CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEARNING AND TEACHING
2.3 T EACHING R EADING FOR M EANING
2.3.4 A literacy-rich environment promotes reading for meaning
The organisation of the visual environment itself helps to construct and provide a model of the child's relationship to language and to the written word. The walls of the classroom become the walls of the world. (Street, 1995, p. 21)
In this study a key methodology is to use ―the writing on the wall‖ to provide information about literacy teaching and learning in the sample school, and about teacher‘s beliefs and attitudes about literacy. Researchers agree that classroom literacy environments play an important role in literacy development (Cambourne, 2000; Hoffman, 2004b; Pressley, Rankin, & Yokoi, 1996). In addition a number of studies have shown the links between literacy-rich classroom environments and effective teaching (McGill-Franzen, Allington, Yokoi, & Brooks, 1999; Metsala et al., 1997; Morrow, Tracey, Woo, & Pressley, 1999;
Taylor, Blum, & Logsdon, 1986).
I define a literacy-rich classroom environment as a setting which promotes literacy development, stimulating learners to participate in language and literacy activities in their daily lives in such a way that they begin to develop understandings of the uses and functions of oral and written language. Figure 6 depicts the characteristics of literacy-rich classrooms.
This understanding of a literacy-rich environment involves more than simply access to reading materials. The central purpose of a print-rich environment, as Figure 6 on the next page shows, is motivation to use reading and writing in meaningful ways, and this is supported by a number of curricular resources and procedures.
Figure 6: Characteristics of a literacy-rich classroom (Source: McGee & Richgels, 1996, p. 181)
Old, but still highly relevant research by Teale (1978) reviewed studies of early readers in order to identify factors that are repeatedly associated with a positive environment for learning to read. These studies showed that learning to read was enhanced by the following environmental factors:
Availability and range of printed materials in the environment: Learning to read is enhanced by accessibility of printed materials on a wide range of subjects and genres (e.g. storybooks, alphabet books, an array of environmental print, labels of cans, telephone directories, maps).
Reflective, motivated learners who use
reading and writing to learn
more about themselves and
the world.
Has an abundance of high quality literacy materials
Uses assessment to guide instruction
Has daily literacy routines including read-alouds, independent reading and writing and sharing
Has culturally sensitive curriculum
Has curriculum integrating disciplines
Has curriculum integrating the language arts Uses a variety
of instruction Has layout that
encourages reading and writing
Uses a variety of groups
Reading is “done” in the environment: The environment acquaints children with the functions of print and sensitises children to the structure and nature of written language as well as the language of books.
The environment facilitates contact with paper and pencil: Children have the opportunity to scribble, draw, write and copy objects and letters.
Adults in the environment respond to what the child is trying to do: Frequent quality interaction with family members, teachers, and siblings in reading activities is important.
Communities of different socio-economic status offer their children different kinds of literate environments, both in terms of common language use and function and in terms of availability and access to reading material. This has been very well documented (see for example, Barton, 1994; Duke, 2000; Heath, 1983; Wells, 1986). Here I focus on the literacy environments encountered by children in schools. However, it must be borne in mind that the experiences a child has with literacy prior to school impact on the kinds of experiences which are necessary in school. For example, D. Rose (2006) argues that the striking distinction between spoken and written ways of communicating is that speaking involves direct interaction with one or more others, but reading and writing involve interaction with a book.
For a child from an oral family culture, he argues, ―interacting with a book as though it is a person may be a very strange form of consciousness indeed‖ (2006, p. 3). He goes on to say that, ―In order to read with understanding and engagement it is essential to conceptualise the book as a partner in an exchange of meaning‖ (2006, p. 4-5). Middle class children are oriented to this kind of meaning through the thousands of hours of story-book reading that they engage in with their caregivers prior to school entry, but those whose family culture is more oral battle to learn this orientation to meaning and suffer the consequences thereof throughout life.
