ACTION RESEARCH PROJECTS - GALAgala.gre.ac.uk/16351/7/16351 CABRAL_Action_Research_Reports_Boxgrove... · ACTION RESEARCH PROJECTS | TEACHERS’ REPORTS 2015/16 3 FOREWORD BOXGROVE

ACTIONRESEARCHPROJECTS|TEACHERS’REPORTS2015/16

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BOXGROVEALLIANCE

BoxgrovePrimarySchool

TEACHERS’REPORTS

ACTIONRESEARCHPROJECTS

2015-2016


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UniversityofGreenwichBoxgroveAlliance

CONTRIBUTORS:ELIZABETHJENKINS|KIDBROOKEPARKPRIMARYSCHOOL

HANNAHSMITH|KIDBROOKEPARKPRIMARYSCHOOLISOBELAPSEY|KIDBROOKEPARKPRIMARYSCHOOL

TERMAINEMARANDURE|KIDBROOKEPARKPRIMARYSCHOOL

PLEASECITETHISREPORTASFOLLOWS:Lambirth,A.&Cabral,A.(Eds).(2016).Actionresearchprojects:teachers’reports.UniversityofGreenwich/BoxgroveAlliance.


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FOREWORDBOXGROVEALLIANCE:ACTIONRESEARCHPROJECTSHollyBroughton

Engagingwithcurrentthinkingandresearchineducationiscrucialforteachers.Itenables them to develop pedagogy, take risks, explore varied approaches tolearningandenablesthemtobeatthevanguardofeducationalthinking.These projects not only allow staff the time and support to fully immersethemselvesinresearch,othersandtheirown,butalsoallowsthemtotrialideasandaddtothewealthofemergingeducationaltheory.ItisthebestformofCPD,andhelpsthemgainfurtherqualificationsatthesametime!

HollyBroughton Headteacher

BoxgroveAlliance


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FOREWORDBOXGROVEALLIANCE:ACTIONRESEARCHPROJECTS2015/16ProfessorAndrewLambirth

ThisyearmyColleague,DrAnaCabral,and I fromtheUniversityofGreenwichhavehad theprivilegeofworkingwithagroupoftalentedteachersfromschoolswithintheAlliancewhowereallinterestedtostudytheirownpracticeinordertoenrichthelearningofthechildrentheyteach.AnaandIwantedtointroducetheteacherstoactionresearch.TheclassicworkbyCarrandKemmis(1986)describeactionresearchasbeingabout:•theimprovementofpractice;•theimprovementoftheunderstandingofpractice;•theimprovementofthesituationinwhichthepracticetakesplace.Itwasimportanttousthattheteachersweresystematicaboutthewaytheyundertooktheirinvestigations.Teachersarebusy people and the degree to which they applied the methodology varied. We discussed their aims – constructingresearch questions or identifying the problem theywished to solve.Weworked on the bestways of collecting data toinformtheiractionsandwetalkedabouttheethicalissuesofbeingan‘insider-researcher’andhowtoaddressthem.

ActionResearchProcess(Creswell,2012)

IdentifyaproblemtostudyLocateresourcestohelpaddresstheproblem

Identifyinformationyouwillneed:planastrategyforgatheringdata.Decidefromwhomyouneedtogatherthedata.Considerethicalimplications.Analysethedata

DevelopaplanforactionImplementtheplanandreflect

Identifynewfocus

Wemetwith the teachersat least three timesduringa termandonanumberofoccasionswewent to schoolsorhadtelephonesconversationswhenteachersweretoobusytoattend.Themeetingswiththeteacherswerefascinating.Researchhas informedus that themosteffective formsof continuingprofessionaldevelopment (CPD) (BERA/RSA2014)involve:•theuseofspecialistadvisorsandexternalexperts•collaborativeenquiryandstructuredpeersupport•theopportunitytoexplorewhythingsdoanddon’t‘work’•theexplorationandchallengingofteachersownbeliefsandassumptions(p.25–27).‘All the research indicates that enquiry-orientated learning is not a quick-fix, but needs to be a sustained over time toensurethatlearning(forbothteachersandpupils)actuallytakesplace’.(BERA/RCA2014:26)In thisdocumentweprovidethereports fromtheteachers thatdescribetheirwork.Theydocument theprocesseswithwhich the teachers were engaged. In most cases teachers collected information from their own surveys or interviewsand/orfromreadingliteratureinthearea.Theythendescribetheactiontheyfelttobeappropriateandconcludewithabrief evaluation of the success of their projects. They all demonstrate the teachers’ hardwork and determination.Wewouldliketoextendourthankstoalltheteachersandthechildreninvolved.

ProfessorAndrewLambirthFacultyofEducationandHealth,UniversityofGreenwich

ReferencesBritishEducationalResearchAssociation/RoyalSocietyofArts(2014)TheRoleofResearchinTeacherEducation:ReviewingtheEvidence:London:BERA/RSACarr,W.andKemmis,S.(1986)BecomingCritical:Education,KnowledgeandActionResearchLwes:FalmerPressCreswell,M.(2012)TheGoodResearchGuideforSmallScaleResearchProjectsMaidenhead:OpenUniversity


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CONTENTSFOREWORDpage|3HOLLYBROUGHTONPROFESSORANDREWLAMBIRTH

1|HOWCANIEMBEDALOVEOFREADINGINMYYEAR6CLASS?page|6ElizabethJenkins|KidbrookeParkPrimarySchool

2|EXPLORINGTHEROLEOFSTORY-TELLINGASATOOLFORIMPROVINGWRITINGpage|16HannahSmith|KidbrookeParkPrimarySchool3|EXPLORATIONOFMETHODSTOIMPROVEREADINGCOMPREHENSIONINPUPILSWITHENGLISHASANADDITIONALLANGUAGE(EAL)page|27IsobelApsey|KidbrookeParkPrimarySchool4|HOWCANWESUPPORTPARENTSOFCHILDRENINTHEEARLYYEARSTOACHIEVEPROGRESSINTHEAREAOFPERSONAL,SOCIALANDEMOTIONALDEVELOPMENT?page|37TermaineMarandure|KidbrookeParkPrimarySchool


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1|HOWCANIEMBEDALOVEOFREADINGINMYYEAR6CLASS?

