Memorandum submitted by Barking and Dagenham
Local Education Authority
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Barking and Dagenham Local Education Authority
(LEA) has, over the last decade or so, given a strong lead over
the teaching of reading. The LEA's Inspection and Advisory Service
believes that teachers have traditionally been poorly trained
in the methods required and so have had a poor understanding of
reading development. For these reasons, the LEA has undertaken
a systematic programme in which:
— very many primary teachers have received
detailed, year-group-specific training on suitable pedagogy for
the teaching of English; and
— the curriculum for English, including
reading, has been described and elaborated in significantly more
detail than in either the National Curriculum or the National
Literacy Strategy.
Barking and Dagenham is an Authority suffering
considerable disadvantage, and with adult literacy levels amongst
the lowest in the country. As a result of our work, primary school
standards have risen from a very low base to around the national
average. In 1996 only 36% of pupils at age 11 reached the expected
standard. By 2001 80% of pupils reached this level, with 35% of
pupils achieving the higher level (level 5).
The LEA is keen to get almost all of its pupils
to the expected levels but, as in much of the rest of the country,
results have reached a plateau. Despite an extensive programme
of staff training for both teachers and teaching assistants, there
remain at least a fifth of pupils who do not do as well as they
should. We see this group as a last great challenge. It is well
known that pupils who fall behind by age 7 generally fail to meet
the expected standards at age 11. Those who fall behind by age
11 seldom gain decent qualifications in public examinations.
It is important to explain why some pupils do
not do as well as they should. In order to do this, the LEA conducted
an in-depth review of the teaching of reading in the summer of
2004. The main findings of the review are shown below. However,
it is first necessary to explain the LEA's advice to teachers
on the teaching of reading.
THE BARKING
AND DAGENHAM
PROGRAMME FOR
READING
The reading curriculum is seen as an integral
part of the English/literacy curriculum.
The Authority starts from a position that children
need to become acquainted with quality texts in order that they
internalise the language and syntax of books. Many children in
this deprived community fail to enter the nursery at age three
with any substantial background of reading. It is therefore the
job of the teacher to develop understanding of books at the broadest
level. Our early teaching therefore relies on children being read
to in order to develop their skills as participative listeners.
The formal teaching of reading is later approached
systematically. Of central importance is the use of high quality
children's literature, which includes both fiction and non-fiction
texts. There is no evidence that the reading primers drawn from
various reading schemes develop children's reading effectively
and the Authority is keen to limit their use. The advantages they
bring (phonic regularity or controlled text) are far outweighed
by their artificiality and lack of appeal.
The Barking and Dagenham Primary English Project
sets out a number of teaching strategies, which are intended to
be used in schools across the Authority. The following paragraphs
describe the intended approach, which has been promoted over the
last eight years in the LEA's training programme.
TEACHING STRATEGIES
Word level work
Alongside strategies which familiarise children
with the language of books, a number of approaches are used to
build up children's knowledge of words.
The LEA has produced a highly structured programme
for the teaching of phonics. During the nursery and reception
years children are taught to hear rhymes in words and to develop
an ear for the sounds they hear. They are taught to recognise
similar sounds at the beginnings and ends of words. Once this
is established, children are taught to recognise the most common
letter sounds and to associate them with their symbols. During
the reception year, children learn the name of each letter and
its most common sound. Early work on blends is also tackled in
a highly systematic way. Magnetic letters are used to help children
to begin to spell words before they have the fine motor skills
to write.
Knowledge of phonic rules is an essential tool
in the art of reading. The most powerful element concerns the
use of the initial sounds (the first letter or group of letters)
in a word. These act as a strong check on what the word says,
particularly when considered in conjunction with other cues, such
as syntax and meaning.
As a result of the LEA programme, there is systematic
teaching of the most common letter-sound relationships in all
the LEA's schools. However, English is far from being a phonically
regular language. Wider reading strategies must therefore also
be taught systematically.
Whole class shared reading
During reception and key stage 1, after being
read to, children begin to recite text together. The class is
positioned so all can see and follow the print in a large book
or on a projected image. The text is often tracked with a pointer
by the teacher. Although many children at this stage will not
be able to decode individual words efficiently, they benefit by
learning predictable text by heart. This enables them later to
draw on their knowledge of the way the specific language of books
works. Recitation of text is not the same as reading independently.
It is seen as a step in building children's confidence as they
then begin to tackle the components of the text at the level of
the single word.
As this work progresses children are taught
to recognise particular words at sight, and to make practical
use of their phonic knowledge. Alongside these technical skills,
they are taught to make use of a range of other cues to decode
words they have not encountered before. These include context
and syntax (without, at this stage, using these words!). These
cues enable children to check whether their prediction of what
an unknown word might say is reasonable (for instance, how does
the word read need to be pronounced in a particular context?).
