Reading ability
In January my daughter Niamh starts school. So today people from the school came round for a home visit. Basically it’s done so they can ask her questions: they asked her to count, to recognise some written numbers, to write her name, to draw a picture of herself, that sort of thing. I assume that they also wanted to take a quick glance around the house to ensure that we weren’t keeping her in horrendous squalor, which we aren’t, much as my mum might like to think that we don’t tidy up enough. What I want to talk about, though, is reading ability.
You see, we’ve been teaching her to read. It’s going pretty slowly, as you can imagine, but she can sound out letters and, given a bit of prompting, put them together into words. This is phonics, a dirty word in the argot of teaching children things, but it’s what both Sam and I know. I’m quite prepared to believe that the “whole language” sort of method might be good, but I don’t know how to teach it. Now, the nursery that Niamh currently attends write a Record of Achievement (or some such named thing) which is a summary of her academic progress to date. Apparently it would seem that the school completely ignore this and start teaching everything right from the beginning, leaving one to wonder whether the nursery might as well have just let her play with toys solidly for two years: the school have given her a couple of books with pictures. No words, just pictures. She graduated from picture-books to books with words in (which she has read to her, and reads along to some extent) some considerable time ago.
Even that, though, is not the main point here. Dm comments, over on Crooked Timber (first comment after tha main article) that “the teaching technique used was far less important than whether or not students arrived at school knowing what books were and how they worked“. You might think that that’s a ridiculous statement, but it isn’t. Three years ago, a woman from Sainsbury’s visited the toddlers’ group that Niamh attended with news of a great special offer: Sainsbury’s were, in an effort to help literacy, giving away free children’s books! All you had to do was go to the store and pick them up; you didn’t even need to buy anything. Needless to say, we went, and got a rather nice cloth bag with five or six books for very young children in it. No problem, right? Except that, without fail, all the mothers who turned up with children in tow to get the free books were in nice middle-class families and really didn’t need them.We’re just the same. We have loads of books. Niamh has loads of books. The people who this kind of thing is aimed at, those who don’t have books in the house, wouldn’t dream of buying any, don’t visit libraries: they didn’t turn up. And why? Because they don’t care about books. That’s why they don’t have any, and so if they feel like that why would they ever want to turn up somewhere and get some? So it didn’t work at all, despite being done with the best of intentions. The real horror, for me, was the reasoning behind the need for the scheme, and something to which dm alludes in the comment linked above: apparently, there are now a non-insubstantial proportion of kids turning up to school at the age of five who do not know what a book is. Not “are unable to read”—they’ve quite possibly never even seen a book, and don’t know what to do with it. They’ll pick it up and shake it, or chew it, or wave it around. I find it almost impossible to conceive of a five-year-old child who doesn’t know what a book is. They might not be able to read it, but they should know that reading is what you do with it when you’ve got it. I was horrified; really, seriously horrified at this.
Obviously, Niamh is not one of these children.
Teaching mixed abilities is a difficult area, but I know that at least one primary school (one in telford that I did some work at while I was doing my teacher training) had a quite nice way of dealing with this. They had mixed age groups (a selection of kids from 2 year groups) in each class. This meant that there were no assumptions about everyone being at the same level of ability. They all took the same initial lessons, but had a range of different exercises. That way it was accepted that not all children should be doing the same thing, which made it much easier for older kids who were not as advanced as their peers and for the younger ones who were brighter. This seemed to work really well.
I’d be surprised if the school didn’t have some policy on advancing the abilities of kids who already know how to read, so if I were you I’d go along and have a chat to the head of year or whatever, or even better the teacher if you know who that will be, and they should be able to put your mind at rest (although knowing some schools, they might make you worry even more!)
20 hours later
I recently heard a similar thing locally. The very idea that some kids didn’t know what books were just caused complete boggle … my eldest is three and a half and she has been had books since she was very young. As you describe with Niamh, she has been learning letters and sounds – she also ‘reads’ (knows the stories, recognizes the pictures) to her 8 month old sister, which keeps them both happy for short periods of time.
What intrigues me is how she will react when she goes to school in a year or so and is confronted with those kids who don’t know what a book is. I suspect she will (perhaps rightly) find this very hard to understand.
21 hours later
Tom went to a nursery school that is only about 6 class rooms from his current one in year 2 so we didn’t have the same progression problems.
But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.
