appeals to me because it is about stepping out to something new, moving out of the comfort zone, letting go of the past, and releasing previously held beliefs and feelings.
These are not always easy things to do, but they are a necessary part of life. Indeed, it could be said that the very act of being born is the first of such occasions.
The ability to try new things, the willingness to take risks, the determination to get up and try again after failure and the persistence to keep going are important attributes of successful people.
In my role as teacher it was important for me to encourage the development of these traits in myself, as much as in my students. Without these abilities no learning occurs, no growth takes place.
Sometimes a gentle push (read encouragement/incentive) may need to be applied to help overcome an initial reluctance for a particular activity. This reluctance may soon be replaced by an enormous excitement, energy and future love for the activity. Other times no amount of coaxing can get an unwilling participant to budge.
It is equally possible that an activity towards which one rushes (headfirst, arms flailing, bells ringing) in due course loses its lustre to disappointment.
Below is the piece I wrote in response to Charli’s challenge. I have not revealed the activity I had in mind. I’m sure that you have experienced or witnessed several similar responses throughout your life. I’d love to know which one springs to your mind!
Please share your thoughts. I hope you enjoy this piece of flash fiction!
Hello, my name is Tiffany and I am a reader. Always have been and always will be. Reading is more than a hobby or a pleasurable activity. It is a true need in my life.
It all started early. I don’t remember learning to read. I clearly remember the day the words began to make sense to me. I was about five years old and sitting at the kitchen table with the Sunday comics. I got up to ask my mom to help me with a word and I never looked back.
From that day forward, I was unstoppable. Aided in large part by extremely supportive parents and grandparents, as well as key teachers and librarians, I became a voracious reader.
Books were my constant companion throughout my childhood. I received countless books as gifts. I haunted my public and school libraries. I would lose myself in stories, making new…
I have spent almost my entire life thinking about how to educate, and the rest of it being educated.
That is to say, just like everyone else, I began to learn about the world from the moment I was born, if not before; probably before.
From age ten I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and worked hard through school to achieve that goal.
When I completed school I was fortunate to receive a teacher’s scholarship which meant that my three years of training was provided by the state education system and, in return, I was required to teach within the system for three years. Without the scholarship that path would have been unattainable.
I remember sitting in my classroom on, what I will say was, my first day of teaching. I gathered a group of children around me, each of us with a reader in our hands, ready for a reading lesson. Suddenly I realised I didn’t have a clue what to do.
Realisation 1: Teaching reading isn’t as simple as putting book in the hands of children and telling them to read.
This was a third grade class, so I’m hoping that most of them were already able to read and we figured it out together. Round robin reading seemed to be the method of the moment.
During that first, and the following year, I put a lot of energy into sorting books into levels and children into groups to read the books at the different levels. I’m not sure what the children learned but I know I was earning my pay. I was ‘teaching’.
Realisation 2: Children learn to read at different rates.
At the beginning of my third year of teaching I was listening to children read individually, in order to group them according to reading ability, when one of the children, considered a good reader by his previous teacher, informed me proudly that he could read the book without looking; and proceeded to do so. He had memorised it! He didn’t recognise any of the words and could not read any other book.
Realisation 3: Reading is more than reciting the words on the page.
Major realisation: There was something wrong with the way reading was being taught, and I still didn’t feel confident about teaching it.
Fortunately most children learn to read despite how it is taught, and although I sometimes think I’d like to apologise to all those students I “taught” when I didn’t have much of a clue, I’d like to say “I hope they’re not reading this”, but I really hope they can!
Not long after this I had a break from teaching for a few years. During that time I read a lot of books about education, especially alternative views of schooling. I continued to feel strongly about reading instruction and even wrote a series of readers (unpublished) based on instruction in phonics. (Such was my ignorance!)
I worked with groups of upper primary remedial readers who made great progress ostensibly using a phonics program. However they also received lots of individual attention, encouragement and opportunities for reading real books.
At the same time I watched my three year old son become a reader without any formal instruction. I read to him, talked with him, wrote stories for him and transcribed his stories which we read together. We played games with language making up rhymes, playing “I spy”, singing songs and talking about print in our environment. Before I knew it he was jumping into bed in the mornings, prising my eyes open and begging to read to me!
I struggled to make sense of what I was observing.
Then the serendipitous moment arrived: I saw an advertisement for a graduate diploma in reading and language. It sounded tailored to my needs exactly. And it was.
We packed up the family and moved across the country to enable me to undertake the study.