A concentration on making sense of the text rather than simply
decoding it blindly is essential if children are to learn to read
properly.
Guided Group Reading
Children are selected to join a particular group,
based on the needs teachers have assessed. These are not ability
groups—or are not intended to be so. Children are selected
on the basis of their current skills and current weaknesses and
group composition changes as individuals progress.
The techniques used in guided group reading
are similar to those used in shared whole class reading. However,
children also read individually, either silently to themselves
or out loud. Teachers pick up on individual errors and developmental
needs. The guided group reading session is valuable in enabling
teachers to monitor the progress of individuals.
Strategies for Practice
Although direct teaching of reading is an essential
component of the programme, it is not enough. Children are encouraged
to read regularly and at length as soon as they begin to develop
independence. However, many families do not support this activity
and the schools have to use methods to make up for the shortfall.
The strategies used for practice are as follows.
Partnered Reading
In order to develop reading confidence, children
work in mixed attainment pairs. They take it in turns to read
aloud to their partner from a collection of quality children's
books, which are carefully selected for each year group. Some
of these books will already be known to the children. Pupils are
trained on how to listen to the other reader and how to support
them. The higher attainers practice at their own level but develop
the skills of articulating the story for a listener. The evidence
is that the higher attainers make fast progress through these
activities. The lower attainers benefit by being coached by their
partner. This has a dual benefit. The lower attainer makes progress
by being supported. The higher attainer makes progress by teaching.
In some schools, this works in mixed-age pairings, with similar
benefits.
Individual Practice
Children are encouraged to take home the books
that follow up the guided and shared reading sessions. This helps
them practice what they have been taught. Children are also encouraged
to browse and to choose books from the school libraries and to
tackle books which interest them. In some cases, this means that
they will not be able to decode all of the content. However, there
is benefit in engaging with text which is currently somewhat beyond
them in order to raise their aspirations. For the youngest children,
these activities pose considerable challenge until they have developed
the confidence to read alone.
Various other strategies have been tried in
different schools to ensure children do read to experienced readers
on a regular basis. Amongst the most successful have been:
— organised groups of adults (so called
reading volunteers), who give up their lunch hour to visit a school
to hear reading;
— the use of older or younger peers,
who pair up with less experienced readers out of lesson times;
and
— using teaching assistants where they
are available.
Reading Aloud Programme
To develop children's enthusiasm for literature
and their acquaintance with the different genres, teachers are
encouraged to read aloud without any intense instructional focus.
Unfortunately, this activity has been put under pressure by the
breadth and complexity of the full National Curriculum. This is
a matter of regret.
A REVIEW OF
READING
As mentioned above, the LEA has shown very significant
progress over the last eight or so years. However, between a fifth
and a quarter of pupils need to do better in order to succeed
with later studies. It was therefore decided to look critically
at the approaches being used to teach reading. The review sought
to:
— investigate the degree to which teachers
adhered to the models of teaching and assessment recommended by
the LEA in key stage 1 and early key stage 2;
— identify models of teaching which
enabled almost all pupils to reach expected standards by the ends
of the two primary school key stages; and
— identify elements of the provision
which appeared to be inefficient or unsuccessful.
THE MAIN
FINDINGS OF
THE REVIEW
— As is true nationally, at least one
fifth of pupils in Barking and Dagenham fall below nationally
expected levels at age 11. Those pupils who reach the levels expected
(at least level 2B) at age 7 generally continue to make at least
sound progress. However, a few more children fall behind by age
11. The gap between higher and lower attainers grows as children
move through key stage 2.
— In the lessons in which pupils made
the best progress, teachers had good subject knowledge; they taught
and reinforced key points systematically. They identified, and
incorporated into their teaching, what children needed to do to
move on. In guided reading sessions the texts used were well matched
to the pupils' achievement and succeeded in maintaining their
interest. The teacher explicitly taught groups of pupils, with
a clear purpose and objective in mind. Teaching assistants typically
supported the rest of the class generally as they carried out
tasks independently. In these successful classes, a full range
of reading strategies (as described above) was taught. Pupils
were given strong encouragement to use them.
— In a number of schools, a restricted
range of teaching strategies was used. Some teachers had chosen
to drop particular approaches such as paired reading. Others had
failed to attend training and so did not understand what was expected
or why it was important. In odd cases, highly inefficient methods
were being used. Here teachers spent large expanses of time hearing
pupils read individually. Typically, the schools which used a
restricted range of strategies had lower results than those which
used the full range.
