Growing Your Readers and Writers
Growing Your Readers and Writers
Growing Your Readers and Writers
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education system on the languages children and to sew seeds of curiosity and interest for reading
teachers speak, think and feel in; the need for and writing and the desire and motivation to
early literacy teaching approaches to be based in know more. In so doing, we are helping to create
meaningful and exciting encounters with stories
and books (Bloch 1999, 2000, Bloch and Alexander
2003, Bloch 2009).
are in fact places of learning, can contribute richly and discussing some major issues which affect
towards children’s literacy development. Their and influence formal literacy education. We then
role, even those who are not readers and writers introduce the work of Nal’ibali.
themselves is central for the growth of literate
communities. The hegemony of formal literacy education
3 In the February 2011 ANAs, the average score for Grade 3 literacy was 35% (Numeracy:
28%) and for Grade 6 Languages 28% (Mathematics: 30%) (DBE 2011:20).
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December 2014 Resourceful young children
significance of home and community settings for been considered systematically by the National
informal learning. Across South Africa and Africa, Department of Education.
children learn in and out of school in a range of
very diverse linguistic and socio-cultural contexts. On the prevailing early literacy pedagogy: In
Barbara Rogoff, an anthropologist, describes South Africa (and across Africa) few early literacy
children as cultural apprentices who learn the ways experts have studied how young babies and young
of their families and communities by joining into children learn to read and write or experienced
culturally valued activities. People around them for themselves the breath-taking learning
do not have to overtly signal or praise particular capabilities of young children. Thus, there tends
activities for children to start appreciating their to be little appreciation of relevant international
value relative to other activities within their theory and research about how literacy emerges
particular setting. Rather they experience and though informal and playful exploration and
come to know these profoundly through the actual experimentation with print. The early literacy
meaningful activities they have in the day-to-day curriculum - molded often in large part by
rhythm of life. She explains how both individual policy makers, linguists and text book writers -
participation and community traditions are contributes to a disastrous capping of children’s
dynamic, and how individuals both learn from and potential because it is based in flawed theoretical
shape cultural traditions as they ‘observe and pitch assumptions that children are passive agents
in’, adapting them for use in their own lives (Rogoff, who have to be fed knowledge, instead of seeing
1990, 1993). Put starkly, if people around you find them as active agents searching for meaning and
reading and writing useful and powerful, you will understanding as they interact with the world
start to engage and explore why this is so, and how around them. Many children dutifully master the
to do it for yourself. If, on the other hand they don’t, mechanics of reading but are often simply unable
the chances are that you won’t either. to comprehend and interrogate texts, or write
communicatively.
On the prevailing language policy: The assumption
that African language speaking children need Digging deeper: global forces reinforce
only three years of teaching through their inadequate approaches
mother tongue4 has disastrous implications
for a meaningful education. Nothing of the Keen global interests in the potentially fertile
transformative potential of a mother tongue African literacy markets enabled the USA’s DIBELS
based bilingual system (Alexander 2004) promised (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills)
by the 1997 Language in Education Policy has to give birth to EGRA (Early Grade Reading
yet to be realised; after the first three years, the Assessment5) for Africa, which began in 2006,
strange reality of an unsystematic ‘abracadabra- with South African government involvement. It
style’ linguistic mix prevails. In effect, this is the is now all over (Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda,
same ‘subtractive bilingualism’ system that has Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, DRC, Ghana,
been in place since apartheid days which in Liberia, Mali) and uses African languages. But that
the 4th year should bring about a transition to is not enough; pedagogy counts too! The five
English. To try to keep communicating and aid ‘essential’ components of reading development
understanding, many teachers continue to speak are proposed to be taught and assessed in strict
to children in African languages. But all textbooks order6: 1. the alphabetic principle, 2. phonemic
are in English and reading, writing and assessment awareness, 3. oral reading fluency, 4. vocabulary,
has to happen in English. For many adults and and 5. comprehension. In African settings, sadly
children, understanding, critical thinking and this reinforces many teacher’s own early personal
making meaning are only possibilities, rather experiences as learners of ‘ma me mi mo mu’
than the central tenets of education. Research by and their later training which suggests that it
PRAESA and others over the years have pointed is quite normal for initial literacy learning to be
to the educational gains for African language meaningless.
speaking children of implementing mother tongue
based bilingual approaches (Ouane and Glanz DIBELS has had large-scale support, but it has
2010, PRAESA 2012). These have not, to date, been criticised and discredited by many too, for
4 I am using the term mother tongue broadly – it is a familiar language or even 5 https://www.eddataglobal.org/reading/
languages that the child understands well enough to learn meaningfully in. 6 https://dibels.uoregon.edu/market/assessment/dibels
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Resourceful young children Learning Brief 75
perpetuating the (race and class) literacy gap it route that use phrenological neuroscientific brain
is supposed to eliminate. This is because of the imaging techniques, with dyslexia as the yardstick.
