Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Copyright 2014 The Open University
Contents Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories 3 1. Reading aoud 3 2. Using writing to encourage reading 4 3. Encouraging individua reading 6 Resources 1: Preparation for shared reading 7 Resource 2: Questions to use with book readings first, second and third readings 8 Resource 3: A story 9 Resource 4: Sustained sient reading 10 Acknowedgements 12 2 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Key Focus Question: How can you stimuate pupis to want to read stories and books? Keywords: shared reading; creative responses; sient reading; beginnings and endings; stimuating interest Learning Outcomes By the end of this section, you wi have: used shared reading of stories in your teaching to support deveoping readers; used activities that focus on aternative beginnings and endings to stimuate interest in reading; expored different ways to promote sustained sient reading (SSR) in your cassroom. Introduction Pupis are more ikey to earn how to read successfuy if they enjoy reading and read as often as possibe. If you asked your friends what they enjoy reading, their answers might vary from newspaper sports pages to recipes, romantic noves, detective stories or biographies or they might not read much at a! Like your friends, different pupis may enjoy reading different kinds of texts. They wi respond to what they read in different ways. Your task is to motivate a the pupis in your cass to read successfuy and to enjoy reading. This section focuses on heping pupis to find peasure in reading and responding to stories. 1. Reading aoud The kinds of stories and story-reading activities that pupis enjoy are ikey to vary according to their age and their knowedge of the anguage in which the stories are written. Younger pupis and pupis who are just beginning to earn an additiona anguage enjoy having a good story read to them severa times particuary if they have opportunities to participate in the reading. By reading a story severa times and by encouraging pupis to read parts of the story with you, you are heping them to become famiiar with new words and to gain confidence as readers. The focus of Activity 1 is preparing and teaching a shared reading esson. The aims of this activity are to increase your confidence and skis as a reader and to get pupis hooked on books. 3 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Case Study 1: Using chidhood experiences of stories to prepare cassroom activities When Jane Domo thought about her chidhood in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, she remembered how much she had enjoyed her grandmother s stories. Two things stood out in her memory: firsty, how much she enjoyed hearing the same stories over and over again and secondy, how much she and her brothers and sisters enjoyed joining in with the stories. Sometimes her grandmother asked, What do you think happened next? Sometimes she asked the chidren to perform actions. Jane decided to make her reading essons with Grade 4 pupis more ike her grandmother s story performances. She aso decided to experiment with activities that woud invove pupis in sharing the reading with her and with one another. When she tod her coeague Thandi about her decision, Thandi suggested that they work together to find suitabe storybooks, practise reading the stories aoud to each other and think of ways of invoving the pupis in the reading. Both teachers found that sharing the preparation heped them to be more confident in the cassroom (see Resource 1: Preparation for shared reading). Key Resource: Using storyteing in the cassroom gives further ideas. Activity 1: Sharing the peasures of a good storybook Read Resource 1 and foow the steps beow. Prepare work on other tasks for some pupis to do whie you do shared reading with a group of 15 to 20. Estabish any background knowedge about the topic of the story before reading it. As you read, show pupis the iustrations and ask questions about them. Use your voice and actions to hod pupis attention. Invite pupis to join in the reading by repeating particuar words or sentences that you have written on the chakboard and by performing actions. At the end, discuss the story with your pupis. (See Resource 2: Questions to use with book readings.) How did you fee about your reading of the story? Did pupis enjoy the story? How do you know? What can you do to deveop your story reading skis? 2. Using writing to encourage reading The chid psychoogist Bruno Betteheim (1976) beieves that if chidren find magic in stories, they wi reay want to earn to read. He argues that if a chid beieves strongy that being abe to read wi open up a word of wonderfu experiences and understanding, they wi make a greater effort to earn to read and wi keep on reading. Sharing interesting stories with pupis is one way for a teacher to make reading a magica experience. Stimuating curiosity and imagination by encouraging them to create 4 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories aternative endings (and sometimes beginnings) to stories and to share these with their cassmates is another. Case Study 2 and Activity 2 describe how you can hep your pupis to become story makers for one another. Case Study 2: Reading stories; writing new story endings Mrs Miriam Muwai teaches Engish to Standard 6 in a Nairobi schoo. One day, she asked her pupis to think about the stories they had read with her and to te her which story ending they iked best and which they found disappointing or unsatisfactory. She found they had different favourite stories. However, there was one story that most pupis didn t ike because they didn t know what happened to three characters that disappeared