The thing about the middle class parents helping their kids is 100% true. Tom goes to school in a really poor working class area. In fact the really poor working class area I was born into. But the school catchment area inclues some nice middle class areas.
I started as a child of parents who wanted me to do well. At the same time I progressed so did my parents and they moved to one of those nice middle class areas where they fitted right in. I found for the first time my neighbours had the same access to books as me. For the first time their parents read as mine did.
Frank Skinner often says how David Baddel asks if he grew up in Victorian times when he talks his youth. It might be a black country think because 25 years latter there where still kids in my street that didn’t have shoes. All my cast off’s went to my neighbours across the road.
They didn’t have the same chances I had and they didn’t have them because their parents where either uneducated or alcolholics. I was lucky (and still am) to have two parents without such problems.
It’s exactly the same now. When I pick Tom up from school some parents have obviously been drinking, most are smoking (you know it’s bad Aq :-P ), and not many take a book to read when they are waiting.
It’s not surprising their kids are struggling to read. I have heard parents say to their children reading is dumb! so stupid (or dumb if you like) is that. Parents are constantly saying how the teachers are wrong about this or that and have no respect for the fact that they are doing a very difficult job and are doing it for the future of the local children. I have seen teachers threatened on several occasions.
Unfortunatly a them and us situation has started among the parents and the children. Some kids have birthday parties and they invite all the other kids who have birthday parties. Jennie calls this the middle class mafia ;-) We are part of the middle class mafia by virtue of the fact my Mom (who takes Tom to school) gets on with these parents.
I don’t think I am part of this ‘middle class mafia’ and speak to several people from each group when I pick Tom up. But when I examined my own behaviour I noticed this wasn’t the case.
I talk to the middle class parents without pretention and I talk to the working class parents who are like my parents. The ones helping their children (and themselves) to escape the pitfalls of the inner city.
My point is while some parents are more concerned with Cigarettes and Alcolhol (to steal a song title), Burberry and Nike shoes than books, and their childrens future this will never change.
Most of the children of the kids I grew up with back in those days are several years older than Tom (I was 25 when I started my family 10 years older than some of the kids I grew up with) are now getting arrested and fighting in the streets. Over the next two years they will start having kids of their own and many won’t break out of the cycle.
The current trend for the government to push adult literacy and numeracy is the right way. I guess that lots of adults see the things they missed as children and want to stop their kids (or grandkids) going the same route and adult basic skills are probably the right way to go.
It’s important to get adults reading if we want to get kids reading.
It’s a very sad state of affairs that 25 years after my childhood children are still going without. Some kids probably still have to get shoes from neighbours because their parents have more important considerations. It makes me incrediblly sad that when the school holds book fairs (normally hosted by my Mom and the middle class mafia of mothers and grandparents) the same faces come along. Even during book week when every child got a voucher that could be exchanged for a small book or used as part payment on a larger purchase it was the same faces.
Now when we leave the school gates a 6 year old reads his letters from school to me on the way back to the car while other parents stuff them into their pockets unread. A sad state of affairs and one that Thomas and Niamh are very lucky not to be involved in.
21 hours later
I find this quite troubling. I’ve been teaching my kids to love books since they were very small (they’re 5 and 3 now, and their room is full of books). Not only do we read several together each night (_every_ night) before bed, they take books to bed with them to help them sleep. Neither of then can “read” yet, but they both know all of the letters, and my son can sound them all out (my daughter is almost as good).
I think your point about the attitude coming from the parents is important—both my wife and I are avid readers (when we have time), and it definitely rubs off on the kids. It’s true that your kids learn more from watching you than from listening to you.
27 hours later
I can’t imagine coping without books merely as entertainment for our (nearly) 2 year old. We always take 2 or 3 books on train journeys, for instance. What other toy can fit so much into such a compact space? Of course, he can’t read but we’re starting to hammer away at the grey area between pictures and words.
5 days later
Keep up the phonics, The Whole word System
teaches kids how to read faster , but their skill bottom out and they never become as efficient or comfortable as phonics based kids in the long run.
2 weeks later
My seven-month-old already loves looking at books - and chewing on them too it has to be said - and I am hoping that by making him familiar with books from an early age he will grow up to love them as I do.
I have learned so much from books, which have benefited and enriched my life immeasurably.
My own mother spent much time reading to me and to my siblings when we were young, as well as carefully researching books which would appeal to me at different stages of my childhood - I have her to thank for my love of reading.
136 weeks later