Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack 

Learning Connections Professional Practice Seminars:

Teaching Reading to Adults A pack of resources and ideas for adult literacies tutors Judith Gawn, Jay Derrick, Samantha Duncan and Irene Schwab

“A collection of ideas, strategies, innovations, resources and terribly clever practices.” (Comment from one of the participants’ evaluation sheets)

July 2009

     

 

 

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Contents 4

Section A: Background Who the pack is for How the pack came about About the teaching programme Aims and objectives of the teaching programme The rationale for the teaching programme What the tutors did and what info was drawn on Suggestions for using the pack as a teaching and CPD resource

4 4 4 5 6 7 8

Section B: Teaching and Learning Activities based on classroom investigations and case studies Talking to learners about reading Stimulating interest in reading Linking reading to practices outside the classroom Working with beginner readers: The Language Experience approach Using Phonics Working with mixed ability groups Reciprocal reading Working with specific groups of learners Finding and using appropriate materials: Choosing texts Simplifying texts Teaching and learning approaches: Giving feedback on reading Identifying errors in reading Reading for comprehension

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Section C: CPD activities

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What happened on the Professional Practice Seminar programme Organising a tutor-led investigation Further ideas for CPD activities      

 

 

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Section D: Links to resources on the theory of teaching reading 33 ‐ ‐

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Irene Schwab’s presentation for the PPS programme: ‘Working with Mixed Ability Groups’ Sam Duncan’s paper for the PPS programme: ‘What are we doing when we read? – adult literacy learners’ perceptions of reading’ This is a draft version of a paper to be published in Research in Post-Compulsory Education in autumn 2009 Jude Gawn and Jay Derrick’s paper for the PPS programme: ‘Effective teaching and learning’ Wendy Moss: ‘Notes on the theories on the teaching of reading’ (see references) Victoria Purcell-Gates: ‘There’s reading...and then there’s reading – process models and instruction’. Allan Luke and Peter Freebody: The four resources accessed by literate people. Lighting the Way: the best available evidence about effective adult literacy, numeracy and language teaching From Assessment to Practice: Research-Based Approaches to Teaching Reading to Adults: a webcast Internet video resources on theoretical aspects of teaching reading

Section E: Further information and resources ‐ ‐ ‐

Reading – links to key articles Links to websites Useful books / packs

Section F: Glossary Section G: Facilitators of the PPS programme Section H: Participants in the PPS programme Section I: Support Materials

     

 

 

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Section A: Background Who the pack is for This pack has been produced for adult literacies practitioners in Scotland who are working with adult learners to develop their reading skills. It is intended that it will support both teaching and continuing professional development. In the pack there are lots of ideas for reading activities and resources which came from the practitioners involved in the programme.

How the pack came about The pack has been put together by drawing on the experiences of a group of practitioners who took part in three continuing professional development (CPD) seminars in Glasgow and Edinburgh in late 2008/early 2009. The seminars were funded by Learning Connections, a Division of the Lifelong Learning Directorate of the Scottish Government and delivered by Jay Derrick of BlueSky Learning Ltd, in collaboration with Judith Gawn from NIACE and Irene Schwab and Samantha Duncan, both teacher educators from the Institute of Education, University of London. More information about the facilitators can be found in section G. During the programme the tutors undertook classroom activities and investigations into approaches and methods to teaching reading to adults. This pack contains ideas that were tried out and evaluated by the participants, together with other materials and resources recommended by participants and facilitators.

About the programme The CPD programme consisted of three seminars alongside self-directed investigations into classroom practice undertaken in tutors’ own classrooms. The first seminar in November 2008 aimed to stimulate thinking about the teaching of reading to adults, and about aspects of their work the tutors felt more, or less, confident about. Working in small groups they identified specific issues they wanted to work on and planned a classroombased investigation aimed at finding out more about effective classroom practice. Over the following three months the tutors carried out their investigations and evaluated them with the help of other colleagues on the programme. The second and third seminars (January and March 2009) provided opportunities for the participants to share their experiences and evaluate their investigations. There was also expert input on three topics:      

 

 

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•

Working with beginner readers, and using phonics

•

Working with mixed ability groups

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Effective teaching and learning

At the end of the third and final seminar, participants produced reports on their investigations setting out what they had done, what had worked, what hadn’t and why. The 50 participants who attended the programme were organised into nine groups. This was done broadly on a geographic basis, in order to maximise the potential for group members to communicate and support each other between the seminars. Mostly, communication and interaction happened via email, although at times members did meet up between the seminars. This emphasis on the importance of informal communication between colleagues is a feature of the model for professional development known as ‘teacher learning communities’ (Wiliam 2007). Participants also had access to the Learning Connections Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), which enabled them to communicate with the group as a whole, and to access programme documents and information. The programme aimed to promote co-operative working between the tutors as professionals to share and develop their own skills and knowledge. The facilitators also provided support via email between the seminars and participants were encouraged to be as proactive as possible, so as to get the most benefit from the programme.

Aims and objectives of the programme The broad aims of the programme were to: • • •

provide a framework and activities enabling tutor-led professional development focusing on the teaching of reading to adults evaluate this model of practitioner development compile a tutor pack of resources and findings from the action research on effective practice in the teaching of reading to adults

The specific objectives of the programme included: • •

More effective and sustained professional learning by participants A greater impact on effective classroom practice in the future, along the lines suggested by research findings

     

 

 

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•

• •

A higher level of professional confidence and autonomy indicated by the motivation and ability of practitioners to organise and sustain their own professional development Action research findings on the effectiveness and practicability of ‘teacher learning communities’ in the context of Scottish adult literacies work A model for future professional development programmes focusing on different CPD teaching topics

Participants were involved in the planning of the structure and content of this pack, as well as contributing their experiences and the valuable insights they gained from the CPD programme.

Rationale for the format of the programme The facilitators’ approach to the teaching of adult literacy was informed by a social practices view. Encompassed in that view is a belief that tutors need to have a thorough grounding in the range of cognitive, psychological and social theories about the development of literacy skills in order that they can critically evaluate their practice and provide the most appropriate strategies and support for learners. The teaching of reading is viewed as a collaborative activity in which tutors and students work together in an equal partnership. This view is embedded within the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum Framework for Scotland (Communities Scotland 2005) and has been widely written about by David Barton, Mary Hamilton, Ute Papen and others (see resources and references listed in Section E below) This overarching perspective also informed the approach to teacher development. Particularly for teachers with experience, the most effective professional learning must include collaborative, practical (classroom-based) and informal elements. Research by Hattie, Sadler, Black and William and others (see references in Section E) strongly suggests that the most important factor in student persistence, progression and achievement is the quality of classroom teaching and learning, and that ‘formative assessment’ approaches 1 are likely to be a key part of effective teaching and learning. The research findings about effective teaching and learning in the adult literacies classroom apply equally to teacher training and development. Recent development projects in Scotland and elsewhere (see for example Ackland 2008) have pointed to the value of                                                              1

 Recently defined in an OECD publication on adult learning as follows: “ Formative assessment refers to the frequent  assessment of learner understanding and progress to identify needs and shape teaching. Formative assessment is  sometimes referred to as assessment for learning, distinct from assessment of learning (tests and examinations)”  (Looney 2008).  An earlier OECD publication also emphasised the importance of systematic practice, in which formative  assessment is a fully‐integrated feature of teaching and learning (OECD 2005). 

     

 

 

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incorporating action research into teacher training and development. This aligns well with an emphasis on formative assessment approaches and suggests that teacher development activities, both initial and in-service, should also be planned and organised formatively, so as to be most effective and to have maximum and sustainable impact on classroom practice.

What the tutors did The tutors identified a range of issues/relating to reading that they wanted to work on, many of which were related to encouraging a greater interest in reading, in developing reading stamina and in developing student autonomy. Tutors wanted to know and understand more about working with beginner readers and with mixed ability groups, addressing individual reading difficulties and encouraging learners to read more outside of the classroom. Choosing appropriate texts and finding stimulating and relevant reading material was another area where tutors felt they needed more ideas. On the basis of their identified issues, the tutors chose to focus on a specific action that they could take in the classroom as a form of ‘mini-investigation’. The idea was not for tutors to be told what they should do, but for them to try things out, see what worked and what didn’t and why. Investigations and approaches that the tutors decided on included: •

Talking to learners about the reading process

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Actively involving learners in choosing texts

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Setting up a self-directed reading group

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Using the Language Experience approach with beginner readers

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Focusing on phonics

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Focusing on error analysis

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Using the ‘6 Book Challenge’ to stimulate reading

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Improving the quality of feedback on reading

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Investigating triggers that would engage people with reading

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Looking at reading outside the classroom and linking with reading in the classroom

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Using song lyrics to engage learners in reading activities

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Focusing on reading for pleasure

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Paired reading

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack 

•

Differentiating approaches to address learning styles

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Improving the assessment of individual reading skills and interests

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Involving learners as critical readers of others’ texts

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Encouraging active, critical reading

Often the approaches that tutors took involved more than one of the elements on this list. Sometimes tutors tried one thing, found it didn’t work for their group or individual learners and then tried something different. The main objective was that the tutors reflected on how things worked in order to develop, refine or occasionally reject their approach.

Suggestions for using this pack as a teaching and CPD resource You can use the ideas and resources in this pack in your own classroom teaching or you can use them as part of professional development activities, individually or collaboratively within a ‘teacher learning community’ (See Section D). Whatever you choose to use, it is important to remember that not every approach will work for every learner. It is up to individual tutors to try things out and find what works. In the case studies, we have included information about what went well and what didn’t work so well – which we hope will provide some pointers to things to do and things it may be best to avoid.

     

 

 

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Section B – Teaching and Learning Activities Talking to learners about reading Research suggests (see for example, Duncan 2009) that it is important to talk to learners about the ‘how’ of reading as well the ‘why’ or the ‘what’, in other words to get learners to reflect on what they are doing when they read. Encouraging learners to talk about their perspectives on reading can help the tutor understand more about the learner and about how they are approaching reading. Being explicit about the approaches that you use as a tutor, and involving learners in evaluating those approaches, including what works or doesn’t for them, can help to give the learner more say over the process. Case Study: Learners thinking and talking about reading One tutor decided she could only help her learners with their reading if she had a good idea of what reading  is to them, how they defined or understood reading.  She was working with a group of ten learners. She  started by interviewing /meeting with each learner individually, asking questions like:    What is reading?  What are we doing when we read?   What kinds of things do you read or want to read?  What’s easy about reading?    What’s harder about reading?  How would you help someone who wanted to learn to read?  The tutor also ran a ‘focus group,’ asking similar questions to the whole group, asking the learners to make  mind‐maps on flip chart paper with their ideas.  With the learners’ permission,  she audio‐taped the  individual meetings and focus groups.  She listened to them over and over to come up with a list of what  reading was to her learners. Next, she gave this list to the learners and they discussed it, both in terms of  what they each agreed or disagreed with, but also in terms of identifying what it meant for their learning.  For example, many learners felt that you need to start by reading ‘easy’ books (with words you already  know) over and over, before you can progress to more difficult books.  The tutor and learners discussed how  this meant they should start by practising reading books they already find ‘easier’ and only when they are  very confident with these, move onto more demanding texts.  Tutor evaluation  Learners were keen to discuss their own ideas about reading and felt pleased that these ideas were being  taken seriously. The tutor was happy to get such a range of ideas which could be translated into ideas for  teaching. The whole process was effective in focusing the learners and the tutor on thinking hard about   what kind of activity or experience reading really is, instead of assuming that we already know this.   It takes  time to speak to each learner individually and to listen to the tapes and take notes (but time well spent!)

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack 

Starter activity Introduce a discussion about reading. You can do this in pairs or in small groups. Ask learners what they can remember about learning to read, what sort of strategies they use already and why they find reading difficult. Ask them to think about how they see someone who is a reader and someone who is a non-reader. Ask them why they think it is important to be able to read and whether it is more important to read some things than others. Development activities: •

Ask learners what they would most like to read. Encourage them to talk to each other about their choice and explain why they have made it.

•

Reflect on what you are supporting your learners to be able to do. Do you want them to read well technically, or do you want them to be active and critical readers, or both? Be explicit with your learners about your approaches to reading as a teacher and be prepared to justify why you think the way you do. Do your learners share the same reasons for improving their reading or do they have different motivations?

•

Talk about why people read and the different things that people read. You could show a variety of reading materials. Is it more important to be able to read some things than others? Why? Will understanding this make it easier to make choices about what you read?

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Encourage the learners to read critically. Talk about what they think the writer is trying to say to the readers, whether they have a particular point of view or why they might have written what they have. Is the writer successful in getting their point of view across?

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Involve learners in evaluating what you are doing. If you try something new around reading, let the learners know, ask them to tell you what they think about it, whether it helps them or not and why.

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Set up a reading group if learners are interested. Encourage them to choose what they want to read and take responsibility for organising. There are lots of reading groups in local libraries, some of which are run specifically for new readers. (Link?)

Further reading:

Understanding what reading is all about – Teaching Materials and Lessons for Adult Basic Education Learners, NCSALL, July 2005

     

 

 

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Stimulating reading One of the first tasks was to think about how to stimulate reading as a fun and enjoyable activity in the classroom. Tutors felt it was important to: •

Let the learners lead on what they wanted/interested them

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Encourage a passionate interest in reading by focusing on learners’ own interests

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Build up a resource bank of texts – fiction and factual books, magazines, newspapers, pictures, postcards, books with tapes/CDs.

Case Study: 6 Book Challenge One tutor built up a bank of resources but the students showed little interest until the tutor invited a  librarian from the local library that was running the 6‐Book Challenge.  This grabbed the interest of the  learners who all got involved in looking at the books that the librarian had brought in.  The tutor said “There  was a real buzz.  One learner read three books in a week.”  The next step is to produce a quarterly magazine  to which the learners will contribute their book reviews.  The tutor felt the whole experience had helped to  bond the group. 

Starter activity Start up a conversation about what people read now and what they’d really like to be able to read. Talk to the students about something you have read recently and why you enjoyed it. Get hold of a supply of books from your local library or a collection of Quick Reads. Development activities •

Read a short story to the group – stop at various points to discuss or ask questions about what they think might happen next.

•

Record short stories from the radio and listen as a group.

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Take part in the 6 book challenge.

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Ask students to make a mental note of all of the things that they might read on their way to and from the learning centre or when they are out shopping. What things would they really like to be able to read?

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Encourage an atmosphere where students feel keen to come in and tell the others about what they have read.

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Put student writing up on the wall if you can and encourage students to read each others’ work.

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack 

Case Study: From watching films to reading books   One tutor noticed that although her students were not confident about reading outside the classroom,  some of them were very keen on fantasy and horror movies.  There was intense conversation about the  latest Harry Potter film and the films based on Stephanie Meyer’s vampire series of novels.  She  suggested that they might like to try reading the books that the films are based on, helping each other  while in the class.  After a tentative start, this was very successful indeed, as other friends of these  students were reading these books too, and it enabled two students in particular to read whole books  which would have been far too daunting before.  The tutor also started students thinking about genres  of films and novels, for example by having discussions about books based just on looking at the cover:   What do you think this book is about? Who do you think would like this book?  She then extended this  by writing short synopses of books to stimulate the same discussions.  Finally she got students to write  their own very short synopses of books they had been reading, and began extending the work to include  reviewing.  All of these activities gradually helped people who did not consider themselves to be readers,  to gain much more confidence as new members of the reading ‘club’.   The tutor said that a key element  of this strategy is to keep extending the work, so that students get to see themselves as readers in  general, as well as readers of a particular genre. 

Linking reading to practices outside the classroom A social practices view of literacy makes strong links between what people read and write at home or work and what they do in the classroom. If reading in the classroom isn’t interesting and relevant to what the learners need or want to read in their daily lives, they won’t be motivated to practice those skills outside. The first thing is to find out from learners what they would be interested in reading. You could ask learners to tell you about their hobbies and interests, but also think about those situations where they wanted or needed to be able to read something and couldn’t. Case Study: Setting up a reading resource box Several tutors wanted their learners to become more self‐motivated and to read for pleasure outside the  classroom.  The tutors decided to focus on finding texts for learners that suited their personal interests,  whether that was fiction or hobbies, and collected together a resource box of books that learners could take  home and keep if they wanted to.   Learners were encouraged to read at home and make a note of any new  or unfamiliar vocabulary that could then form the basis of spelling work in the group.  Tutor Evaluation   Learners were certainly motivated by reading books that related to their own interests  and by the fact that they could keep the books.  Some learners joined the local library so that they could  borrow more books.   The tutor also felt it helped that learners didn’t feel under pressure to report back on  what they had read or to ‘study it to death’.   Not all learners took to it.  It was too much, too soon for some  learners. 

     

 

 

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Starter activity: Put together a resource box with books and other reading materials on a variety of topics – autobiography, romance fiction, true life stories, cookery books, sports manuals, specialist magazines etc. Try to find books that will be of interest to your learners and of about the right level for them – involve your learners in putting the resource box together and ask them to contribute ideas and examples of books they have enjoyed. Encourage learners to borrow a book but don’t pile on the pressure to ‘finish’ it. Development activities: •

Use some time in the session to discuss what people have read, what they enjoyed, and what they didn’t. Ask people to say why they were motivated to read the book, and if they didn’t finish it, why not?

•

Encourage learners to write mini-reviews of what they have read for other learners

•

Ask the group to suggest other things that people might want to read: If you enjoyed this, then you will also enjoy reading ....

     

 

 

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Working with beginner readers 1

The Language Experience approach

Working with new readers can often be challenging, but several tutors found that the Language Experience approach worked well. Language Experience is a method for encouraging reading by using the natural language and words of the learner for the composition of reading texts, which they can then use for reading and writing practice. A more detailed explanation and examples of this approach can be found in a recent article by Jane Mace, called ‘Language Experience, what’s going on?.

Here is another case study: Case Study: Using the Language Experience approach A tutor working with a learner who had suffered a stroke and lost the use of his right side, was struggling to  help him learn to read again and write with his left hand.  She found that using the Language Experience  approach, and reading back words that he was familiar with, increased his confidence and his motivation.   Initially, they focused just on people’s names and single words, and then moved on to whole sentences and  paragraphs.  The tutor felt that it was important that the learner was willing to talk about himself and find  topics that had an emotional connection, so they talked about ‘Sundays’ and the birth of a grand‐daughter.   The learner was very happy to find that he could read his own words.  In the words of the tutor “something  clicked” and he was soon able to recognise those words in other texts.  Soon he began to recognise the  punctuation and found rhythm in the text.   Another learner in the group wouldn’t talk about themselves, but was interested in learning to cook.  The  tutor used the same approach to work on easy recipes.  The learner is now moving on to longer texts and  reading better.  

Starter activity Find a topic that the learner is interested in talking about. Ask them to say a couple of things about that. Write down the learner’s words verbatim (ie word for word) using a neat, readable cursive script. Initially keep the text to no more than three sentences, and only one short sentence if the learner is a very new reader. Read the text back to the learner and check that is what they want to say. Now read the text together or encourage the learner to read it on their own. Development activities •

Write out the sentence or sentences again, keeping the original as a master copy. Cut up the second copy into single words and ask the learner to re-order them,

     

 

 

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using the master as a guide. Ask the learner to read the text again to make sure it is the same. •

Ask the learner to identify single words – “which word says...?”

•

Pick out key words for learning to spell. Keep a word ‘bank’ on cards.

•

Record the learner reading the text. Erase stutters and pauses and give the learner the recording so they can listen to themselves reading while they follow the text.

•

Identify words that have been learnt in other texts.

Things to be aware of This activity can be time-consuming for the tutor in terms and therefore needs to be planned in carefully so that other students don’t feel neglected. This is an activity that can be transferred to groups but is best done on a one-to-one basis. Providing the students are willing, you could pair them up to help each other with reordering sentences, identifying words and practising reading. Some students may find the personal aspect threatening until they feel confident with the teacher and the group. 2

Using Phonics

Using a phonic approach with beginner readers can really help to move them on, particularly if they have never learnt about sound-symbol relationships before. An understanding of phonics can help students to decode unfamiliar words providing they have a regular sound-symbol correspondence, eg ‘how now brown cow’. However, there are lots of words in the English language that are ‘irregular’ or where the sound is spelt in a variety of different ways. For example, there are a number of different sounds for the ‘ough’ spelling: rough and tough may be ok, but what about cough, through, borough, dough, bough! Tutors also need to be aware of regional differences in how a student is pronouncing a word which could lead to confusion. It is important to remember that although phonics may be the answer for some words, that students will need a range of strategies for decoding unfamiliar words. It’s also important not to spend too long focusing on this within a session – 20 minutes or so is quite long enough. Most of the resources and reading schemes based on phonics are for use with children and not suitable for adults, so tutors may have to make their own. The important thing is to be very systematic when introducing phonics and explicit with the students about why and how you are using this approach. For a good explanation of the phonic approach see chapter 5 of the NRDC Literacy Teachers Handbook, (2009, in press). If you don’t have access to a suitable reading scheme, then flash card games and word dominoes are a      

 

 

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useful resource. There is a suggested order for teaching phonics in the English National Adult Literacy Core Curriculum, and the topic is also dealt covered in a NIFL webcast on teaching reading, and a Teachers’ TV video debate.

Working with mixed ability groups Many of the tutors on the programme were working with very mixed groups of both beginner and fluent readers and they wanted their learners to become self-motivated and to read for the pleasure of it. The challenge was to provide each individual within the group with appropriate reading material and to give them sufficient time and attention to keep them motivated in their reading. In any group, a tutor needs to make sure that they differentiate their approaches and materials according to the individuals’ reading readiness, interests and learning profiles. In a mixed ability group there will be a range of differences between individuals relating to their existing skills, knowledge and understanding, their prior experiences of life and learning, their attitudes, motivation, interests and learning style. Organising learners on a course into flexible groupings or pairs can mean that all of the learners can have access to the same content but have different learning outcomes according to their interests, abilities and learning preferences. Several tutors found that investigating their learners’ different learning styles and addressing those through different activities helped. Understanding the different strategies that learners were using to approach the decoding of texts meant that the tutors could pair up learners or organise them in small groups to help each other. Case Study: Group reading of plays and short stories One tutor wanted to engage her learners more actively in reading together.  Having assessed that most of  the learners were comfortable with more active, kinaesthetic approaches, she suggested they read aloud  and discuss how they thought the language of the texts sounded to them.  Initially she tried to encourage  the learners to make up and perform a play that they taped, but there was no interest in that.  Instead the  tutor devised two short plays, where the texts were based on conversations between the learners.  “The  plays were engaging and amusing because the learners recognised themselves, things they had said and  topics that had been discussed.”  The learners were encouraged to make their own changes to their parts  and the words they used.  Following on from this at a later session, the group read through short stories,  taking it in turns to read aloud.  The group then amended and reconstructed the texts for themselves.  They  discussed the vocabulary and suggested alternatives that were better suited to their own everyday language.    “The learners started hesitantly at first, but warmed to the task and produced a lot of alternative words and  expressions to make the story more understandable to themselves and their vernacular.  There was  discussion about the use of language and why people would choose one word rather than another, what  effect they could be trying to achieve and the possibility of using language to obscure meaning and to simply  show off.”       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  Tutor evaluation  The activities built the learners’ confidence, in terms of their use of language and generally, and their ability  to challenge and to articulate their ideas.  The tasks led on to critical discussions of reading, how we speak  and the words we use.  The activities were fun and challenging and were a meaningful way to read aloud.   The plays based on the learners conversations helped to reinforce the idea that vernacular is valid and that  the words we use are worth discussing and recording. Writing a script can be time consuming.  Some learners still struggled with reading their “parts” and didn’t  progress very much.   

Many of the tutors tried out approaches that involved the learners as critical readers of texts. They wanted the learners to be more engaged and motivated by choosing texts for themselves rather than choosing for them. Case study: Involving the learner as a critical reader One tutor, who was working with learners with mental health difficulties, had access to two ‘writers in  residence’ who were producing short stories based on characters from the local area.  The success of the  reading material was in the fact that they reflected local experiences and local knowledge.  The learners  were asked to read the stories as critical readers and had the chance to meet the authors and feed back  their ideas and comments.  To stimulate the learners’ interest, the tutor read some of the short stories to them, stopping at exciting  moments to discuss what they thought might happen next.  This required the learners to ask their own  questions of the text and motivated them to want to find out more. 