ElizabethJenkinsKidbrookeParkPrimarySchool

1. |INTRODUCTIONIamaprimaryteacherinaninnerLondonschool.Idecidedtogointoteaching,afterafewyearsworkingforayouthdevelopmentcharity. Iamcurrently inmysecondyearteachingyear6,havingcompletedmyNQTyearinyear4.Afterafewweeksinyear6,Inoticedthatmanypupilsinmyclasswereshowingnoreallovetowardsindependentreading.Wehadindependentreadingtwiceaday,aroundtenminutesin themorningand thenagainafter lunch. Iquicklynoticed thatmanypupilswould stareinto the distance, flick through their book at randomormake the dailywalk to the bookcorner to choose a new book. While in the book corner they would disinterestedly flickthrough books before seeming to choose one at random to take back to their seat. Thismademefeeluneasy;thiswasmypupils’finalyearinprimaryschool-theywouldsoonbemakingthemovetosecondary,wheretheirteachersmayassumethattheyknowwhattheyliketoreadandcanchooseabookthattheywouldenjoyindependently.Iwantedtotryandmake sure thatmypupils left primary schoolwith at least some knowledgeofwhat theylikedanddislikedwith regards tobooks; tobeable chooseabook that theywouldenjoyindependently.Asteachersweaimtobereflectivepractitioners,toundergoaconstantcycleofreflectionandimprovementofpracticetoenhanceourpupils’ learning.IdecidedthatitwasimportantthatIreflectedonthisobservationandtriedtoimprovemypracticetohelpdevelopaloveofreadinginmyclass.I shall begin by introducing the action research approach to this study. In doing so I willintroducetheliteraturearoundthisareaanddetailwhyanactionresearchapproachsuitedmyparticularneeds. Iwill thendiscuss theobservationsofmypupils’ readinghabits and,afterdiscussing the literatureon theparticularareaof interest, Iwill goon todiscussmyactions,theevaluationoftheseactionsandtheconclusionofmyproject.


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2. |METHODOLOGYAll research aims to find out something that is not already known, a discovery or a newcreation (McNiff & Whitehead, 2010). The study I undertook utilised an action researchapproach. It is important to establish the similarities and differences between traditionalresearch and action research. Traditional research is usually conducted by an officialresearcher who is an outsider on the research situation - this researcher observes theactionsofthepractitioner,whoisinsidetheresearchsituation,anddevelopsatheoryabouthow the practitioner can develop and improve their performance (McNiff & Whitehead,2010).Actionresearchapproachesallowthepractitioner-teachersineducationsettings-tobecomeresearchersthemselves(ratherthanthesubjectofresearch);tofocustheirresearchontheiractionsintheirschoolsandclassrooms(Pine,2009).As Carr and Kemmis (1986) state, action research is the improvement of practice, theimprovementoftheunderstandingofthepracticebyitspractitionersandtheimprovementof the situation in which the practice takes place. Traditional research focuses on linearmethods; the researcher explains why and how the research must be conducted, thenfollowssetstepsofactiontowardsanendpoint–theanswer(McNiff&Whitehead,2010).Whencollectingthedatainthiswaythe‘experiment’hasacontrollednumberofvariables,thesamplesizesareoftenrandomorrepresentative–preferablyusinglargepopulationssothat theoretical conclusions are generalisable (Mertler & Charles, 2008). This is oftenreferredtoasthepositivisttradition(Koshy,2005).Actionresearch,however,focusesonthelocalsituation,aimingtogetinsidetheindividualorinstitutiontounderstandthepeopleorsituation–itisbasedupontheinterpretivetradition(Koshy,2005).Theresearchercarryingoutresearchwithinthe interpretiveparadigmdoesnotmakeanygeneralisableclaims;weagree a set of rules that allow us to interpret our results within the means of ourunderstanding.With this inmind, action research is a non-linear cyclical processwhich isdesignedtoachieveaconcretechangeinaspecificlocationtoimproveteachingorlearning(Pine,2009); it focusesonthesolutionofaspecificprobleminaspecificsetting(Cohen&Manion,1994).Actionresearchaddressesproblemscurrentlyfacedinaclassroomorschoolbythepractitioner;samplingisusuallycarriedoutintheschoolorclassroomandresearchisdesigned over a flexible, quick timeframe so that results have practical rather thantheoretical significance and can be used to improve the immediate practice (Mertler &Charles,2008).As stated, teachers are often striving to be reflective practitioners. Action researchapproaches enable them to be so by allowing one to learn through action leading to apersonal or professional development (Koshy, 2005). The process involves a spiral ofobservation, self-reflective action and reflection on the consequences (Koshy, 2005). Theresearcher observes, plans a change, acts and observes the consequences of the change,thenreflectsontheseconsequences.Thecyclethenrepeats;re-planningtakesplace,thenactionandobservationoftheactions,reflectionontheconsequencesandsoon(Kemmis&McTaggart, 2000). Thisprocess isnot rigidhowever.AsPine (2009) states, this reflection-action-reflection-action process is a spiralling cyclical process in which research issueschange as you move through the cycle and learn from your experience; initial plans are


