Young Researchers

Informational Reading and Writing in the Early and Primary Years

Margaret Mallett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9780415179515
• eBook ISBN: 9781134681761
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Informational kinds of reading are crucial in every lesson. This book looks at how we can encourage children from the very beginning to think of themselves as young researchers using skills and strategies for clear purposes. It argues that the creative practitioner nurtures children's sense of wonder and curiosity about the world and all its phenomena. Packed full of advice on how to use the most stimulating and exciting texts and the liveliest approaches, the book celebrates the good practice of teachers and student teachers in a large number of classroom case studies. The content includes: * a summary of the recent developments and a framework of principles to inform good practice in this challenging aspect of literacy * chapters concentrating on particular age groups - beginning with the nursery and ending with the later primary years - and thus taking up an essentially developmental approach * an assessment of recent research and how findings can be put to practical and creative use in the classroom. A central message is that children benefit from collaborating with teachers and peers at every stage of finding out. The spoken language energises informational reading and writing, making the sharing of the fruits of children's research highly enjoyable. This book will inspire you and lead to the very best practice.

1. Informational reading and writing: A developmental approach

We learn best when head and heart are engaged. It is important to be able to use reading as a knowledge resource, but for most children (as well as for me most of the time) reading for learning is primarily a means of triggering and satisfying curiosity, of helping to make sense of a constantly changing non-factual world.

(Arnold, 1992:133)

Introduction: some recent history

For a long time informational kinds of reading and writing were relatively neglected. It was assumed that once children had learnt to read and write they could transfer these abilities to all aspects of literacy. Now we recognise that different kinds, or genres, of reading and writing require different strategies. Even within the large divisions of fiction and non-fiction different reading strategies are needed. Novels, play scripts and poetry draw on different reading approaches and so do recounts, reference books and non-narrative texts.

Until recently, books about reading to learn either focused on the needs of older students or centred exclusively on relatively narrow aspects to do with study skills and library skills. Several recent studies have added considerably to our understanding of the demands this aspect of literacy makes. Alison Littlefair offers an analysis of the different kinds of writing children need to respond to as they make their way through the school years (Littlefair, 1991). The features of non-narrative text, and how they are realised in children’s information books, are defined by Pappas (1986) and Neate (1992). Of course, teachers and writers do not speak with one voice nor should we expect them to. While Bobbie Neate believes we should produce information books of a consistent format and style for young children, Margaret Meek praises Walker Books’ Read and Wonder series because each book is different and ‘arises out of the diversity of reading and knowing’ (Neate, 1992; Meek, 1996:111). This is an issue that arises throughout this book and it is no secret that the present writer leans towards the second view: books written to a formula are unlikely to arouse and sustain young learners’ curiosity and reflection. Two recent research studies have centred on promising classroom practice. Both Mallett (1992) and Wray and Lewis (1997b) have started from the question: how do we help children feel in control of their informational reading so that they are less likely to copy wholesale from books when they write? In the smaller of these studies, but nevertheless one strongly rooted in the writer’s classroom practice, Mallett recommends that children be helped to organise their prior knowledge by discussion at the beginning of a new project or series of lessons and then helped to formulate their own questions to structure their reading and writing (Mallett, 1992; 1994). In the much larger, national, Nuffield-funded project Extending Literacy, Wray and Lewis (1997b) have: worked with primary teachers on strategies like ‘genre exchange’ (reading information in one format and writing it in another) and ‘writing frames’ (outlines to help children structure different kinds of writing). The project has given rise to a number of publications which are discussed at points in this book. The important thing is that teachers read critically and choose strategies that work well in their own classrooms. The present book adopts a developmental approach and explains the issues as well as suggesting some solutions and case studies for reflection and discussion.

The literacy hour, designed by The National Literacy Strategy Team, requires systematic attention to reading and writing non-fiction, and sets out in the Framework for Teaching (DfEE 1998) much more detailed objectives than the National Curriculum. These objectives inform the developmental model set out in this book; however, requirements for literacy teaching will be changed and refined and therefore teachers need some enduring principles to hang on to. It is also true that success here, as in all initiatives, depends on the skill and imagination of teachers who translate lists of objectives into lively and appropriate tasks for particular groups of children. Everything we need to know about non-fiction for all age ranges can be organised under three headings which structure the first five chapters in this book:

• the texts and criteria for choosing them;
• the children and the developmental stage they have reached; and
• strategies for making non–fiction reading and writing purposeful, useful and pleasurable.