Several tutors found that pairing students up to read helped with their motivation and allowed the tutor some time to give attention to those most in need. This needs to be set up carefully, with clear ground rules agreed by learners about how to give your partner time and space to work things out for themselves, when to jump in and help, what sort of questions the pairs might ask each other about what they have read. Activities such as this also need to be monitored and evaluated to find out how and what ways they benefit learners. Ask learners directly about this and whether they might want to change in any way how the activities are carried out.

     

 

 

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Case study: Paired reading One tutor decided to use the ‘Quick Reads’ books on a short course with young people, many of whom were  quite disengaged from learning.  She introduced the learners to the library where all of the books were on  show.  The learners chose a book which they could take home and read in their own time and at their own  pace.  The tutor paired up the learners according to their interests:  “It was interesting to see how they  chose the books – according to covers, pictures, blurbs.”  The tutor wanted the discussion between the pairs  to be informal, so did not set any specific questions and it didn’t matter how far they had got with the book.   Tutor Evaluation  “It was helpful that it wasn’t overly planned or monitored with laborious writing exercises attached. “  The  tutor also reflected on what more she needed to find out about her learners and about her own knowledge  of language and reading approaches.  She felt that it was a good activity for finding out the vocabulary that  learners found difficult.  The fact that some learners spoke a common language at home but read in English  because they found it easier had motivated her to look at the impact of mother tongue on their literacy  capabilities in English.  It was difficult to assess what the impact of paired activity had had on the learners’  individual reading development.  There was very positive peer pressure to choose and read a book, but it  was unclear how motivational the activity actually was. 

The benefits of paired reading can be extended by the use of reciprocal reading, in which tutor and student, or student and student, take turns leading a conversation about a piece of writing. The technique is summarised here. The idea is that in leading the conversation the students will be predicting, questioning, summarising and clarifying misleading parts of the text, and thus continually checking their understanding of it. The technique implies the belief that making sense of texts, especially if the context is unfamiliar, is best done in collaboration with others. Further summaries and discussions of this powerful technique can be found in Section E.

Working with specific groups of learners Many of the tutors on the programme were working with particular groups of learners, such as young homeless people or young parents. They found it was important to base their approach to reading within the specific context or situation in which the students were learning. This meant developing activities and learning materials specific to that context: Case study: working with homeless young people A tutor working with a group of homeless 16‐19 year olds contacted her local radio station.  On work  experience at the radio station the young people realised that they needed to develop their reading and  writing skills in order to do tasks required.  The tutor used the contexts of DJ‐ing and radio technology to  help them develop their reading.          

 

 

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Case study: working with single parents Another tutor was working with a group of single parents who decided to write bed‐time stories for their  children.  They read a number of stories together and then chose a story where they could use the story as a  template but with different characters, beginnings or endings, to make them relevant to their own families.    

Case study: working with traveller women A tutor working with a group of young women travellers found it very hard to find suitable materials.  She  asked the women to write stories about their own experiences which they shared and read to each other.  (For texts specifically about traveller experiences, see Further Information and Resources)   

Many of the tutors were interested in developing phonic approaches to reading, particularly where learners had specific difficulties in reading. One tutor used the language experience approach combined with phonological exercises. Phonics can really help some students and the tutor recommends persevering even if it seems hard initially. She suggests: Make it fun! But if, after a while, it really doesn’t seem to make sense to the learner, try another approach. Case study: Language Experience combined with a phonic decoding approach Topics for discussion were discussed with the learners and then the tutor scribed the learner’s story.  The  text was then used for the learner to read and for the tutor to identify any difficulties the learners had in  reading.  The tutor devised a range of phonological exercises to help with sounding out and spelling the  words.  She encouraged the learners to identify words they wanted to spell and to type up the story if they  could.  The tutor says that there are benefits for learners at all levels and that they all enjoyed it.  For  beginner learners they are more relaxed because they recognise their own words.  For better readers this  approach has encouraged them to be more precise and not just try and guess what the word might be.  The  tutor also used the text to help learners consider the use of punctuation.   

     

 

 

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Finding and using appropriate materials 1

Choosing texts

Many tutors were keen to motivate their learners to read more widely and to be more independent in their ability to choose what to read. The key to this, they agreed, was finding texts and materials that were of personal interest to learners and emotionally engaging (‘passionate interest’ texts). This required that the tutors find out more about their learners’ interests, hobbies and purposes for reading. Case study: Encouraging learners to be self-motivated readers by choosing their own reading material A group of tutors focused on tailoring book choices to learners’ interests, with the aim of encouraging  learners to be self‐motivated readers for both pleasure and further learning.  The tutors discussed with the  learners where their personal interests lay and found books to match those as closely as they could.  Book  choices included: visual dictionaries, books on autism, poetry, history of farming during the war, Catherine  Cookson novels, books on fishing, Disney books, ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ type fantasy, sports magazines and  newspaper sections, learner authored stories published by NIACE and other publishers, historical fiction.   Some learners took to the reading easier than others.  For others it proved to be thoroughly enjoyable and  spurred them into joining the local library for the first time.  The big question is whether learners will take  the next step of finding their own reading material independently.  Tutor evaluation 

 

Overall it had a positive impact on learners.  One learner is now developing her own short‐story writing with  a writer in residence.  It has also helped the tutors to understand more about their learners’ wishes and  motivations.  Accompanied visits to the local library can help learners to take the big step towards becoming  more independent readers.  Some learners who had never shown an interest in reading for pleasure didn’t particularly enjoy this activity  and more thought will need to be given to how to engage them.   

Sometimes tutors need to look for materials outside of their own ‘comfort zones’ and try different activities with learners. This is particularly the case when working with groups of younger learners, although the tutor in the case study below felt that the most positive thing she had learned from her investigation was that tutors should not be afraid to try new activities with learners: “I was surprised at how quickly the learners were able to relate to the materials and how open and interesting the discussions were that took place.”

     

 

 

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Several of the tutors had used song lyrics as reading material with their learners. Mr President by Pink was recommended! Tutors on the programme suggest it’s a good idea to build up a bank of interesting song lyrics. Case study: Using song lyrics to engage young people in reading activities  One tutor was working with a group of young people (16‐25) with very basic skills in reading and writing and  low self‐esteem.  None of them claimed that they read, although they were not unwilling to do so.  Finding  suitable reading materials for them has been a problem so she decided to use song lyrics to engage them in  reading and asked them to bring in music that they liked to listen to.  The group discussed what they felt the  songs were about and made group notes about their thoughts.  Using one of the sessions to focus on using  the internet to search for song lyrics, the tutor then asked each learner to pick a song and printed out the  lyrics.   Each song was used as a mini‐project.  The tutor helped the learners to build up personal word banks  and she also created word cards and sound card games that related to the written text.  She also found  computer based activities that related to the areas they wanted or needed to work on.  Some students  moved on to reading short stories with accompanying CDs to listen to.   Tutor evaluation  The activity really switched the young people on to looking at written texts and gaining more meaning from  them.   “Knowing that there wasn’t a right and wrong answer to taking meaning from words was really  important.”   

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Simplifying texts

Sometimes students will struggle with reading what they want to read because the text is too difficult. It is a good idea to produce a simplified version to make texts easier to read, but be careful not to lose the original ideas or other features which made the text interesting in the first place. Although lots of words can be replaced by more easily decoded alternatives, you may want to leave in some harder words which are key to the meaning or which the student is keen to be able to read. To simplify a text: •

Leave out any unnecessary information

•

Replace long or difficult words with easier synonyms

•

Make complex sentences into simple or compound ones

•

Shorten sentences that are too long or convoluted

•

Use active rather than passive verbs

     

 

 

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•

Enlarge the font – use Ariel or Comic Sans

•

Don’t put too much on a page and leave plenty of white space around the text

•

Use double line spacing

•

Use illustrations to help with understanding

Learning Connections has produced a guidance leaflet for simplifying texts. NIACE/BSA has produced an updated version of their free guide to readability.

Effective teaching and learning approaches This section draws on recent research on the most effective teaching and learning approaches and techniques. These apply in general to any teacher teaching any subject to any group of students in any situation, though the specific context will influence how they are used. You can find out more about this research and its implications by following up the references given in Section E on effective teaching and learning. Participants in the PPS programme focused on three areas under this heading: giving feedback, identifying errors, and reading for comprehension. 1

Giving feedback on reading

Most teachers are familiar with giving feedback either orally or written. Often feedback focuses on the content of a piece of work or the performance of a skill. Something along the lines of: “You read that well, it’s much more fluent. Just be more careful with noticing the word endings. Well done.” This type of feedback, usually referred to as the praise sandwich, can become very bland and meaningless, with the tutor merely commenting on how the student has done. A more useful model is one where the feedback is a two-way, interactive dialogue between tutors and students and between students themselves. The purpose then becomes not just about giving the student information about the progress they have made and practical advice about what to do next or how to improve, but to listen to the student’s responses, to check their understanding and motivation and to monitor any changes in their purposes and aspirations. It is an opportunity for the tutor to become more aware of their own perceptions of their students’ strengths and weaknesses and of gaps in their knowledge. It can give the tutor insights into the different approaches or strategies that the student is bringing to the reading task. It can also help the tutor understand which tasks and purposes for reading are important to their students and what their feelings are about how they think they learn best.      

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  Case study: Giving feedback on reading   Two tutors focused on improving the quality of the feedback that they were giving to learners about their  reading.  They also attempted to assess the impact on learners of giving more and better feedback.   The tutors were keen to provide useful feedback to their learners which helped them to think about the next  steps they needed to take, and to move away from bland comments such as “fantastic” or “brilliant”.  They  reflected on the purposes of feedback, which they identified as praise, correction and checking for  understanding.  They felt it was important not to over‐praise as this could in the long run become  meaningless.  They agreed that correction was not about the tutor telling the learner what they had got  ‘wrong’ but that feedback should be undertaken as a dialogue between the tutor and the learner, ideally  asking questions that encourage the learner to spot mistakes for themselves.  Checking for understanding  was also about dialogue, for instance rephrasing something the learner has just read to assess their  comprehension.  Tutor Evaluation  Both tutors felt that they had become more reflective, that the exercise had concentrated their minds and  that the quality of their feedback had definitely improved.   However they also felt that they needed to know  more about how to measure the impact of their changes on learners.                                     

 

 

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2

Identifying errors in reading

The tutor in the case study below built her classroom investigation around analysing errors in learners’ reading. Although initially worried that she was focusing on the errors, the strategies she used helped her to more accurately identify the specific areas that learners needed to work on. She is still concerned about whether focusing on errors may have a negative impact or whether accuracy is more or less important than understanding.

Case study: Error analysis to address reading accuracy   One tutor decided to focus on analysing learner errors in their reading.  She listened to each learner reading  and marked the errors on a separate sheet, taping the reading if the learner felt confident.  Taping the  reading also allowed her to think about pace and fluency.   She analysed the errors under the headings:  substitution / omission / addition / repetition / transposition / pronunciation.  She also made a note of  where the learner managed to self‐correct.    This made her more aware of the type of error being made and  how often the learner made it.  It allowed her to plan group work around specific areas such as word endings  and beginnings, letter patterns and sight words.  The activity prompted a group discussion on how people  use different strategies when they come to an unfamiliar word which helped build group cohesion and  confidence.  The tutor also looked at the use of punctuation and how this helped in expression when reading  aloud.  Tutor evaluation  Identifying and analysing the type of error made the group more aware that there was a reason for the error  and it helped the learners to see that they were not the only ones making mistakes.  The tutor also felt it  helped with spelling and writing.  Noting and acknowledging when the learner was self‐correcting gave an  opportunity for praise and confidence building.  Taping the reading and playing it back to the learner gave  them an opportunity to hear themselves reading, with the errors.  When they taped the same passage being  read after working on error correction, they really noticed the difference.  The one‐to‐one reading and taping was time‐consuming and only worked when the tutor had a volunteer  with her.  Initially it was difficult marking the errors as the student read, although this was a skill that the  tutor improved after a few runs!    

     

 

 

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3

Reading for comprehension

We are all agreed that whilst it is important to be able to decode unfamiliar words, the main thing is that students understand and can gain meaning from what they read. This means understanding the explicit meanings and being able to ‘read between the lines’, to think about what the implicit messages are. Students therefore need to be introduced to a range of comprehension strategies. These might include: Introducing the reading text with a discussion about what the students know already about this topic and what they might expect from the text •

Familiarising the students with key words that appear in the text

•

Stopping during the reading at suitable points to highlight what may be unfamiliar ideas or vocabulary, to discuss unexpected or controversial ideas, or to ask questions about what might come next

•

Encouraging students to summarise what they have read or explain to each other

•

Asking students a series of questions, either oral or written, about factual details or vocabulary but also to stimulate thinking about why something might have happened as it did, whether the students agree with what they have read, or what might happen next.

•

Encouraging students to ask questions for themselves about what they have read

One tutor found that encouraging her students to listen to a story with their eyes closed and visualise what was happening in the story actually helped with reading and comprehension. Case Study: Improving reading for comprehension  One of the tutors used an approach which involved the learner in visualising the story as she reads in order  to help her develop reading fluency and improve comprehension.  The tutor began by providing the learner  with a variety of synopses of a range of texts.  She asked the learner to choose what she wanted to read and  to think critically about the reasons why she had chosen that particular text.  The tutor provided books on  CD and stories accompanied by pictures.  As the learner listens to the CD she closes her eyes and visualises  the story.  The tutor says that this learner is able to remember and understand more of the story than she  used to be able to do.  It has also encouraged her to read more for pleasure on a regular basis.  The tutor  also feels the learner is more relaxed in her approach to reading, she spends less energy on decoding the  text and is keen to ‘read on’ to find out what happens.   

     

 

 

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Section C - CPD Activities 1

What happened on the PPS programme

The reading programme on which this pack has been put together was based on a model of professional development known as ‘teacher learning communities’. It was proposed by Dylan Wiliam (Wiliam 2007) for the sustainable organisation of continuous professional development of teachers. The model advocates that small groups of teachers meet periodically to evaluate innovations and experiments in classroom practice that each has carried out in their teaching since the last meeting. The aim is collectively to share and improve practice and understanding, but also to improve motivation and professional autonomy. ‘Teacher learning communities’ can be supported by inputs of various kinds from outside the group from time to time. The model incorporates features of effective teacher development as found by research in the USA, England and Scotland among others, including study circles, peer coaching, and teachers investigating their own classroom practice (NCSALL 2003, Learning Connections 2008, Davies et al 2007). 2

Organising your own tutor-led investigations

During the first of the seminars, we took the tutors through a series of questions, to help them think about particular issues or problems they wanted to address in relation to teaching reading in their groups. The process helped them decide on a particular problem to try to deal with, and then helped them think about exactly how they would try to address it, in terms of making a specific change (or innovation) to their classroom practice. The process also got them thinking about how they would be able to decide if the changes they had introduced into their practice, had made any difference: in other words, what evidence they would be looking for, to see whether the changes were useful and deserved to be kept, or not useful, and so dropped. Carrying out this process of deciding on an innovation in practice, seeing what happens and evaluating it, is a process of classroom investigation, and would be an example of practitioner research. In the PPS programme the idea was that the tutors would collectively evaluate their innovations in the second and third seminars of the series. But any group of tutors who meet up periodically and talk about their work, could carry out this sort of process – it doesn’t need to be provided or led by anyone else, or highly formalised, or involve travelling long distances to conference halls! It just takes a group of tutors motivated to improve their practice by a process of classroom investigations and experiments, followed by collective reflection and evaluation.

     

 

 

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We provide here adapted versions of the pro-formas used during the series, which you could use (and amend or adapt) to organise your own classroom investigations. First, the initial process of deciding which problems to try to address. We call this Problembased development process for practitioner action research, a six step process for setting up your investigation. It is a one page form. Next, the planning sheet for your investigation. This gets you set out clearly what you aim to find out in your investigation, what actions you will take, and how you will assess whether any improvements have taken place. It is a one page form. Finally, the report sheet for your investigation. This is where you record what happened and what action you have decided to take as a result of your investigation. Again it is a one page form. The case studies that appear throughout this pack are all examples of simple classroom investigations that could be undertaken by any tutor. It’s always easier, and more fun if there are colleagues to discuss things with, but you could do it on your own. This way you build up knowledge, experience and ‘craft wisdom’ about your teaching based on your evaluation of what actually happened in your classes. 3

Further ideas and suggestions for CPD

Of course, classroom research projects are not the only way to engage in continuous professional development. Reading, surfing the net, and talking to colleagues informally about teaching are also important aspects of CPD, as well as the more traditional forms it takes, such as attendance at conferences or training courses. All these activities are formally counted as legitimate CPD work in the English system now, in which every post-16 teacher has to undertake 30 hours per year of CPD, recorded by the Institute for Learning, which licenses teachers to work. The internet This pack hopefully gives an inkling of the rich resources for teachers that are available through the internet. Of course, you will have to develop your quality antennae: a lot of the material on the net is of low quality or even misleading or wrong, so you will need to take care. Again it is often a good idea to do this with someone else, or in the context of a group of colleagues.

     

 

 

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Reading up on teaching reading We believe teachers need to have a positive attitude towards research into their areas of work. It is a problem that research reports and articles are often written for other academics rather than for teachers, but persevere! The reports and publications from organisations like NRDC, NCSALL and Learning Connections (see the references section), are designed with teachers in mind, not just academics. After all, what is the point of academic research into the most effective ways to teach reading, if it is never read by teachers? Accessing research reports isn’t always easy, but more and more publications can be found on the web, as our references section shows. Where something relevant and interesting hasn’t been published on the web, then you will have to get it from a university library, which may mean asking a favour of someone who works or studies there. Or you could ask your training manager to buy the book it is in for your organisation’s CPD resource centre. Improving feedback Discuss what makes effective feedback with your colleagues. It is common sense that some kinds of feedback are more useful to learners than others. We can teach ourselves how to give the most useful and productive kind, and avoid feedback that can demotivate students. This isn’t just about praising students, though encouragement is important. Research findings say that it is also important to be constructive, and this may mean pointing out errors and showing learners how they can improve their work. In general, research suggests that the purposes of feedback are: • It helps clarify what good performance is • It facilitates the development of skills of self-assessment and reflection in learners • It delivers high-quality information to students about their learning • It encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning • It encourages positive motivation in learners • It provides information to teachers to shape teaching In order to be most beneficial, oral and written feedback should normally: • • •

focus on the task rather than the person be highly-focused, constructive and practical, including advice about how specific aspects of the work could be improved avoid general statements of praise or criticism. Praise given on its own, without specific advice about improving the work, can be frustrating to students and may not increase their motivation. One study found that learners given praise or grades only,

     

 

 

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• • •

• •

•

did no better than those who were given no feedback at all, and that the work of learners given only constructive advice, improved considerably (Butler 1998) be given as soon as possible: research suggests that oral feedback is more effective than written feedback emphasise appropriate success criteria and relate to the learning objectives of the student(s) aim to develop the learner’s own understanding of quality and ability to assess their own performance, whatever the subject and context, by drawing attention both to successful areas of work and to problems reflect high expectations of the learner, and should avoid being patronising not be quantified, though reference to appropriate level descriptors may be appropriate. Giving grades or marks can demotivate students, especially those who are least confident, and particularly if the grades are made public and compared be part of an ongoing dialogue and continuous process of assessment: the giving of feedback does not guarantee that students will pay attention to it. Part of the teacher’s role is to check whether their feedback is having an impact on the students’ work

Discuss these points with colleagues, and work out how you can apply them in practice. Improving classroom questioning All tutors use questioning as part of their teaching. But it is worth trying to improve your questioning technique, because some questions are more useful than others. In general, questions should aim to increase learners’ own thinking and learning about the topic, and some types of question do this better than others. Discuss classroom questioning with your colleagues. Here are some ideas to get you going, based partly on Swain et al (2006): Teachers need to develop a repertoire of questioning techniques, and share ideas with colleagues to maintain and develop this repertoire. Double questions, leading questions, rhetorical questions and closed questions (those looking for a unique correct answer) can discourage students from reflecting on the problem, or from revealing that they do not understand it. These kinds of questions can even foreclose learning and should usually be avoided. Much more useful are open questions that require students to think about the problem and to find their own words to answer it. These might take the form of: • •

challenging (how/ why did you do that?), checking (do you know…?),

     

 

 

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• • • •

uncovering thinking (can you explain this?), offering strategies (have you thought about….?), or re-assuring (are you happy with that?). Sometimes a ‘devil’s advocate’ question (are you sure?) can be useful

There are also issues to consider for the way questioning fits into your overall approach to teaching, and into your planning: • •

•

Increase waiting time for answers – this extends learner thinking time, and so encourages them to think about answers rather than trying to get it right first time Move away from limited factual questions to open questions and problemsolving tasks which involve learners in discussion and encourage collaborative working Teachers need to become more skilled at framing questions that a) help them to learn more about the pre-knowledge of learners and to identify gaps, misconceptions in knowledge, and b) will explore issues that are critical to the development of learners’ understanding

•

Follow up activities need to provide opportunities to extend understanding

Students can be encouraged to think and talk more by the right kind of questioning and listening. This can produce useful outcomes in terms of knowledge about the students’ understanding and their pre-conceptions, as well as time for the teacher to think about responsive strategies, while they listen to their students. Self- and peer-assessment The third area you could think about with your colleagues is how to design and carry out activities involving self- and peer-assessment by learners. Research on effective teaching and learning states clearly that in principle most effective learning is likely to include selfand peer-assessment. Yet researchers found that these were not being widely used by teachers. Here are some ideas to start your thinking off. The increased autonomy of the student should be a central objective of teaching and learning in all education, and particularly in ALLN. Students need to be able to practice the skills and knowledge they acquire through their learning in real-life situations, whether this is at work, in their roles as citizens, parents and carers, and also in subsequent education and training situations. It is therefore important that teaching and learning goes beyond the ability to perform well in the artificial environment of the classroom. Students need to      

 

 

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be able to use their new skills as confidently and fluently as possible when they do not have the support of the class and the teacher. They need to develop the ability to perform and simultaneously to monitor their performance, and that of others they interrelate with, in the same way that we all do when we are driving a car: we get better at it with practice, until it becomes mostly routine. This applies equally to speaking and listening, reading and writing, and also to dealing with real-life situations and decisions of various kinds which require mathematical understanding, confidence and skills. We therefore need to build self- and peer-assessment practice into all learning tasks. Through these activities students can practice and develop their capacity to make critical, aesthetic and practical judgements of the quality and effectiveness of their developing skills and knowledge. If they are not encouraged to develop these skills fluently as part of their learning, what they learn will be de-contextualised and more difficult to transfer between different situations outside the classroom. This fluency can only be developed through practice, and students may need to be provided with relevant conceptual tools and vocabulary, as well as practical collaborative experience of making, exchanging and discussing judgements of the quality of their own and others’ work. This type of assessment activity involves students talking together and with their teacher about practice in different contexts, and about learning, assessment, and success criteria, developing the ability to reflect on and evaluate their own and others’ performance. Relatively few ALLN teachers observed in research studies use these activities very much at all, and those that do tend not to integrate them into all aspects of the course. It may be that part of the reason for this is that teachers are nervous about challenging their learners, some of whom may appear to lack the confidence to taking a more active and participatory role in learning. With some learners there may be cultural barriers based on their previous experience of education. Addressing this situation does need careful preparation, but can produce great benefits: improving confidence in learning is a key aim of most adult students, who are generally highly-motivated to learn. Self- and peer-assessment activities will also provide rich evidence for the teacher upon which to base further developmental questioning, and to give constructive feedback to individuals and to the group as a whole. As an introduction to peer-assessment within the group, students can be given model answers, both good and not so good, and asked to suggest ways in which they could be improved. This exercise could be arranged to follow one in which students had worked on developing their own list of appropriate assessment criteria, allowing them to use their list on a real piece of work. Groups of students can design questions on the relevant topic for the other groups, and then assess the answers given against both official and unofficial assessment criteria.      