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disregarded, improved as action becomes more focused. The data collected from actionresearchtendstobequalitative,notquantitativedatausuallycollectedthroughtraditionalresearch, which can bemeasured or represented by numbers (Koshy, 2005). There are anumberofcriticismsofactionresearchapproaches.Oneisthatactionresearchissubjecttobiasoralackofobjectivity.However,iftheactionresearchcycleiscollaborative,reflectionsanddataaresharedwithandcritiquedbyotherprofessionalstoensuretheyarerobustandwithoutbias(Koshy,2005).Somearguethatactionresearchisnotgeneralisableonthebasisthatitfocusesonaparticularprobleminaparticularsituationandtheresultsareoftenveryspecific to that problem. However, arguably the results from action research can begeneralisable.Koshy(2005)proposesthatdeliberationswhichhelpone’sunderstandingcanbeofferedtoothers;whilstnotbeapplicabletoothers’situationsthesefindingscouldformpartofawidersearchforinformationandtherecipientmaybeabletoreplicatethestudytosuittherecipients’needs(Koshy,2005).EthicsAs previously stated, action research focuses on solving a specific problem in a specificlocation. As Zeni states (1998), teachers as action researchers are insiders undertakingresearchon theverypupils forwhich theyare responsible.Zeni (1998)goeson todiscussthat the pointwhere good reflective teaching ends and action research begins can oftenbecome blurred. She states that action research often contains more systematicdocumentation of data gathering, more written self-reflection and collaboration andpossiblepublicationleadingtoawideraudience(Zeni,1998,pp.10-11).WiththisinmindIidentified two main areas of potential risk to my pupils, which were obtaining informedconsent fromminors and lack of confidentiality for my pupils. Tominimise these risks, Isought permission from my head teacher to undertake the research study and verbalconsentfromthe pupilsbeforetheresearchbegan,aswellasbeforeeachparticipated inthe surveys (which they could choose complete anonymouslyornot).Verbal consentwasalsosoughtbeforeconductinginformalinterviewsandpupilsvolunteeredtogivethisverbalfeedback.Allthepupilswerefreetooptoutoftheresearchatanytimeonceithadstartedwithoutfurtherexplanation. Ialsoensuredthatalldatacollectedwasstoredanonymouslyandusedpseudonymsinallpresentationofdataandindiscussionwithcolleagues.ObservationMy school is situated in inner London and is an above average sized primary school. Thepercentage of children in the schoolwho are entitled to Pupil Premium is above nationalaverageat26%and50%ofourpupilshaveEnglishasanadditional language. Inmyclass33%areregisteredashavingEnglishasanadditionallanguage,19%areregisteredforPupilPremiumand41%havespecialeducationalneeds.Asindicated,myinitialconcernwasthatthepupilsinmyyear6classseemeddisengagedwithindependentreading.Manyseemedtostruggletochoosebooksthattheyenjoyedandtostayinterestedforasustainedperiodoftime. I was concerned that this negative attitudewould become contagious to the otherpupils;thereseemedtobeveryfewchildrenwhohadarealloveofreading.ToseewhatIcoulddototryandimprovetheloveofreadinginmyclass,Ireferredtotheliteratureonthesubject.There are numerous studies exploring children’s attitudes towards reading andwriting. Itseems fairly established thatboys areoftenmoredisengaged than girls (for example, see


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Merisuo-Storm(2006)).Merisuo-Storm(2006)statesthatachild’sattitudetowardsreadingdevelopsatayoungage,andheorsheisstronglyinfluencedbythehabitsofthosearoundhimorher. If thechildgrowsup inareading-richhomeenvironmentheorshe is likelytobecomea fluent readerat anearly agewhowill readboth in school andoutsideof it forpleasure. This is taken further by Wallace (1992) who explains that keen readers willcontinuetoimprovetheirreadingskillswhilereadingforpleasure,whereaspoorreadersdonot read for pleasure so do not develop their skills further, causing the gap between thepupils’readingskillstowidenevenfurther.Worthyetal(1999)gofurtheragain,andbegintohypothesisethatthiswideningofthegapcausesafurtherdisengagementofpupilswhodonotreadintheirfreetime.Thisintriguedme;whilstweasteachersstrivetoignitealoveof reading in our pupils, what they think of themselves as readers will impact on theirenjoymentandattitude.IdidnotknowwhatmypupilsthoughtofthemselvesasreadersorwhattheythoughtmadeagoodreaderandIwantedtofindout.Eachpupilinmyclassisanindividual,withdifferentinterestsandmotivations.AsMerisuo-Storm(2006)states,theseinterestswillmotivateeachchildtowanttoreaddifferentbooksandtexts,meaningthatawideselectionofbooks,onavarietyoftopicsandatvaryinglevelsofdifficulty,shouldbeavailabletothepupils.AsWorthyetal(1999)suggest,manyofthebooks that reluctant readerswant to readarenotavailable inschool. Iwantedtoknow ifthis applied tomy pupils, so I set about designing a pupil survey that would giveme aninsightintotheirreadingpreferencesandtheirreadinghabits.IhopedthatIwouldthenbeable to reflect on their responses anddevelopmynext action inmy cyclewith a view toimproving their interest in reading. I basedmy pupil survey on thosemade by Lockwood(2012) and Worthy et al (1999). I wanted to get an idea of what my pupils thought ofreading,whattheythoughtofthemselvesasreadersandthebooksorgenresthattheylikedtoread.IchosetosurveymypupilsbecauseIwantedtocapturetheinformationacrossmyclass. Surveys allow data to be collected on a large scale but they can also captureindependent opinions; they allow anonymity for the participants and the data from themcan be quickly analysed (Cohen et al 2005). However, there are some disadvantages tosurveys; they can restrict answers as there is a chance that none of the options will beappropriate and they can become biased from the wording of the question (Cohen et al2005). The survey that I created for my pupils contained a mixture of quantitative andqualitative questions and open and closed questions. It was also scrutinised by otherprofessionalstominimisebiasor leadingquestions.Childreninmyclasswerekeentogivemetheirfeedbackandtheresultsofthesurveywereveryinteresting.AftercollectingtheresultsIdecidedtosub-dividethembygender.Error!Referencesourcenotfound.OneofthequestionsIwantedtoexplorewasReadingissomethingIliketodo…AlthoughIwasrelievednoonehadsaidthatreadingwassomethingthattheyneverlikedtodo, I was concerned that 75% ofmy class read either sometimes ornot very often. Afterfurther study of the responses, I noticed that notmany boys had said they liked to readoften; I decided to take a closer look at gender. The girls seemed tobe fairly evenly splitbetween read often, sometimes or not very often with approximately a third for each.However,astaggering91%oftheboysinmyclasssaidtheylikedreadingeithersometimesornotveryoften.