This chapter provides a framework for the whole book, beginning with non-fiction books and resources and arguing that they, like other language forms, are essentially social phenomena. Illustrations, which tend to be rather a neglected aspect, are carefully considered. Next, it presents a dynamic organisation of written language which can help classify texts, including the texts children produce. Then there is a brief account of how a developmental approach informs good teaching of non-fiction reading and writing. The analysis turns finally to promising strategies to help bring children and texts together, taking account both of non-fiction in the literacy hour and the kind of informational writing required in the key stage 2 English SATs.

The texts: informational reading and writing

The modern world is information saturated. More knowledge means publishers’ output grows in specialist areas: we now have CD-ROMs carrying enormous amounts of information on disk while the Internet continues to spread its tentacles globally. Information Communication Technology (ICT) provides a vast world of information and poses new problems of how to find our way through it. To become clearer about this, we need to reflect more generally on the phenomenon we call language. Language is a human system of communication which uses structured vocal sounds; it can be embodied in other media such as writing, print and physical signs (McArthur, 1992:571). Linguistic symbols can be used to communicate that which is not physically present, the past and the future. Importantly, it helps us to deal with abstract thoughts and feelings.

To control the different kinds of written language is a major aim of schooling. By putting texts (in the widest sense of the term, to include spoken as well as written forms) at the heart of things, children can be helped to learn about language as well as about subjects across the curriculum.

Texts, both spoken and written, surround us in everyday life. They can be ‘as short as a single word (on a notice, for example) or as long as a book’ (Sealey, 1996: xiv). Many kinds of language can generate texts—the telling of an anecdote, a retelling of a myth or legend, a novel, a radio commercial or a crossword puzzle. In the present book we concentrate on texts in the informational category. The global features of texts are important. In line with the Framework for Teaching, we need also to teach children about what linguists call the ‘micro’ aspects of language: phonology and orthography, lexis, grammar (morphology, word classes, syntax) and semantics. Non-fiction texts have distinctive formats and linguistic style as well as particular kinds of vocabulary and can usefully be considered in this ‘micro’ way. However, like many other educational thinkers and writers—for example Sealey (1996) and Graham and Kelly (1997)—I believe larger stretches of text or the ‘bigger shapes’ need to be kept in mind even when our attention is on these ‘micro’ elements. We must remember too that the illustrations—charts, tables, diagrams, drawings and photographs—explain, summarise and sometimes extend the written text and deserve our attention.

There is a potential problem with information texts. They can impart little bundles of information without a strong enough context for children to make full sense of what is offered. This applies also to the CD-ROMs that derive from information books. The authorial ‘voice’ is important and the interactive context which helps children makes sense of all that they read. Meek (1996), Barrs (1996) and Arnold (1995) all consider that authors of information books do not always anticipate the needs of the young learners well enough. The role of the professional, insightful and creative classroom teacher is paramount both in choosing books and resources of quality and in providing sensitive and thoughtful mediation.

Criteria for judging non-fiction

General criteria assume a different hierarchy according to both the kind of non-fiction being judged and the age group for whom it is intended. Most teachers would accept the following criteria as useful in selecting non-fiction stock:

• accuracy;
• attractive format and sound global structure;
• helpful retrieval devices appropriate to age range and type of non-fiction text: contents page, index, glossary;
• appropriate, useful and attractive illustrations that integrate well with the writing;
• avoidance of unwelcome bias;
• friendly but unpatronising authorial ‘voice’ and clear, interesting writing.

In addition, CD-ROMs need to yield the material in a clear and coherent way that facilitates an interaction between the child and a text which is not simply linear. Much more investigation about how to help children use all kinds of multimedia is required. Helpful information can be found in Loveless (1995), Jessel (1997) and articles in professional journals, for example Jones’s ‘Beware of the mouse’ (Jones, 1997).

