Creating the Conditions for Change in the Maths Classroom
A Structure to Support Implementation
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by Lincolnshire Research School
on the
Early Years Lead (she/her)
Since gaining QTS I have worked for 15 years in Primary Education, across EYFS and Key Stage One. My passion is phonics and reading, and I have lead phonics for 14 years in my school, mentoring, coaching and monitoring teaching and intervention to ensure the best possible outcomes for all children, especially disadvantaged children.
Recommendation 5 in the EEF Guidance Report ‘Preparing For Literacy’ is to support parents to understand how to help their children learn and suggests ‘running training workshops for parents with explicit advice on reading is likely to be helpful’.
Where an EYFS setting has adopted recommended approaches of print referencing in class storytime, (see previous blog ‘The value of Print referencing in the EYFS classroom’) a workshop early in the year to share print-referencing skills with parents would be ideal.
Justice and Ezell (2000) conducted a research study in which parents were instructed to use verbal and non-verbal print referencing techniques with their children when reading texts to them. Results indicated that ‘parental use of these print-referencing behaviours significantly enhanced their children’s early literacy skills in several areas of print and word awareness’.
The EEF Guidance Report ‘Working with Parents to Support Children’s Learning’ states that ‘for young children, promoting shared book reading should be a central component of any parental engagement approach’ and ‘tips, support, and resources can make home activities more effective — for example, where they prompt longer and more frequent conversations during book reading.’ The report cautions that ‘book-gifting alone is unlikely to be effective, but carefully selected books plus advice and support can be beneficial for supporting reading.’
Providing guidance on shared reading can be particularly helpful for some families, especially those of disadvantaged children, who may previously have lacked the skills and/or resources to share books with their child. Inviting them to observe a storytime involving print referencing followed by a chance to read with their child in class could be a great starting point. During this session educators can model and support using these skills for those less confident, in a relaxed environment.
Taking the findings of the EEF report into consideration, combining parental support through face-to-face meetings and providing them with a list of print referencing techniques and questions, such as the ones in the table below, will give parents clear direction for the support they can offer with developing print awareness during shared reading. Sending home high-quality texts and high print salience texts as sharing books which are changed once or twice a week is essential, especially for those disadvantaged families who may not have easy access to a variety of books.
Furthermore, research indicates that interacting with environmental print in the child’s own surroundings (e.g. signs in shop windows, words on toys and other objects of personal interest) can ‘promote the development of emergent literacy skills that are the precursors to conventional reading skills’. It is therefore recommended that opportunities are taken to ‘capitalize on children’s natural attraction to environmental print by using it to promote their literacy development’ (Neumann et al., 2012).
Therefore, during the workshop, it would also be beneficial to guide parents in the basic skills of referencing print in the environment, which is something educators cannot do as easily or naturally within the setting. Engaging children in identifying and discussing environmental print at home, at the shops, the park etc. can be highly beneficial in their development of print awareness and enabling them to engage with meaningful print in the real world.
Studies have indicated that ‘for pre-school children who are not yet reading, supporting parents in reading to their children is important. But once children begin to read, the focus should shift to supporting parents in developing their children’s reading capability’ (Higgins and Katsipataki, 2015).
With effective instruction, children will be supported to apply their phonics knowledge to read words and begin reading books themselves, but we do not want the sharing of texts to stop. Further parental workshops could include developing vocabulary, comprehension, and supporting with phonics. But first, let’s ensure the foundations of shared reading and techniques to support print and word awareness are in place, with effective resources provided for all families to achieve this.
References
Justice, L. M., & Ezell, H. K. (2000). Enhancing children’s print and word awareness through home-based parent intervention. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 9(3), 257 – 269. https://doi.org/10.1044/1058 – 0360.0903.257
Higgins, S. and Katsipataki, M. (2015) ‘Evidence from meta-analysis about parental involvement in education which supports their children’s learning’, Journal of Children’s Services, 10, pp. 280 – 290
Neumann, M. M, Hood, M, Ford, R and Neumann, D.L. (2012) ‘The role of environmental print in emergent literacy’ Journal of Early Childhood Literacy12(3):231 – 258
Neumann, M. (2018) ‘The effects of a parent – child environmental print program on emergent literacy’ Journal of early Childhood Literacy 16(4):337 – 348
A Structure to Support Implementation
The Early Years Series
Early Years Series
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