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InresponsetoMybestfriendthinkreadingis...,79%ofmyclassrespondedwitheitherOKtodoornofunatall.Again,analysingtheresponsesbygendershowedsomedisparities.Girlsseemedtobesplitacrossallofthefourresponses(reallyfun,fun,OKtodo,nofunatall)but61.54% of them said their best friend thought reading was OK to do or No fun at all.However23.08%ofgirlssaidthat theirbest friendthoughtreadingwasreally funand thesame percentage said their friend thought readingwasno fun at all. Contrastingly, boys’responsesseemedtobemorenegativelyskewedandallofthemrespondedthattheirbestfriendthoughtreadingwaseitheroktodo(63.64%)ornofunatall(36.36%).Thesefirstfewresults suggested that Iwas right tobeconcerned; themajorityofpupils inmyclassonlyreadsometimes(45.83%)andhalfsaidthattheirbestfriendsthoughtreadingonlyoktodo.Thequestionsrelatedtothepupils’readinghabitswereinterestingtoo;themajorityofmypupilssaidthattheyreadduringguidedreading,gottheirbooksfromtheschoollibraryorbook corner and did not readwith anyone at home. The results also showed threemainthemes towards reading inmy class: thatmy pupils were lackingmotivation to read thebooksonoffer; that their attitude towards readinghadbecomedisengagedandnegative;and that theywantedmore flexibilitywith their readingenvironment (forexample, sittingwiththeirfriendscameupfrequently).TheseresultscorrelatedwiththeliteraturethatIhadreviewed.Worthyetal (1999,pp.15-16)statedthatreluctant10-11yearolds liketoreadmaterialthatisoftennotavailableinschools,suchasnewlypublishedbooks,booksbasedontelevisionandfilms,comics,cartoonsandspecialtymagazines.Whenaskedinthepupilsurvey, If your school was tomake one change to improve your enjoyment of reading inschool,whatshouldthatchangebe?37.5%ofmypupilssaidthattheywantednewbooks.When asked to list their favourite author, a number ofmypupils listed newauthors thathavereleasedbooksthatdonotappearinourclassbookcornerorschoollibraryyetsuchasDavidWalliamsandTomGates.WhenaskedIfyoucouldreadanythingthatyouwantedtoread,whatwoulditbe?Mypupilsstatedthatalongwithnewlyreleasedbooks,theywouldliketoreadmagazines,atlasesandcomics.Theseresultsledmetomythreemainactions:toincreasethenumberofnewbooks inourclassroombookcorner inthehopeof increasingmotivation to read; tovary the independent reading sessions, giving themamore flexiblereading environment that they could control; and modelling reading for pleasure. AsMerisuo-Storm (2006) states, it is crucial that teachers are able to recommend readingmaterialthatinterestspupilsandfortheteacher’sloveofreadingtobepresent,butasthepupils’ age increases the influence of their teacher decreases and the influence of theirfriends increases. Hopefully my first actions two will lead to improved attitude towardsreading,which Iwoulddevelopandconsolidatewiththethirdactionofmodellingreadingforpleasure,bothbyadultsand,overtime,theirpeers.

3.|ACTION

Action1–NewbooksFollowingthechildren’sfeedbackmyfirstactionwastogetaselectionofnewbooksforourclassroombookcorner.Iobtainedawiderangeofbooksfromtheirsuggestionswiththeaimthateverychildwouldbeexcitedaboutat leastonebook.Tenormorechildrensaid thatthey would like to read books about: sport, drawing, graphic novels and funny books. Istarted compiling a wish list for my book corner covering these genres from a range ofauthors,followingrecommendationsfrommycolleagues,professorsandreadinglistsonthe


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BookTrust (BookTrust, 2015) andCLPEwebsites (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education,2015).Action2–DifferentIndependentReadingSessionsBeforeIgavethechildrenthebooksIwantedtomakesurethatIwaspresentingtheminanexciting way; I knew that the first session with the books could influence the attitudetowardsthenewsessions. Imadethechangestoour independentreadingsessions in theafternoon and kept themorning independent reading session as quiet reading. FollowingnumeroussuggestionsofactivitiesbyLambirth(2016),Idecidedonthefollowingtimetableforthefirstweek’safternoonsessions:

Monday: Book-type tables (when types of book – audio-books, fairy tales, non-fiction,comics,poetryetc.–areallgivenaseparatetableandchildrenchoosewheretheywanttosit)toinclude:non-Fiction,picturebooks,comics&graphicnovels,poetryandfocusauthor(DavidWalliams)Tuesday:ReadingpartnersWednesday:PupilstochooseseatsbutreadquietlyThursday: Book-type tables - to include: audio-book (The Hobbit), classic authors/books,comics&graphicnovels,picturebooksandnon-fictionbooks.

Action3–ModellingreadingforpleasureI was particularly concerned about the opinions of the boys inmy class towards reading.Theyhadalreadytoldmethattheydidnotreadveryoftenoutsideofschoolandthatmostdidnotreadathometoanyone.Idonotknowifmanyofthepupilsinmyclassseeadultsintheirlivesreadforpleasure.Merisuo-Storm(2006)suggeststhat“manygroupsofboyshavecome to regard school literacy as “un-masculine” and thus undesirable, a threat to theirmasculinity”.IwantedtodoasmuchasIcouldtopreventthisthinkingtowardsliteracyinmyclass.Ourclassareluckyenoughtohaveamaleteachingassistant,whohasbeenwiththemforalmosttwoyears;hehasanexcellentrelationshipwiththepupilsandtheboysinparticular respond well to him. He is an excellent role model for our pupils; he alreadymodelsmanyexcellentbehavioursforlearningandsocialskillsandhehasaloveofnaturewhichourclasshavebecomeinterestedinthroughhim.Betweenuswecouldmodelgoodreadingbehaviourinbothgenders.Thiswasnotdifficult;IstartedreadingHarryPotterandthe Philosophers Stone to my class and, not having read the series before, he becamehookedalongwiththechildrenandcouldbecaughtreadingthemonhisbreak.Thechildrenseemedamazedatthespeedwithwhichhewasgettingthroughthebooksandwouldaskhimhowmanypageshehadreadeachmorning.