It was one of the best things I have ever done. Suddenly everything made sense. The course about developing literacy skills also supported my developing beliefs and understandings about learning in general. I was at last in a place I felt comfortable. This was where I belonged. The course reignited my passion and provided the knowledge and skills that would underpin everything I have since done in education. Time has moved on but the essential understandings are timeless.
The coordinator of the course, the person who deserves my sincerest gratitude, is just as passionate about literacy education today as he was then, influencing new generations of teachers and students. His name is Brian Cambourne, Principal Fellow on the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong. He is affiliated with the International Reading Association and the Australian Literacy Educators Association.
Recently a friend sent me a link to an article about reading on The Conversation. It is titled “The seven messages of highly effective reading teachers” and begins with a caption under a photo:
Teaching kids to read isn’t just about learning the alphabet or “sounding out”, it’s about making sense of what’s on the page.
I read the article and quickly responded to my friend saying that I agreed wholeheartedly and that I was, in fact, writing a book about those very same ideas, right at that moment!
Then I checked the author. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was Brian Cambourne! I am delighted to be able to share his wisdom with you.
In the article Brian explains the seven messages that highly effective reading teachers share with their students:
A reader’s major focus should always be meaning
Effective readers draw on all sources of information in the text
A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of taking my two gorgeous grandchildren to a performance of Michael Rosen’s “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”. To say we enjoyed it would be an understatement. We had a rollicking good time.
The performance involved a lot of audience participation including spraying the entire audience with water from the “deep cold river”; an event which left everyone slightly wet, screaming with anticipation and laughter, and genuinely having a wonderful time interacting with this fabulous text.
We were already familiar with the text, of course, and had read it, recited it, acted it out and played a board game which has been made to accompany the text. None of this really prepared us for the delightful stage performance; but these pale in comparison with a telling by the master storyteller himself, Michael Rosen.
Michael Rosen’s website is a veritable treasure chest with much to explore and delight. From his home page you can visit his blog which he describes a as a place where he’ll
“post up some thoughts and ideas – especially on literature in education, children’s literature in general, poetry, reading, writing, teaching and thoughts on current affairs.”
After attending the performance of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” I shared with my grandchildren the video of Michael Rosen performing the story, which is also available from his home page. They loved it and we watched it “Again!”
Then I showed them the video of Rosen performing his fabulous poem Chocolate Cake. We watched it four times! Artie, who is four (and a half) was joining in with the telling the second time, and by the fourth time was copying many of Michael’s actions as well as facial and vocal expressions. Artie laughed along with the story and excitedly called other members of the family to watch it with him.
The next time Artie came to visit he was performing his own version, “Lollipop”, with similar actions and both facial and vocal expressions. His younger sister also had to have her turn telling the story. It was delightful and convinced me, though I needed no convincing, of the power of a great performer to turn children onto the fun of language, of playing with words, of performing, and of composing writing of their own. Creativity ignited!
If you haven’t yet watched Michael perform Chocolate Cake, I urge you to do so. You are in for a treat. I’m certain you will not be able to watch it without a smile on your face.
Michael is so passionate about making poetry come alive for children, he has made many videos on his website freely available to teachers for use in their classrooms.
He then goes on to present many fun ways of engaging children with poetry, none of which involve word study or comprehension exercises. He makes suggestions for performing, writing and talking about poems; and says that
“The best and most important thing you can do with any poem that a child writes is either get it performed or ‘published.”
and offers suggestions of how to do just that.
Another thing he says in that article, which was the inspiration for the title of this post, is
I couldn’t agree more.
This is just a brief sample of the riches to be found on the Michael Rosen website. There are so many videos of Michael’s performances available that I have not yet watched them all. Please let me know your favourites and I will make sure I watch those too.
Thanks Michael Rosen. We can learn so much from you while we are having fun!
Children can be read to from the moment they are born, if not earlier. Preferably earlier!
One of my favourite picture book authors and passionate advocate for reading to children is Mem Fox. I own, and have given as gifts, many of her wonderful books. I have attended her seminars and been mesmerised by her reading from her selection of stories. “Read more!” the adults beg. There are no children at these literacy seminars. This time it is a treat for only us: parents and teachers, literacy educators all.
Currently Prince William, Kate and baby Prince George are visiting Australia. I was delighted to hear that they were given a gift of books by Australian authors, including some by Mem Fox. Over the years I have given many of Mem’s books as gifts; and kept just as many for myself!
One that I have given to many new or expectant parents, as I consider it a “must read”, is Mem’s book “Reading Magic – Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever”.