different teaching methods arising from different Dyslexia came to be conflated with the notion of
definitions of literacy that are used for more and general reading difficulty and includes all low-
less affluent children: performing readers, even very young ones, who
have not yet had the chance to learn (Shaywitz
For those school/districts which are neither high 2003). The claim is that normal as well as dyslexic
poverty nor low performing, children are less students learn to read faster through methods that
likely to be held to this narrow view of literacy. break down words into small segments (phonics)
These children have a more balanced literacy (Abadzi 2006). Abadzi claims that…
environment that includes viewing, writing and
other critical literacies. (Tierney and Thome to attain high-level skills, learners must first
2006:53) master component tasks in small bits. To increase
performance speed and accuracy, practice and
Children who are recipients of DIBELS however, get feed-back for error correction are necessary.
a more restrictive curriculum, leading to the sad Only with manageable tasks and feedback can
conclusion: learners progress to more complex skills. (Abadzi
2006: 21)
Once again, the rich get richer and the poor are
left only with the most basic of basics (ibid). This approach bases itself on panels of experts’
reviews of reading research, for example Preventing
The bias inherent in DIBELS arises in part because Reading Difficulties (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998),
its proponents have based their arguments on the Report of the National Reading Panel (2000),
literature concerning easily measured and fast and Developing Early Literacy: Report of the
developing skills among young readers. It is National Early Literacy Panel (2008). But it may well
easier to ‘measure’ and quantify decoding skills misinterpret the intention of these reports, and
like letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, it arguably misunderstands the reading process
and even ‘fluency’, than motivation, semantic because of a failure to take into account relevant
knowledge and comprehension among beginning factors relating to early learning, psycholinguistic
readers. However the latter matter deeply, and and socio-cultural factors and so on.
are central to the beginning moments of literacy
learning in most literate homes and many ‘good’ Shaywitz used evidence from NICHD 2000 research,
schools; the former are of course necessary to recommend explicit phonological awareness
components, but do not have to be taught first. and synthetic phonics training to promote
effective dyslexia intervention and to promote
The long running ‘reading wars’7 between skills- reading instruction. She was supported in this by
based and holistic views of reading development a remedial educationalist, Reid Lyons, advisor to
ultimately concern control of the instructional President Bush at the start of No Child Left Behind.
agenda and financial resources devoted to literacy Her model of reading is that spoken language is
teaching textbooks. Enormous financial gains instinctive and natural – you do not have to teach
are made by companies investing in ‘essential’ a baby to speak – but reading has to be taught, it’s
diagnostic tests and phonics workbooks. In the artificial, it’s acquired.8
last 20 years, ‘scientific evidence’ has been used to
bolster methods based on the primacy of teaching The Problem
phonics (Strauss 2004). However the evidence
and the methods need to be scrutinised if we are These are false arguments: learning to speak is
to make informed choices about what we offer not inbuilt, it is learned through the baby’s early
children. life experience that forms the background within
which spoken language is understood (it is much
The evidence base more taught informally than formally). Learning
to read and write is not essentially different:
It appears that the phonics ‘approach’ has been it is learned in a similar way, as a developing
given a large boost via a remedial education understanding growing from the child’s ongoing
7 http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/Reading_Wars.html 8 See http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/shaywitz.html
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December 2014 Resourceful young children
experience of what reading and writing is about inclination to guess/predict: that is unless they are
and how to do it. discouraged or stopped from doing so, by being
given decontextualised, low level texts to read, by
The underlying view of the skills based approach being forced to decode meaningless stuff, or being
is that we decode print (unnatural language) made to use a language they do not understand.
into sounds and words (natural language), which
are then comprehended by the brain. But oral Putting theory to work: Nal’ibali in a
language evolved too! nutshell
Just as money is a symbolically embodied social The Nal’ibali position is simple: because all children
institution that arose historically from previously need similar nurturing and motivation to become
existing economic activities, natural language is literate, we urgently need to help to create
a symbolically embodied social institution that spaces where voluntary and regular reading for
arose historically from previously existing social- enjoyment ‘reading club’ sessions can take place.
communicative activities …. (Tomasello 2003) Apart from the Nal’ibali mentors, whose task is to
ignite community interest and involvement, then
Listening is a complex process, involving joint support and monitor the process, neither children
attention, understanding different roles, speakers nor the adults have to be there - they come because
intention, and talking also involves physical skills they choose to.