from it. Miriam asked them to suggest what coud have happened to these characters and wrote their ideas on the chakboard. Then she asked pupis to choose one of the three characters and to write an ending to this character s part in the story. She encouraged pupis to use their own ideas, as we as those from the chakboard, and to incude drawings with their writing. Then she reread the story to remind them of the setting, the characters and the main events. Athough Miriam asked pupis to write individuay, she aso encouraged them to hep each other with ideas, vocabuary and speing. She moved around the room whie pupis were writing and drawing, heping where needed. She was very peased to find that most of her pupis reay iked the idea of being authors and of writing for a rea audience (their cassmates). She noticed that they were taking a great dea of care with their work because their cassmates woud be reading it. In the next esson, when they read each other s story endings, she observed that most of her reuctant readers were keen to read what their cassmates had written and see what they had drawn. Activity 2: Writing new beginnings and endings to stories Write on your chakboard the short story in Resource 3: A story. Omit the tite and the ast two sentences. Read the story with your pupis. Discuss any new words. Ask them to answer questions such as those in Resource 3. Organise the cass to work in fours two to write a beginning to the story and two to write an ending. Each pair does a drawing to iustrate their part of the story. (This may take more than one esson.) Ask each group to read their whoe story to the cass and to dispay their drawings. Discuss with pupis what they ike about each other s stories. Finay, read the tite and the ast two sentences of the origina story to your cass. (They are ikey to be surprised that it s about soccer!) Find another story to repeat the exercise. How we did this activity work? How did the pupis respond to each other s stories? 5 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories 3. Encouraging individua reading Teachers shoud be good roe modes for pupis. Your pupis are ikey to become more interested in reading if they see you reading. Try to make time each day (or at east three times a week if that is a you can manage) for you and your pupis to read sienty in cass. You can adapt this depending on the age and stage of your pupis. For exampe, young pupis coud ook at a picture book with a partner or isten to someone reading with them in sma groups. Extensive or sustained sient reading (SSR) heps pupis become used to reading independenty and at their own pace (which may be faster or sower than some of their cassmates). The focus is on the whoe story (or on a whoe chapter if the story is a very ong one) and on pupis persona responses to what they read. SSR can be done with a cass reader, with a number of different books that pupis have chosen from a cassroom or schoo ibrary, or with newspapers and magazines (if pupis can manage these) see Resource 4: Sustained sient reading. Case Study 3 and the Key Activity suggest ways to assess pupis progress as readers. (See aso Key Resource: Assessing earning.) Case Study 3: Teachers experience of sustained sient reading A workshop was hed in Naivasha, Kenya, to introduce teachers to sustained sient reading (SSR). It was expained that one of the main aims of SSR is to create a cuture of reading among pupis. Teachers were invited to participate in SSR and then to refect on their experiences. Each teacher chose a book or magazine and read sienty for 20 minutes. After this, they had ten minutes of discussion with three feow readers about what they had read and how they responded to the text. When they returned their books and magazines, they signed their names in the book register and, next to their names, wrote a brief comment about the text. These teachers decided that SSR is usefu for deveoping concentration and sefdiscipine, for earning new vocabuary and new ideas and for providing content for discussions with other pupis. They thought their pupis woud enjoy this activity and be proud when they finished reading a book. Some teachers decided to try this with a sma group at a time and rotate around the cass because they ony had a few books in the cass. Key Activity: Sustained sient reading Coect interesting books, magazines and stories that are at an appropriate eve for your pupis. Invove pupis and community in coecting suitabe texts or use books your pupis have made in cass (see Resource 4). Set aside 15 20 minutes every day or three times a week for sustained sient reading. Ask pupis to choose a text to read sienty. Read yoursef as they read. At the end, if they have not finished their books, ask them to use bookmarks so they can easiy find their paces next time. Ask each pupi to make or contribute to a reading record (see Resource 4). Every week, ask pupis, in sma groups, to te each other about what they have been reading. 6 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Move round the groups to isten to what pupis are saying. Check their reading records. Do pupis enjoy this activity and are they making progress with their reading? How can you hep more? Resources 1: Preparation for shared reading Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis Choose a story with characters and events that you think wi interest your pupis. Think about any background knowedge that pupis wi need in order to understand and enjoy the story. Decide how to provide this before you begin the story reading. For exampe, young pupis in some parts of Africa woud be famiiar with a hippopotamus, but in others they may not be, so before reading the story Hot Hippo you woud need to find out what pupis know by asking questions ike these: Questions to estabish background knowedge: What does a hippopotamus ook ike? Woud you be frightened of a hippopotamus? Why, or why not? Where woud you be ikey to see one? What does a hippopotamus eat? First prediction question This story is caed Hot Hippo. Look at the drawing on the cover. (The drawing shows a hippopotamus trying to sheter under some pam eaves.) What do you think the story wi be about? http://www.dixie.fcps.net/book_jackets/hothippo.gif (Accessed 2008) Note: Whie these questions refer to the story Hot Hippo, simiar questions coud be asked about animas, peope, paces or activities in reation to any story. 