents Chapter 1 Introduction• 1 Chapter 2 Reading stories interactively• 15 Chapter 3 Reading stories in the classroom:getting started• 37 Chapter 4 The importance of narrative and quality books• 45 Chapter 5 Reading stories and print features• 63 Chapter 6 Activities based on reading stories• 75 Chapter 7 Interactive reading activities• 91 Chapter 8 Interactive writing activities• 103 Chapter 9 Mathematics,science and social studies activities • 113 Chapter 10 A last word• 119 References• 121 Children’s books • 129 Index• 131 v Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page vi Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page 1 1 Introduction W hen young children have stories read to them as part of a normal day they learn about reading, they act like readers and they become readers with an interest in books. Young children demonstrate this to adults constantly. Re- cently, after just a couple of readings by an adult of Four Fierce Kittens(Dunbar, 1991), Louie age 3 years, 9 months demonstrated how much he had learned of a repeated sentence in the story: Adult Said the marmalade kitten, spiking her claws ‘I am a terrible tiger! I shall hunt hen out of her hutch.’ And she tried to growl Louie (But she didn’t know how) She could only go... miaow miaow And hen went CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK Adult Said the black little kitten with a glint in his eye ... 1 Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page 2 READINGSTORIESWITH YOUNGCHILDREN Louie acted like a reader as he recalled a repeated sentence of the story. So although he was not yet attending directly to the print, he was well on the way to becoming a reader. Reading stories with young children at home and in school has a long and illustrious history. Huey (1908) argued that the parent and the young child reading a book was the road to success: ‘the secret of it all lies in parent’s reading aloud to and with the child’ (p332). A century later an overview of the research on reading aloud led by Zuckerman concluded that reading stories at home ‘promotes emergent literacy and language development’ and ‘a love of reading’ (Duursma, Augustyn and Zuckerman, 2008). There are numerous studies that have emphasised the importance of reading stories with young children. When we create book-loving schools and homes children respond by wanting to read (Michael Rosen.co.uk). The enjoyment, the learning and the encourage- ment of the child towards reading have all sustained the activity. But recently the primary school curriculum has become saturated with documents, strategies, targets and testing, testing, testing. So much so that sometimes there may appear to be so many accountability boxes to be ticked and plans to complete that fundamental aspects of literacy can be forgotten. Sadly, story read- ing is one key area that might seem possible to put to one side, as other more mundane activities have to be shown to be completed. Yet story reading must remain as a daily feature of primary school life because the literacy learning thus achieved and the desire to read that is created are far too important to be lost. An earlier book of mine appeared in the USA with the title Read- Alouds with Young Children (Campbell, 2001). The term ‘read- aloud’ is used in the United States to describe the worldwide phenomenon of an adult reading a book to and with a young child or a group of children (Trelease, 1995). Another text from America, although written by Australian author Mem Fox (2001), refers to ‘Reading Aloud to Our Children’. In New Zealand the same practice 2 Reading Stories A5 19/3/09 11:33 am Page 3 INTRODUCTION is termed ‘storybook reading’ (Phillips and McNaughton, 1990) while in the United Kingdom it is most often called ‘story reading’ (Campbell, 1990) or simply Reading stories with young children. This book explores reading stories both at home and at school with young children. Most of the observations for it took place in classrooms in England, predominately nursery or pre-school classrooms with 3 and 4 year olds, 5 year olds in reception class and 6 and 7 year olds in years 1 and 2. A few observations extended to other primary classrooms up to year 6 (age 11). A story reading can stand alone as an enjoyable activity, but for most children being able to respond to the story extends their enjoyment and furthers their understanding. Reading stories with young childrenfocuses on the reading and the activities that can be developed from it. Teachers of young children and teacher edu- cators may find this book useful as a means of reconsidering story reading and its contribution to a literacy curriculum. Parents too will be interested to note how reading stories at home provides a foundation for children’s reading and writing development. During readings the adult often encourages the youngest children to participate as the story is being read. So Louie was already con- tributing key phrases during a story reading when he was 2 years old. Adult ‘A leak in the roof. Oh,what bad luck! This is a job for...’ Louie ‘Fix-It Duck.’ In that instance the frequent use at the end of a sentence of Fix-It Duck(Alborough, 2001) made it easy for Louie to become part of the interactive reading. In other books the use of rhyming like luck/duckhelps the child to contribute to the reading. Then subsequently, not only do the children contribute, they also respond in various ways to the story that has been read (Neuman, 3
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