development with relevant organs (tongue, lips,
throat, breathing and so on) (Hobson1993). Nal’bali has an ongoing national awareness and
Don Holdaway says: advocacy campaign about the power and value of
stories and it provides guidance to an increasing
There seems a strong case for looking at initial number of people in homes, schools and through
language learning as a suggestive model – it’s network of reading clubs. We define a reading
perhaps the basic model - for literacy learning. club loosely as a gathering of between five and 50
(Holdaway, 1979:21). children who meet at an agreed time and place at
least once a week, from 30 minutes to two hours,
This ‘special case’ of developmental learning, with one or more adult volunteers. Because the
appears natural and happens with ease, and the intention is communication around stories, the
prevailing conditions for learning are similar to adult-child ratio is preferably no greater than 1:10
those for visual perception, learning to crawl and (it is even better if it can be 1:5). The programme can
walk, ride a bicycle and so on. be as simple as ‘just’ telling and/or reading stories
or can be made up of a mix of songs, games, acting,
We believe it is indeed the appropriate model for reading and writing activities. We have found that
literacy learning, and this applies for ALL children, all of these fun activities bring about bonding, a
not just children of the elite despite claims that
this is not so (Abadzi 2006, Heugh 2009). Readers
develop the ability to make the direct link from
written language to meaning through experiencing
this link in their lives. The aim needs to be to attain
that direct comprehension and it does not first
have to involve sounding out. This means we need
to enable holistic engagement from the start, one
where young learners are free to make and correct
‘mistakes’, as they did when learning to speak.
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Resourceful young children Learning Brief 75
keen sense of belonging. Everyone concerned is by story, and without access to a constant flow of
affirmed by the commitment to sharing playful, material, nobody can become a discerning reader,
imaginative times together. Children in particular, who knows what s/he cares to read and share.
appreciate having their opinions and ideas listened The supplement offers a way for many people –
and responded to. We appreciate storytelling for both children and adults – to grow their personal
its role as a bridge to reading and writing, but we repertoires of stories.
also value it in and of itself to provide adults and
children with opportunities to connect with one In addition to its multilingual supplements,
another as a group as they remember and share Nalíbali produces radio stories across nine
old stories, and dream up new ones. Storytelling different languages in partnership with SABC
invites everyone in, whether they do or do not read Education, while Mxit subscribers receive
and write themselves. However, some adults model a Nal’ibali literacy tip each week on their
reading and writing: choosing stories they like cell phone. All of the materials are freely
to read aloud to children, writing for, to and with available to download on www.nalibali.org or
them, and then allow children to choose their own www.nalibali.mobi.
books to look at, talk about and read, alone and
with friends. In some reading clubs, children are of The way forward
a similar age, in others, there are toddlers and teens
together in the same space. Different strategies are A wave of enthusiasm for reading is growing in
worked out for dealing with opportunities and hundreds of reading clubs9. The feedback from
challenges that arise from such groupings. participants is often extremely enthusiastic as the
quote from one father shows:
What does it take?
z “I’m a 37-year-old father of a 7-year-old girl.
Reading material: Libraries are few and far Every Wednesday evening we read and do fun
between, as are storybooks in African languages. activities instead of watching TV. I find your
So, each week, an eight-page bilingual supplement supplement very resourceful because it teaches
is created by PRAESA and is produced in partnership her to read. I use the story theme to teach her
with Times Media, presently in combinations of values such as respect, discipline, love, sharing
English and Sesotho, Xhosa, Zulu and Afrikaans. etc. I would not know how to approach these
Each supplement is designed as a scaffold for adults subjects if it wasn’t for your supplement.”
to use each week for a reading club session with a
short article about any number of aspects relating Yet without concerted ongoing and far-reaching
to reading and writing development in children of collaborations and investment, the majority of
all ages, stories to read aloud and to cut out and children will remain strangers to the joy and
keep, a story-star section about reading promoters power of print in their mother and other tongues.
and clubs, as well as other story and book events Involvement is the key. For this reason we are
related information. seeking supportive partnerships of all kinds to join
in, join Nal’ibali and give all children in South Africa
Knowing how: The reading clubs are establishing the chance of a meaningful, interesting and joyful
themselves in many settings with a modicum of educational experience.
infrastructure and comfort: homes, community
centres, schools, libraries, churches and mosques.
Some adults are teachers, librarians and crèche This learning brief was written by Carole Bloch, Director
workers, others are community members. Most of PRAESA. This article was first published in Language
require an orientation to this informally structured Rich Africa policy dialogue - The Cape Town language
approach, so Nal’ibali offers a range of mentoring and development conference: Looking beyond 2015.
workshops on how to use the supplement and Edited by Hamish McIlwraith. A copy of the full series
other materials for various aspects of reading, of conference papers is free to download at http://
writing, storytelling and reading club set up and englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/ec/files/E291%20
maintenance. For many, the supplement is the only Cape%20Town%20Publication_A4_FINAL_web.pdf
source of reading material and guidance available
and is, for this reason, invaluable. But it has another
use too: we all become readers text by text, story 9 https://www.facebook.com/nalibaliSA
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December 2014 Resourceful young children
Web: www.nalibali.org
Mobile: www.nalibali.mobi
Facebook: nalibaliSA
Twitter: @nalibaliSA
INCLUSIVE, ENABLING
COMMUNITIES
The DG Murray Trust encourages its implementing partners to GAME-CHANGING
share their experiences and learning in the form of a Hands-on LEADERS
learning brief. Download guidelines on writing a ENTERPRISING
SCHOOL LEAVERS
Hands-on brief from http://www.dgmt.co.za/what-we-learned/ CREATIVE
For more information visit http://www.dgmt.co.za LEARNERS