7 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Practise reading the story aoud before you use it in your cassroom. Think about how to perform the voices of the characters and about the actions you can use to make the story come aive. If there are drawings with the story, decide how to use these when you read to your cass. Look for parts of the story where pupis can join in once they are famiiar with the story. For exampe, in one story, Eddie the eephant tries to copy the actions of other animas or the actions of peope and every time he fais he cries Wah! Wah! Wah! Boo! Hoo! Hoo! I wish I knew what I coud do! You coud write a chorus ike this on your chakboard for pupis to foow. Look out for paces in the story where you coud ask pupis some prediction questions, such as: What do you think Eddie wi do next? or How coud the Hot Hippo sove his probem? Resource 2: Questions to use with book readings first, second and third readings Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis Here are a few questions you coud ask before reading a story with pupis and then exampes of questions to ask when the reading has been competed. There are aso questions after they have read the book another time or more. FIRST READING SESSION Before reading 1 Does the cover make you want to read this book? Why, or why not? What does the cover make you think the book is going to be about? How does it do this? 2 Te me about what you see on the first page of the story. During reading Ask questions about the deveopment of the story and how the words and pictures contribute to this deveopment. After reading 1 What did you ike or disike about this book? 2 Is there anything that puzzed or surprised you about this book? 3 Are there any patterns you have noticed? 4 What is your favourite picture? Coud you te me what you see in this picture? 5 Do you think the cover was appropriate (the right kind of cover) for what happened in the story? 6 Do you find the words or the pictures more interesting? Do they te the same story in different ways? Woud the words sti be good without the pictures? Woud the pictures sti be good without the words? 8 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories 7 Is the story tod through the words, the pictures or both? Is it the same a the way through the book? SECOND AND THIRD READING SESSIONS (Note: These shoud be some weeks apart.) Before reading 1 Have you thought about the book since we ast read it? 2 Woud you ike to read it again? 3 Te me what you remember most about the book. During reading Again, ask questions about the deveopment of the story and how the words and pictures contribute to this deveopment. After reading 1 Did you notice anything this time that you didn t notice before? 2 How do you fee about this story after reading it again? 3 When you think about the book now, what is the most important thing about it for you? Having read the book more than once, woud you recommend that other pupis read it more than once with their teacher? Adapted from: Swain, C. The Primary Engish Magazine Resource 3: A story Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis The Story Write this story on the chakboard, but do not write either the tite or the ast two sentences ( He shot ow to the right. What a goa! ) on the board unti the very ast part of your esson. [Run for gory by Mark Northcroft (aged 12 years)] On and on he ran. His egs fet ike churning acid. He coud hear his pursuers cosing in on him. He fet he coud not keep this up much onger but he knew he had to. The footsteps were gaining on him. Faster! Faster! he cried. I can t! I can t! he answered. Somewhere deep inside himsef, he found a sudden surge of energy. Now he knew he coud do it. 9 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Suddeny a man approached him from out of nowhere. Now or never, he thought. [He shot ow to the right. What a goa!] Notes His egs fet ike churning acid This simie or comparison is not easy to expain but you coud say that the man or boy fet pain in his egs as though he had a mixture of chemicas bubbing up in them. pursuers peope who are foowing or chasing someone. surge a sudden, powerfu movement. energy iveiness, capacity for activity. Questions to ask pupis in preparation for writing an aternative beginning and ending to this story 1 Who do you think he is? 2 Where do you think he is? 3 What do you think is happening to him? 4 Who is a man? 5 What other peope might be part of this story? 6 What might have happened before this part of the story? 7 What might happen next? Resource 4: Sustained sient reading Background information / subject knowedge for teacher Deveoping sustained sient reading (SSR) in your cassroom is important in encouraging your pupis to want to read and deveoping their reading skis. For SSR to succeed requires some carefu panning ahead. You wi need to gather together resources for your cass or a group to read. These coud be artices from newspapers or magazines, books, etc. You need to be resourcefu to gather these and aso to store them so they are not ost or damaged. If you have enough resources for your whoe cass, you coud do SSR once a week at the start or end of the day. If you ony have a imited number of resources, you coud do it with one group each day and aso work with your cass to make more cass books to read. Questions to ask These are exampes of questions that coud be asked about many different kinds and eves of storybooks, but you may prefer to ask pupis for just a brief comment. 