 

 

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For your CPD activity, we suggest you think about the very real difficulties that could arise with self- and peer-assessment by learners, and how these could be prepared for and managed. But remember that the activities can be very simple, and that if it can be turned into a game, within the context of a group who are relaxed with each other, then much can be achieved. Here are three sample activities involving self- and peer-assessment: how could you use these in the context of teaching reading? 1. As an introduction to peer-assessment within the group, students can be given model answers, both good and not so good, and asked to suggest ways in which they could be improved. 2. Students work on developing their own list of appropriate assessment criteria, allowing them to use their list on a real piece of work.

3. Groups of students can design questions on the relevant topic for the other groups, and then assess the answers given against both official and unofficial assessment criteria.

     

 

 

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Section D - Theory Irene Schwab’s presentation for the PPS programme: ‘Working with Mixed Ability Groups’. Sam Duncan’s paper for the PPS programme: ‘What are we doing when we read? – adult literacy learners’ perceptions of reading’. This is a draft version of a paper to be published in Research in Post-Compulsory Education in autumn 2009. Sam Duncan’s presentation on Working with Beginner Readers, including Phonic Approaches Jude Gawn and Jay Derrick’s paper for the PPS programme: ‘Effective teaching and learning’ Jude Gawn and Jay Derrick’s presentation for the PPS programme Wendy Moss: ‘Notes on the theories on the teaching of reading’ (see references) Victoria Purcell-Gates: ‘There’s reading...and then there’s reading – process models and instruction’. What does it mean when adults come to us for help with reading? What is it

that they want help doing? What do they mean by 'reading'? What do we, as teachers of adults, think they mean? And what do we mean when we say we teach 'reading'?  Available at: www.ncsall.net/?id=771&pid=460 Allan Luke and Peter Freebody: The four resources accessed by literate people. Read about these ideas at this Tasmanian Education Department site for English teachers: http://wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/english/liteng.htm#four Alternatively, read Luke and Freebody’s own online paper (rather long and theoretical, but good), together with comments and discussions from other practitioners and academics, at: http://www.readingonline.org/research/lukefreebody.html Lighting the Way: a snappy summary of the best available evidence about effective adult literacy, numeracy and language teaching, from the New Zealand adult literacy organisation Te Ako Mo Te Ora, or Learning for Living. From Assessment to Practice: Research-Based Approaches to Teaching Reading to Adults: a webcast from the National Institute for Literacy in the USA, consisting of a talk given by three US experts, Susan McShane, John Kruidenier, and Rosalind Davidson, in 2007. A transcript of the talk, the slides from the presentation, and responses from participants at the event, are all provided too. It can be accessed at: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/assesspractice/webcast0928.html A short overview of the webcast by Jay Derrick can be accessed here: (insert link 5 here)      

 

 

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Susan McShane: Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers. Washington DC: National Institute for Literacy, The Partnership for Reading and National Center for Family Literacy, 2005. Sam comments: I think overall this is the most

useful on phonics (it deals with lots more than phonics but also gives a really good clear overview of all the sound-symbol issues- what she calls 'alphabetics' and defines key terms - and gives classroom tips- really good! Teaching content is teaching reading: brain science suggests that teaching reading needs to be about more than skills and vocabulary; an entertaining but serious video/presentation by Professor Daniel Willingham, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiP-ijdxqEc Talking Point – Phonics: a televised debate on the pros and cons of approaches to teaching reading that emphasise the primary importance of phonics. On Teachers TV, at http://www.teachers.tv/video/2999 School matters – Michael Rosen on literacy: a Teachers TV video in which Michael Rosen criticises the present policy enthusiasm for phonics based teaching, and explores alternatives, at: http://www.teachers.tv/video/5417 NRDC Research briefing on Formative Assessment: summarises the key messages from NRDC and other research and development activity on formative assessment in adult learning. Available at: http://www.nrdc.org.uk/publications_details.asp?ID=153#

     

 

 

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Section E - Further information and resources Books, articles and papers on the theory and practices of reading and adult literacies in general Barton D and Hamilton M (1998): Local Literacies: reading and writing in one community. London: Routledge Barton D, Hamilton M, Ivanic R (eds, 2000): Situated Literacies: reading and writing in context. London: Routledge. Jay comments: 13 papers from the ‘New Literacy Studies’

researchers and theorists.

Brandt D (2001): Literacy in American Lives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jay comments: an inspirational read about the way literacy practices change over time and

what this can tell us about the changes in society, families and work. Not just about reading, but reminds us why we do what we do!

Brice Heath, S. (1983). Ways with Words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brooks G, Burton M, Cole P and Szczerbinski M (2007): Effective Teaching and Learning: Reading. London: National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy (NRDC), also available online at www.nrdc.org.uk Burton M (2007a): Reading – Developing adult teaching and learning: practitioner guides. London: National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy NRDC, also available online at www.nrdc.org.uk Burton M (2007b): Oral reading fluency for adults. National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy NRDC, also available online at www.nrdc.org.uk Burton M, Davey J, Lewis M, Ritchie L, Brooks G (2008): Improving reading: phonics and fluency. National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy NRDC, also available online at www.nrdc.org.uk Campbell P (2007): Teaching Reading to Adults: a balanced approach. Edmonton Alberta: Grass Roots Press Clanchy M T (1984): Learning to read in the Middle Ages and the role of mothers, in G. Brooks & A. K. Pugh (Eds.), Studies in the History of Reading (pp. 33-39). Reading: University of Reading School of Education. Sam comments: May be difficult to find Coles G (2000): Misreading reading. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann. Jay comments: This

book challenges the validity of the ‘indisputable scientific evidence’ about teaching reading      

 

 

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on which much British and American policy is based. It shows how much of this evidence is based on the findings of very few, small scale and essentially politically biassed studies, and makes the case for more independent research. Crowther J, Hamilton M, Tett L (eds, 2001): Powerful Literacies. Leicester: National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) Duncan S (2009): ‘What are we doing when we read?’ – adult literacy learners’ perceptions of reading, Research in Post-Compulsory Education 14 (3) Freire P (1972): Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin. Jay comments: Classic

analysis of the role of literacy teaching and education in preventing social and political emancipation, and how this can be avoided. Hamilton M, Barton D, Ivanic R (1994): Worlds of Literacy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Herrington M and Kendall A (eds, 2005): Insights from research and practice: a handbook for adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL practitioners. Leicester: National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE). Jay comments: An essential resource for literacies

practitioners, consisting of a selection of 71 articles from issues of the RaPAL Journal, published quarterly since 1986. It starts with a paper inviting ‘practitioners to embrace research within their practice as a means of developing their critical, investigative, professional stances’, and explaining RaPAL’s position on the importance of integrating research and practice. The bulk of the book is made up of the selection of articles and is organised under themed headings. It concludes with a paper on learning about dyslexia through research and practice. Huey E B (1968). The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press. Sam comments: THIS IS GREAT!! It has some interesting bits

about how sounds - symbols have been taught in recent history (including something on an ancient greek, or roman?- who forced his slaves to dress up as letters of the alphabet and move around to teach his son to read... Hughes N, Schwab I (eds, 2009 in press): Teaching adult literacy: principles and practice. London: Open University Press. Details at http://www.mcgrawhill.co.uk/html/0335237355.html Klein C and Millar R (1990): Unscrambling spelling. London: Hodder and Stoughton Klein C (2003): Diagnosing Dylexia. London: Basic Skills Agency Lankshear C and Knobel M (2003): New literacies: changing knowledge and classroom learning. Buckingham: Open University Press. Jay comments: A passionate discussion of      

 

 

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the ways in which literacies are changing as a result of digital technology, and the implications of this for teachers. Lindsay A and Gawn J (2005): Developing Literacy: supporting achievement. Leicester: National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) Mace J (2004): Language Experience: What’s going on? Literacy Today (39) available at: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Pubs/mace.html Manguel A (1996): A History of Reading. London: Penguin McCaffrey J, Merrifield J, Millican J (2007): Developing Adult Literacy: approaches to planning, implementing and delivering literacy initiatives. Oxford: Oxfam GB McShane S (2005): Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers. Washington DC: National Institute for Literacy, The Partnership for Reading and National Center for Family Literacy. Sam comments: I think overall this is the most useful

on phonics (it deals with lots more than phonics but also gives a really good clear overview of all the sound-symbol issues- what she calls 'alphabetics' and defines key terms - and gives classroom tips- really good! Millar R and Klein C (1986): Making sense of spelling. London: DCSL Morgan E and Klein C (2000): The dyslexic adult in a non-dyslexic world. London: WileyBlackwell Moss W (2005): Notes on Theories on the Teaching of Reading, Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) Bulletin (56) NCSALL (2005): Understanding what reading is all about: teaching materials and lessons for adult basic education learners, July 2005, available at: http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/uwriaa.pdf Palincsar A and Brown A (1984): Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-fostering and Comprehension-monitoring Activities, in Cognition and Instruction 1 (2) pp117 – 175 Jay and Irene comment: This is the main article outlining the technique of reciprocal reading,

the research it is based on, and the argument that it is a technique that produces good results. It is long and demanding, but well worth a look, and is downloadable from: http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells/Files/Courses_Folder/ED%20261%20Papers/Palincsar%20 Reciprocal%20Teaching.pdf Papen U (2005): Adult Literacy as Social Practice – more than skills. London: Routledge. Jay comments: this is a clear and accessible overview of the social practices view of adult      

 

 

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literacies teaching and learning. As well as explaining the theoretical aspects of this approach, Papen also illustrates the practical implications of the theory for teachers in classrooms. Highly recommended. Pennac, D. (2006). The Rights of the Reader (S. Adams, Trans.). London: Walker Books. Sam comments: Again, more journalistic than academic, but really, really

lovely! Pennac proposes 10 ‘rights for readers’ in relation to teaching approaches. Purcell-Gates V (undated): There’s reading…and then there’s reading: Process Models and Instruction, available at: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=771&pid=460 Tett L, Hamilton M, Hillier Y (eds, 2006): Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Language: policy, practice and research. Maidenhead: Open University Press Wolf M (2008): Proust and the Squid: The story and science of the reading brain. Cambridge: Icon Books. Jay comments: Proust and the Squid is a fascinating and

passionate book about reading, written by Maryanne Wolf, Professor of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University in the US, where she is the director of the Centre for Reading and Language Research. 'We were never born to read', Wolf begins. 'No specific genes ever dictated reading's development. Human being invented reading only a few thousand years ago. And with this invention, we changed the very organisation of our brain, which in turn expanded the ways we were able to think, which altered the intellectual evolution of our species.' She details the neuroscience behind reading, and makes the case for the tranformative powers of reading on human cognition. She discusses the earliest known examples of written language, the question of whether reading online is making us 'stupider', and why dyslexia can be a gift. Why it's called Proust and the Squid, you'll have to read it to find out! Very stimulating and life-affirming, highly recommended. Books and articles on effective teaching and learning, including teacher development Ackland A (2008): Professional development through professional enquiry, in Reflect (12), the magazine of the National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy (NRDC) pp 5-7, also available online at www.nrdc.org.uk/publications_details.asp?ID=155# Black P and Wiliam D (1998a): Assessment and Classroom Learning, Assessment in Education 5 (1) pp 7-75 Black P and Wiliam D (1998b): Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. London: King’s College London School of Education.      

 

 

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Black P, Harrison C, Lee C, Marshall B, and Wiliam D (2003): Assessment for Learning: Putting it into Practice. Buckingham: Open University Press Butler R (1998): Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation: the effects of taskinvolving and ego-involving evaluation on interest and performance. British Journal of Educational Psychology (58) pp1-14 Davies P, Hamilton M, James K (2007): Maximising the impact of practitioner research: a handbook of practical advice. London: National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy (NRDC), available at: http://www.nrdc.org.uk/publications_details.asp?ID=123#

This handbook is for everyone who would like to conduct small-scale action research projects within their own organisation: from senior managers to individual teachers or teams planning to work collaboratively. It is a practical guide on how to initiate and manage practitioner-research programmes, based on the experience of 17 practitioner-led research projects funded by the NRDC between 2004 and 2006. Gardner J (2006): Assessment and Learning, ed J Gardner. London: Sage

Hattie J (2003): Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? Paper presented at the Australian Council for Educational Research Annual Conference on Building Teacher Quality, October 2003. Available online: www.visionschools.co.nz/assets/documents/john_hattie.pdf Learning Connections (2008): Practitioner-led research: the Individual Learning Planning (ILP) Process, available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/1046/0063543.pdf Looney J (2005): Formative Assessment – Improving learning in secondary classrooms, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. Paris: Organisation for Economic CoOperation and Development Looney J (2008): Teaching, Learning and Assessment for Adults – improving foundation skills, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development Richardson V (2003): How Teachers Change, National Council for the Study of Adult Literacy and Learning (NCSALL), Research Report 25, available at: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=395 Sadler R (1989): Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems, Instructional Science (18) pp 119-144.

     

 

 

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Swain J, Griffiths G, Stone R (2006): Integrating formative/diagnostic assessment techniques into teachers’ routine practice in adult numeracy. Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) Journal (59) pp17-20 Tracey S (ed 2008): Practitioner Research in Essential Skills: perspectives on engagement in learning. Belfast: The Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) Northern Ireland. Available at: http://www.literacy.lancs.ac.uk/rapal/docs/Practitioner_Research_in_Essential_Skills.pdf Jay comments: this is a new report containing case studies of Practitioner Research in

Essential Skills, (what Literacies is called in Northern Ireland). It reports on projects looking at text messaging, learner motivation, giving praise, literacy and job impacts, the role of talk in learning writing, tutors' responses to errors when learners read aloud, peer learning, and others. Wiliam D (2007): Content then process: teacher learning communities in the service of formative assessment, in Ahead of the curve: the power of assessment to transform teaching and learning (pp 183-204), edited by D. B. Reeves. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Policy documents

Adult literacy and numeracy in Scotland (ALNIS), Scottish Government 2001, available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/158952/0043191.pdf

An Adult Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum Framework for Scotland, Scottish Executive 2005, available at: http://www.aloscotland.com/alo/38.html

Skills for Scotland: a lifelong skills strategy, Scottish Government 2007, available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/197204/0052752.pdf

Skills for Life Core Curriculum Documents, Department for Education and Skills 2002 onwards, all available at: http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=sflcurriculum

Skills for Life Learning Materials, Department for Education and Skills 2005 onwards, all available at: http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=201231

Independent review of the teaching of early reading, Jim Rose, Department for Education and Skills, March 2006

     

 

 

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Learner texts • •

•

•

•

Romany and Traveller Family History Society: a range of publications at http://www.rtfhs.org.uk/ Texts about traveller experiences: o The Yellow on the Broom by Betsy Whyte, Berlinn 2005 o Red Rowans and Wild Honey by Betsy Whyte, Corgi 1991 o The Summer Walkers: Travelling People and Pearl fishers in the Highlands of of Scotland, by Timothy Neat, Canongate 1996 Quick Reads: http://www.niace.org.uk/quickreads/user/index.php This is a rapidlyexpanding series of short but complete books written by high-profile authors for adult new readers. Authors include Andy McNab, Ian Rankin, Colin Jackson, Maeve Binchy, Scott Quinnell, and many others. Resources on Traveller culture, collected for the use of schools, but much of it useful for adult learning too: http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/subjects/literacy/traveller/#poems Secrets, by Sue Torr (Gatehouse Books 2009). Sue was a dinner lady when, at the age of 38, she finally admitted that she couldn't read or write. Secrets is an autobiographical account of the difficulties she faced in a life without literacy. It has been designed for both beginner and confident readers, with standard text on the left-hand page and a simplified text on the facing page. Secrets also makes fascinating reading for children of primary and secondary school age. For more information, go to: http://www.gatehousebooks.co.uk/book/7

Working with learners with learning difficulties and disabilities Bradley A (2001): Induction: Starting Work with People with Learning Disabilities. Kidderminster: BILD. Scottish Government (2007): Effective Learning for Adults with Learning Difficulties: Research Summary. Websites and other resources

ALO was created by Learning Connections, part of the Scottish Government’s Lifelong Learning directorate, and it contains a growing bank of Scottish based learning and teaching resources, training materials and useful research and reports. Adult Literacies OnLine: http://www.aloscotland.com/alo/CCC_FirstPage.jsp

The National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy of the UK (NRDC): http://www.nrdc.org.uk Dedicated to conducting research and

development projects to improve literacy, numeracy, language and related skills and      

 

 

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knowledge. On this site you can download all the NRDC publications, including research reports, effective practice guides, and research briefing papers. Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL)

RaPAL is an independent network of learners, teachers, managers and researchers in adult basic education and literacy across the post-16 sector. Established in 1985, it is supported by membership subscription only. Membership contact: Jessica Abrahams: [email protected] For other contacts, including RaPAL Journal, see the website: www.literacy.lancs.ac.uk/rapal/rapal.htm The Adult Literacy Education Wiki: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Main_Page

This US-orginated site is a portal for accessing all sorts of resources on adult literacy: one of its many sections is on Reading. As a wiki its content is added to by anyone, though it is carefully moderated (‘wiki’ is a Hawaiian word meaning ‘quick’). It inevitably has an overemphasis on the context of teaching in the US and Canada, but don’t let this put you off, it is a vast and rich range of resources – give yourself time to explore it! The Excellence Gateway: http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=home

This is a portal for practitioners at all levels within the learning and skills sector in England. Here you can access resources, inspire innovation and share good practice. With quality improvement at its core, the Excellence Gateway offers support and advice, and opportunities to participate. It has a specialist section on adult literacies under the heading ‘Skills for Life’. The Adult Literacy and Numeracy Australian Research Consortium (ALNARC): http://www.staff.vu.edu.au/alnarc/ ALNARC give information on research into literacy and

numeracy within Australia. The National Agency for Adult Literacy of the Republic of Ireland (NALA): http://www.nala.ie/ NALA is an independent membership organisation concerned with

developing policy, advocacy, research and offering advisory services in adult literacy work in Ireland. As well s providing detailed information about adult basic skills work in Ireland, NALA's site also has reserach reports and teaching resources for tutors and employers. The National Adult Literacy Database of Canada (NALD): http://www.nald.ca/index.htm Provides a single-source, comprehensive, up-to-date and

easily accessible database of adult literacy programs, resources, services and activities across Canada. The National Institute for Literacy, a federal agency, provides leadership on literacy issues, including the improvement of reading instruction for children, youth, and adults. The National Institute for Literacy of the USA (NIFL): http://www.nifl.gov/

     

 

 

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The New Zealand Literacy Portal: http://www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz/ The New

Zealand Literacy Portal is designed to provide a knowledge base of adult literacy information contributed by both New Zealand and international organisations. Reciprocal Reading: The main article outlining this technique and the research on which it is based is by Palincsar and Brown, and is listed in the references on teaching reading. It is long and demanding but well worth a look. Here are four other sites summarising the technique and discussing its practical implications: • • • •

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/promising/tips/rec.html a summary of the technique, focusing on children, but relevant to adults http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at6lk38.htm handy summary of Palincsar and Brown’s research http://ed-web3.educ.msu.edu/Literacy/stuwork/recip.htm useful summary of the strategy http://www.adrianbruce.com/reading/room4/recip/ again aimed at children, but practical, with ready-made cards you could adapt for work with adults

TALENT (training adult literacy, ESOL and numeracy teachers) is a website developed as

part of a partnership project involving the boroughs and colleges of Tower Hamlets, City of London, Islington and Hackney and initially funded by the London Development Agency. It provides teaching materials, training, details of vacancies and professional development support. The website is a mine of information for literacy teachers anywhere: www.talent.ac.uk A portal for teachers of English run by the Tasmanian Education Department:

http://wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/english/liteng.htm Headway – provide advice for helping people with brain injuries / strokes: http://www.headway.org.uk/ Quick Reads: http://www.quickreadsideas.org.uk/  This is a rapidly-expanding series of

short but complete books written by high-profile authors for adult new readers. Authors include Andy McNab, Ian Rankin, Colin Jackson, Maeve Binchy, Scott Quinnell, and many others. Reading for Pleasure Campaign: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/vitallink/readingforpleasureideas.html - this site includes

‘ideas packs’ for readers at all levels (up to Entry level 2, and Entry 3 and above in the English system) and for different contexts.

     

 

 

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Learning Connections has produced a guidance leaflet for simplifying texts, which can be downloaded from: http://www.adultliteraciesonline.com/alo/viewresource.htm?id=454 NIACE/BSA has produced an updated version of their guide to readability. Available free at: http://www.niace.org.uk/development-research/readability Vital Link: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/vitallink/ BBC RaW: http://www.bbc.co.uk/raw/ Internet video resources: a small selection. NB: it is hard to find videos about adult literacy learning, and most of these suggestions focus on young people or children. But they have useful ideas in them that may well be transferable. The main sites, such as Youtube, Teachertube, or Teachers TV, contain thousands of resources relevant to teaching of all kinds. The best thing is to explore them for yourself, and save the ones you like in your ‘favourites’ folder: ‐

‐

‐ ‐

Teaching for the future – natural born readers: a Teachers TV video about inspiring A Level students to enjoy reading their set text, Pride and Prejudice, at: http://www.teachers.tv/video/300 Lessons from beyond the classroom – literacy behind bars: a Teachers TV video about what literacy work in prisons can help teachers working in schools and colleges, at: http://www.teachers.tv/video/23892 Hot research – good readers, bad readers: a short Teachers TV video on dyslexia awareness, at http://www.teachers.tv/video/2622 Pay attention: This motivational video presentation was created in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching, at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw&feature=related

CDs The Wheel (2007): Learning Connections, Communities Scotland. Available as a book and a CD ROM, this is a visual tool to help learners and tutors plan what they are going to do, and to look back at the learning that has taken place. There are prompt questions to help with the process, and tutors can help learners break learning goals down into small steps. Learners and tutors can record and save what they have said, and their notes can be arranged to form a learning plan. Available as a zipped folder at: http://www.aloscotland.com/alo/files/TRAININGMATERIALSFORWHEELCD.zip An interactive tutorial on the Wheel can be downloaded at: http://www.aloscotland.com/alo/files/alo_wheel_tutorial.zip      

 

 

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Publishers Avanti Books Resources Guide. An guide to the huge variety of basic skills support materials that are available, including those produced by Avanti and by other publishers, large and small. The guide is revised and updated regularly, with new titles conveniently highlighted. All titles can be ordered from Avanti. Cost £3.50 including p&p. Contact: Avanti Books, Unit 9, The io Centre, Whittle Way, Arlington Business Park, Stevenage SG1 2BD. Phone: 01438 747000. Fax: 01438 741131. Website: www.avantibooks.com. Brown and Brown resources. Brown and Brown is a publishing company that focuses on materials to support adults' and children's learning, including ESOL, open learning/family learning, adult basic education and teacher training. To order a publications catalogue call 016973 42915 or email [email protected]. Gatehouse Media Ltd publishes and distributes books and resources for use with adult literacy learners, including materials written by adult learners and suitable for beginner readers; talking stories on audio-cassette, interactive CD-Rom readers; and student worksheets. Contact: Gatehouse Media Limited, 80 Walton Road, Stockton Heath, Warrington WA4 6NP. Tel: 01925 267778. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.gatehousebooks.com. NIACE: Details of all NIACE's publications and other activities may be found on the organization's website: www.niace.org.uk. One Nation, Five Million Voices – http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum/things_to_see/scotland_a_changin g_nation/one_nation_five_million_voice.aspx (not sure if this is the correct link as viewing is restricted from SG pcs) – but this is a very useful resource which shows people talking about Scotland – a written accompanying text with a picture of the speaker alongside it means that viewers can follow the text while the person is speaking

     

 

 

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Section F – Glossary Many of these explanations have been taken from the Adult Literacy Education Wiki’s section on reading (see references). Affix Affixes are word parts that are either attached to the beginnings of words (prefixes) or to the ending of words (suffixes). The word unhelpfulful has two affixes, a prefix (un-) and a suffix (-ful). Alphabetic Language A language that that uses letters and letter combinations to represent sounds of speech. Alphabetics Alphabetics is the use of letters to represent spoken words. Because spoken words are made up of smaller, more basic sounds (phonemes), alphabetics includes phonemic awareness, or knowing how phonemes are combined to make words. It also includes phonics or letter-sound knowledge--knowing the relationship between letters or letter combinations and the sounds they represent and how these are put together to form words. The word cat, for example, is made up of three sounds represented by the letters c, a, and t. Assessment The gathering of information from several measurements to show strengths and weaknesses on a particular ability, or of a particular attribute. The terms, assessment and test are often used interchangeably. Assisted Oral Reading Assisted oral reading refers to a mature reader's support of a learner's oral reading by helping with word recognition, or by reading orally along with him/her. Paired reading (partner) and choral reading (whole class) are forms of assisted oral reading. Automaticity Automaticity of a skill is achieved when it can be performed with little or no conscious attention to its execution. Automaticity of word recognition frees conscious attention for comprehension. Blend To blend sounds is to join one to another seamlessly. Sounds of individual letters, digraphs, and dipthongs are blended to form syllables. The individual sounds of c, a, and t flow from one to the next as they are blended to form cat.