4.|EVALUATIONOFTHEACTION

IevaluatedtheactionsthatIundertookinanumberofwaysincluding:informalinterviews;observations;andpupilsurveys.Iaskedpupilsiftheywouldliketovolunteertotellmewhatthey likedordislikedabouttheactivities,particularlyaboutthebook-typetables. Icarriedout observations of the classwhile theywere reading and also asked children to givemefeedbackinasecondshortsurvey.Idecidedtouseobservationsinmyevaluationsastheyallowed me to see exactly what my pupils were deciding to read and how they wereinteractingwiththebooksandtheirpeers;Ifeltthatthiswastheleastobtrusivemethodtoseehowtheyrespondedtothenewactionsandactivities(Wilkinson&Birmingham,2003).


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Observations have their disadvantages however: they only allow a snapshot of thewholesituation; if children become aware of the observation they can change their behaviours;and I, as theobserver,mayalsomisskeyactionsormeaningfulaspectswhileattention isdrawnelsewhere(Wilkinson&Birmingham,2003).The observations were very interesting.Monday’s book-type tables found six ofmy boyssittingonthepoetrytable.Aftertakingsometimetoflickthroughthepoetrybooksamoreable reader started reading his poem out the other boys on the table. They enjoyed therecitalandweresoontakingitinturnstofindagoodorfunnypoemandreaditaloud.Somemorereluctantboysvolunteeredtoreadapoemaloudtotheirpeers.Potentially,theywereable to do so because they were amongst their friends and liked having their readingenjoyed.Theboysonthepoetrytable continuedtoreadpoemstoeachotherthroughoutthesession.Amixedgroupofchildrenweresittingonthenon-fictiontablewhereamaindrawseemedto be the new drawing books. The children quickly found pencils and scrap paper andproceededtoreadtheinstructionsoutloudtoeachother,followingthestepstotrytodrawtheillustrationsandanimalsonthepage.Theywerediscussingtheinstructionsintheirsmallgroupsindetailandre-readingtheinstructionstoeachothertoensureeveryoneknewwhatthenextstepwas.The third group focused on graphic novels and comics, which included: The Phoenix,National Geographic Kids, Horrible Histories and a range of graphic novels, includingShakespearegraphicnovelsandPercyJacksonandtheLightningThief.Asmallgroupofgirlsacross a range of abilities and special needs sat on this table; therewas a quick, excitedinitialdiscussionaboutthebookswhichwassoonreplacedwithsilentreadingwhentheyallbecameabsorbed.The fourth tablewaspicturebooks,withamixtureofchildrenacrossgendersandreadingabilities.Threechildrenreadthebooksquietlyandindependently,slowlymakingtheirwaythroughanumberofthebooks(whichincluded,TheDaytheCrayonsQuit,TheDark,VoicesinthePark,TheTunnelandarangeofothers).Twoofmyleastconfidentreadershoweverweresharingthebooksandreadingtogether,puttingonvoicesandappropriateintonations.Again, it was rare for these two boys to be confidently reading out loud, especially withintonation.Thefifthtabledidnotseemsopopular.ItwasafocusauthortableforDavidWalliams.ManyofthechildrenhadmentionedDavidWalliamstomebeforeandsomehadmentionedhimontheirsurveys.However, intheexcitementofnewbooksandauthorstoexplore,hedidnotseemmuchofadrawthistime.The first experience of the book-type tables seemed to have been a success. One lessconfident male reader commented that he really liked the book-type tables, because hecouldseewhattypeofbookshisfriendsenjoy.Hecouldthenseeifhelikedthemtooandwouldknowwhatpresenttogetthemfortheirbirthday.


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Tuesday’spartnerreadingsessionstraightafter lunchalsowentwell.Thenewbookswereputoutagainandthechildrenkeenlycametogetoneortwobooksinpairs.Theysatdownquietly at their tables and began sharing their bookswith each other. This time the boyswerereadingthedrawingbooksandfollowingtheinstructionswithcareandattention.Twogirlsweresharinga fewpicturebooksandweredoingthevoices; theseweresomeofmymore able readers and they were being closely watched by two other girls, who quicklystartedcopyingwiththeirpicturebooks,takingitinturnstoreadaloudtoeachother.Thesession soon ended and it tookmore than a few pairs longer than expected to put theirbooksback.Oneofmyboys,whorespondedintheinitialsurveythathedoesnotreadveryoftenandthinkshisfriendthinksreadingisnofunatall,commentedafterthesessionthat“Ilike reading with my friend, the books are very funny”. From observation and briefconversationstheboysseemedtobeenjoyingthenewreadingsessions.Wednesday’s afternoon session saw a return to quiet independent reading; the childrencame inquietlyand satdownat theirdesks, theywereagainallowed thenewbooksandtheypatientlytookabookeach.Afterovertwentyminutesofsilentreading,withmeandmy teaching assistant also reading, I quickly jotteddown changes in the readinghabitsofcertainchildren.Alloftheelevenboysinmyclasswerereadingbooksthattheyhadchosenindependentlyandall seemed tobeon taskandenjoying them.Thebooks included:TomGates, an information text about planes, the Lonely Planet World Atlas, the Atlas ofAdventures,TheUsborneCompleteBookofDrawing,NBABasketball,ThePhoenixcomicandtheotherswerereadingwellknownauthors.Two lessconfidentgirl readerswerereadingpoetrybooks that theyhadgot from the libraryat lunchtimeanda fewof theother girlswerereadingthenewpicturebooks.Thegraphicnovelsseemedpopularagain;threeofthegirlshadmadetheirwaythroughoverhalfoftheirbooksoverthelastthreedays.Thursday afternoon saw a return to book-type tables, butwith different book-types fromTuesday.Whentheboyssawthebooksonthetablestheywerefirst intotheclassandsatthemselves between the non-fiction and graphic novel and comics tables. Three of theminstantlystartedreadingPercyJacksonandtheLightningThieftogether,patientlywaitingtodiscusswhathadhappenedwhentheyturnedthepage.Twooftheotherboysonthetablewere readingThePhoenix comic.Again, the three girlswhohasbeen reading the graphicnovelsaboutShakespeareallweekwerequick to find theirbooksand sit silently, readingindependently.Theotherboyssatatthenon-fictiontablewheretheywerereadingtheAtlasof Adventures and the Lonely Planet World Atlas together, discussing the different factsaboutthecountriesandflags.Themoreablegirlreadersweresittingatontheclassicbooksandauthorstableandwereagainsharingthepoemstogether,takingitinturnstoreadthemaloud to the group. In this session, I also had The Hobbit audio-book playing throughheadphonesforagroupofsixchildren;theysatquietlythroughoutthesessionlisteningtothe book, and when the session ended one girl found a copy from the book corner tocontinue independently. Itwasapleasureto lookaroundtheclassroomandseeallof thepupilsinteractingwithbooksandtheirfriendswithenthusiasmandenjoyment.After initiating my actions I wanted to see if my pupils’ attitudes and motivation hadimprovedashadappearedtobethecaseinmyobservations;Idecidedtosurveymypupilsagain. They began filling in their survey whilst sitting at their book type tables; the boysseemedanxiousfillinginthesurveywhilstsittingnexttotheirfriends,soImovedthepupilsbacktotheirhomeseats.Theresultswereveryinteresting;whilsttheresponsestoReading