I would love to quote the entire book for you, but it is better you read it for yourself. I will provide you with this quote from the foreword as a taster for the richness to be found inside.
“It stands to reason that if we’re able to raise happier, brighter children by reading aloud to them, the well-being of the entire country will ramp up a notch. Children who realize in their first few weeks and months of life that listening to stories is the purest heaven; who understand that books are filled with delights, facts, fun, and food for thought; who fall in love with their parents, and their parents with them, while stores are being shared; and who are read aloud to for ten minutes a day in their first five years, usually learn to read quickly, happily and easily. And a whole lot of goodness follows for the entire community.”
Mem’s website, too, is a treasure trove just waiting to be explored by writers, teachers, parents, children and children-at-heart.
You can listen to Mem read from her selection of books on the Current Read Aloud page. She reads three different books each month. Currently the books are Possum Magic,Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild! and Goodnight, Sleep Tight. Be quick to listen to these, though, as they will change at the end of the month. But never mind, there’ll be another three to enjoy next month!
In a previous series of posts I wrote about science inaccuracies in a picture book and questioned with whom lay the responsibility for providing young children with correct information.
While this post builds upon those posts, it also takes a divergent path: the need for children to have a voice; to be empowered to ask questions, to state their needs and report wrongdoings.
On a highly respected educational website Scholastic, with the by-line “Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life.”, in an article about Eric Carle author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, children are told that
“Eric already knows that a caterpillar emerges from a chrysalis, not a cocoon! So don’t bother writing to tell him.”
This seemingly innocuous statement may be easily overlooked but packs a powerful message.
What does it tell children?
The author has been told many times, already knows and isn’t going to do anything about it.
The author is tired of being told he is wrong and doesn’t want to hear it any more.
The author is “right” and not to be questioned. (The book, with its misinformation, is highly acclaimed by millions around the world. However if, in answering a question on a test, children were to write that a butterfly comes out of a cocoon, they would be marked wrong. Explain that to them.)
For me the most insidious part of this message is
He already knows, “so don’t bother writing to tell him”!!!!!!!!
You can’t change it.
You know it’s wrong, but you can’t change it, so don’t bother trying.
Although many societies are now moving to eradicate it, child abuse is still far too common worldwide. Not only must the attitudes of societies change, but children must be empowered, they must be encouraged to speak up and they must be listened to: their voices must be heard.
In a recent child abuse case that occurred at a Queensland primary school, the student protection officer reportedly said that she couldn’t understand why the children who had been sexually abused did not come forward.
The accused had continued in his role as child protection contact for a year after the first complaint was made. The student protection officer found it hard to believe that her colleague was a paedophile;
and still she says she doesn’t understand why the children didn’t come forward!
It seems to me the children did come forward if the first (indicates there were more) complaint was made more than a year before anything was done about it.
The children tried to say, but were not believed. The predator was believed and protected while the plight of the innocent victims was ignored. The report states that parents who complained about the abuse of their children were ostracised by the school community and made out to be the “bad guys”.
Is it any wonder that, if not listened to and not believed, and if more is done to protect the offenders than the abused, the children become increasingly reluctant to tell?
After the first children had come forward and not been listened to or believed, may not they have said to others, “There’s no point in saying. They already know. They won’t do anything about it?”
Or what about the parents who were ostracised and made out to be the bad ones?
Doesn’t it make the message very clear – you are powerless. Your voice won’t be heard. Your opinion doesn’t matter.
Carry this message over into countless other situations and you have a population who is afraid to speak up, fearing the disdain of reproach, the embarrassment of being unvalued and the helplessness of one’s message being unheard.
How many times have you felt you must remain silent for fear of ridicule, rejection, or worse?
How many opportunities for creating a positive change have been missed because the task seemed insurmountable or the personal repercussions too unpleasant?
When have you stepped up and made that change happen because you were not afraid to speak up or speak out when faced with an issue you felt strongly about?
What changes can we make to empower children (and adults) everywhere?
By the way, in that article on the Scholastic website, it is reported that Eric Carle believes that “the most important part of developing a book . . .is working with editors to revise it.”
Would it make any difference to the magic of The Very Hungry Caterpillar if, after all these years, Eric Carle rewrote a corrected version with a butterfly emerging triumphantly from a chrysalis?
What would that act tell all the countless children who have written to tell Eric about his mistake, and the many others who wanted to but were told there was no point?
I suggested ways of including The Very Hungry Caterpillar in an early childhood classroom and discussed the responsibility that authors have in differentiating between fact and fiction in story books.