— In weaker lessons, teaching was well
organised, prepared and structured, but was too mechanical: teachers
delivered lessons rather than taking opportunities to focus on
and reinforce the things they assessed their children needed to
learn. In these lessons, there was an emphasis on completing activities
rather than on getting children to learn and apply the range of
reading strategies. Too many teachers still had too little understanding
of the reading process and the way children learn to read. This
prevented them from assessing difficulties in individuals or the
class as a whole, and subsequently doing something about it.
— The teaching and support provided
to the lowest attainers was often provided by teaching assistants.
In many of the examples observed, this work reinforced children's
difficulties and misunderstandings; it did little to overcome
them. The support was sometimes offered away from the direct supervision
of the teacher and so was not monitored. In general, the shortcomings
of the support were not widely appreciated by teachers or headteachers.
Because they were often removed from lessons
for different work, low attaining pupils had less experience of
texts of quality which were used by their peers. Instead, the
work they covered focused on a restricted range of reading strategies
and contributed little to their development as readers. There
was a narrow and often inappropriate focus on phonics, to the
exclusion of wider strategies. When confronted with error or difficulty
most teaching assistants asked children to sound it out. Teaching
assistants and some teachers demonstrated the process inappropriately.
For example, Let's sound it out—ah/luh/suh/ohh/ makes .
. . also. Of course, this is nonsense because also is not a phonically
regular word and, in any case, putting additional vowel sounds
into the equation makes this approach entirely unhelpful. It is
unacceptable that the neediest pupils should receive so much teaching
from unqualified staff. Unfortunately, the use of teaching assistants
to teach the neediest pupils has been promoted nationally; schools
cannot be blamed for the decisions they have made.
— Evidence gathered through listening
to children read suggested that many average pupils, and the majority
of the lower attaining pupils were not reading for meaning. They
sometimes used phonic approaches inappropriately or uncritically.
A pupil in Y4 interpreted
"I am not doing that", he murmured.
"I am not doing that", he murdered.
. . . and continued to read on as if nothing
were amiss.
Such pupils did not read critically for meaning
and remained satisfied with simple, inaccurate, mechanical decoding.
Children like this see the task of reading as saying the words
on the page, rather than making sense of them.
— In some key stage 2 schools time
for reading practice had been squeezed and as a result there was
insufficient consolidation of the direct teaching. This was attributed
to the requirements of the national tests for writing and the
demands of the full National Curriculum.
— There was little systematic monitoring
of reading in most of the schools. Some data were collected but
they were rarely analysed to identify and target groups of underachieving
pupils.
— In most schools reading had not been
the focus of systematic staff training during the last two years.
Writing had had a much higher profile owing to changes in national
test requirements.
— Resources for reading were extensive
and of good quality. In most cases they were well organised and
teachers were able to choose books matched to the attainment level
of their pupils. Some books used for partnered reading were getting
worn out through extensive use and so needed to be replaced.
— Senior leadership teams identified
increasing turnover of pupils and lack of parental support for
reading as areas for concern.
ISSUES FOR
THE FUTURE
The LEA's approach to reading has led to great
gains in pupils' achievement. Unfortunately, partly because of
staff turnover and lack of funds to release teachers for training,
some of the recommended approaches have not been maintained. The
following actions are therefore necessary.
The LEA should:
— continue to work with schools and
teachers to develop: teachers' knowledge of the reading process;
— do more to develop teachers' understanding
of manageable systems of day-to-day assessment;
— articulate and promote teaching approaches
that meet the needs of lower attaining pupils; and
— provide advice, training and support
on the effective use of additional adults and how their impact
can be monitored.
Headteachers in schools should:
— develop systems to monitor the progress
of lower attaining groups of pupils. Do this in order to ascertain
whether these pupils are being taught to use all the reading strategies.
This should avoid a large group of low attaining pupils being
created by omission;
— review the number of additional adults
in the classrooms and the impact they have on the achievement
of the pupils with whom they work; and
— monitor the amount of reading practice
time available. Ensure there are regular opportunities for reading
of different kinds each week.
Teachers should:
— develop their knowledge about the
teaching of reading;
— use assessment to monitor carefully
the progress of pupils. Use this information to inform teaching.
Show how in their planning the way teaching has been adjusted
to meet pupils' assessed needs;
— take responsibility for the teaching
of lower and lowest achieving pupils, rather than giving responsibility
to additional adults;
— organise the programme to use the
whole range of organisational strategies to teach reading each
week. The range should include shared, guided, paired and independent
reading, as well as both pupils and the teacher reading aloud;
and
— teach children to read more discriminatingly,
focusing on meaning.
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