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is something I like to do… andMy best friend thinks reading is… had improved slightlyoverall,theyhadnotimprovedasmuchasIhadhoped.However,oncompletingthesurveyintheirhomeseats(awayfromtheirfriends),afewofthemorereluctantboyswrotemorepositivecommentssuchas:“Ithinkreadingisnotthatbadatallanditisreallycool”;and“Ilike the art books because they teach you how to draw, the other books are good too. Ienjoyreading”;andathirdboycommentedthat“Ihavebecomemoresuckedintothenewbooksover the last fewweeks”.This seemstocorrelatewithMerisuo-Storm’s (2006) ideathatboysoftenregardreadingas“un-masculine”.So,thereisstillhopethattheywillleavemewithagreaterloveofreading;Ijustneedtokeepsharinggreatbookswiththeminnewways.

5.|CONCLUSION

CarryingoutthisactionresearchapproachprojecthastransformedmythinkingandhowIapproach activities inmy classroom. I have always sought to be a reflective practitioner,trying to change how I teach after reflecting on my pupils learning, enthusiasm andmisconceptions,but theactionresearchcyclehasnowbecomeembedded intomywayofthinking. I have begun to see myself following the cycle in other areas of the children’slearning; for example how I can improve their Math’s problem solving. I find myselfobserving possible challenges or problems; I then take a step back and discuss possibleactionswith colleagues and research strategies from the literature on the subject, beforedecidingonactionstotrywithmychildren.Isubsequentlyfindmyselfevaluatingtheactionsandreflectingonthenextactiontotrytofurthermypupils’ learning. Iknowthat Ihaveahuge influenceonthedecisionsandactionsofmypupilsandIhavealwaystriedtomodelandencouragethem.Thisactionresearchprojecthasemphasisedthatthere isalwaysmoretodotoencouragethem;theyneedtobeexcitedandinvolvedinthevariousdecisionsbeingmadeinordertobefullyengaged.Ialreadyhavemynextactionsinmindformycurrentclass.Iintendtotryandincreasethebooktalkinmyclass,whichIhopewillincreasetheenthusiasmforreadingfurther–wearegoingtomakeourselvesreaderprofilesthatwillbekeptinthebookcornerfor others to read. These profiles will be written by each child, myself and our teachingassistants andwill include:which books they like and dislike;which books they intend toreadinthefuture;andwhichbookstheyhaveneverread.Therewillbeaspaceforapost-itnote on each reader profile, where another child or adult will be able to give them arecommendation, based on their preferences, detailing why they think they will like thebook they have recommended. I am going to start more of our reading sessions with a‘teaser’towhetthechildren’sappetites,andtrytoendeachsessionwitha‘juicybit’fromthebookIamormyteachingassistantisreadingandovertimeIhopetohandthe‘juicybits’overtotheclasstosharewitheachother.IhavemanyideasaboutwhatIwilldodifferentlywithmynextclasstoimprovetheirloveofreading.Thefirstthingthatwewilldotogetherisour reader profiles. I want to start the dialogue about books from the very beginning,makingitcleartomypupilsthatwhattheythinkaboutbooksisimportanttome.Iwillmakeindependentreadingtimemorevariedwitharangeofactivitiesincluding:book-typetables;partnerreading;andpoetryonlydays.IamalsoliaisingwithourEnglishCo-ordinatoraboutsettingupbookbuddiesacrosstheschool,sothateachchildinmyclasswillbeabletoshare


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abookwithayoungerchild. Ihope thiswillallowthemboth to increase their confidenceandenjoymentinreadingandforyear6pupilstomodelgoodreadinghabitsandenjoymenttotheyoungerchildren.IhavereallyenjoyedtheactionresearchprocessandIamexcitedthatIhavebeenabletodoitsoearlyoninmyteachingcareer.Iplantogivemyselfasimilarproject each year to focusonwith each class that I teach, aswell as carryingout smallerprojects as the year goes on to continue the cyclical process. It has focused me on theactions that I can perform to further my pupils’ progress; evaluating these actionscollaborativelywithmycolleagueshasalsomademethinkmorecriticallyaboutthem,whichhashelpedmeprogressmypupils’andmyownlearningevenfurther.

6.|BIBLIOGRAPHYBookTrust. (2015). Booklists. Retrieved February 15th, 2015, from BookTrust - Inspire a love of reading:

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/booklists/Carr,W.andKemmis,S.(1986).BecomingCritical:Education,KnowledgeandActionResearch.Geelong:Deakin

UniversityPress.CentreforLiteracyinPrimaryEducation.(2015).Booklists.RetrievedFebruary15th,2016,fromCLPE-Quality

children'sliteratureattheheartofalllearning:https://www.clpe.org.uk/library-and-resources/booklistsCohen, L. andManion, L. (1994). Chapter. Action Research. In L. Cohen,& L.Manion,ResearchMethods in

Education(pp.186-202).London&NewYork:Routledge.Cohen, L.,Manion, L.,&Morrison, K. (2005).ResearchMethods in Education (5th ed). London&NewYork:

RoutledgeFalmer.Kemmis,K.andMcTaggart,R. (2000).ParticipatoryActionResearch. InN.Denzin,&Y. Lincoln,Handbookof

QualitativeResearch.London:SAGE.Koshy,V.(2005).ActionResearchforImprovingPractice.APracticalGuide.PaulChapmanPublishing.Lambirth, A. (2016). Independent Reading Ideas and Activities. Handout collated by Andrew Lambirth and

providedataCPDsessionofActionResearch-projectsupportedandfundedbytheBoxgroveAlliance. .Handoutnotpublishedoravailableonline.