1 What happens in the first part (introduction, beginning) of the story? 2 What happens in the midde part (where there are compications or conficts in the story)? 3 What happens at the end (resoution)? 10 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories 4 Is there a probem that needs to be soved? 5 What is the goa of the main character or characters? 6 What happens to the characters in the different parts of the story? What difficuties do they face? 7 Have simiar things ever happened to you? 8 If their first attempt is unsuccessfu, do the main characters get another chance to achieve their goa? 9 What happens to the characters at the end? 10 How do you fee about this story? Did it make you think about your own ife or anyone ese s? If so, in what way(s)? Keeping a reading record As pupis carry out SSR it is usefu for them to keep records of the books they have read and to comment on what they did or did not ike about them. It is aso a way of seeing what breadth of materia they are reading and the kinds of things that interest them. It tes you how much they are reading, especiay if you encourage them to aso incude books, newspapers, magazines, etc. that they read at home or esewhere. With newspapers and magazines, you may suggest they ony add these when they read them reguary and say how often they read them. They may want to incude artices from particuar magazines. Keeping a record must not become a bore, as this wi put pupis off reading. Each record shoud ony incude the tite and author and maybe pubisher if you wish to add the book to the cass coection (if you have a budget). The pupi coud say if they iked the book and why, and if they d recommend it to others to read. The record coud be a cass one, where the tite of each book in the ibrary is on the top of a sheet of paper and every time someone reads this book they sign the ist and put in a short comment. Another way is for each pupi to have a page at the back of an exercise book where they keep a ist of the books they have read and every time they finish a book or give up on a book they make a comment next to the tite and author. It woud be usefu if these entries are dated, so you can see how often they are finishing a book etc. Coecting and dispaying materias for SSR If you need to start your own cassroom ibrary, the first requirement is to coect books and magazines. There are organisations that can hep schoos obtain books. Here are some usefu contacts. Africa Book Centre Website: http://www.africabookcentre.com Kenya Pubishers Association P O Box 42767 00100 Nairobi Longhorn Pubishers Website: http://www.onghornbooks.co.ke East African Educationa Pubishers 11 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Te: +254 4451530/1/3 Emai: saes@eastafricanpubishers.com Website: http://www.eastafricanpubishers.com Macmian Kenya Pubishers Ltd Kijabe Street P O Box 30797 00100 Nairobi Te: +254 0 220012 Website: http://www.macmian.com Kenya Literature Bureau P O Box 30022 000100 Nairobi Te: +254 244847 Emai: customer@kenyaiteraturebureau.com Website: http://www.kenyaiteraturebureau.com Jomo Kenyatta Foundation P O Box 30533 00100 Nairobi For more information on SSR, the foowing website is aso usefu: http://www.treease-on-reading.com Sometimes the embassies of foreign countries or organisations inked to embassies, such as the British Counci, are abe to make donations of books. Service organisations such as Rotary Cubs aso coect and donate books. If you cannot contact any organisation for assistance, then try asking coeagues and friends to donate books and magazines that their chidren or other famiy members have finished with. Some schoos ask parents to hep teachers to organise fundraising events and then they use the money that is raised to buy books. Key Resource: Being a resourcefu teacher in chaenging conditions expores this further. Once you have enough books and magazines for a the pupis in your cass to read individuay, you need to think about how to ook after these precious materias. If you have, or coud make (or get someone ese to make), some sheves for one side or the back of your cassroom, you coud then dispay the books and magazines in order to attract pupis interest. In an exercise book, write down the tites of the books and magazines so that you can keep track of them. At the end of each SSR period, watch carefuy to check that pupis return the books to the shef. If you do not have sheves, then pack the books and magazines carefuy into boxes. You may ike to choose some pupis to be book monitors to hep you distribute books from the boxes at the beginning of the reading period and to pack them away at the end. Acknowedgements Gratefu acknowedgement is made to the foowing sources: Other 12 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2: Stimuating interest in reading stories Resource 1 : Hot Hippo http://www.dixie.fcps.net/book_jackets/hothippo.gif (Accessed 2008) Resource 2 : Adapted from: Swain, C. The Primary Engish Magazine For more information on SSR, the foowing website is aso usefu: http://www.treease-on-reading.com Every effort has been made to contact copyright hoders. If any have been inadvertenty overooked the pubishers wi be peased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. Return to Literacy (primary) page 13 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016