While early experiences with literacy vary dramatically, the print environment encountered by children in schools and preschools makes ―an enormous contribution to the child's interest and curiosity about learning to read" (Neuman, 2004, p. 91), providing opportunities for engagement which the child might otherwise not have. Snow et al. found that rich classroom literacy environments ―can compensate for less than ideal home environments" (Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman, & Hemphill, 1991, p. 86). Children‘s vocabulary and word
recognition improved more when their classrooms contained a variety of workbooks, dictionaries and other reference materials, story books that represented a wide range of difficulty levels, including longer pieces of writing, and when students had frequent visits to the library.
There is substantial evidence to suggest that the more we read, the better we get at reading, which again points to the importance of a classroom environment which encourages wide reading. Allington showed that higher-achieving students read approximately three times as much each week in the classroom that their lower achieving classmates (2001, p. 25). Juel‘s cohort study of US low-income (disadvantaged) good and poor readers in the first four grades found that by the fourth grade, the average-to-top group read almost four times as much at home and twice as much in school as the bottom quartile children. By fourth grade, only one out of five of the poor reading group said they enjoyed reading, as opposed to 9 out of 10 of the good reader group. Forty percent of poor readers would rather clean their rooms than read, compared to 5% of the average to good readier groups. Or, as one of the poor readers said ―I‘d rather clean the mould around the bathtub than read‖ (Juel, 1994, p.120, cited in Honig, 2001, p. 44). Allington also found that lower-achieving students spent more time reading aloud (usually to the teacher in small group situations) and calculated that such children would probably read one quarter of the number of words in the same period than they would have read if they were reading silently to themselves. In the South African context it was found that children who read once a week at home have an advantage of 5% in literacy tests. If they read at home 3 times a week this advantage increases to 10% and for more than 3 times a week it increases to 12% (Schreuder, 2008, p. 28).
Texts must be present for reading to occur – whether they are brought into the classroom or created within it. I now focus briefly on the antecedents of this study regarding some categories of text which were identified for discussion in Chapter 5.
First, if we want learners to be able to read, understand and write extended text, they need to practice reading and writing extended texts (Duke, 2000, p. 443). The reading of single letters, words, phrases or single sentences is discouraged by major research reports (Adams, 1990; Snow, Burns, & Grifffin, 1998).
Second, research supports the creation and ownership of text by teachers and students (Ng, 2006). Language Experience texts have been shown to be particularly valuable in promoting early concepts about print, and in low-budget contexts can also provide reading material for the classroom library (Flanagan, 1995). Other literature focuses on the value of displaying student-generated text in the classroom. Hoffman (2004a) reports on Taylor, Blum, and Logsdon‘s research (1986) in which 13 kindergarten teachers were trained to create classroom environments aimed to foster the development of initial literacy. The rooms were filled with prominently displayed student generated texts centred on children's interests, language, and purposes. Children in these classrooms outperformed other children on all measures of reading performance.
Third, literacy-related play areas in early childhood classrooms in which children have opportunities to use literacy in classroom models of familiar contexts such as post offices, primary health clinics, offices or kitchens, are important parts of a meaning-oriented classroom environment. They are supported by Saracho and Spodek (2006), Morrow and Schickedanz (2006), Neuman (2004) and Neuman and Roskos (1992).
Fourth, in a literacy rich environment which foregrounds the meaning of what is read, signs in the classroom are not simply decorative, but have meaning for children. They communicate the message that literacy is an integral part of daily activity (Neuman, 2004, p.
91) and stimulate children to use literacy.
Fifth, in Section 2.2 debates regarding the best texts for reading instruction and development were discussed in relation to different theories of the reading process. However, literacy cannot occur in a book void (E. J. Pretorius & Machet, 2004, p. 59) and in many developing contexts, including large parts of South Africa, the issue is less one of the most appropriate texts than of access to texts. I shall return to this issue shortly.