Lockwood,M.(2012).AttitudestoReadinginEnglishPrimarySchools.EnglishinEducation46(3),228-246.McNiff,J.andWhitehead,J.(2010).YouandYourActionResearchProject(3rded.).London:Routledge.Merisuo-Storm, T. (2006). Girls and Boys Like to Read and Write Different Texts. Scandinavian Journal of

EducationResearch,50(2),111-125.Mertler,C.A.andCharles,C.M.(2008). Introductiontoeducationresearch (6thEditioned.).Boston:Allyn&

Bacon.Pine, G. J. (2009). Teacher action research: Collaborative, participatory, and democratic inquiry. In Teacher

ActionResearch:Buildingknowledgedemocracies.(pp.29-62).ThousandOaks,CA:SAGEPublications.Wallace,C.(1992).Reading.Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress.Wilkinson,D.,&Birmingham, P. (2003).UsingResearch Instruments:A guide for researchers.NY: Routledge

Falmer.Worthy, J.,Moorman,M.,&Turner,M. (1999).What Johnny likes to read ishard to find in school.Reading

ResearchQuarterly,34(1),12-27.Zeni,J.(1998).Aguidetoethicalissuesandactionresearch.EducationalActionResearch,6(1),9-19.


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2|EXPLORINGTHEROLEOFSTORY-TELLINGASATOOLFORIMPROVINGWRITING

HannahSmithKidbrookeParkPrimarySchool

1.|INTRODUCTION

“…tellthemtruestories,andeverythingwillbewell,justtellthemstories’

PhilipPullman(2000).The experience of telling a story ‘can be profound, exercising the thinking and touching theemotionsofbothtellerandlistener’(NCTEGuideline,1992).AsanEnglishliteraturegraduate,thepower of stories has always held a fascination for me, and I frequently draw onmy universitymaterial within my own teaching. For example, my class studied the Old English poem ‘TheWanderer’ as part of our work on the Anglo-Saxons. The school I teach in is a 2-form entrysuburban schoolwithahigher thanaverage intakeofpupil premiumchildrenandahigher thanaveragepercentageofchildrenwhospeakEnglishasanadditionallanguage.Asastudentteacher,Iwitnessedmyplacementschooltransitiontobecomean‘oralstory-tellingschool’ and I then started teaching at a flagship ‘story-telling school’ inOxford. Thebasis of theschemewastheprinciplethatinordertowriteastory,youhavetobeabletotellastoryverbally,which emerged from Pie Corbett’s ‘Talk for Writing’ scheme (Corbett 2008). Having beenintroducedtothisnewwayofteachingliteracy,Iquestionedthe‘conventional’teachingmethodsthatIlateremployedwhenImovedtoLondon.Itseemedcleartomethatoralstory-tellingwasanimportantpartof literacypedagogy thatwasnot embedded inmy current school. This researchproject initially sought to explore the impactof story-telling and to investigate its feasibility andeffectinaYear6classroom.AsIdelvedfurtherintothematerial,itbecameclearthatoralliteracywasmuchbroaderthanthe‘TalkforWriting’schemeandthatIwouldneedtoexpandmyresearchtoencompassawiderrangeoforalliteracyteachingstrategies,suchasmemorisingandperformingpoems,andtalkingindifferent‘voices’andindifferentroles.This research took place over the course of an academic year from 2015-16 and included thetrialingofavarietyofdramaandrole-playactivitiestoengageandenthusethechildreninmyYear6classwhoexhibitedadistinctlackofenjoymentwhenwriting.Collectively,therewasatendencytoregurgitatestockwordsandphraseswithlittlecreativityororiginality;myaimwastopromoteanenjoymentofwritingandfacilitatethediscoveryofa‘writer’svoice’foreachchild.


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2.|METHODOLOGY

‘Withoutquestion,beinganactionresearcherinmyownworkplaceconstitutedthemostpowerfulprofessional developmentofmy teaching career’ (Somekh2006, 73). Like Somekh,becominganaction researcherwas at first ‘daunting’, as it signaled a significant shift inmyunderstandingofteachingandlearning,anditrequiredmetoaskthechildrenfortheiractivecriticismandinputintothelessonsIwasteaching.Myactionresearchinvolvedmedevelopinganessentiallycollaborativerelationshipwithpupilsandcolleaguesinordertodevelopadeeperunderstandingofteachingandlearning. Whilst the main feature of action research is that it facilitates ‘practitioners to studyaspectsofpractice’(Koshy2005,13),animportantfactoristhatitshouldalsostudy‘aproblematicsituationinanongoingsystematicandrecursivewaytotakeactiontochangethatsituation’(Pine,2009,2).Oncechangehasbeeneffected,theprocessshouldbeevaluatedandreflectedupon,andfurtherresearchcanthenbeundertaken.Actionresearchcanbepresentedasa‘cyclical,repetitiveprocessofinquiry’formedofthefollowingstages:‘Look: gathering information, Think: reflecting on, or analyzing, the information,Act: planning,implementing, and evaluating student learning’ (Stringer 2010, 1), and a final stage, whichStringer’smodelmisses, reflecting upon and assessing the impact of the research and planningwheretogonext;reflectionisboththestartingpointandthefinalstage(McAteer2013).Theconceptofactionresearchcanpresentaproblemtonewresearchers;theexpectationsofanyresearch investigation with regards to clarity, appropriate application of methods selected andethical considerations are high, and represent potential points of anxiety for teachers new toresearch (Baumfield 2012). In addition, a claim to an original discovery can be problematic,‘becausesayingthatyouknowsomethingisequivalenttosayingthatyouareholdingsomethingastrue’ (McNiff 2010, 16). The onus is on the researcher to substantiate his/her claims withconvincing‘proof’.The first criticismoften leveledataction research is thequestionofevidence.Action research isfrequentlybasedonqualitativedataasopposedtoquantitativestudies,andthusanyclaimsmadecanbedifficult tosubstantiate.This issue isencapsulated inthequestion ‘Is thisreallyresearch?Whatisthedata?Howdowereallyknowifwe’redoinganythingbetterornot?’(Erzberger1992,citedinFeldman1994,4).Forsomeresearchers,suchasErzberger,quantativedatamaybeviewedaspreferential,asitpresentsfindingsasnumericalvaluesfromwhichconclusionscanbedrawn–theobservationalfieldnotes,interviewsandsamplesofworkwhicharethebasisofmyownactionresearchprojectarenotusuallyviewedas ‘harddata’,asnonumericalvaluecanbeattachedtothem. Thequestion levelled at action research is, canwe really know something is truewithoutbeing able to do a statistical analysis of the data first? Data drawn from observations andinterviews relies on an individual’s ability to note, interpret and create meaning throughexperiences; it is ‘unlike positivism,with its emphasis on prediction, control, and generalization’and is insteadbasedon theprinciple that an individual interprets situationsbasedon theirowncontextsandexperiences,andthereforeconstructstheirownsenseofreality(Pine2009,2).Withinthisphilosophy, it ispossibleto ‘know’somethingwithoutquantifying it,andactionresearchsitscomfortablywithinthisview.Therefore,Iusedmy‘rawdata’todrawconclusionswithoutneedingnumericalvalues.