When we consider the accuracy of books and materials, we have to remember that not only is new information constantly discovered, but our attitudes to certain facts and bodies of information change. The viewpoint of the indigenous populations in the countries ‘discovered’ by the fifteenth-century explorers is now included under encyclopaedia entries like ‘settlers’ and ‘explorers’ (see, for example, The Dorling Kindersley Children’s Illustrated Encyclopedia).

Some books lack several of the criteria mentioned and yet seem to have a star quality which makes them hugely enjoyable and inspiring. Brainbox by Steven Rose and Alexander Lichtenfels, has no contents page, index or glossary, but invites the reader in through excellent pictures and a text that explains challenging concepts clearly. Information books for the very young often need only feature some retrieval devices to avoid, for example, a more or less identical contents page and index. Factual narratives are to some extent a transitional genre, imparting information in a familiar story form, often about the life-cycle of a creature or the life history of a person; only some of the general criteria apply.

Illustrations

Visual aids, if they are of good quality and appropriate, make a text more interesting by providing variety on the page. Even the visually sophisticated children of today need help in interpreting them and producing their own. Surprisingly little is known about how children interpret illustrations and develop this ability through the primary years. In a recent study, Moore and Scevak (1997) used a ‘think aloud’ strategy as a window into what young learners did and did not understand. Teachers could use a modified version of this to check whether children understand how writing and picture combine to create meaning. Illustrations have an important role in identifying a text with a particular genre. When it comes to informational texts, charts and diagrams usually signal referential material while informational narratives, including biography and autobiography, tend to include photographs. Illustrations or visual aids are discussed in Chapter 2–5 as part of the consideration of texts for each age range. Here there is a brief discussion under the following headings: tables; diagrams; drawings and paintings; photographs.

Tables

These often serve a summarising purpose, bringing together information from different parts of a text. Information tends to be arranged in columns and there is often a numerical element alongside the writing. Tables are used in mathematics, science and geography books and materials and, to some extent, in other subjects like history and religious studies.

The reading and making of tables are best kept together. There is a good model of a table for children at key stage 1 in Claire Llewellyn’s My First Book of Time, which summarises a short written introduction about the differing number of days in each calendar month. The young readers are then asked to make their own table of the current month using symbols like a ball or racquet for a games day and a balloon or piece of cake for a party day.

Early years teachers know that there is considerable scope for making tables in mathematics and science. Graphs can be made to show the results of mode of travel to school and of children’s height and weight. Six year olds who had been testing how long it takes for jelly cubes to melt in hot, tepid and cold water enjoyed talking about the symbols they would use to make a table to set out their findings.

Too detailed a table can be off-putting even for older children. In fact, the more difficult the concept, the simpler the explanatory table should be. A very reasonably priced book, Dougal Dixon’s Dinosaurs in the Ladybird Discovery series, copes well with the notion of vast stretches of time—difficult for all of us to comprehend. At the beginning of the book there are two related tables about the periods of the earth’s history, which provide a conceptual framework for the whole book. One is horizontal, beginning with the Cambrian period 570 million years ago and ending with the present day; the other is vertical and communicates at which point the different animals appear. It is helpful to point out to children that these complementary diagrams are a reference point for the whole book and they soon learn to check back. The different subjects provide strong contexts for particular aspects of literacy including appropriate visual aids: in mathematics and science, the presentation of materials in table form; in geography, reading and making charts to show variations in temperature or population; in history family trees and time-lines.

Diagrams

While ‘table’ and ‘chart’ suggest a numerical element, ‘diagram’ suggests the showing of structures like parts of a vehicle or processes like food-chains and animal life-cycles. Computer technology makes possible moving diagrams to show parts of the human or animal body or machinery operating. Rather than replacing books, the new technology has had an energising effect, particularly in childr...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1: Informational reading and writing: A developmental approach
• 2: Pre-school and nursery years (0–5): Entering the world of information
• 3: Informational reading and writing at key stage 1 (5–7): Enjoying and learning about finding out
• 4: Informational reading and writing at key stage 2 (7–9): Making progress in satisfying and pleasurable contexts
• 5: Informational reading and writing at key stage 2 (9–11): Meeting new challenges creatively
• 6: Young researchers with special literacy needs
• 7: Recording progress: Assessment of children’s informational reading and writing
• Postscript
• Appendix
• References