     

 

 

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Collaborative Oral Reading In collaborative reading, teacher and student alternate or read a passage in unison. Consonant Blend Two or three consecutive consonants, each altering its own sound just enough to join seamlessly to its neighbour. Examples are: bl, str, and sn. Components of Reading The several sub-skills of fluent reading ability. They are often categorized as Print (Alphabetic) skills and Meaning Skills. Critical reading Reading in which the reader is able to take a critical, independent view about what s/he is reading, and perhaps to disagree with it. Decode To decode is to attach sounds to letters and groups of letters that make up a word and then to blend them to say the word. Digraph A digraph is two letters together that make one sound. Examples of consonant digraphs are: ch, sh, and ck, and of vowel digraphs, ea, aw. Diphthong A diphthong is a vowel sound produced when the tongue moves or glides from one vowel sound toward another vowel or semivowel sound in the same syllable, as in buy and the vowel sounds in bee, bay, boo, and bough. Differentiation In teaching groups, differentiation is teaching differently to different students, depending on their needs. This doesn’t necessarily mean teaching different material; it may mean using learning activities in which different learners can be engaged in different ways. Direct Teaching Teacher-directed instruction of specific skills. Encode To encode is to "write the code" for a spoken word, to spell. It is the opposite of decode. Error analysis A way of getting information about what learners’ strengths and weaknesses, to help with future planning and so as to be able to give formative feedback. ESOL = English for Speakers of Other Languages      

 

 

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Expressive Vocabulary Expressive vocabulary refers to the body of words whose meanings are known well enough to use them in speaking or writing. Feedback Constructive responses to performances within contexts of learning: it should ideally follow any learning activity or piece of work carried out as part of learning. The most effective feedback is task- rather than ego-focused, given soon after the performance, and should indicate how the work could have been improved, and what the learner should do next to improve it. Fluency Reading fluency is the ability to read accurately and smoothly at a rate close to that of speech with appropriate intonation and rhythm. Formative Assessment An approach to teaching and learning aiming to ensure that all the teacher’s activity maximises learning. It emphasises the importance of feedback, classroom questioning, collaborative learning tasks, and self- and peer-assessment, and the need for these activities to be integrated into the learning programme. It is important to distinguish formative from summative assessment activities. Independent Reading Level The reading level at which at least 95% of words can be read accurately. Language Experience A teaching approach used in adult literacy education which entails the teacher acting as a scribe to create a text in the student's words; free from concerns about their spelling, punctuation or handwriting, the student can concentrate on the process of composition. The scribing is an essentially interactive and collaborative process, giving the student the chance to think about exactly what words and styles they wish to use. The text can stand as a piece of writing by the student, and it can also be used as a text for practising reading. Lexicon Generally, a dictionary; In reading it can refer to a reader's receptive/listening bank of word meanings. Listening Comprehension Tests Listening comprehension tests are graded passages that are read aloud by the teacher to which students answer comprehension questions. They are helpful in assessing English language comprehension of ESOL learners and for assessing text comprehension ability of beginning and low intermediate native English readers. Literacies This term reflects the social practices view that adult literacy involves more than simply reading, writing and spelling skills: rather it sees that people exercise a wide variety      

 

 

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of different literacies associated with different social situations and tasks. For example, it is often understood to include everyday tasks involving mathematical or computer skills and knowledge. Mixed Ability Groups Literacy learning groups which have not been streamed in any way according to ability. Native Speakers of English (NSE) NSE means that the first language a person learned to speak was English. Onset The part of the syllable that comes before the vowel. Some syllables begin with vowels and therefore do not have onsets. Orthography The writing system of a language - spelling. PA= Phoneme Awareness The ability to isolate separate sounds (phonemes) in a word and be able to manipulate them. Tests of phoneme awareness may require the deletion or substitution of phonemes in a given word. For example, a deletion task: "Say plant", "Now, say it again, but don't say /t/ (say the sound of t); or a sustitution task: "Say plant", "Now change the /p/ to /s/ (say the sounds of the letters) and say the word". Paired reading A situation set up by teachers in which two learners read and discuss texts together, within a larger group of learners, so as to gain confidence and independence. Peer-assessment Learners engaging in assessment and evaluation of other learners. Research suggests that learning the skills to assess others’ performance helps their own learning, as well as helping improve confidence and autonomy. Phonics The study of the relationships between letters and the sounds they represent; also used to describe reading instruction that teaches sound-symbol correspondences, such as 'the phonics approach' or 'phonic reading' Phonological Awareness Metalinguistic awareness of all levels of the speech sound system, including word boundaries, stress patterns, syllables, onset-rime units, and phonemes; a more encompassing term than phoneme awareness Productive Vocabulary The body of words whose meanings are known well enough to become part of a person's speech.      

 

 

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Prosody As applied to reading, reading with appropriate intonation and rhythm. Questioning A common activity of teachers, used to check that learning has taken place. Recent research suggests that some kinds of questions support learning more than others, where they encourage developmental thinking and problem-solving. This suggests that teachers should aim consciously to develop their repertoire of questioning techniques. Receptive Vocabulary The body of words we know well enough to understand when listening or reading. Receptive vocabulary is the larger bank of known word meanings because it includes productive vocabulary. Receptive vocabulary is often called listening vocabulary. Reciprocal reading A technique used to develop comprehension in which teacher and students take turns leading a dialogue concerning sections of a text. Four activities are incorporated into the technique: prediction, questioning, summarizing and clarifying misleading or complex sections of the text. Reliability of Tests A test has high reliability if it consistently gives the same results under different testing conditions, with different examiners, when administered in different places, or between two forms of the test. Rime The part of a syllable that comes after the vowel and the vowel is the rime. Syllables in which y is the vowel such as -bly and other syllables that end in a vowels, such as po-lice, do not have rimes, only onsets. Self-assessment The ability of an adult learner of reading to evaluate their own performance. Research suggests that learners should be given the opportunity to develop these skills as a planned part of their learning. Social Practices This view of literacy and learning argues that reducing literacy to the technical skills of reading, writing and spelling is mistaken, because people in fact use multiple literacies depending on the social contexts they are in. Its implications for teachers are that they need to understand the literacy practices that learners already use in their lives, in order to help them develop and expand them. Standardized Tests Tests that are administered and scored according to set procedures and under the same conditions so that learners' scores have the same meaning and are not influenced by differing conditions.

     

 

 

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Structural Analysis Structural analysis commonly involves the identification of roots, affixes, compounds, hyphenated forms, inflected and derived endings, contractions, and, in some cases, syllabication. It is sometimes used as an aid to pronunciation or in combination with phonic analysis in word-analysis programmes. Summative Assessment An activity or activities which may take place as part of the learning process, whose primary purpose is not to support learning, but to measure it, in order to allow certification or the award of a qualification. Summative assessment can also be used to produce data to measure the effectiveness of the teacher or the organisation in which they work. It is therefore quite distinct from formative assessment, but summative assessment activities can in principle be used formatively, for example by providing information for formative feedback. Text Any piece of writing. Strictly, anything which can be interpreted or ‘read’ could be seen as a text, but it usually refers to documents. Visual Memory In the context of language, visual memory is the ability to remember forms of letters, sight words, and spelling patterns of phonetically irregular words. Vowel A voiced speech sound made without stoppage or friction of the air flow as it passes though the vocal tract. Word Attack Assessments Word attack assessments are tests of phonics. They are most often lists of pseudowords that are made up of the phonic elements being assessed. For example, these words could test mastery of final e constructions: fipe, sele, or tane. If real words are used there is the possibility that the learner will recognise them using their visual memory so that little information would be gained about the reader's mastery of particular phonetic constructions. Word Meaning Tests Word meaning tests assess a person's knowledge of words by how well she/he is able to define or describe a given word. The more completely a word's meaning is expressed, the better it is known, and the more likely it is to be in the person's productive vocabulary. WPM = Words per Minute

     

 

 

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Section G – Facilitators of the PPS programme Jay Derrick

Jay Derrick has worked in adult, community and further education in England since 1975, as a volunteer, teacher, outreach worker, curriculum manager, and Head of Departrment, specialising in adult literacy and numeracy, and community- and work-based education and training, and working in the voluntary sector, LEAs, and in FE colleges. Since 2003 he has worked as an independent researcher, evaluator, and development project manager, specialising in teaching and assessment, teacher training development, and workplace basic skills. Contact him at [email protected] Website: www.bluesky-learning.com

  Publications:  Hughes N, Schwab I (eds, 2009 in press): Teaching adult literacy: principles and practice. London: Open University Press. Details at http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335237355.html Derrick J, Gawn J, Ecclestone K, (in press) Improving Formative Assessment in Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Programmes: A Rough Guide. Leicester: NIACE Derrick, J. and K. Ecclestone, (2008) “English-language Literature Review”, in Teaching, Learning and Assessment for Adults: Improving Foundation Skills. Paris: OECD Publishing; available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/172251338713 Derrick J, Gawn J, Ecclestone K, (2008) ‘Evaluating the 'spirit' and 'letter' of formative assessment in the learning cultures of part-time adult literacy and numeracy classes’ Research in Post-Compulsory Education 13 (2) Derrick J, Ecclestone K, Merrifield J, (2007) ‘A balancing act? The English and Welsh model of assessment in adult basic education’, in Measures of Success: Assessment and accountability in adult basic education, ed P Campbell. Edmonton: Canadian National Literacy Secretariat/Grass Roots Press Derrick J (2006) ‘Performance measurement within adult literacy, language and numeracy: practitioners’ perspectives’, in The Social Practice of Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Language, ed M Hamilton, Y Hillier, L Tett. Maidenhead: Open University Press

     

 

 

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Judith Gawn

Judith Gawn is the London Region Programme Director at NIACE with responsibility for literacy, language and numeracy (LLN). Judith has over 25 years’ experience in adult literacy work, as a teacher and teacher trainer. Since joining NIACE in 2004 she has worked on the regional achievement programme working with key strategic bodies and providers in the region to raise achievement in LLN. She was involved in research into formative assessment in LLN provision as part of the Improving Formative Assessment (IFA) project from 2005 – 2007. Contact Judith at [email protected] Publications Hughes N, Schwab I (eds, 2009 in press): Teaching adult literacy: principles and practice. London: Open University Press. Details at http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335237355.html Derrick J, Gawn J, Ecclestone K, (in press) Improving Formative Assessment in Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Programmes: A Rough Guide. Leicester: NIACE Derrick, J. and K. Ecclestone, (2008) “English-language Literature Review”, in Teaching, Learning and Assessment for Adults: Improving Foundation Skills. Paris: OECD Publishing; available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/172251338713 Derrick J, Gawn J, Ecclestone K, (2008) ‘Evaluating the 'spirit' and 'letter' of formative assessment in the learning cultures of part-time adult literacy and numeracy classes’ Research in Post-Compulsory Education 13 (2) Gawn, J. and Lindsay, A. (2005) Developing literacy: supporting achievement. Leicester: NIACE

     

 

 

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Samantha Duncan

Sam Duncan studied language, literature and film in Scotland before becoming an adult literacy teacher in 2000. She now works in London as a teacher educator and adult literacy teacher at the Institute of Education, University of London and City and Islington College. Sam is researching the role of literature in adult reading development for her EdD. Contact Sam at [email protected] Publications Duncan S (2009): ‘What are we doing when we read?’ – adult literacy learners’ perceptions of reading, Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 14 (3) Hughes N, Schwab I (eds, 2009 in press): Teaching adult literacy: principles and practice. London: Open University Press. Details at http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335237355.html Casey, H., Derrick, J., Duncan, S. and Mallows, D. (2007). Getting the practical element right: A guide for literacy, numeracy and ESOL teacher educators. London: NRDC. Duncan, S and Mallows, D. eds. (2007) Voices on the Page. London: New Leaf Publishing. Duncan, S. (2007). “A Passion to Write.” Reflect, 8. London: NRDC. Duncan, S. (2007). “Stories that sum up something real.” Reflect, 7. London: NRDC. Duncan, S. (2006). “Voices on the Page.” Reflect 6. London: NRDC. Duncan, S. (2005). “Words, power and sound.” Reflect 4, London: NRDC.

     

 

 

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Irene Schwab

Irene Schwab is the course leader for the PGCE/PgCE Literacy and ESOL at the Institute of Education, University of London. Her field of interest is adult basic education and she is a specialist in adult literacy teaching and teacher education. She was one of the writers and editors of 'Language and Power: materials for the multilingual classroom'. She is currently working on a handbook for adult literacy teachers based on recent research and developments in the field. She was part of a small team rewriting the Adult Literacy subject specifications (the subject and subject specific pedagogical knowledge required for Adult Literacy teaching) for the new English Skills for Life ITT qualifications starting in September 2007. She is Treasurer of RaPAL (Research and Practice in Adult Literacy) and is on the editorial panel for the RaPAL Journal. Field of expertise: Adult literacy, in particular a) the development of reading skills, especially critical reading b) language variety and literacy development c) adult literacy teacher education Contact Irene at [email protected] Publications Hughes N, Schwab I (eds, 2009 in press): Teaching adult literacy: principles and practice. London: Open University Press. Details at http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335237355.html Schwab I (1994): Literacy, language and identity. In M Hamilton, D Barton and R Ivanic (eds)m Worlds of Literacy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters ILEA Afro-Caribbean project in Further and Adult Education (1990) Language and Power: materials for the multilingual classroom . London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Schwab I and Stone J (1986): Language Writing and Publishing: work with Afro-Caribbean students. London: Inner London Education Authority Learning Materials Service

     

 

 

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Section H – Participants in the PPS programme The following literacies tutors participated in the Learning Connections Professional Practice Seminars on teaching adults to read, November 2008 to March 2009: Cecile Robb, Gail Squires, June MacDonald, Isobel Sinclair, Susan Stewart, Steve Lynn, Mary Rigby, Aileen Pollachi, Lewis Atha, Natasha Partington, Janice McAvoy, Dehra MacDonald, Linda Chambers, Christine Russell, Elizabeth MacKintosh, Fiona Smillie, Judith Nelson, Doreen Wales, Abdah Javaid, Kathleen Walker, Sharon Doyle, Ann Swinney, Teressa Niven, Clark Whyte, Davy McFarlane, Shirley Gauld, Joan Melton, Sean Hurl, Pauline Healey, Diane Brown, Sharon Allison, Margaret Traynor, Marie Clark, Sally Smith, Jacqueline Pollock, Susan Doherty, Anne Thomas, Elaine Monsen-Elvik, Marilyn Holmes, Barbara Reynolds, Karen Riddell, Merlyn Bell, Isobel Macrae, Eily Scott, Soozin Rogers, Heather Pirie, Katrena Wilkie, Bill McKiernan, Douglas Henderson, Lorna McNeil, Helen Adam, Ann McKenzie. They worked for: East Renfrewshire Council, Buddies for Learning Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire Community Education, East Ayrshire Community Learning and Development, Inverclyde, Castlemilk, Langside College, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Addaction Volunteer Centre, Gorbals, Perth and Kinross Council, Clackmannanshire Adult Education, HMP Aberdeen, Glasgow Community Learning, North Lanarkshire, Glasgow Culture and Sport, South Lanarkshire, Motherwell College, CLAN Edinburgh, Inch Community centre Edinburgh, Highland Adult Literacies, Aberdeenshire Council, Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, and Fife Council. Learning Connections staff: Fiona Macdonald, Katherine Ashe, Peter Lanigan The facilitators would like to thank all the participants and the Learning Connections staff for their contributions to making this a very useful, stimulating and enjoyable event.

     

 

 

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Section I: Support Materials 1.

Final Report of the programme

2.

“What are we doing when we read?” – adult literacy learners’ perceptions of reading Samantha Duncan, Institute of Education.

3.

Notes on assessment and effective teaching and learning with adults Jude Gawn and Jay Derrick, March 2009

4.

Notes on the NIFL Webcast by Jay Derrick

5.

Problem-based development process for practitioner action research

6.

Classroom Innovations Plan

7.

Classroom Investigation: Report

8.

The Rights of the Reader

9.

Beginning Readers Phonics

10.

Lighting the Way: A summary of the best available evidence about effective adult literacy, numeracy and language teaching

11.

Applying Research In Reading Instruction For Adults First Steps For Teachers

12.

PowerPoint: Effective Teaching and Learning

13.

PowerPoint: Working in Mixed Ability Groups

     

 

 

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PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE SEMINARS: TEACHING READING TO ADULTS  OCT 2008 – JULY 2009  FINAL REPORT ON THE PROGRAMME  BACKGROUND  BlueSky Learning Ltd was commissioned by Learning Connections to provide a programme of professional    development seminars focusing on the teaching of reading to adults, aimed at literacies tutors across Scotland, between October 2008 and March 2009.  The programme was scaffolded around three seminars,  the first held in Glasgow on November 11th 2008, with the second and third to be held in January and March  2009, in Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively.  This paper is the evaluation report by BlueSky Learning Ltd of  the programme as a whole. 

RECRUITMENT  The programme aimed to recruit 50 tutors, and was marketed through the distribution of a flyer and  covering letter using distribution lists provided by Learning Connections.  These consisted of lists of:  • The Scottish Literacies Partnerships  • Scottish Colleges of Further Education  • National voluntary organisations involved in adult literacies provision   • A personal contact list provided by Katherine Ashe  174 flyers were emailed on the 20th and 21st of October, allowing 10 days before the advertised closing date.   This was a tight schedule as the target audience was practising tutors, but in most cases the flyers were sent  to intermediaries, often quite distant from tutors, such as college principals or voluntary sector directors,  and we were relying on the flyers being forwarded to appropriate staff as soon as possible.  When emails  were returned as undeliverable, they were followed up and further flyers sent as soon as possible.  This  happened in about 20 cases.  Interested tutors were invited to apply online using a surveymonkey facility, using a hyperlink provided in  the flyer.  About 15 enquiries were received from tutors for whom this appeared not to work.  Mostly this  was because their PCs were configured to block the link.  As far as can be determined, all these cases were  dealt with satisfactorily, either by sending advice about how to reconfigure the PC, or by sending the full URL  of the surveymonkey.  By the advertised closing date for applications, 31‐10‐08 at midday, 40 applications had been received.  It  was agreed to extend the closing date to Midday on 3rd November, and by this date 52 applications had been  received.  Late enquiries were encouraged to apply, as they were told that even if they didn’t get a place  their names would be on file for future events.  By the time the seminar took place, there had been 65  applications, and one more has come in since.   

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  There was some misunderstanding about the need for individuals to apply separately.  In the event some  applications were in the names of more than one tutor.  Follow‐up emails ensured that some of these led to  all the individuals applying, but this was not always successful.  Applicants were invited to indicate if they would need financial support to attend the programme, in relation  mainly to transport and accommodation, but possibly including loss of earnings.  No firm commitments were  made in the flyer to provide any financial support.    Applicants for the programme came from most areas of the country, as indicated in the chart below: 

25

20

15 Applicants and enquiries Participants 10

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Com munications were received from the Coordinators of the Literacies Partnerships in Highland and Moray,  indicating that they were very interested in the programme, but that the logistical difficulties in getting their  staff to it were too great on this occasion, and asking for the programme to be run further north.  These  enquiries are additional to those in the chart above. 

SELECTION AND ATTENDANCE   The advertising flyer had made it clear that applicants were expected to commit to attend all three seminars  and engage in small‐scale research work in between them.  It had also stated that in terms of selection for  the programme, tutors with more experience, those teaching groups of students, and those applying as  members of local professional groups, would be given preference.  The vast majority of applications fitted  the first two criteria, and about half fitted the third.  Only three applicants were not selected because of  inexperience, and one because she said wasn’t teaching groups.  One was not selected because she hadn’t  completed most of the questions on the application form, and two very late applications came after the the  programme was already full.       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  56 tutors were finally selected for the programme out of 65 applicants.  In the event 6 of these didn’t turn  up. Emails were received from 3: one was ill, and two had decided to withdraw (one because she had  decided she was too inexperienced after all).  One person came as a substitute for a selected tutor.  One  person turned up who had not applied and who had not been offered a place.  She had assumed that  because her colleague had applied and been accepted, she was included.  The first seminar took place with  52 tutors participating. 

8 people withdrew from the programme completely between the first and second seminars, leaving  44 still on the programme.  In five of these cases the reason given was increased work or training  commitments: for three in this category they had been sent on compulsory training by their  manager and were unable to give more time to this programme.  Two people withdrew due mainly  to personal/family reasons, and one because she felt the programme was ‘too advanced’ for her  and she ‘wasn’t benefitting’.  This last case is worrying as, tutors were selected for this programme  partly on the basis of experience.  This is probably a case of a tutor who hasn’t had access to  substantial professional training and who has learnt her skills entirely on the job, possibly in an  isolated setting and with little professional support.      It was disappointing that only 26 people (59%) attended the second seminar, out of the 44 remaining on the  programme after 8 withdrawals.  Apologies were received from 9 people (3 of these were given by  colleagues on the day).  9 sent no apologies or explanation for their non‐attendance.  Of the 9 apologies  received, 4 were due to sickness, 2 to unavoidable work commitments, and 3 unspecified. 

27 participants attended the third seminar, with 7 sending apologies and 11 not letting us know  either way, in spite of a specific request for confirmation either way 3 weeks before the event.   