“When speaking to teachers I often find raised eyebrows when I explain that butterflies’ larvae do not make cocoons. The teachers refer to Eric Carle’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, where he refers to a ‘cocoon’.”
Note that Jacqui refers specifically to this book, rather than to sources in general.
As shown by Jacqui, though, it can be difficult, even for teachers without specialist entomological knowledge, to sort out fact from the fiction.
These are two pieces of misinformation contained in the story:
Misinformation 1:
Caterpillars eat a lot of different food
Fact
Most caterpillars are fussy about their diet, some eating only one specific plant, others eating a variety of plant foods.
Misinformation 2:
Butterflies come out of a cocoon.
Fact
Butterflies emerge from a chrysalis.
Moths come out of a cocoon.
Watch these two videos:
This one by Strang Entertainment shows the caterpillar becoming a chrysalis.
This one shows a silkworm caterpillar spinning a cocoon (about 2 mins in).
They are two very different processes.
However a quick glance at these Google search results shows just how pervasive the misconceptions are:
Even seemingly authoritative educational websites misinform. Look at the way these two websites promote themselves, and consider the misinformation they are peddling.
states that The Very Hungry Caterpillar is “factually accurate . . . teaches your child to understand this biological process … a butterfly. . .(is) a caterpillar that has emerged from its cocoon”
Primary upd8 which promotes itself as “UKs most exciting science resource”
also suggests using The Very Hungry Caterpillar for teaching about the life cycle of a butterfly.
If self-professed “authorities” can’t get it right, how are we laypeople meant to make sense of it. Suggestions like these reinforce the need for the skills of critical analysis to be developed.
Unlike those above, I contend that this book has no place in the science curriculum. Its greatest value is as a tool for teaching critical literacy.
When children have learned about the life stages of a butterfly and then listen to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, they are very quick to pounce on the inaccuracies and immediately want to write to the author and tell him of his mistake.
When told that he already knows and that he isn’t going to change it, as confirmed in an interview reported on the Scholastic website, they are incredulous.
“Why would he do that?” they ask.
Why indeed.
When told that he doesn’t care that it isn’t right, they are indignant.
But herein lies its value:
I am able to affirm their learning: they know more than Eric Carle; and, more importantly, I am able to reinforce with them that just because something is in print, doesn’t make it true.
In addition, it is important for them to realise that misinformation does not occur only in picture books, nor only in this picture book. It is just as common in news media, as shown by this article from Brisbane’s Courier-Mail on December 7 2013
Nor is misinformation restricted to caterpillars and butterflies.
This article, again from the Courier-Mail, on January 26 2014 also contains inaccuracies:
Squirrel gliders don’t fly, and they don’t have wings.
Suggestions for teachers and parents:
point out inaccuracies and inconsistencies
encourage children to think about what they are reading and hearing and to evaluate it against what they know
support children to verify the source of the information and to check it against other more authoritative/reliable sources
help them to recognise that every author has a purpose and to identify that purpose
invite children to ask questions about what they are reading and to interrogate the content
encourage them to question, question, question.
As demonstrated by the Google results shown above, there is a good deal of misinformation available, often cleverly disguised as fact. Being able to navigate one’s way through it is a very important skill.
Eric Carle says “If we can accept giants tied down by dwarfs, genies in bottles, and knights who attack windmills, why can’t a caterpillar (sic) come out of a cocoon?”
What do you think?
Do picture book authors have a responsibility for informing their audience? Is a butterfly coming out of a cocoon in the same realm as giants tied down by dwarfs? Would we accept a child hatching out of an egg? What parts of a story should be based in reality and which parts can be imagined?
“Why can’t a butterfly come out of a cocoon?” asks Eric.
I have always loved reading aloud to an audience, be it my own children, a class of children or, more recently, my grandchildren. I love the opportunity to escape into other characters and other worlds. I love to see the expressions on the children’s faces – anticipation, amusement, trepidation, relief, joy. I love the sounds and rhythms of the language. I love the intricacies of story, poem and information.
Reading stories aloud to children provides a great opportunity to establish a connection between author, reader and listener, a platform for sharing ideas, thoughts and dreams, an avenue for discussing ethical questions and implications of choices. These discussions may arise spontaneously and be child-initiated, or they may be pre-determined and teacher-lead as in philosophical discussions and bibliotherapy.
Some parents find reading to their children a chore, something tedious that must be squeezed in around the day’s busyness. I am lucky. I never did.