Sixth, as indicated by the broad definition of a print-rich environment given above, the way in which texts are used in the classroom is also important in how children learn to focus on meaning in reading. For example, workbook activities, on which many children spend an inordinate amount of time, have no positive relationship with reading achievement (Allington, 2001, p.27) and tend to focus on isolated skill development rather than meaning.
Returning to the issue of access to texts, much of the literature on classroom environments focuses on classroom libraries (often called ―Reading Corners‖ in South Africa). Research shows that the more books in a classroom library, the more frequently children are likely to read (and the more likely they are to read books they can manage successfully), and the better the school is likely to achieve. Unsurprisingly, it is also clear that the wealthier the neighbourhood and school, the bigger the collection of books in the classroom is likely to be (Allington, 2001). Access to books in South African classrooms is highly differentiated and in many cases not seen as a priority in school budgeting, particularly at Foundation Phase level. School libraries are usually prioritised. A number of South African programmes which aim to put books into classrooms have been evaluated and report positive results (see the evaluation of READ by Schollar, 2002). Notwithstanding, attitudes such as that of the teacher in charge of book ordering for a rural Zululand school are common: ―It is no use ordering books for Grade 1, because they cannot read yet‖ (Head of Foundation Phase, Personal communication, 2006).
When considering access to reading materials, it is important to bear in mind that "access means not only availability of books, but also time for reading them" (Krashen, 1996, in International Reading Association, 2000, p. 2).
It has already been shown how proponents of different understandings of the reading process variously emphasise the content, style and structure of instructional text. An additional concern is raised by Duke (1999, 2000) who hypothesises that the apparent weaknesses which students experience in reading and writing informational (non-fiction) texts in senior primary and secondary schools is related to their lack of experience with such texts in early years (1999, p. 27). She regards the ability to read and write informational text as an important form of semiotic capital (1999, p. 3) and a key focus of schooling. However, she found that that such texts were rarely present in Grade 1 classrooms, particularly in low- income classrooms and that extremely little time (an average of less than 4 minutes a day) was spent engaging with such texts in the USA. More time was spent engaging with story books because of their motivating influence.
Nevertheless, reading fiction or non-fiction books aloud to children is of crucial importance in the process of learning to read, yet my observations are that it is not a regular practice in many South African classrooms. Reading aloud models what expert reading sounds like.
When the content of the text read aloud is engaging as in the reading of stories, we call this
―Reading aloud for pleasure.‖ This use of texts is very widely supported by research (see, for example, Cramer, 1975; Feitelson & Goldstein, 1986; Moustafa, 1997; Pilgreen & Krashen, 1993; Trelease, 2001; Wells, 1986). It develops and enriches children‘s language, builds their understanding of reading and writing concepts, motivates them, and helps them to develop understandings of story structure and genre (Mackie, 2007). It has also been argued that reading for pleasure has a positive relationship with educational success and could counteract the educational disadvantages attributable to poverty and other forms of social disadvantage (C. Clark & Rumbold, 2006; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2002; Reeves et al., 2008, p. 59).
In order for learners to read for meaning, the level of text read is also of importance.
Research consistently shows that tasks completed with a high rate of success are linked to greater learning and improved student attitude. Betts (1934) showed that relatively low error rates produced improved learning. Betts established a rating scale for levels of difficulty of text for school children, which are still used today:
Independent-level reading which requires little or no adult assistance (98% word recognition accuracy, fluent reading and 90% comprehension accuracy);
Instructional level reading which requires reading and instructional support from a teacher (95-97% accuracy, 75% comprehension and phrase-level reading);
Frustration-level reading which has a very negative effect on both learning and attitude (accuracy below 95%, comprehension below 75%).
At least two important pedagogical considerations stem from this. Firstly children need to be matched to texts to maximise learning. They need instructional texts that they can read accurately, fluently and with good comprehension. In South Africa, there is a growing tendency for publishers to produce readers for a whole class, rather than graded reading material which various learners can use at various levels. This strategy clearly caters for economies of scale but not for diversity of achievement, and it is unlikely that most learners using these texts will be reading at their instructional level.