WHAT HAPPENED AT AND BETWEEN THE SEMINARS  CLASSROOM INVESTIGATIONS: PRACTITIONER ACTION RESEARCH   In general, the seminar series went according to plan.  It had been envisaged that during the first seminar  participants would firstly identify topics connected with the teaching of reading to adults about which they  felt they needed support and development, and secondly decide on and begin to plan a classroom  investigation that they would carry out during the period the programme was running.  Participants would  start carrying out their investigations between the first and second seminars.  They would communicate  informally with colleagues in the regional group to which they had been assigned, and bring an interim  report on their investigation to the second seminar, where all the reports would be evaluated and  investigations amended or even changed.  The same process would happen before the final seminar, at  which all investigations would be collectively evaluated and findings clarified.  DIRECT INPUT SESSIONS ON THREE KEY TOPICS  The only way in which the programme needed to change from this plan was that after the first session in  which participants had identified their development needs, it was clear that some direct input on particular  topics would be useful.  Almost all the participants had indicated they would like some input on either       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  working with mixed ability groups, working with beginner readers and using phonics, or on more effective  teaching approaches.  It was therefore agreed to arrange for input sessions on these topics to be  incorporated into the second and third seminars.  In the end participants were able to attend each of the  input sessions, and it is clear that they were very popular.  HIGH PROFESSIONAL EXPECTATIONS OF THE PARTICIPANTS  The heart of the approach adopted by this programme was the classroom investigations.  Most of the  participants who attended the final session had indeed carried out investigations and had produced reports  on them, so it seems that overall about half of the original cohort had carried out the tasks the programme  required of them.  It may be that for some at least of the people who didn’t attend the later seminars, the  focus on classroom investigations was part of the reason for their non‐attendance.  It seemed to the  facilitators that some of the participants were expecting a ‘traditional’ CPD approach in which they would  only have to sit and listen.  We also felt that there were very wide variations in what might be called  ‘professional confidence’ among the participants, reflecting very different working situations and experience  of professional training.  Our approach had high professional expectations of tutors’ confidence to initiate  and carry out their own research project, and it may be that for some of the participants this was lacking.   For others, the evaluation sheets suggest that the programme might have helped tutors see themselves and  their role in a different light, and may actually have increased the confidence of some of them.  THE MOODLE  Another aspect of the programme which it was hoped would add value was the moodle.  This was set up as  part of the Learning Connections VLE, after the first seminar.  No more than about half of the participants  logged on to it at all, and those that did made hardly any use of it to ask questions, participate in discussions  or respond to ideas and questions posted by the facilitators.  At the second seminar an evaluation session  was held specifically on the moodle, and following responses received:  Most of the comments received consisted of factors that worked against people using the moodle freely.   They included:  o o o o o o o o o

People not having enough time at work to explore it, ‘play with it’, and get used it  Finding it complicated, not very user‐friendly  That they couldn’t get it to work immediately  That online contributions needed time to construct texts that were ‘defendable’ – time they didn’t  have  That they didn’t have the confidence to put their own comments online, that they felt ‘exposed’  That they felt they needed an introduction on how to use it  That they didn’t really know what it was for, what the point of it was  Some people found it hard to navigate around it  One person said it clashed ‘with their preferred learning style’ 

  Positive factors identified by participants included:  o o

That it supported networking well, and made it easy to contact people with similar interests  That it was ‘fairly easy to find your way around’ 

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  o o o

That it was excellent for sharing information, and linking with people researching in the same area  That it was good back up – with the implication that it was a support tool rather than a major tool  for learning in its own right  That it is a useful tool and works well if you like it 

  One person who was new to moodles, and did not feel comfortable with it, but did struggle to get logged on  and find her way around so as to use it as part of the programme, wanted to know why there is so much  emphasis on online tools as ‘drivers’ for new kinds of learning.   For some people on this programme, the moodle appears to have been almost a ‘step too far’ for them in  relation to their professional use of digital technology.  The moodle concept was clearly unfamiliar; their  fluency with other less unfamiliar applications, even as widely used as email, was not great; many of them  clearly have very limited access to computers at work; and most of all, they could not see what the point of  the moodle was.  For another group, generally more sophisticated in their use of digital technology, even though it was  unfamiliar, they were able to log on and explore it.  However, even for this group they are not using it  actively and interactively.  The most common explanation made in the feedback session was that people  don’t have time at work to explore applications, to play with them, and this holds them back from realising  the potential for professional development of these applications, even when they have the technical;  competence and confidence to ‘have  go’.  While in the conception of this programme, the moodle was seen as an important tool for enhancing  communication between participants between the seminars, and although this element of the conception  has not apparently been highly developed (though we don’t know the extent to which participants have  been in touch with each other by email), the programme has not been fatally compromised by the  participants’ overall tentativeness with using the moodle.  The programme has, however, needed to change  its emphasis from being wholly facilitative, participant‐led, action‐research project, to one which is more  trainer‐led, more input‐driven, and less interactive – though the extent to which this has happened has  varied for different participants, an important minority of whom are still pursuing the original objective,  though still without making extensive use of the moodle.  Even for this more confident group, the majority of comments made about the moodle are negative in tone:  there is clearly anxiety about committing oneself in what is seen as a public space – people want more time  to ‘think about what to write and choose the right words’ – this can be seen as shyness, but also as far of  making mistakes, or being exposed to unsympathetic people they don’t know.  In this situation, even asking  questions can be felt to be revealing ignorance as much as being constructive. 

OUTCOMES  PARTICIPANT SATISFACTION  Participants were asked to complete evaluation forms after each seminar, and the number collected  represents over 90% of the numbers attending across the whole programme.  The overwhelming majority of       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  the responses were very positive and enthusiastic.  Detailed analyses of the responses can be found in the  reports for each seminar, but the salient points were these:  People were generally happy about the venues for the seminars, especially the Glasgow ones.  The most useful aspects of the series were:  • • • •

the opportunity to share ideas and discuss issues with other practitioners  the rationale and overall organisation of the programme  all the input sessions, but particularly the one on beginning readers and phonics  evaluating other people’s projects produced lots of good practical ideas 

  Aspects of the programme which could have been improved were:  • • • • •

there wasn’t enough time to get everything done  the moodle was demanding and took time which some participants didn’t have  there should have been an extra seminar, at the beginning, by way of introduction  the programme should have been run over a longer time‐frame  there should be more PPS programmes on topics such as Numeracy and Writing 

  The ways in which participants said that the programme would have an impact on their practice were:  • • • •

it provided new, innovative, but practical ideas  it made participants more reflective and thoughtful about their work  it motivated participants to try out new ideas  it increased participants’ professional confidence 

  TUTOR PACK  A 56‐page tutor pack on teaching adults to read has been produced, to be made available through the web  from September 2009.  Based on what happened during the programme, it reports on the classroom  investigations and shows how a wide range of different approaches and activities could be used as part of  adult literacies learning, while stressing that what works with one group may not be appropriate with  another.   The pack also has sections on the organisation of continuous professional development, an  extensive list of resources in the form of books, articles, websites and other materials, and a glossary. 

IMPACT  An impact survey was carried out in June‐July 2009, using a surveymonkey report form which was sent to all  participants.  By July 24th, 9 returns had been received, and this report draws on them.  7 of the 9 answered yes to the question: have you made any specific changes or innovations in your  approaches to teaching as a result of taking part in the programme?  Of the two that didn’t answer yes, one  said that her group only has one student at the moment, but she wants to conduct mini‐researches in the       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  future.  The other said that attendance at her group had been very poor, but that she too hopes to make  changes in the future.  Three of the seven said they had been using more language experience with their learners, one said she had  been using more group working, one is using materials from the Working with Mixed Abilities input session,  one is differentiating more, one is paying particular attention to feedback, and said that she presented to her  tutor seminar on the topic of phonics, following the direct input session which was part of the programme.  One tutor is encouraging and supporting learners in reading in a small group.  The feedback from them is  that ‘it is scary but they are thrilled with themselves afterwards.’  Another tutor hopes to have students  ‘working together more, and giving feedback to each other.’  One intends to experiment with reciprocal  reading.  Barriers identified by the responders to making changes in their teaching approaches include poor  attendance (though this is for ‘perfectly valid reasons’), having to focus in short sessions not just on reading,  but also on employment, writing, and numeracy, ie not having enough sustained time to dedicate to  effective approaches to teaching reading.  Effects the new approaches have had on students, include that they are valuing the knowledge they already  have more, they are enjoying working together to write their own ‘soap’ based on their own lives, that some  like language experience but that some don’t, that language experience has helped students gain confidence  that they can learn to read, that the new approaches seem to have made the learners more enthusiastic and  able and willing to try different things.  Two responders said it was too early to say for sure, but one said that  she believed that her own keener interest in reading as something you can teach ‘must have a beneficial  effect on learners’.  In terms of the responders own professional development in the light of taking part in the seminars, one said  there had been no impact on plans for her own professional development, and one was undecided about  the future. Two said that they have been participating in the TQAL diploma pilot and that the seminars had  helped support reflecting on their practice, as well as giving them information they could share with other   TQAL participants.  Another said ‘It is great to see the work being done in prisons or with excluded groups, I  am just about to enter 3rd Year at Glasgow Uni and was very interested to find out how they are targeting  these particular groups. Will keep the contacts made’.  Another said ‘I would welcome any other such  programme on any topic at all ‐ this helps to get new ideas and also to become a more reflective  practitioner.’  Five of the nine responders to the impact survey thought that the most important elements of the  programme which helped them develop and improve their practice were the opportunity to share ideas and  discussions with other practitioners.  One said she was inspired by the idea of carrying out her own mini‐ research projects, and for two the most important aspect of the programme was the new knowledge it gave  them on encouraging learners to interact, and the content of the input sessions.  One said ‘I had been  considering trying this process for a while the programme gave me the incentive to push it forward.’         

 

 

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CONCLUSIONS  RECRUITMENT AND MARKETING  Given the timescales involved, the recruitment process was very successful.  The target number of recruits  was achieved, and with applicants from a reasonable spread of locations throughout Scotland.  There was  some confusion about the suggestion that people might apply as groups: in future programmes this  requirement would need to be stated much more clearly.  It is also clear that many people would probably  have attended seminars based further north, but felt unable to come to Glasgow or Edinburgh.  ATTENDANCE AND RETENTION  Attendance at the series dropped off effectively by nearly 50%.  In about half these cases, we don’t really  know why, as they didn’t tell us.  Of the others, the most common reason given was pressure of work: either  they had been told be their manager to undertake some other development activity, leaving no time for this  one, or an urgent and unavoidable task had come up just before the day of the seminar, preventing them  attending.  Many of these sent in interim reports of their investigations, indicating that they were still  engaged with the programme.   A few had personal reasons for not attending to do with family or sickness.  PROGRAMME DESIGN, PLANNING, AND OPERATION  The programme was carried out according to plan, but also was able to incorporate direct input sessions on  three topics chosen by the participants, not originally planned, which all participants were able to attend.   The moodle was hardly used at all by participants.  A few appear to have been resistant to the technology,  some had minimal access to computers, some had technical difficulties logging on.  The majority appear not  to have been convinced of its usefulness.  It might have worked better if a specific element of the first  seminar had been used to introduce participants to the moodle, and get them logged on, but even if this had  happened I think it has to be said that we failed to convince the majority of the participants that the moodle  was a useful tool.  It is recommended that Learning Connections considers mounting a more detailed and  focused study of tutors' ICT skills and confidence, their access to the internet, and their attitudes to using digital communications, to provide a foundation for a strategic implementation of moodle technology in  relation to the continuous professional development of adult literacies tutors.  IMPACT  I think we can say with some confidence that for at least half the original participants in the PPS programme,  the experience has given them increased motivation and in some cases increased confidence, new  knowledge in topics of interest to them, and, perhaps most significantly, a greater sense of agency and  planning in their approaches to teaching reading, and to their own professional development.  Although we  only had nine returns to the impact survey, all of them supported this assessment of the impact of the  programme.  So did almost all of the evaluation sheets collected after each seminar.  Those collected after  the last seminar are particularly significant here, as they were completed by people who had mostly  attended all three seminars and whose very attendance until the end indicates they felt the programme was  of value to them.       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  It is not unreasonable to assume that some of those who dropped out also benefitted in these ways, at least  to some extent.  We know that about half those who dropped out did so for reasons unconnected with the  series itself, and many of them expressed regret at not being able to attend.  On this basis again it is  reasonable to assume that at least half of those who dropped out also derived signficant benefits from the  programme, perhaps another 10 or 15, so making a total of 35 to 40 out of the original 52 participants.  The impact of the tutor pack is of course yet to be seen, but it contains a large range of references and  materials which should be of ongoing use to literacies tutors and teacher trainers, as well as case studies and  approaches from the programme which may easily be copied, imitated and adapted.  It is intended also to  be motivational: to inspire tutors to value their work and their own reflections on their experience; also to  support an increased sense of professional confidence and autonomy, by giving them ideas and practical  approaches to their own professional development, and by encouraging them to look to their local  professional peer groups, whether informal or formal, for support, collective discussions, and practical ideas  in the future.  Hopefully it will have a degree of positive impact beyond the 50 tutors who participated in the  programme itself, especially if its launch is accompanied by a marketing strategy.  Whatever qualities it has,  and the information it contains, are not of the sort that is likely to become outdated.   OVERALL CONCLUSIONS  It is clear that for most of those who participated in the programme it was a great success.  This was in spite  of the clear sense that its design was unfamiliar to most of them, and its emphasis on tutor‐led classroom  based investigations as a model for professional development, was not only unfamiliar, but highly  challenging for some of them, due to widely varying levels of professional confidence.  I believe that this type of programme could be even more successful if it becomes a more familiar type of  professional development ‘package’.  It’s clear that at least some of the time, tutors need facilitation,  leadership and oversight in relation to their professional development, however enthusiastically some of  them may embrace its ideas of tutor autonomy.  This is much more true of those tutors who are less  experienced, have had less access to training, are more professionally isolated and less supported by a  professional community on a day to day basis, and who are less confident.  But in a situation where tutors  were familiar with a range of different models of support for their CPD, of which PPS programmes were one,  then tutors might select this model from a range of others, knowing better what this entailed in terms of the  expectations the progamme would have of them, and whether this was the type of programme appropriate  for them at that stage of their career.  This would hopefully lead to higher rates of attendance and more  focused development work within the programme itself.  Many of the tutors’ comments on the evaluation   forms suggest that this is a reasonable conclusion to draw: particularly the ones that said the programme  should have been run over a longer timescale, that there should have been a fourth seminar, before the  others, acting as an introductory module, and those that asked for future seminar series on a wider range of  topics.  Connected with this discussion is the issue of the moodle, and developing a strategic approach to addressing  the wide range of different, but mostly negative or uninterested, attitudes towards digital tools showed by  most of the participants. 

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  It is obviously too early to say very much about the impact of the PPS programme on tutors’ classroom  practice, and on their orientation to professional development, not least because the Tutor Pack, an  important aspect of the programme due to be launched in the autumn, is not out yet.  It is suggested that a  further impact survey is carried out in a years’ time, and that as well as participants, other stakeholders such  as some of their learners and managers might be included in the survey.  Jay Derrick  BlueSky Learning Ltd  July 27th 2009 

         

 

 

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“What are we doing when we read?” – adult literacy learners’ perceptions of  reading  Samantha Duncan, Institute of Education.  This study used individual interviews and focus groups to ask 21 adult literacy learners at a London further  education college what reading is. It follows a grounded theory approach to build a model of reading in the  form of six interrelating aspects and seven key findings. These findings include insights on metalanguage and  phonic decoding, the distinction between how we read and how we learn to read, motivation and learning  to read, the place of reading aloud, the manifold relationship between reading and time, reading as a social  practice and reading as a distinctly asocial practice. Implications for the learning and teaching of adult  emergent reading are presented for each finding.   Background and rationale  As an adult literacy teacher and teacher educator, have become increasingly aware that adult literacy  learners and teachers want more guidance on how to teach and develop adult reading, and yet are not sure  in which direction to look for guidance. The study of reading is claimed by several disciplines, each marking  its territory in distinct ways. Cognitive psychology defines and investigates reading in certain ways, literary  theory in others, and New Literacy Studies in yet others. Which of these can help adult literacy learners and  teachers?  Cognitive psychology researches how text is processed into speech sounds and/or meaning.  The  development of phonemic awareness (Stuart, 2005a, 2005b) and orthographic processing skill (Burt, 2006),  and how these relate to the lexical or phonological routes to verbalising and/or understanding a word are  represented in the models cognitive psychology has produced over the past twenty years  (Coltheart, 2006;  Coltheart & Jackson, 2001; Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989; Stuart, 2002, 2005b).  Yet, cognitive psychology’s  engagement with reading does not end with verbalisation or lexical comprehension. Just & Carpenter (1977)  used eye movement research to investigate sentence and paragraph comprehension and Garnham (1987)  and Garnham & Oakhill (1992)’s “mental models theory” details how the reader processes each new word in  the context of a mental model of the text read so far, in an “integrative,” “constructive” way (Garnham &  Oakhill, 1992, p. 194). Noordman & Vonk (1992) argue that this constructive understanding is the product of  the interplay between information from the text and the reader’s existing world knowledge.   Literary theory, over the past hundred years, has shifted its focus from the author to the text and finally to  the reader (Eagleton, 1996; Rimmon‐Kenan, 1989), investigating the reader’s experience and offering  models of the reading process. Iser, developing literary phenomenological hermeneutics into reception  theory (Cuddon, 1991; Eagleton, 1996; Iser, 1978), theorised the reader’s active participation in creating the  work of literature – “a convergence…virtual…dynamic” (Iser, 1972, p. 212) – as opposed to the written text.  Iser argues that the work is born (and reborn with each reading) in the connections the reader makes  between sentences of the text. Perry (1979), Fish (1980), Rimmon‐Kenan (1989) and Todorov (1996)  continued this work in reader‐response theory and structuralist poetics, with differences in emphasis but  nevertheless common ground in identifying the reader as “build[ing] up” “the literary text,”  “cumulatively       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  […] through adjustments and readjustments” (Perry, 1979, p. 35) in a process of “continually […]  reconstituting” (Fish, 1980, p. 159) meaning.  In contrast to the individual cognition based approach of the cognitive psychologists or the author‐text‐ reader interchange of the literary theorists, the social practice approach of New Literacy Studies addresses  the role that reading plays in the social organisation of our lives. Building on Heath’s (1983) work on the  literacy practices of communities in the United States, New Literacy Studies (Barton, 1994; Barton, Hamilton,  & Ivanic, 2000; Gee, 1996; Papen, 2005; Street, 1984) present a move towards an emphasis on literacy as a  social practice, serving a particular function for the reader at a particular time and in a particular situation.   These three approaches to reading research are rarely placed together to attempt a more comprehensive  look at what reading could be for the reader. A belief in the importance of perspective of the learner reader  is motivating factor behind this project. My background as an adult literacy teacher has taught me how  fruitful it is to ask adult learners about their learning process, to start in the classroom. Over the past five  years there has been an increase in research directly addressing adult literacy development, locating the  research, at least partly, in the adult literacy classroom. Besser et al (2004) and McShane (2005) used  classroom observation, diagnostic materials, interviews and teacher focus groups to identify a range of  common reading difficulties (including phonological awareness, decoding and comprehension), advocating  more classroom attention to these areas. Brooks, Burton, Cole & Szczerbinski (2007) investigated adult  literacy teaching strategies, concluding that more work needs to be done on “oral fluency, explicit  comprehension strategies, reciprocal teaching, phonics and language experience approaches” (p. 10).    Yet, despite their learning and teaching focus, the above projects did not involve learners’ ideas about  reading, though other research has. Devine (1984) interviewed adult English as a Second Language students  to establish their ‘internalised reading models,’ which she classified as “sound‐centered,” “word centered”  or “meaning centered” and then compared these to their reading aptitudes as measured through  standardised tests, finding a correlation between students’ models and their reading strengths. Similarly,  Schraw & Bruning (1996) used a combination of interview and quantitative methods to research how adult  readers’ implicit models of reading – “transmission, translation or transaction” (p. 290) – affect reading  performance, finding that those using the transactional model remembered more of the text, were better  able to relate the text to their prior knowledge and reported more emotional response that those using  other models. Ivanic et al (2006) interviewed adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL learners on their “everyday  numeracy and language practices” to “understand links between learning provision and everyday lives more  fully, as a basis for developing practice” (p. 3). Appleby & Barton developed this project into a guide to  “Responding to People’s Lives” (2008), recommending that the best classroom practice comes from seven  key “threads”, including “listening to learners” (p. 4).  

It is this approach, that of “listening to the learners,” which lies at the core of the present study. Adult literacy learners have chosen to improve their reading and writing, and bring the knowledge, skills and experience of adult life to this self-aware process. They are therefore an important, but rarely used, resource for research into the adult reading development. This study aims to add to existing knowledge of the learning and teaching of adult emergent reading by using a grounded theory approach to turn the perceptions of adult literacy learners into a model of reading to investigate what reading is for the reader – cognitively, affectively, socially and perhaps more.      

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  The main research question was:  •  “What are we doing when we read” (Hogan, 2004) as perceived by adult literacy learners?    Sample & methodology  The methodology of this study is grounded theory: my aim was to use the participants’ conceptualizations to  build a new model of reading, rather than to test an existing model or theory. At the same time, the  theoretical basis of my decision to work from learner perceptions lies in phenomenology: reading, in this  study, is – and can only be – what these learners perceive it to be.   I carried out twenty‐one individual interviews and four focus groups (of four learners each) over a three‐ month period. The sample was adult literacy learners at a London further education college. Participants  were chosen to represent the spectrum of levels from Entry 1 (beginners) to Level 2 (GCSE level) delineated  by the adult literacy core curriculum. Of the individual interviewees, 4 were at Entry 1, 4 at Entry 2, 5 at  Entry 3, 4 at Level 1 and 4 at Level 2.  Two focus groups were at Entry level and two at Level 1.  Each participant had made a voluntary decision to join an adult literacy class to improve their reading and  writing. Some are native speakers with experiences of failure at school for a range of personal, social and/or  cognitive reasons, and others had come to England as children or adults, are confident speaking and listening  in English but lack confidence in reading and writing. All the participants had disrupted school educations,  whether in this country or abroad. Just under three‐quarters of participants are female. This represents the  usual proportion of women to men in adult literacy classes at this college. Participant initials have been  changed for this paper.  Each interview lasted for 25‐35 minutes and each focus group for 45‐55 minutes. I used semi‐structured  interviews to capture a maximum of interviewee ideas, with minimal leading from fixed questions (Kvale,  1996). A list of question prompts were devised, and refined through piloting, following Tomlinson’s (1989)  approach of ‘hierarchical focusing:’ starting with open questions to allow the interviewees to set the  perimeters of what reading is or involves and only later, if necessary, asking questions about aspects reading  interviewees did not raise themselves. The use of these prompts was kept to a minimum; the interview  structure was predominantly improvised from participant responses. Likewise, focus groups, rather than  group discussions, were used to maximize group interaction (therefore the generation and exploration of  ideas).   All the individual interviews and focus groups were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim the same day. The  resulting transcripts were analyzed using the grounded theory approach of open  (assigning codes to issues  or themes appearing in the data), axial (grouping codes into categories) and selective coding (arranging the  categories and component codes into a “story‐line” or model) (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007; Strauss,  1987; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). In this way a model or narrative was created, in answer to the question ‘what  are we doing when we read?’  Findings & Discussion  ‘In vivo’ (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) open coding produced 80 codes representing the diversity of participants’  perceptions of reading, from “concentrating” (the idea that reading takes a great deal of concentration) to       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  “reading help for writing” (the idea that reading helps your writing), and from “spiritual things” (the code for  reading religious/spiritual texts) to “you forget everything” (the idea that when you read you forget your  immediate physical environment).   Six categories emerged from the way these codes interrelate in the coded transcripts (and therefore in the  participants’ conceptualisations): decoding, ways to get better at reading, what we read, external factors  related to reading, internal factors related to reading and why we read.  The category decoding includes ideas about the physical and cognitive acts we perform to decode, such as  looking at words, concentrating and remembering, as well as descriptions of the specific processes involved  in reading words, such as phonic decoding, whole word recognition and guessing from context. Ways to get  better at reading contains the dominant (appearing in over half the transcripts) suggestions of reading as  much as possible, reading aloud, reading easy books and reading books you are motivated to read. The  category what we read represents a range of participant examples of texts they read, from holy or spiritual  books to “the paper” and from fiction to the words we see “everywhere.”   External factors related to reading includes motivating factors such as keeping up with current affairs,  getting a good job and helping your children, as well as situational factors such as having “nothing to do” or  having to little or too much “time.” The dominant codes in internal factors related to reading explore ideas  such as enjoyment, experiencing emotion, escaping emotion, escaping this life, ‘feeling inside’ a text,  forgetting everything and experiencing something new. Why we read is the largest category, dominated by  ideas such as reading to understand, to learn more information, to keep our brains active, to communicate  with others, to enjoy ourselves, for religious worship, to relax, for our children, to escape to a new world and  simply because there are “words everywhere.”  These six categories, and the overlaps of their shared subsidiary codes, produced the following seven  findings.  1. Metalanguage and phonic decoding   The majority of participants lacked the metalanguage to express the phonic decoding process they  described. When asked how they read unfamiliar words, every participant described a process of phonic  decoding. CS and PL described how they managed to read the name Asako, a word they had never seen  before:  CS: Cause I’d seen the A S it would be like ‘as’ , ‘as’, ‘as’‐ ko’ ‘as ako’ 

  PL: ‘As’ ‘a’ ‘ko’ Asako‐ A , /æ/, and S, /s/, and then A, /æ/ and ‘ko’ and then I squeezed  them together like squashing a sponge until they were so squashed together that they  made Asako.  Yet, apart from one learner who called this process “decoding,” and two others who called it “sounding out,”  participants did not have any specialist vocabulary with which to name this process. Instead, they searched  for other ways to describe it, using terms such as “break it down,” “spell it” or “pronounce it.”       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack    JT: Then I try to sp… how can I put it … I try to, what’s the word?  I try to… break it down. I  try to break it, try to get it all together, the word.      PP: I may try and spell it out, and spell it‐ I spell it out‐ to pronounce it, to bring it out, to  bring out  Participants did use other classroom metalanguage (such as ‘syllable’ and ‘vowel’), and therefore the fact  that they did not use specific metalanguage for phonic decoding suggests their teachers do not use this  terminology. Teachers are either not addressing phonic approaches, or they are, but not using its specific  metalanguage.   If teachers are not dealing with phonemic awareness/decoding in the classroom, a possibility supported by  Brooks et al (2007, p. 9), why not? Possible reasons fall into four interrelated areas: government funding  shifts over the past few years resulting in fewer Entry level classes, which may have reduced the emphasis  on beginning reading in teacher education, adult literacy teachers “reject[ing]” phonics because of fears of  learners’ previous negative experiences (Burton, 2007, p. 12), the “strong feelings” (p. 12) – verging on  political allegiance – which phonics raises amongst many teachers, and a lack of teacher confidence in this  area (Besser et al., 2004).   It is also possible that teachers are indeed addressing phonemic awareness/decoding without using its  specific metalanguage. Yet the relationship between being able to name an act and perform that act, the  sense of empowerment which many feel metalanguage provides, the way these learners used other  metalanguage to describe their learning, the struggle these participants had to articulate their phonic  decoding processes without specific vocabulary, and the fact that these participants perceived phonic  decoding to be their primary strategy for reading new words would all seem to indicate that the advantages  of using this metalanguage overpower feared disadvantages.  2. How you read vs. how you learn to read  The categories Decoding (or how we read) and Ways to Get Better At Reading (how we learn to read and  improve our reading) overlap very little, sharing only “alphabet” (the code for a knowledge of the sound‐ symbol relationships of our alphabet). Participants discussed decoding words as predominantly a process of  phonic decoding (see above), with some use of whole word recognition for familiar words like ‘October’:   AN: Because it’s a word that I always use […] so I know it.   Participants also explained that they sometimes guessed a word from its context:  ST: Sometimes you can understand a word from the sentence, from the rest of the  paragraph, when you realise what they’re trying to say.    However, when speaking of how they learnt to read or how they are improving their reading, participants  explained the importance of reading as much as possible, reading easy books, reading books you are enjoy       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  and are interested in, reading aloud, or listening to others read aloud. All twenty‐five transcripts stressed  that the best way to get better at reading was to read as much as possible:  EP: Read, read, read! […] the more you practice the more better you get at it, and that’s  the way it is. 

