It is the reading itself and the related discussion that will most advance children’s ability to read.

[4. Pg 132]

 

Previous blog posts have outlined how the act of reading can quite clearly advance children’s ability to read so this part will focus on the discussion and why high quality, interspersed discussion is essential when supporting children towards independently reading with meaning.

The discussion is key and needs to be thoughtfully prepared; just reading the text aloud is not enough to scaffold it for some, the text needs to be made public information. Teachers of reading need to provide structured, rich and tenacious discussion points which support pupils to make informed decisions about what the author means and not just what they say. Furthermore, the discussion will actively engage children in the meaning-making process, allowing them to integrate the information they read rather than just accumulating it as a receiver. This process will further develop the crucial mental model which ultimately future proofs their reading success.

The National Reading Panel, 2000 [7] , found the power of talk transformative when reporting on what teachers should do to successfully teach all children to read with meaning: ‘they should facilitate discussions in which students collaborate to form joint interpretations of texts and to try to explain the processes that they are using to comprehend texts.’ Reading should be presented as a problem to solve, not with quick facts and statements, but with the development of ideas, connections and always with a close eye on monitoring meaning. The teacher, the expert is actively involved to guide and facilitate discussions (applying temporary scaffolding) which focus on the important ideas; establishing connections between them; and enhancing students’ awareness of the all important authorial intent. 

Let’s go back to The Wolves in the Wall example again. Imagine you, the teacher, have read the text, interjected with planned moments of modelling the expert reader process, the children have tracked the text and have had opportunities to practise reading the text with fluency – they now have the gist of the text and are not only ready to get to grips with it but are eager to do so. This is what might happen next…

Teacher reads or children paired read or choral read:

Lucy walked around the house. Inside the house everything was quiet. Her mother was putting homemade jam into pots. Her father was out at his job, playing the tuba. Lucy heard noises. The noises were coming from inside the walls. They were hustling noises and bustling noises. They were crinkling noises and crackling noises. They were sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises. Lucy knew what kinds of things make noises like that in the walls of big old houses, and she went and told her mother.

Teacher poses a query:

So, what image has the author created at the start?

The next move will most likely depend on where the children are in their reading journey. If they are ready to have less scaffolding, it might be appropriate for children to ‘think, pair and share’ their own ideas. If, however, the children are real novices the teacher might model an appropriate response.

The next point is however crucial if we want to allow all children to be successful readers because it focuses on thinking about what the author intended us to understand about the text not just what they said…

Teacher poses a follow-up query:

Was there anything the author did which helped your imagination?

And this is so often the point where some children will flounder so more prompts might be needed, more scaffolding needs to be erected:

• Let’s go back into the text…
• I wonder if the author chose…to create an image which is…
• I think when the author wrote…they created the image of…
• Let’s look closely at the words/ phrases/ sentences to see if they help us…