Some teachers find it difficult to make time for books in a content-driven classroom; but for me it was always priority.
Some parents are delighted when their children start reading for it means the daily read-aloud ritual can cease. I never was. Well, I was delighted that they could read, but we kept on reading together.
I read aloud with my children until they were almost teenagers. The books changed, but the joy of reading and sharing never did. During the teenage, and older, years we continued to discuss and share ideas about books we read and recommendations for reading. We still do: some for ourselves and some for the children, my grandchildren.
Many of you reading this post take your ability to read and write for granted, as do I. But around the world many children do not have the opportunity to learn literacy skills. According to LitWorld more than 793 million people worldwide remain illiterate. About two-thirds of those are women.
I was delighted when I read about World Read Aloud Day on Gail Terp’s blog. I have been following Gail’s blog for a little while now. She titles her blog: “The Best Blog for Kids Who Hate to Read”. She says that one of her top goals is to connect children with books they love and her posts provide recommendations of great books to read to and with children, as well as to be read by children.
“World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.
By raising our voices together on this day we show the world’s children that we support their future: that they have the right to read, to write, and to share their words to change the world.”
Theodor Seuss Geisel: March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991
Today, March 2nd is the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss, author of over 40 children’s books.
While several of the Dr Seuss books were published before I was born, and many others published during my childhood, I have no recollection of meeting them prior to my years as teacher and parent. Fortunately those two roles provided me ample opportunity to catch up on the delights that I had previously missed.
I even apologised to Dr. Seuss in a previous post for leaning heavily on his book Green Eggs and Ham when writing about my relationship with exercise. Click on Ode to Exercise to read my poem.
You could celebrate his birthday by checking out the fun stuff and information on his author site seussville.com
When I first stepped, rather tentatively, into the world of blogging and tweeting I had no idea of the pleasures I would find. I found a whole community of others who share my passion for education, learning, literacy and writing. I found a comfortable niche, discussion group, and a place for sharing ideas like I hadn’t for a long time. I’ve “come home” on the internet.
In these few short months I have come across some bloggers with very powerful messages that I wish everyone could read and act upon in the ways described. What a wonderful world we would have!
Over the coming months I will let you know about some articles I consider ‘must reads’.
Please let me know of others you think I should also be reading!
Thanks for sharing and supporting me on my learning journey thus far.
The story has just begun!
This first in the series is a lecture given by Neil Gaiman entitled “Reading and obligation”
“It’s important for people to tell you what side they are on and why, and whether they might be biased.”
If you have read any other articles on my blog, you will know that I am biased; biased towards a child-centered, hands-on, creative and innovative approach to education. I believe that children are capable of far more than a structured didactic approach to schooling gives them credit for; and that big changes in the way education is delivered are necessary if we are to make best use of our most valuable resource – human potential.
As a reader, writer and literacy educator I am biased towards approaches which foster a love of reading and writing. The pleasures to be gained from a literate existence are immeasurable. But more than that, being literate is not only personally empowering, it is a basic human right.
Obviously the articles on my must read list will be those that share my biases.
Please follow the link to watch the video or read the complete transcript of Neil’s lecture.
I offer a few teasers below to incite your interest.
“everything changes when we read”
Wow! How powerful is that statement!
“The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy giving them access to those books and letting them read them.”
“Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. . .
And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy.”
“Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.”
Don’t you love that last statement? I do. If we are always “happy” with the way things are, why would we ever try to improve or change them? A little discontent can be a good thing!
“We need to read and write, we need global citizens who can read comfortably, comprehend what they are reading, understand nuance, and make themselves understood.”
Neil goes on to talk about our obligations as readers, writers and citizens of the world.
He lists the following (read or listen for his explanation)
Read for pleasure
Support libraries
Read aloud to our children
To use the language
We writers – and especially writers for children, but all writers – have an obligation to our readers: it’s the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were – to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth (underlining is mine)
not to bore our readers
not to preach, not to lecture, not to force
never, ever, under any circumstances, to write anything for children to read that we would not want to read ourselves.
to understand and to acknowledge that as writers for children we are doing important work,
to daydream We have an obligation to imagine. . . . individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different.
to make things beautiful.
to tell our politicians what we want
Neil reminds us that
“Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise.
“If you want your children to be intelligent,” he said, “read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.“
I couldn’t agree more.
What about you? What do you think of Neil’s list of obligations? Are there any you would omit, or any you would add?
![boy with books](http://openclipart.org/pdf/people/sammo241/bts9.svg">school days (PDF)</a>)
Norah Colvin 