  Fifteen explained that to learn to read or get better at reading you need to read “easy” books:  EM: You know, sometimes when I want to read and improve my reading, I choose a book  that I can read easily, understand easily.   Sixteen stressed that the key was to read books which you simply like and therefore are particularly  motivated to read:    MO: If there’s a book and I like the book and find it exciting, that’s what gets me to read.   Finally, thirteen spoke of the role that reading aloud, and listening to others read, plays in reading  development (discussed below).  For these participants, therefore, how you read (primarily by phonic decoding, with some whole word  recognition and prediction) and how you learn to read or get better at reading (read as much as possible,  read easy books, read what interests or motivates you and read aloud) are distinct. This distinction suggests  that models of fluent reading are not necessarily the best place to start in developing ideas for the learning  and teaching of reading. We need to find other ways to research how best to develop reading.   Ramifications for classroom practice are twofold.  Firstly, to generate ideas on how to teach or develop  reading, do not work only from models of fluent reading; ask the learners, many of whom have thought  about this area a great deal. Secondly, to develop reading: read as much as possible, read ‘easy’ texts,  choose texts which interest the reader and read aloud.   3. Motivation  Linking Why We Read, Ways to Get Better at Reading and Internal Factors Related to Reading is the concept  of motivation.  The broadness of the term ‘motivation’ conceals where it is vital as opposed to merely  desirable.  That it is good practice to read texts which interest our learners is common sense. Yet, this data  indicates a different, more vital concept, that motivation can provide not only the impetus to pick up a  particular text on a particular day, but can make the difference between someone being able to read and  someone not being able to read: motivation to struggle against the odds to learn to read.    Three main categories of motivation emerge from this data. The first is feeling that you need to be able to  read for the sake of your children:  CS: Because I think it [being able to read] would be, not just better for me, but better for  my son […] when he goes into nursery and he brings home a book or he’s got homework‐  I want to be able to sit there and read to him.        

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  The second category of motivation which emerged was reading as access to a job or lifestyle which  would otherwise be closed off:  TE: I started going to performing arts school, about 15, 16 […] because I really loved to do  drama, and to do drama I had to read scripts, so I was really interested and focused on it   so I think that was a big big part of helping me learn how to read.     Finally, motivation emerged in the realisation that reading could be an escape from ‘real life’ problems:  SF: Um, I think it [finally learning to read after years of struggle]’s because I found out it  was a way of escaping and I just wanted to read and be inside the book all the time‐ and  that drew me into reading.  Motivation was not just what drove these participants to join literacy classes, but what has allowed them to  learn to read and to keep on improving their reading. The nature of these motivations, the first two social  and the third distinctly outside of the social are discussed later.  This presents ramifications for outreach  work; colleges need to develop their community outreach work to reach those who may have the motivation  and need for literacy learning, but may not be aware that this support is available.  4. Reading aloud  Participants spoke of reading aloud as both a type of reading for specific purposes and as a method to  improve their reading.  Reading aloud as a type of reading is performed, according to these participants, for three main purposes:  reading stories, poems and religious texts. PL spoke of how stories read aloud are more exciting, for adults as  well as for children:  PL: I like to hear stories […] it’s the tone of the voice.  Another participant explained that she doesn’t understand poems when she reads them herself but does  when others, such as her husband, read them aloud to her:  AI: I like someone reading to me poems; I understand when someone is reading but I  don’t understand when I am reading.    DW stressed that the Qur’an must be read aloud to oneself:  DW: it’s better to read it loud because you feel the words, every word you read you feel  the word […] maybe because this is the Holy Book, maybe that’s why I am putting all of my  mind and my heart in it.  These participants have described reading aloud as a social practice performed for particular purposes in  particular situations.   Reading aloud was also presented as something you do to improve your reading, both alone and in groups.  Participants spoke of how they frequently read aloud when they are alone, in order to better decode words:       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack    MO: [when] I’m on my own at home, I’d read out loud [..] So I can understand the words  and the sounds as well.  PL:  It [reading aloud alone] helps you because you see the word and then you try to  position your mouth to how the letters are written.  Many explained how reading aloud in groups provides an opportunity for their own reading to be corrected  by others:  AN: I like [reading] loudly because I am learning something […] it’s good that other people  hear ‐ if there is a mistake they can help.    Additionally, listening to others read aloud clarifies the connection between symbols/written words and  sounds/spoken words:    EP: You know before, when we used to read in class yeah, I used to pretend I was  following, but I wasn’t ‐ but now I do follow it! I notice that it helps me a lot […] when  someone’s reading it and you’re following it, it helps ‐ if you can’t say that word, don’t  know what that word is and someone’s reading it, and then it’s ‘oh yeah yeah.’ That helps  a lot.    The message for the learning and teaching of reading is that experimentation with different uses and  formations of reading aloud – in and out of the classroom – can play an important role in the development  of reading, both as a vehicle for improving decoding skills and as a way of acquiring the ability to read  confidently in different ways for different social and personal purposes.   5. Reading and time, and time and space  The code “time,” a subsidiary of both External and Internal Factors Affecting Reading, features in all twenty‐ five transcripts. Participants spoke of time as a valuable commodity, required on a daily or weekly basis in  order to be able to read, but often in short supply:  JJ: I like to read but I haven’t time to read  Others spoke of time as a mass they have to  “pass through” (CM). Reading can help “pass your time” (OR),  either on purpose, on a long journey,  JC: I read because… time flies, you don’t think about travelling.  or by accident:   AN: Last week, I was reading this book and then I forgot I’m on the bus and the bus  reached the final stop and I said ‘oh my god why I am here?’ I was reading a love story  and it was interesting…          

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  Time, for these participants, is also a way to mark the paths the years of their lives have taken, speaking of  the “times of [their] lives” (PS) when they have read more or less. Participants emphasised that they chose  to join an adult literacy class at this particular “time” for specific reasons:  AE: For three years now, I sort of stopped reading because I was busy looking after my  son. Now is the time for me to read again…  Yet even more often, participants spoke of reading, particularly the reading of literature, as an escape from  the difficulties or loneliness of these particular “times,” where “time” signifies the place or situation we are  in now:   AN: When it’s a bad time, I just get a book and I read it.  DS: When I read, I forget about all, I forget about this time, my environment‐ yes, I forget  about it all when I’m reading.  ST: It’s an escape ‐ when I’m stressed out or just want to take time out, I’ll start to read     Time, in this data, is something to be measured out and used or endured in units of minutes or hours, is a  marker for the years of our lives and is a way of talking about the place we are each located right now, a  place which may allow us to develop our reading or a place we might want to escape by reading.  The relationship between reading, time and space is further developed in participants’ ideas of differences in  permanence and personal control between spoken and written language. Written language has  permanence:   DS: this language is written down […] because we have to keep it […] Oral language  maybe it will change by time but written language wouldn’t change.    Written language also allows the reader to read it whenever she chooses:  RC: A story is there the whole time, you can read before you go to bed, you can read it  whenever you like.  Written language offers a degree of control still, even in this digital age, not associated with the spoken; the  reader can often decide what and when to read, providing the possibility of communication across time and  space:  BH: it [reading]’s like speaking, but because I can’t be with that person, then it is like them  speaking but now it is in writing.  This sense of reading (and writing) as a form of controlled communication across space and time calls up  ideas from both literary theory, Chambers’ idea of narrative as “seductive” in that it involves a “deferral” of  communication (1984, p. 10), and linguistics, expanding the idea that human language is characterised by  displacement (being able to communicate about distant times or spaces) into written language’s ability to       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  communicate across time and space. In this way, written language allows both writer and reader control  over where, when and how they perform their communicative acts, to accommodate personal need:   ST: [when reading a novel] I’m just listening to him [“Coelho, the writer”], to what he’s  telling me, he’s advising me, guiding me, because I don’t have anyone like that.     The reader can control this communication, getting what she needs from those she has never met, across  continents and years.   Pennac celebrates this control over time and space in the form of ten “rights of the reader” (2006): “the  right not to read,” “the right to skip,” “the right not to finish the book,” “the right to read it again,” “the  right to read anything,” “the right to mistake a book for real life,” “the right to read anywhere,” “the right  to dip in,” “the right to read out loud,” and “the right to be quiet” (pp. 149‐174). These rights are our  ramifications for learning and teaching, and another: the right to travel across time and space when we  choose.     6. Reading as a social practice  The concept of reading as social practice has been a touchstone of the New Literacy Studies theorists over  the past fifteen years (Barton, 1994, 2007; Barton et al., 2000; Barton & Tusting, 2005; Hamilton, 2005;  Papen, 2005), who “argu[e] that literacy can only be understood in the context of the social practice in which  it is acquired and used” (Barton, 2007, p. 25). Yet I would like to take this notion of literacy as social practice  further and argue that my data shows that social practice contains two distinct aspects. The first evokes  cultural freedom and richness, the varied reading practices we do to take part in domains we belong to:  reading letters or texts from friends, college coursework, stories to children, menus in cafes or religious  texts. Yet reading as a social practice has another aspect, which evokes social inequality, powerlessness,  control from above and punishment for those who do not – or rather cannot – read easily. As much as these  participants articulated a range of reasons why they want to read, they also expressed their awareness that  they actually have no choice, they have to read:   CS: Everywhere you go you’ve got to read […]  when you’re at work you’ve got boards  where you’ve got a rota, and you’ve got to, you need to read what times you’ve got to  come in, where abouts you’ve got to go […] everywhere you go basically, you have to  read everywhere.    BD. If you don’t know how to read, or if you don’t that word, you look like a humpty  dumpty and you think you don’t know nothing, and you try and try and […] sometimes I  get really angry…  Relating this to Pennac’s “rights of the reader,” these readers have recognised that they do not have  Pennac’s first and integral right, “the right not to read” (2006, p. 149), instead they are faced with “the  obligation to read” (p. 151). This is a social practice as unwelcome obligation.         

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  7. Reading as an asocial practice  Interestingly, this data indicates that as much as it is a social practice, reading can also be a deliberate step  outside of the social, which I am calling an asocial practice. Participants spoke of reading to take part in the  social domains around them, but they spoke even more about reading, particularly the reading of literature,  to escape these domains and access other realities. The data shows two (interelatated) aspects of this  asocial practice: entering a text, often as a character within that text, and experiencing, releasing or escaping  emotions in doing so.  As discussed above in relation to time, participants spoke of reading as a conscious act of escape. Thirteen  participants described reading as “being inside” the text (predominantly stories and novels):  AN: I’m reading the book, if I like the story […] I feel to be inside […] like it’s happening to  me.    AE: Normally when I’m reading I sort of put myself in there, I become a character in that  book .  They describe a process of intersubjectivity, entering the story/novel as a character and then returning,  transformed:  JJ: you know how to do your life better at the other side […] some of them [insights from  reading] are very important, for your life, make you better.    BD: Something like Jane Eyre, it’s an experience thing, it helps you to move forward, if  there’s something that you want to do, it’s like ‘oh this person did it, me too I will try it, if  they achieved, me too I can do it.’  The idea of becoming, if temporarily, a character within a story or novel evokes Bakhtin’s “transformative  identification,” whereby novel readers project themselves into the world of the novel, becoming the  protagonist, before returning back to their original subject position of reader to assess and “consummate”  that experience (Bakhtin, 1990, p. 26) in the form of personal transformation.   These participants describe their transformations, what they have gained from this experience inside the  text, what they can take back to help their usual lives. Yet, they go further and discuss how “‘being inside” a  book helps them read by not only providing the desire to read on, but by furnishing a hook upon which to  hang memory of decoded words:  EF:  When you read stories, and you find out a word, you don’t forget because you  remember the story.  Going further, some felt that being inside a story or novel improves their confidence reading, facilitating  their decoding of new words: 

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  AE: When I’m reading […] I picture myself as one of the characters in the book to  understand the words I’m reading  […] I’m acting as one of them, so I know where I’m  going, where the reading is going.    That “knowing where you’re going” in a text helps decoding fits with ideas of semantic and syntactic  prediction based on the overall meaning of the text (common to adult literacy studies and a ‘whole language  approach’ in EFL (Rigg, 1991)). Yet these participants are also describing a movement between subjectivities,  the author’s and the reader’s, and from within the author’s subjectivity the reading‐eyes know where “the  reading is going” (AE) and can therefore read with the increased confidence four participants named ‘flow:’  AE: I read a book some time ago, Sydney Sheldon? I was one of the characters in there.  […]‐ at the same time I am reading and at the same time I am acting as well, so it give me  flow, you know to read it well, and I enjoy the book and I understand it well.    The learners’ descriptions of the ‘flow’ of being inside a text improving their ability to read also calls up Iser  and Fish’s work on the reader actively making connections within and between the sentences of a text (Fish,  1980; Iser, 1978). The reader follows the words and sentences set out by the author, thus following  another’s cognitive footsteps (temporarily becoming another subjectivity), but also makes links between  these sentences in his own “individual realisation” (Iser, 1972, p. 219) of the text. The reader is therefore  both herself and the author, “the alien me and the real me” (p. 224), in a constant shifting of subject  position. This is a movement between subjectivities and thus the reader gains, at least for part of the reading  process, the reading confidence of the author or protagonist. The asocial act of being inside a text,  therefore, is not only a chance to be someone else, but a chance to be a more confident reader.  The second aspect of reading as an asocial practice is reading as cause and effect of emotion. “Feel,” the  code for emotion, featured in twenty‐one of the twenty‐five transcripts, sixteen of these unprompted.  Besides the sadness or anxiety produced by difficulty reading or the joy produced by improved reading,  participants spoke reading as a way to escape from certain emotions, while experiencing or releasing others:  BH: For me, whenever I’m sad, that’s when I feel I have to read […] I prefer reading love  stories or good stories, something with a happy ending.  MT: [Reading] just calms, calms out anger – if someone’s been arguing and they can’t  take it no more, they can go and pick up a book and get away from it.  While longing to escape real life sadness and find joy in reading is perhaps easy to understand, the riddle of  why we would want to experience anger or horror through our reading, or how painful reading matter is  somehow converted into pleasure in the literary experience, has fascinated critics since Aristotle half‐ answered it over two thousand years ago: “tragedy is an imitation […] effecting through pity and fear the  purification of such emotions” (1996, p. 10). ST’s explanation is similar:  ST: That’s probably the only time they can connect their emotions, when they read a  book.  Maybe because in the outside world they’re really cold and can’t show their  emotions, but when they read a book it can come out.        

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  Others, echoing Forster’s ideas on how characters in novels “solace” (1927, p. 70) their readers, felt  experiencing, through reading, the pain of others helps us understand, or contextualise, our own pain:   MH: If someone feels sad and reads a sad story they may feel better, like in a better  condition.    Reading, according to this data, is not only a vehicle in our social interactions, but a step outside of those  interactions into a different way of existing, feeling, and – however temporary – of being. This asocial  practice of reading is more than a reason to read, but an alternate way of existing: a conscious movement  away from our usual social structures and subjectivity(s), to be somewhere and someone different.  The  learning and teaching of reading, therefore, needs to draw on the asocial practice of reading as well as the  social, to explore the relationships between the intersubjective experience of reading and the processes of  decoding letters and words into meanings, experiences and emotions.  Summary of implications for practice  • • • • • • • • •

Learners and teachers should experiment with the use of metalanguage to describe and explore the  decoding process.  Reading as much as possible, reading more ‘easier’ texts and reading texts which interest the reader  are three key ways to develop adult reading.  Learners, more than models of fluent reading, may be a useful source of guidance on reading  development.  Motivation can make the difference between someone being able to read and not being able to  read, therefore colleges need to prioritize outreach work to reach those who may have a strong  motivation to improve their reading but may not be aware of available provision.  Reading aloud, in groups and individually, can be an important tool for developing reading.  Reading requires time and therefore some learners may need time in their classes to read.   Reading also potentially provides a power over the restrictions of time and space.  There is need to be viligent about increases in state generated obligation to read, as the negative  aspect of reading as a social practice.  The asocial, or intersubjective aspects of reading are related to the more seemingly ‘mechanical’  aspects, such as decoding, and therefore this area needs more exploration, in homes and classrooms  as well as in further research.  Conclusion 

Despite the limitations of this study (the small sample, no time allocated for re‐interviewing), the model of  reading, or “story‐line” produced by this research, with its six overlapping aspects and seven findings, has  highlighted and expanded upon links between the work on reading from cognitive psychology, New Literacy  Studies and literary theory. Participants have articulated how escape relates to decoding and how social  participation relates to emotion. More importantly, by clarifying what reading is, and could be, to different  adult literacy learners, this research suggests areas for classroom experimentation, such as with reading  aloud and the use of metalanguage. Yet perhaps most usefully, this study indicates potential, not only the  potential of reading, but the potential of research: that “ask[ing] students what helps them learn” (Brooks et  al., 2001, pp. 168‐169) is as good a starting point as any in the pursuit of knowledge about reading.   

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  Looking at contemporary literary criticism, Gregor laments the absence of focus on “what it actually feels  like to read a book” (1970, p. 197). This complaint could equally be levelled at cognitive psychology or New  Literacy Studies, and yet this is exactly what these participants have given us.  Acknowledgements  I am grateful to all the participants in this study for their time, ideas and inspiration. I am also grateful to Dr  Amos Paran and Dr Jon Swain for their kindness, help and encouragement in writing this paper.    References  Appleby, Y., & Barton, D. (2008). Responding to people's lives. Leicester: NIACE.  Aristotle. (1996). Poetics (M. Heath, Trans.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.  Bakhtin, M. M. (1990). Art and Answerability (V. Liapunov, Trans.). Austin TX: University of Texas Press.  Barton, D. (1994). Literacy: An introduction to the ecology of written language. London: Blackwell.  Barton, D. (2007). Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language (second ed.). Oxford:  Blackwell Publishing.  Barton, D., Hamilton, M., & Ivanic, R. (Eds.). (2000). Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context.  London: Routledge.  Barton, D., & Tusting, K. (Eds.). (2005). Beyond Communities of Practice: Language, Power and Social  Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Besser, S., Brooks, G., Burton, M., Parisella, M., Spare, Y., Stratford, S., et al. (2004). Adult Literacy learners'  difficulties in reading: an exploratory study. London: NRDC.  Brooks, G., Burton, M., Cole, P., & Szczerbinski, M. (2007). Effective Teaching and Learning: Reading. London:  NRDC.  Brooks, G., Giles, K., Harman, J., Kendall, S., Rees, F., & Whittaker, S. (2001). Assembling the Fragments: A  review of research on adult basic skills (No. 220): Crown Copyright.  Burt, J. S. (2006). What is orthographic processing skill and how does it relate to word identification in  reading? Journal of Research in Reading, 29(4), 400‐417.  Burton, M. (2007). Reading. Leicester: NIACE.  Chambers, R. (1984). Story and Situation: Narrative Seduction and the Power of Fiction (Vol. 12).  Manchester: Manchester University Press.  Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research Methods in Education (6 ed.). London: Routledge.  Coltheart, M. (2006). The genetics of learning to read. Journal of Research in Reading, 29(1), 124‐132.  Coltheart, M., & Jackson, N. E. (2001). Routes to Reading Success and Failure: towards an integrated  cognitive psychology of atypical reading. Maquarie: Maquarie Monographs in Cognitive Science.  Cuddon, J. A. (1991). Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Harmondsworth: Penguin.  Devine, J. (1984). ESL Readers'  Internalized Models of the Reading Process. In J. Handscombe, R. A. Oram &  B. P. Taydor (Eds.), On TESOL '83: The Question of Control (pp. 95‐108). Washington DC: Teachers of English  to Speakers of Other Languages.  Eagleton, T. (1996). Literary theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.  Fish, S. (1980). Is there a text in this class?: the authority of interpretive communities. Cambridge,  Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.  Forster, E. M. (1927). Aspects of the Novel. Harmondsworth: Penguin.  Garnham, A. (1987). Mental models as representations of discourse and text. Chichester: Ellis Horwood.  Garnham, A., & Oakhill, J. (1992). Discourse Processing and Text Representation from a "Mental Models"  Perspective. In A. Garnham & J. Oakhill (Eds.), Discourse Representation and Text Processing (pp. 193‐204).  Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.       

