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| EARLY LEARNING... An old picture of me reading to my daughter Eva at York Library back in 2004 when she was about two! |
A WAR of words has broken out between the chief inspector of schools and teachers over literacy standards in primary education.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, head of Ofsted, claims England is being overtaken by other leading nations because progress on literacy has stalled.
Sir Michael said one in five children was not reaching the standard expected (level 4) at the end of primary school, arguing that this puts them on the back foot moving up into secondary school and then into the jobs market.
Teaching unions take issue with Sir Michael's claims, discrediting the data used. Undeterred, Sir Michael is laying down the gauntlet, with a ten-point plan to improve literacy levels in primaries. This includes phonics checks on five and six year olds to make sure they are picking up the building blocks for reading and giving parents information about their child's reading age as well as how they are doing against national targets.
These moves should be welcomed. Anything that improves children's ability to read and write has to be applauded especially methods proven to work, such as the phonics which focuses on the sounds of letters and groups of letters.
Giving parents more information about their child's reading age should help too. This way, parents can make sure the books they buy for their children, or the ones they choose at the library, are age-appropriate. There is nothing more guaranteed to turn a child away from books than a text that is too difficult. Teachers advise applying the five-finger rule: ask your child to read a page of a new book and count on your fingers how many words they struggle with. If it is more than five, the book is too advanced for them. Put it back until they are more confident and skilled readers.
Of course, this all presumes that parents are actively involved in their child's literacy development and this is not always the case.
Research by the National Literacy Trust found that a third of parents did not recognise that they were the most important influence on their child's language and literacy development.
It also discovered that learning at home had the biggest influence on the achievement of a child and was a more accurate predictor of future success than the family's income.
On the back of this, the trust has launched a Words For Life campaign, urging parents and carers to commit more time to helping children develop their literary skills.
A quick browse of its website (http://www.wordsforlife.org.uk/) provides plenty of ideas and tips on how to get involved with your child's reading and writing.
It provides a helpful “milestones” section which you can use as a checklist to measure your child's development. There's also a section on “fun things to do together”, again broken down into age categories. Here, you can download stories to listen to, learn how to create a family history book together and even write your own comic adventure, using an exciting template of ready-drawn images.
There are some tips for reading bed-time stories from top children's author Michael Rosen as well as lists of recommended reads, split into age groups, including stories for football-mad kids and fact-based works for children not so keen on fiction. There are even some “free books” to download with related fun worksheets attached.
The aim, clearly, is to make reading enjoyable. The key to turning the reluctant reader is not just to help the child learn the fundamentals of the process, but for them to discover the pleasure in it to.
World Book Day takes place every March and this month pupils have been dressing up as their favourite characters and spending free £1 tokens on books of their choice.
That's all well and good, but we have to make sure that the association between having a good time and reading a book is not just a one-day-a-year affair.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, head of Ofsted, claims England is being overtaken by other leading nations because progress on literacy has stalled.
Sir Michael said one in five children was not reaching the standard expected (level 4) at the end of primary school, arguing that this puts them on the back foot moving up into secondary school and then into the jobs market.
Teaching unions take issue with Sir Michael's claims, discrediting the data used. Undeterred, Sir Michael is laying down the gauntlet, with a ten-point plan to improve literacy levels in primaries. This includes phonics checks on five and six year olds to make sure they are picking up the building blocks for reading and giving parents information about their child's reading age as well as how they are doing against national targets.
These moves should be welcomed. Anything that improves children's ability to read and write has to be applauded especially methods proven to work, such as the phonics which focuses on the sounds of letters and groups of letters.
Giving parents more information about their child's reading age should help too. This way, parents can make sure the books they buy for their children, or the ones they choose at the library, are age-appropriate. There is nothing more guaranteed to turn a child away from books than a text that is too difficult. Teachers advise applying the five-finger rule: ask your child to read a page of a new book and count on your fingers how many words they struggle with. If it is more than five, the book is too advanced for them. Put it back until they are more confident and skilled readers.
Of course, this all presumes that parents are actively involved in their child's literacy development and this is not always the case.
Research by the National Literacy Trust found that a third of parents did not recognise that they were the most important influence on their child's language and literacy development.
It also discovered that learning at home had the biggest influence on the achievement of a child and was a more accurate predictor of future success than the family's income.
On the back of this, the trust has launched a Words For Life campaign, urging parents and carers to commit more time to helping children develop their literary skills.
A quick browse of its website (http://www.wordsforlife.org.uk/) provides plenty of ideas and tips on how to get involved with your child's reading and writing.
It provides a helpful “milestones” section which you can use as a checklist to measure your child's development. There's also a section on “fun things to do together”, again broken down into age categories. Here, you can download stories to listen to, learn how to create a family history book together and even write your own comic adventure, using an exciting template of ready-drawn images.
There are some tips for reading bed-time stories from top children's author Michael Rosen as well as lists of recommended reads, split into age groups, including stories for football-mad kids and fact-based works for children not so keen on fiction. There are even some “free books” to download with related fun worksheets attached.
The aim, clearly, is to make reading enjoyable. The key to turning the reluctant reader is not just to help the child learn the fundamentals of the process, but for them to discover the pleasure in it to.
World Book Day takes place every March and this month pupils have been dressing up as their favourite characters and spending free £1 tokens on books of their choice.
That's all well and good, but we have to make sure that the association between having a good time and reading a book is not just a one-day-a-year affair.
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