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  Gee, J. P. (1996). Social Linguistics and literacies: Ideology in Discourses. London: Taylor & Francis.  Gregor, I. (1970). Criticism as an Individual Activity: The Approach Through Reading. In M. Bradbury & D.  Palmer (Eds.), Stratford‐Upon‐Avon Studies: 12 Contemporary Criticism (pp. 195‐214). London: Edward  Arnold.  Hamilton, M. (2005, 8 November 2005). Living History‐ Adult Literacy and the Politics of Change. Paper  presented at the NRDC Autumn Lecture Series Institute of Education, University of London.  Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with Words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.  Hogan, M. J. (2004). Review of "Assessing Reading" (2000) by J. Charles Alderson. Reading in a Foreign  Language, 16(1).  Iser, W. (1972). The reading process: a phenomenological approach. In D. Lodge (Ed.), Modern Criticism and  Theory (pp. 211‐228). London: Longman.  Iser, W. (1978). The Act of Reading: A theory of aesthetic response. London: Routledge.  Ivanic, R., Appleby, Y., Hodge, R., Tusting, K., & Barton, D. (2006). Linking Learning and everyday life: a social  perspective on adult language, literacy and numeracy classes. London: NRDC.  Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.  McShane, S. (2005). Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers. Washington  DC: National Institute for Literacy, The Partnership for Reading and National Center for Family Literacy.  Noordman, L. G. M., & Vonk, W. (1992). Readers' Knowledge and Control of Inferences in Reading. In A.  Garnham & J. Oakhill (Eds.), Discourse Representation and Text Processing (pp. 373‐391). Hove: Lawrence  Erlbaum Associates.  Papen, U. (2005). Adult Literacy as Social Practice. London: Routledge.  Pennac, D. (2006). The Rights of the Reader (S. Adams, Trans.). London: Walker Books.  Perry, M. (1979). Literary Dynamics: How the Order of a Text Creates Its Meanings [with an analysis of  Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily". Poetics Today, 1(1/2), 35‐361.  Rayner, K., & Pollatsek, A. (1989). The Psychology of Reading. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall.  Rigg, P. (1991). Whole language in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 25(3), 521‐542.  Rimmon‐Kenan, S. (1989). Narrative Fiction: contemporary poetics. London: Routledge.  Schraw, G., & Bruning, R. (1996). Readers' Implicit Models of Reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 31(3),  290‐305.  Strauss, A. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedure and Techniques.  London: Sage.  Street, B. V. (1984). Literacy in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Stuart, M. (2002). Using the dual‐route cascade model as a framework for considering reading development.  In R. Stainthorp & P. Tomlinson (Eds.), Learning and Teaching Reading. London: The British Psychological  Society.  Stuart, M. (2005a, 11 October 2005). Learning to Read. Paper presented at the Professorial Lecture Series,  Institute of Education, University of London.  Stuart, M. (2005b). Phonemic analysis and reading development: some current issues. Journal of Research in  Reading, 28(1), 39‐49.  Todorov, T. (1996). Reading as Construction. In M. J. Hoffman & P. D. Murphy (Eds.), Essentials of the Theory  of Fiction (pp. 258‐272). Durham: Duke University Press.  Tomlinson, P. (1989). Having it Both Ways: Hierarchical Focusing as Research Interview Method. British  Educational Research Journal, 15(2), 155‐176.           

 

 

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DRAFT DOCUMENT: NOT FOR CITATION WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHORS  Notes on assessment and effective teaching and learning with adults Jude Gawn and Jay Derrick, March 2009 Summative assessment: Assessment for certification and/or progression Most people have a ‘common sense’ idea that assessment is about exams: indeed, many adult literacy learners may be afraid of assessment because they associate it with previous experience of failure. They think of tests, or perhaps of written assignments, and of getting grades or marks. They may have experienced their grades or marks being compared publicly with other learners, and may have felt humiliated if they didn’t do well. Assessment does have an important role in providing public recognition of achievement; it provides evidence learners can take to future employers, for example. Many adult literacy learners, while perhaps nervous of failure, are still very keen to gain certificates and qualifications: to help directly with employment, or just to prove to themselves that they can be successful in education. Many are strongly motivated by goals such as ‘getting a GCSE’. Achieving a certificate for the first time, at any level, can be a powerful factor in improving learners’ confidence and motivating them to persist and continue improving their literacy. This kind of assessment, or ‘summative’ assessment, often comes at the end of a programme of learning, for example in a test, but it can also take place during courses. Some courses consist of the steady collection by the learner and the tutor of evidence demonstrating the learner’s performance against a set of assessment criteria, which the learner builds into a final portfolio. In this case assessment for certification is taking place throughout the course. The evaluation of this evidence, or marking of tests, is usually carried out either independently, or by the tutor whose marking is then moderated internally and externally. The learner’s own view about how they have done and what they have learnt, is rarely taken into account. Summative assessment is sometimes referred to as assessment of learning. In England and Wales, though not in many other countries, the results of this kind of assessment are numerically aggregated and used to determine funding, and to compare the performance of tutors, provider organisations, regions, and even countries. Formative assessment: Assessment for planning teaching and learning Alongside its important role in certificating learning, assessment has other critical roles. In its second key role, assessment is the main means by which tutors find out, and keep revising, what needs to be taught. Assessment for planning, teaching and learning starts at the very beginning of the course, or even before it, in processes known as screening, initial assessment and diagnostic assessment. Their purpose is to find out about the learners’ abilities and dispositions at the outset. Any information about new adult literacies learners can be crucial in helping them to learn successfully. Assessment here includes not just finding out about how fluent they are with reading, numeracy, spelling or punctuation, but also, for example, about what their schooling was like and how they feel about it. Assessment for planning, teaching and learning, starting right at the beginning of a course, needs to continue all the way through, so that the tutor can constantly update her/his information about the development of learners. S/he needs to adjust the teaching plan accordingly, both on a moment by moment basis, and from lesson to lesson. This type of assessment aims to improve teaching and learning by continually increasing the accuracy of its focus. It concerns not just what happens within the course, but events and episodes in the learners’ lives outside the course and the influence they may have on learning. The key activity is dialogue between the learner and tutor. The tutor’s role is to enable, stimulate and develop this dialogue through such means as constructive and open-ended questioning, and through generating thinking and reflection about learning. Formative assessment: Assessment for the development of judgement, self-evaluation, and sustainable learning The third type of assessment activity adds a critical dimension to learning, as something which, when practised by learners themselves, adds to the acquisition of knowledge and skills the development and exercise of judgement: judgement of performance, appropriateness, accuracy, and authenticity. It is through these activities that learners develop their capacity to make critical, aesthetic and practical judgements of the quality and effectiveness of their literacy activities. If they are not encouraged to practice these skills as part

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  of their literacy learning, the skills they learn will be de-contextualised and more difficult to transfer between different situations. Learners will be less aware of the importance of using differentiated literacy practices in different social settings, and less able in relatively unfamiliar situations to gauge how to interact successfully in their use of language. The focus of this type of assessment is on successful performance, which is usually largely a matter of personal judgement or opinion. We can compare this to the kind of judgements people make when they are talking about the quality of performance of a play or a music concert. These mostly reflect the personal preferences of those involved. People may justify their opinions by referring to various norms or rules, but these too may be rejected by others in favour of another set of norms and different rules. It follows that it is vital that literacies learners are given support in developing their fluency and confidence in a wide range reading, and using language in a wide range of situations and contexts, and of developing the ability to monitor and evaluate their own language use: This fluency can only be developed through practice. Literacy classes need to provide learners with relevant conceptual tools, and practical collaborative experience, of making, exchanging and discussing judgements of the quality of literacy work. This might be of pieces of writing, verbal presentations, or readings of texts. The authors might be themselves, their peers or others. There are examples of activities that promote critical reading in chap x. Language use is not simply a matter of speaking, reading or writing correctly – if it were, the kind of collaborative evaluative activity described above might be less important for learners. The use of language is, in practice, a matter of interaction, negotiation, intuition, and empathy, and includes such forms as irony, dishonesty, and dramatic impersonation, as well as openness and authenticity. Literacy learners need support in developing fluency, confidence and discrimination in their use of language in all its forms. Otherwise, although they may gain useful qualifications, they may not have improved their literacy in practice. This type of assessment, focuses on ‘sustainable learning’ oriented towards the future (Boud 2000). It implies that the tutor’s role is more like a facilitator or mentor. The second and third key types of formative assessment distinguished above, both distinct from the role of assessment in certification and accountability, are often called assessment for learning (ARG 2002). Each calls for a high level of rich, interactive, two-way communication between learners themselves, and between learners and tutors. While there are important differences between assessment of learning and assessment for learning, both are important for adult literacy learners. There is an important link between both formative and summative assessment, and the motivation and persistence of learners (Ward and Edwards 2002). Tutors need to have a clear understanding of the differences between them, and use this to inform their lesson plans and schemes of work. Assessment is often looked at as a process starting with initial and diagnostic assessment, moving through ‘on-course’ assessment, and finishing with summative assessment. Although this sounds like common sense, it can lead to confusion about the different purposes of assessment mentioned above. For example ‘formative assessment’ is sometimes confused with ‘continuous assessment’, in which assessment for certification and/or progression is spread throughout the learning programme rather than just at the end. The initial assessment process can become a ‘box ticking’ exercise to determine which group the learner will join. Effective formative assessment involves more interactive and developmental processes, in which tutors use their experience and judgement to decide the most effective ways to find out more about the learner’s strengths, weaknesses, motivation, fears, learning preferences, understandings and aspirations. Relaxed conversations with learners, or looking at short pieces of ‘free’ writing, can often be the most effective ways of assessing learners’ needs. Recent research has found that shifting the focus to formative assessment developed broader and deeper learning, and markedly improved achievement, and the longer term capacity and motivation of learners. Importantly for adult literacies tutors, these results apply more strongly to learners with less confidence and success in previous education and training.

Tutors need to keep in mind at all times the different roles of assessment in learning, and the three different types of assessment. The essential ingredient of effective learning is continuous interaction and dialogue with learners about the processes of learning. There are three practical benefits of this approach: firstly it

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  recognises the status of the learners as adults and enables them to use and express their accumulated experience and knowledge for the benefit of everyone in the group. Secondly, it is through extended dialogue with the learners themselves that the tutor can best discover how to differentiate the learning programme so that the diversity of needs and purposes amongst learners can be addressed. Thirdly, dialogue enables tutors to orient the learning programme towards the particular everyday tasks each group of learners is most concerned with. This can lead to increasing the learners’ understanding of their own learning processes, help them connect their learning with what they do outside the classroom, and build their capacity for selfassessment and independence. Dialogue and Discussion Alexander (2004), writing about the education of children, argues that learning is a process in which tutors and learners are interactive participants: both learner engagement and tutor interventions are essential. Alexander characterises dialogic teaching as collective, reciprocal, supportive, cumulative and purposeful. In dialogic teaching, knowledge is open to discussion rather than given and closed. This is a view also espoused by Freire who wrote of liberating education as consisting of shared acts of cognition. Through problem-posing and dialogue between learners and tutors, the world is recreated and unequal power relations addressed. Teaching and learning through dialogue sees reality, and the development of knowledge and understanding, as a process, rather than as a static entity. This dialogue is important not just between tutor and learners but between learners themselves. It assumes that responsibility for the development of learners’ knowledge, skills and understanding does not rest only with the tutor. In a class based on dialogue, learning is structured as far as possible around discussion between tutors and learners and between learners. Talk is open-ended and exploratory, rather than a series of routine exchanges and simple encouragement. It is organised so as to encourage reflection, supporting learners to develop their confidence and autonomy, and to see themselves as planners, and architects of their own learning. Learning itself and how that is evaluated are explicit topics for regular discussion focusing on how people learn, remember and approach difficult areas. Questioning Research on effective formative assessment in schools. (eg Black et al 2003) has demonstrated that effective questioning is a key formative strategy. Asking the right questions can help learners to explore ideas and solve problems rather than just coming up with ‘right’ answers, and also models for learners how to formulate questions for themselves. It is always useful to develop a repertoire of questioning techniques. Hodgen and William (2006) recommend that tutors share, talk about and reflect upon questioning with other tutors. In research with tutors they found this ‘to be a very valuable way of increasing their repertoire of questions and their ability to use these questions in the classroom’. It is important for tutors to avoid leading questions, rhetorical questions and closed questions as these all discourage learners from reflection or from revealing a lack of understanding. Questions that require learners to find their own words are much more useful: What do you think the next three words going to be? What do you think happens next in this story? How does this writing make you feel? What parts did you find hard?

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  Adult literacies tutors who use these sorts of questions, will discover more about their learners’ knowledge of how language works and gain a greater understanding of how they are approaching the literacy tasks. In addition, expressing their ideas and listening to others will provide learners with opportunities to develop those skills at the same time. This is another example of learning and assessment being effectively the same thing. Questioning is a complex process and there are no easy answers about how best to respond ‘in the moment’ to learners’ ideas and questions. Case study: using formative questioning with a group of E2/E3 Literacy learners

The tutor is helping the learners prepare for the tests they will be taking at the end of the term. Most of them have already completed a practice paper, which involved planning, drafting, editing and re-writing a short informal text.

T: Ok, last week we did a practice paper for the test you’re going to do in a few weeks’ time. How did you feel that went? S1: I didn’t think I did very well. S2: It was hard, but I think I did OK S3: It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. S4: No, I felt nervous, I didn’t really like it. T: Well, what I’m going to do is give you back the papers I have marked and I’d like you to go through them and decide what you’ve done well on and where you need to do some more work. I suggest you work in pairs. D, can you move and sit with P, how about if you two (S and K) work together and J, you join them – I know you haven’t done the practice test, but have a look and see if you’d like to try doing it. (Tutor hands back the practice tests and goes to sit with two of the pairs.)

T: Well, how do you think you did now you’ve had a look at the paper? S1: Well, I still think I didn’t do very well, but I can see I did alright on this (the planning). T: You did do well – and did it help you to think about what you wanted to write? S3: It’s difficult to know what to write – the spidergram helped me. T: How did the spidergram help you? S3: Well, it made me think about the different points I wanted to make and then I used a new paragraph for each point. S4: I didn’t really write much on the spidergram. T: K (S3) – can you explain to P (S4) how you used the spidergram, what you did? S3 showing her spidergram to S4: See this is what I did, I put something at the end of each leg – the place, the journey, the weather, the food, then it made me think about starting a new paragraph for each idea.

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  T: Do you think that would help P? S4: Yes I think that’s a good idea because I didn’t have any new paragraphs, it’s just one. S5: It’s important to read what it says you have to do – it’s worth taking the time to read it carefully. Because it tells you at the top of each page what you have to do. T: What do you think P? S4: Yes, I didn’t really read it, I just started writing, I didn’t really plan what I was going to write. S1: I did the planning, that was OK, but then it was changing what I’d written, I didn’t know what to change. T: Well, what did you want to change? What are you looking for? S1: Spelling – the right spelling S3: And if it’s in the past, what is it – the right tense? S5: It’s hard not having any lines on the paper, my writing went down like this, look… T turning to the group: Has anybody else had that difficulty, of not being able to write on a straight line? (Nods and assent) Anybody got any suggestions what we can do about that in future? S6: How about if we use one of those sheets like you get with letter paper, with thick lines on, and put it underneath, that might help. T: Great – that’s a brilliant idea. I’ll make sure I get some for next time. Building in self and peer assessment activities In assessment for learning, developing self and peer assessment and activities are central elements of all learning situations. This requires the adult literacy tutor to construct a safe learning environment where learners feel comfortable with each other and confident about taking some risks. This can be difficult with learners who may have received their earlier education in traditional settings where learners are expected to be passive and to see the tutor’s judgement as paramount. It can take time for some learners to feel comfortable with the processes of self- and peer-assessment, but with careful preparation learners at any level can benefit from being involved in these activities. One of the case studies below suggests how this can be organised. Activities that encourage self- and peer-assessment include: • • • •

Paired reading Paired or small group discussions on ideas for writing Exchanging drafts for comments Setting each other spelling tests

Learners need to be supported to understand the processes of assessment and the criteria on which it is based. For many learners the language of assessment can seem highly technical and inaccessible. If tutors encourage pairs and groups of learners to discuss and agree upon their own criteria for assessment, and then apply them to their own work and that of others, this can help them understand and put into perspective the status of the official criteria. This promotes an essential part of learning - to be able to evaluate their own performance in real-life situations without the support of the tutor.

     

 

 

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Case study: self- and peer-assessment with entry level learners Ruth is a tutor working with a group of 8 E1 and E2 literacy learners in an inner-city further education college. There are varying degrees of confidence in the group, some of them relaxed about participating in group activities, and others more reluctant to speak to the group as a whole, and tending to speak only to the tutor in one to one situations, or when asked a direct question. The curriculum focus for the class is mostly on the speaking and listening sections of the standards. Ruth wants to incorporate simple self- and peer-assessment activities into learning activities built around making short spoken presentations to the group. In particular, she wants the learners to engage in evaluation of their own and each others’ presentations. These activities are planned to take place over several sessions, so that learners get used to the ideas, words, and to working in a group. She is careful to ensure that each member of the group is involved in the activities, though this is difficult at times. If someone resists speaking to the whole group, she gets them to work with their neighbour. She continually reminds the learners of the point of the whole exercise: to talk about what makes a good public speaking performance, so as to support their own performances for assessment purposes, and to improve their confidence. She also emphasises that the activity is meant to be constructive and supportive, and based on mutual trust and respect between the learners. She starts with an activity based around discussion of what makes a good public speaker, using examples from television such as politicians, TV presenters, and sports celebrities. The group produces a list of quality criteria, and Ruth produces a series of learning activities based on the words involved. These include such simple ideas as speaking loudly enough to be heard, speaking clearly, making it enjoyable for the listeners, interesting content, and correct use of English. She spends significant amounts of time on this activity. At times it is a struggle – one or two of the learners are not used to participating in learning activities in this way. But even if the process doesn’t go perfectly at all times, overall it does help the less confident learners to participate more confidently, which Ruth sees as a crucial learning objective. “Presenting, discussing or even implementing imperfect strategies can be of great value as it forces the learners to identify the criteria by which to plan and judge future assessments. How often does a teaching strategy work absolutely perfectly?” The planning and preparation of the learners’ presentations is another stage of this extended process. Ruth gives them simple templates to ‘scaffold’ their work, and allows sufficient time for revisions and reworking. Some work on individual presentations, and others do them in pairs. The learners’ actual presentations are followed by the self- and peer-assessment stage. This starts with group discussion, followed by individual learners making their personal assessments. The tutor organises simple record sheets on which learners assess their own performance, and that of each of their peers, against the criteria already agreed by the group. They use a very simple classification system such as ‘traffic lights’: the point is not the actual results as much as the practical learning fostered by the process. She then adds her own assessments. The differences between these three distinct assessments are then discussed. Most learners find that they have assessed themselves at a lower level than their peers’ assessments of them. Ruth’s conclusions are that:

“The learner input appears to lead to increased motivation. It’s easy when teaching low-level groups to forget that they are sophisticated thinking people. The focus on trust and respect worked: at the beginning of the year some of them wouldn’t listen to each other, but now they are all happily doing self- and peer-assessment. It doesn’t all work perfectly every time, but I now make this kind of activity a central element of my teaching strategy. The fact that they are ‘low level’ learners only means that my preparation has to be more careful, not that they can’t do it.”

     

 

 

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Feedback and marking   Action without feedback is completely unproductive for the learner   (Laurillard 1997, p61)  Oral and written feedback, is a key part of the interactive dialogue that goes on all the time between tutor  and learners, and a central element of the processes of teaching and learning.  Tutors need to know as  much as possible about their learners’ previous experiences of education and assessment, about their  perceptions of their own strengths and weaknesses, which specific literacy tasks and situations are  important to them, and most importantly of all, about how they think they learn best.   

Tutors will always give informal feedback, and more formal feedback (widely described as ‘marking’) of  learners’ work, is now a more common feature of adult literacies teaching, even in courses consisting of just  one session per week.  Formal feedback clearly overlaps with formal record‐keeping requirements, and thus  potentially can embody both formative and summative assessment purposes at the same time.  It is  important not to let record‐keeping become the dominant reason for carrying it out, for if so, the formative  potential of feedback and marking may be diminished.  As with all such interactions, the purpose is two‐way:  the tutor aims to give the learner information about the progress they have made and practical advice about  what to do next, and to listen to the learner’s responses, to check their understanding and motivation, and  to monitor any changes in their purposes and aspirations.  Research shows that effective feedback:  • • • • • • •

is given regularly and as soon as possible  gives clear reasons for the learners success or failure  gives factual descriptions of the performance of the learner, such as ‘you have used linking words to  make your story read better’ rather than non specific comments such as ‘good’  offers constructive and practical guidance about how to improve  is given privately (at least at first)   avoids the tutor correcting the work of the learner  agrees what should be done next with the learner 

Guidelines about feedback in general apply equally to marking learners’ written work.  Learners tend to  value comments which are practical, descriptive and constructive rather than opinionated: ‘you have used  apostrophes correctly except in this one case – isn’t this a plural?’, rather than ‘excellent use of apostrophes  for the most part’.   Two ideas for reinforcing constructive approaches to formal feedback are firstly to treat the feedback as if it  is a brief research report on a study of learning carried out jointly with the learner, and secondly, particularly  in the context of a writing assignment, to see feedback as a comment on an artistic performance, in which  issues of ‘correctness’ need to be balanced with the expression of an authentic voice.  Taking a research  perspective should ensure that feedback is based firmly on the evidence of the learners’ work and offers  constructive ways forward.  It should also take account of the views of the learner, who should be seen as a  fellow researcher in this context.      Gardener (1985) offers detailed advice on the marking of written work:       

 

 

89 

Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  “Marking clearly needs to be related to past and future teaching.  Even with marking for correctness, we  respond differently to persistent errors on points we think the writer is aware of, ambitious new errors, or  confusions that grow from part‐learning or misapplying hard won learning.  Most of us surely mark  selectively, with an eye to how much the writer can act on.  We also need to use a code the learner can read.   If we underline a spelling mistake, what do we expect to happen?  If we don’t mark something, is it  necessarily right?  If we write ‘tenses’ in the margin, is it related to past discussions and proposals for work?   Do we want to code differently our marking of ‘exercise’ work and of free writing, where communication is  the main aim?  Does the learner feel ‘Good’ has a known value, or no value?  Are our responsive comments  readable (and I mean handwriting as well as language) and stimulating?  Do we want to suggest a grade of  any kind, even related to the writer’s own previous work?  If we don’t comment, is this read as rejection?  We  won’t know any of this unless we make marking a running topic of discussion with learners” (Gardener 1985,  section B2, 7) 

     

 

 

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NOTES ON THE NIFL WEBCAST BY JAY DERRICK  ( http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/assesspractice/webcast0928.html )   The powerpoint slideshow gives a very clear and accessible overview of this webcast.    The panel asserts that research suggests there are four basic components of reading, and that ALL of  them are important: Alphabetics (made up of Phonemic Awareness and Word Analysis), Fluency,  Vocabulary, and Comprehension. ‘Taking away any one of these strands can lead to problems with  reading.’       The first two are ‘print‐based’ and the last two ‘meaning‐based’. Skilled reading consists of fluent  execution and co‐ordination of text‐recognition and word comprehension.    At different stages of the learning process, learners may need to focus on different aspects of  reading.  Print‐based skills tend to come before meaning‐based skills.    Assessing an adult’s reading skills is complicated, not a straightforward business.  Ideally all the  components of reading need to be assessed, producing a profile across all the components.    Research suggests that beginning readers need to be taught phonemic awareness and word  recognition skills: they are not likely to pick these up as they go along, though as their reading  develops, so will their phonemic awareness, so the need to teach it is less pronounced over time.    One of the panel members then talks about various kinds of assessment tool used in the US.  In  America standardised testing is extremely common in education, because in many states it is  compulsory, but is much less used in Britain. We tend to use approaches which they refer to as  ‘alternative’ assessments. American practitioners do use ‘alternative’ approaches, but they often  have to use them alongside standardised tests due to the regulations they are working under. The  kind of assessment profile the panel is talking about can be produced in principle by using any  assessment tool or system.    The panel mention a number of resources to help with various aspects of assessment: many of them  can be found at the NIFL ASRP website http://www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles/. The panel give many  examples of assessment in practice, and these can also all be found in the webcast transcript. They  argue that for beginning readers developing a programme is more straightforward than for  ‘intermediate readers’ because for beginners you are more justified in ‘teaching everything’, ie in  using a pre‐developed course for beginners. For intermediate readers you need to pay attention to  the diagnostic assessment, and focus on the areas in which they are weakest.    The panel then goes on to give examples of the way a curriculum can be developed based on specific  weaknesses revealed through assessment.   

     

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack  They then turn to reading comprehension, and the ways in which this can be developed and  improved.  Assessment of this is more difficult than for various aspects of decoding, because  comprehension is strongly helped by previous knowledge of the subject in the text:    ‘A skilled, fluent reader who knows a lot about American history, for instance, will have an easier  time understanding a passage about the Civil War than a reader who does not bring such  background knowledge to the reading.’    There’s information about the various assessment tools for comprehension used in the US, which  may be skated over quickly, but the slides give very useful advice for teachers to think about when  assessing comprehension, focusing particularly on ‘Strategy Instruction’: giving learners ideas for  what do to if they are having trouble understanding a text, ‘teaching learning tools’.    These include: coding the text (marking it with comments or signs indicating important points or  ideas not fully understood), thinking aloud while reading, and stopping periodically and restating  what is going on in the text in the reader’s own words.    The webcast ends with questions on a number of relevant topics.    I think that even for confident and experienced teachers, viewing the webcast, or reading the  transcript in conjunction with the powerpoint slide show, would be a useful and stimulating thing to  do.  It’s very American, but after all, American literacy teachers are doing the same job as we are.   I’m uncomfortable with some of its emphases, but overall I think it’s a very useful overview, and  contains links to some excellent resources.                                               

 

 

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Learning Connections PPS Tutor Pack 

Problem‐based development process for practitioner action research   

Address these questions in relation to the teaching and learning of reading:   

Step 1                                                                                • What is going well at present and what do you anticipate will go well in the future?     

Step 2                                                                                • What is not going well at present? What problems have you encountered?  In light of the above:  • What developments in the learners do you wish to bring about in relation to reading? (This might be  in relation to learner attitude, students taking more responsibility, increased confidence, greater  accuracy, better comprehension skills, more critical reading skills, developing sight vocabulary etc.   You might be thinking of some of your learners, or even just one, rather than all of them.)     

Step 3                                                                                Taking into account your answers to the previous questions, write down one or more practical  problem(s)/issue(s) that face you in your practice, using questions of the kind:   • ‘How can I …?’     

Step 4                                                                                Discuss in your groups the innovations or strategies that you might use to address the problems/issues that  you have formulated.  Clarify the practicalities of the chosen strategies/innovations, what  resources/materials you need and how they should ideally work in practice.  Different teachers may take  different strategies, or a small group may agree to focus on one strategy, eg paired reading or specific  phonic approaches.     Display the flip charts and groups to circulate, add suggestions/comments as appropriate.       

Step 5                                                                               Each tutor to agree on one or two innovation(s)/strategy(ies) to adopt and try out in practice, as their  contribution to this programme.  These should be small‐scale and focused.  Don’t try to be over‐ambitious!      Step 6                                                                               Each participant completes a plan for classroom innovations as part of this programme   • Statement of selected problem:  • Statement of selected innovation/strategy:   • How will you put this into practice?  • State whether you anticipate particular areas of difficulty.  • What resources will you need?   • How will you evaluate your chosen innovation?                 

 

 

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Classroom Innovations Plan   

Name: 

Group: 

Statement of identified problem/issue      Statement of selected strategy/innovation      How am I going to implement this in practice?      Are there particular areas of difficulty that could be anticipated?      How might I address these?      What resources will I need?             

 

 

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Classroom Investigation: Report    

Name: 

Group: 

Statement of identified problem/issue    Statement of selected strategy/innovation    What did I do in practice?    What happened?     How do I interpret what happened during my investigation?  Has it helped towards   dealing with the original problem or issue?  Has it had an impact on learners?    Have I learned anything which might help other teachers of reading, either  positive or negative?    Do I still have still questions left unanswered?      Has my investigation suggested other ideas for classroom research in the future?               

 

 

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The Rights of the Reader   

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.   7. 8. 9. 10.  

The right not to read.  The right to skip.  The right not to finish a book.  The right to read it again.  The right to read anything.  The right to mistake a book for real  life.  The right to read anywhere.  The right to dip in.  The right to read out loud.  The right to be quiet. 

 

 

     

 

 

96 

1/17/09


 What
is
reading?


Sam
Duncan
 Ins0tute
of
Educa0on
 &
City
and
Islington
College,
London


Reading
and
reci0ng
religious
texts
 Adults
reading
to
children
or
each
other
   Reading
primers
(primarily
religious
un0l
the
19th
 Century)
   Horn
books
   Songs/rhymes
  

 What
are
we
doing
when
we


read?


 

 

1. 

2.  3.  4. 

Brooks
G.
&
Pugh
A.
K.
(Eds.),
Studies
in
the
History
of
 Reading.
Reading:
University
of
Reading
School
of
 Educa0on.
   Huey,
E.
B.
(1968).
The
Psychology
and
Pedagogy
of
 Reading.
Cambridge,
MA:
The
M.I.T.
Press.
   Manguel,
A.
(1996).
A
History
of
Reading.
New
York
NY:
 Viking.
   Pugh,
A.
K.
(1978).
Silent
Reading:
an
introduc9on
to
its
 study
and
teaching.
London:
Heinemann.
  

School/church
teaching
of
reading
to
children
and
 adults:
 Alphabet
methods
(Ancient
Greeks
&
Romans‐
 1900ish)
 Word
methods
(at
least
18thC
onwards)
 Phonic
methods
(at
least
18thC
onwards)
 ‘The
silent
reading
movement’/‘ini0al’
silent
reading
 (1910
onwards?)


Word
based
(‘bobom
up’)
vs
text
based
 (‘top
down’)
 Word
based/’bobom
up’:
 Whole
word
recogni0on

 2.  Phonic
approaches
 1. 

1


1/17/09


Text
based/’top
down’:
  ‘Whole
language’
approach
  Language
experience


Have
a
look
at
these
case
studies
and
label
 them:
   Language
experience
   Whole
language/top‐down
approach
   Whole
word
recogni0on
approach
   A
phonic
approach



Some
key
terms:
   Phoneme
   Grapheme(s)
   Phonemic
awareness
   Phonics
instruc0on
   Alphabe0cs


Going
through
phoneme‐
grapheme
correspondences
 in
a
par9cular,
pre‐planned
order
   For
each,
developing
students’
abili0es
to
produce
 each
phoneme,
recognise
them
spoken
words,
 recognise
the
corresponding
graphemes
in
wriben
 words
and
use
this
knowledge
to
read

and
write
 words.
  

1.
   Analy0c
   Synthe0c
 2.
   Systema0c
(working
through
phonemes
in
a
par0cular
 order)
   Non‐systema0c/
‘as
and
when’


Going
through
the
lebers
of
the
alphabet
and
their
 names
and
matching
capital
and
lowercase
lebers
   Going
through
the
consonants‐
five
at
a
0me,
star0ng
 with
the
most
regular
(for
example:
t,
d,
r,
m,
n)
   Going
through
the
five
vowels,
star0ng
with
the
short
 vowel
sounds.
   Going

through
the
diagraphs
(th,
sh,
ch)
   Going
through
the
long
vowel
sounds,
one
spelling
at
a
 0me
   Going
through
consonant
blends
  

2


1/17/09


Case
study:
Sam
Duncan
 Highligh0ng
phoneme‐grapheme
correspondences
as
 oeen
as
possible
in
the
words
which
come
up
in
our
 reading
and
wri0ng.
   Star0ng
from
a
focus
on
one
word
and
moving
on
to
 other
words
with
the
same
phoneme‐grapheme
 paberns.

  

We
were
reading
a
story
about
a
footballer
and
were
talking
 about
the
word
ball.
 We
said
the
word
a
few
0mes
and
tried
to
no0ce
the
 different
sounds
(phonemes)
in
the
word:
 /b/
/ɔ:/
/l/
 I
made
each
phoneme
and
the
students
pointed
to
the
leber
 or
lebers
in
the
word
that
represent
that
phoneme.

 I
wrote
these
words
on
the
board:
tall,
all,
small,
call,
hall,
 wall,
and
we
did
the
same
thing.
 We
made
flash
cards
with
these
words
on
them
and
 prac0ced
reading
them
in
pairs.
 We
took
turns
choosing
one
word,
reading
it
aloud,
while
the
 others
wrote
it
down.


  The
‘deep
orthography’
of
English
   Accent??
Is
this
a
challenge?
   Specialist
terms‐
when
are
these
useful


to
use
when
is
it
beber
not
to
use
 them?


3


1/17/09


Brooks,
G.,
Burton,
M.,
Cole,
P.,
&
Szczerbinski,
M.
 (2007).
Effec9ve
Teaching
and
Learning:
Reading.
 London:
NRDC.
   Burton,
M
et
al
(2008).
Improving
Reading:
Phonics
 and
Fluency.
London:
NRDC
(see
www.nrdc.org.uk)
   McShane,
S
(2005)
Applying
Research
in
Reading
 Instruc0on
for
Adults:
First
Steps
for
Teachers.
 Washington
DC:
Na0onal
Ins0tute
for
Literacy.
 hbp://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/ publica0ons/html/mcshane
  

21
individual
interviews
with
adult
literacy
learners
at
a
 range
of
‘levels’
 Four
focus
groups:
two
beginner
and
two
more
advanced/ confident
 Aimed
to
find
out:
   What
reading
is
and
involves
according
to
these
learners
   How
they
feel
we
learn
to
read
and
should
teach
 reading


Decoding
 What
we
read
   Ways
to
get
beber
at
reading
   Why
we
read
   External
factors
related
to
reading
   Internal
factors
related
to
reading


1. 

   

2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7. 

Learners
lacked
and
wanted
specific
vocabulary
to
 talk
about
decoding
words
 How
you
read
isn’t
the
same
as
how
you
learn
to
read
 Mo0va0on
makes
all
the
difference
 Reading
aloud
is
both
a
type
of
reading
and
a
way
to
 get
beber
at
reading
 Reading
and
0me
 Reading
is
a
social
prac0ce
 Reading
is
an
asocial
prac0ce


Post‐session
tasks:
 Follow
up
one
(or
more!)
of
the
suggested
readings
 2.  Try
out
an
approach
you
haven’t
tried
before
 3.  Interview
one
learner
and
turn
this
interview
into
an
 idea
for
teaching
reading‐
and
try
it
 1. 

4


Working in mixed ability groups  Irene Schwab Institute of Education

Strategies for Differentiation Aims:  Participants will: • develop strategies for differentiation when planning for the  teaching of reading in mixed ability groups Objectives:  By the end of the session participants will be able to: • Identify a range of strategies for differentiation and apply  them to teaching reading • Use a single text to provide for a variety of activities for   teaching reading

What differences between individuals might  one find in a group? 

Differences between individuals • • • • • • • • • • •

Attention  Interest  Motivation  Learning styles  Types of intelligences  Physiological needs  Psychological needs  Speed  Maturity  World knowledge  Knowledge of and about the English language

Research on mixed ability teaching  1. Grouping by sets and streams in primary schools has  no influence on performance or achievement. 2.  It may slightly disadvantage boys from working class  families •

Sukhnandan L with Lee B (1998) Streaming, setting and grouping by ability: a  review of the literature, NFER

3. In secondary schools, those in the top set progress  better and those in lower sets progress more slowly. •

•

Wiliam D and Bartholomew H (2004) 'It's not which school but which set  you’re in that matters: the influence of ability‐grouping practices on  student progress in mathematics'. British Educational Research Journal,  30(2), 279‐294, 2004.

Differentiation needed according to: Readiness  • Students’ knowledge, understanding and skill • Influenced by cognitive proficiency, prior learning, life  experience, attitude to learning Interest • Students’ feelings about education, the topic, the skill  to be learned Learning profile • How a student learns best • Shaped by learning style, MI preference, culture, age  and gender Tomlinson (2003)

Tomlinson’s definition of differentiation  “At its most basic level, differentiating instruction  means "shaking up" what goes on in the classroom  so that students have multiple options for taking in  information, making sense of ideas, and expressing  what they learn. In other words, a differentiated  classroom provides different avenues to acquiring  content, processing or making sense of ideas, and  developing products.”

Adapted from The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, by C. Tomlinson,  1999, Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Content

Process

Product

What students need  Ways in which the  to learn content is taught

Ways of  demonstrating what  has been learned

concepts and skills

activities

outcomes

All should have  access to the same  content

Flexible grouping   according to : •Readiness •Interest •Learning profiles

Different outcomes   according to: •Readiness •Interest •Learning profiles

Content • What different ways can you suggest for  enabling access for all to the same content?

Content • Small group work – Mixed level groups + peer support (e.g. reciprocal  reading) – Similar level groups + some working independently;  teacher can target those who need most help

• • • •

Choice of texts at different levels of complexity Simplified text Reading supported by peer, teacher, tape Choice of different formats e.g leaflet, website,  poster

Process • What techniques, approaches or methods  could you use to differentiate the process of  teaching reading?

Techniques for differentiating process Variety of tasks with flexible grouping Project work (task‐based learning) Problem‐based learning  Tiered activities with varying degrees of complexity Variety of resources  Chunking into smaller parts, and providing more  structured directions for each part.  • Flexible pacing • Independent study on topics of interest

• • • • • •

Product • What different products could you use to  demonstrate the learning of reading skills?

Product 

• • • • • • • • • • •

Products should be related to real problems, concerns, and  audiences written report e.g book review oral presentation, group discussion paired feedback   a game e.g around the characters in a book event planned  picture  or poster summary of text synthesis of several texts Graphic organiser e.g spidergram, diagram, timeline Question answering or question generation

Reading as a holistic activity Australia –The Four Resources Model • • • •

Code breaking  Meaning making  Text use  Text analysis 

Luke A (1999) http://www.readingonline.org/research/lukefreebody.html

Code breaker Key question:  How do I crack this code? Literacy theory: Skills approach What learners are able to do:  decode language at  appropriate level, recognising letters, sounds, words  sentences and conventions  What teachers need to teach: • Decoding (phonemic awareness, phonics) • Whole word recognition • Morphology • Etymology 

Meaning maker Key question: What does this text mean to me? Literacy theory: Whole language approach What learners are able to do: use their knowledge of:  • the world • other texts • how language works       …to comprehend texts  What teachers need to teach: • Schema activation (using knowledge of the world, other texts,  language) • Comprehension (self‐monitoring) • Vocabulary

Text user Key question: What do I do with this text? Literacy theory : Genre approach What learners are able to do: understand how  language varies according to context,  purpose, audience and content, and apply this  knowledge What teachers need to teach:  • Modelling what we do with texts • Finding, using and responding to texts

Text analyst Key question: What does this text do to me? Literacy theory: Critical literacy approach  What learners are able to do:  analyse and challenge  the ways texts are constructed to convey particular  ideas and influence people What teachers need to teach:  • No text is neutral ‐ social and cultural contexts • Interaction between writer and reader • Understanding how texts position us • Who is included and who is excluded

• How could you plan  to use this text to  develop skills in:  • • • •

Code breaking Meaning making Text use Text analysis

Code breaker • What is dermatitis?  • Can you break it into syllables to make  it easier to read? Are there any smaller  words inside it that might help with  reading it?  • How did you work out how to read it?  Letter by letter? Sound by sound?  Break it into syllables? • Are there any other difficult words in  this poster? Can you use the same  techniques to work out how to  pronounce them?  

Code breaker •

What other words end in itis like dermititis?  What  do these words have in common? 

•

Can you think of any other words that have the  same root word as dermatitis? What do these  words have in common?

•

Dryness and redness both have the same ending.  Can you think of other words with this ending?  What do these words have in common? 

•

In the thesaurus, some other words for redness are;  blush, rosiness, ruby, glow. Why did the writer not  pick one of these words? 

•

How would flaking, scaling, swelling be written  without the ing ending? 

Meaning maker • If you saw the logo HSE what  might you guess this text was  about?  • What might you predict was in the  poster? – if you saw the heading ‘Skin checks  for dermatitis’? – if you saw the image of the hand?

• What do the pictures tell us? Why  are there 6 different images of  hands? 

Meaning maker • Does the text remind you of  something that has happened to  you or to someone else you  know?  • What did you feel as you read  the text? What made you feel  that? • What message is the author  presenting? What are the main  ideas presented?  • Did the poster raise any  questions for you? What more  would you like to know?

Text user • What is the purpose of this  text? How do you know? • Where would you find a text  like this? Who would read it?  • How can you find information  in this text?  • Why has the writer presented  the text like this?  Do you  think it works?

Text user • How is the language /layout /  images the same or different from  other similar posters you have  seen?  • If you wrote a text like this, how  would you present it?  • What will you do with this text?  What might others do with this  text?  • If you were going to put this text  on the web, what changes would  you make? 

Text analyst • What is the text trying to make you  think or believe?  • Is this text fact or opinion? How do  you know?  • How would the text be different if  it was aimed at a different group of  people (doctors? employers?  children?)  • Why do you think the author chose  these words/ pictures? 

Text analyst • Who does the text represent? (Who is  shown in the text?)  • Is there anyone not represented by  the text? (Who is not shown in the  text?)  • There are some instructions in the  text. Should you follow them? Why or  why not? What might happen if you  do (or don’t) follow them?  • Who is responsible for your health  and safety at work according to this  poster?  Is this how it should be? 

References • Tomlinson, C., (2003). Fulfilling the Promise of the  Differentiated Classroom: Strategies and Tools for  Responsive Teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for  Supervision and Curriculum Development.  • Corley, Mary Ann (2005) Differentiated Instruction:   Adjusting to the Needs of All Learners FOCUS on  BASICS Volume 7, Issue C ::: March 2005  http://www.ncsall.net/?id=736 • Perry, Deborah (2003) Differentiation‐policy and  practice Language Issues vol 15, no. 1

Other resources  • Differentiation in ESOL teaching: notes to  accompany the video (2004) ref: PLRAV1 DfES • Managing Learning ‐ Secondary ‐ Mixed  Ability ‐ Group Work (history and English  classes )15 mins  http://www.teachers.tv/video/2747 • Corley, Mary Ann (2005) List of further online  resources http://www.ncsall.net/?id=736

Effective teaching and learning • Theories of reading • The most important factors in effective teaching and learning: evidence from research • Group discussions on three key factors

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Theories of reading • Cognitive • Social • Integrated/ ‘balanced’

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Cognitive perspective • ‘You can’t read unless you look at the print and recognise the letters and then recognise the words’ • Bottom-up: from letters, to words, to sentences, to whole text, aiming for this linear process to be largely automatic and instantaneous • Strong focus on decoding skills and phonics, comprehension follows when decoding is automatic PPS Teaching Reading to Adults Mar 09

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Social perspective • ‘Reading is comprehending from print. Decoding is not reading. Only comprehension is reading’ • Top-down: starts with reader’s existing knowledge of the text, which is used to predict what it is saying. Reading is a process of confirming or refining this predictive process. This starts with an overview of the text, and only scrutinises individual words and letters if necessary to confirm meaning • Reading seen as a cyclical, iterative process, not linear • Strong focus on using texts that are meaningful and authentic for learners PPS Teaching Reading to Adults Mar 09

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Integrated model • ‘Learners need both to focus on meaning with real, authentic texts and to work on decoding skills’. • Reading as a complex interaction between the writer of the text and the reader • Implies a balanced approach needed to the teaching of reading, drawing on both theoretical models PPS Teaching Reading to Adults Mar 09

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Implications for teaching • Cognitive model: skills-driven approaches • Social model: comprehension-driven approaches • Integrated model: a balance of both skills and comprehension • It is important that tutors identify their own position in relation to these theories, so that they are conscious and transparent about their practice, and so that they can make sense of research findings PPS Teaching Reading to Adults Mar 09

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Effective teaching and learning: the most important factors (Hattie, Black and Wiliam) • Expert teachers set challenging goals, • Expert teachers have a very deep understanding of teaching and learning, • Expert teachers provide constant constructive feedback • Expert teachers see their students’ work as a reflection of their teaching, not of the students’ circumstances • Expert teachers are flexible, spontaneous, and have plans but are willing to change them if necessary

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Some lower-scoring factors in effective teaching and learning: Hattie LOW-SCORING Factors • • • • •

Programmed instruction Class size Making weak students repeat a year Problem based learning in which students teach themselves Ability grouping

MIDDLE-SCORING Factors • • •

Individualised instruction Home environment Homework

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Underlying message

What the teacher does is more important than any other factor in effective teaching and learning

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Emerging messages for teachers 1 (Looney/OECD/IFA) * Learning should be structured as dialogue between learners themselves and their teachers * Teachers need to employ the very highest level of communication skills at all times * Teachers need to have high expectations of students * Feedback and marking are critical aspects of effective practice * Questioning that aims to develop thinking and conceptual understanding is more useful than questioning for accuracy and correctness PPS Teaching Reading to Adults Mar 09

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Emerging messages for teachers 2 * Teachers need to develop and sustain an atmosphere and culture conducive to learning, in which learners feel they can take risks and face challenges * Peer assessment and self-assessment activities are essential elements of sustainable learning at any level of study * Activities which focus on developing learner autonomy are effective in improving motivation and confidence, and support citizenship * Classroom assessment activities provide teachers with evidence for planning and differentiation

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Dialogue in teaching reading • Pressley (2002): Engaging in dialogue with their teachers helps students ask themselves critical questions that get to the essence of what they are reading • Palincsar and Brown (1984): Teachers should encourage students to question what they don’t understand, summarise the context, identify key issues, clarify,predict and infer what happens next. These habits provide students with a lifelong approach to extracting meaning from more and more sophisticated text. PPS Teaching Reading to Adults Mar 09

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Three key focuses for teachers Overarching themes: •

Dialogue between teacher and learners, and between learners

•

Improving learners’ motivation, confidence and autonomy

1. Peer-assessment and self-assessment: •

Learners practising assessment and developing judgement

•

Learners’ understanding of assessment, and the language of assessment

2. Constructive feedback and marking of work, focusing on how it can be improved 3. Effective questioning and checking that learning has taken place

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Improving feedback • Focus on the task rather than the person • Be highly focused, constructive and practical, on how the work can be improved • Give feedback as soon as possible • Relate feedback to success criteria and the learner’s goals • Feedback should reflect high expectations of the learner, and should not be patronising PPS Teaching Reading to Adults Mar 09

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Improving classroom questioning 1 •Teachers need to develop a repertoire of questioning techniques, and share ideas with colleagues to maintain and develop this repertoire •The best questions are open. They require students to think about the problem and to find their own words to answer it ·

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Improving classroom questioning 2 Examples of the best type of question: •challenging (how/ why did you do that?) •checking (how do you know…?) •uncovering thinking (can you explain this?) • offering strategies (have you thought about….?) •or re-assuring (are you happy with that?) •Sometimes a ‘devil’s advocate’ question (what you sure?)

makes

Double, leading, rhetorical, and closed questions are usually best avoided PPS Teaching Reading to Adults Mar 09

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Self- and peer-assessment 1 •

Students need to be able to use their new skills as confidently and fluently as possible when they do not have the support of the class and the teacher.

•

They need to develop the ability to perform and simultaneously to evaluate their performance.

•

They need to practice and develop their capacity to make critical, aesthetic and practical judgements of the quality and effectiveness of their developing skills and knowledge.

•

Developing these abilities often implies the need to go beyond the formal requirements of courses

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Self- and peer-assessment activities • Discussion and evaluation of assessment criteria • Developing their own assessment criteria • Evaluating their own and other students’ tasks, against different criteria of quality • Evaluating and giving feedback on ‘exemplar’ pieces of work at a range of standards • Particularly effective following collaborative group tasks

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Group task on three aspects of effective teaching •

Take one set of topic cards

•

Use them to start a discussion in your group about that aspect of effective teaching and learning, and relate it to the teaching of reading to adults: •

how would you implement it?

•

what would you need to be careful about?

•

what problems could arise?

•

how would you address these problems?

•

Write down key ideas on a flipchart

•

Repeat for the other sets of topic cards

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Useful References • • •

• • • • • • • •

Palincsar A and Brown A (1984): Reciprocal Teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction 1 pp117-175 P Black and D Wiliam 1998: Inside the Black Box, nferNelson J Hattie 1999: ‘Influences on student learning’, at http://www.education.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/fms/default/education/staff/Prof.%20John%20Hattie/ Documents/Presentations/influences/Influences_on_student_learning.pdf P Black, C Harrison, C Lee, B Marshall, D Wiliam 2002: Working inside the Black Box, nferNelson Pressley M 2002: Reading instruction that works: the case for balanced teaching. New York: Guildford B Marshall and D Wiliam 2006: English inside the Black Box, nferNelson J Hodgen and D Wiliam 2006: Mathematics inside the Black Box, nferNelson Derrick J, Gawn J, Ecclestone K 2008: ‘Evaluating the 'spirit' and 'letter' of formative assessment in the learning cultures of part-time adult literacy and numeracy classes’ Research in PostCompulsory Education 13 (2) Derrick, J. and K. Ecclestone 2008: “English-language Literature Review”, in Teaching, Learning and Assessment for Adults: Improving Foundation Skills, OECD Publishing; available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/172251338713 Looney J 2008: Teaching, Learning and Assessment for Adults: Improving Foundation Skills. Paris: OECD Improving Formative Assessment (IFA), at http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/education/staffinfo/eccleston-FAproject.html

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