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Thesecondcriticismfacingactionresearchisthatitis‘insiderresearch,notoutsiderresearch’,andwill thereforebe inevitably influencedby thepresenceof the researcher. Thispositioningof theresearcher as an interested participant is ‘different from traditional research, which is usuallyconductedfromanoutsiderperspective’(McNiff2010,25).Thiscanbeseenasbothalimitationofaction research and as an advantage; the researcher is not ‘distant and detached from thesituation’, which therefore allows ‘continuous evaluation andmodifications’ to be made as theprojectevolves.Thisprovides ‘opportunitiesfortheorytoemergefromtheresearch’ratherthantheresearcher‘alwaysfollow[ing]apreviouslyformulatedtheory’(Koshy2005,38).Ultimately, it needs to be acknowledged that ‘you use different forms of research for differentpurposes.Nooneform isbetterorworse;each form isdifferentandservesadifferentpurpose’(McNiff2010,15).When Iconsideredamethodof research, it seemedwise tochooseanactionresearchproject,asitpromotedboththeimprovementofapracticeandtheunderstandingofthepractice. It also aims to improve the situation inwhich the practice itself takes place (Carr andKemmis 1986). Alongside these aims, action research also promotes the involvement of others,both colleagues and participants, in the research, thus maintaining the crucial element ofaccountabilityandcollaborationwhichunderpinsallresearch(Baumfield2012).

3.|FOCUSOFTHESTUDYMyareaofconcern–invigoratingstorywritingWhen I inheritedthiscohortofchildrenfromtheiryear5teacher,shetoldmethattheirwritingwas ‘accomplishedbutboring’. Fromtheir firstpiecesofwriting, I couldappreciateherconcern.Mostofthechildrencouldcorrectlyusearangeofpunctuationandsentencestructures,andwoulddiligently includetherelevantwriting feature thatwas the focusofeach lesson,butnoneof thewriting I saw exhibited a strong ‘voice’ and there was a lacklustre approach to writing. Somechildren struggled to get their writing down on paper, being overwhelmed by spelling andhandwriting.Thisisacommonproblemamongst‘beginningwriters’whomayhaveideastoincludeinastoryplanyetstrugglewiththedemandingtaskoftransferringtheseideastopaper(Berningeret al 2008; McCutchen 2006, cited in Dunn 2010). An example of the writing produced by a‘beginningwriter’showedhowthischildhadextremeanxietyabouthandwritingandspelling,andwouldbarelywritetwoorthreelinesbeforescribblingitouttostartagainbecauseit‘wasn’tgoodenough’.The current emphasis on data analysis, league tables and SATs results ‘hold[s] student writingstagnant’ (Lamen2011,10).When I asked the classwhywemightusea semi-colon ina certainsentence, the reply came back, ‘So that we can get a high level for our writing assessment.’ Itseemedclearthatinpushingforhigherstandards,thiscohorthadstartedtonotonlybejudgedbutalso to judge themselves by a narrow checklist. In addition, the assessment data for my classshowedthat15childrenoutof24werebelowtheexpectedwritinglevelfortheirage.Whentakentogether,thedata,theanecdotalevidenceandthesamplewritingshowedthatbothlowandhighachievingwritersinmyclasswerestrugglingtofindenjoymentandcreativity.Stoyle(2003)positsthat‘Storiescreatemagicandasenseofwonderattheworld,’yetformychildren,thismagicandwonderhadsomehowbeenverymuchlost.Ifmyclassweregoingtoimproveaswriters,itseemedclearthatweneededtostartbyrediscoveringthemagic.Theaimofmyresearchwastoestablishwhetherstory-tellingcouldbethekeytobringingitback.


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LiteratureReviewThe use of speaking as an effective tool to improve writing has long been acknowledged andpromoted within the work of educational theorists. Talking provides a way of making abstractthoughtsconcrete,which ‘inevitablyraisesthemtoamoreconsciousplaneofawarenesssothattheycanbecometheobjectsofreflectionandmodification’(Vygotsky1978,inMcGregor2007)Itisessentialtospeaksothatthoughtscanbeshaped,mouldedanddeveloped.Inthe1980sand90s,oracy featuredprominently indiscussionson thepedagogyof literacy,with theDFEE suggestingthat successful teaching is ‘characterized by high quality oralwork’ (DfEE 1998). However, evenbefore I came to do my teacher training, it appears that this emphasis on oracy had beendiminished.TheemphasisonpaceintheNationalLiteracyStrategyleftlittletimeforhighqualityoralworkandcreatedaconflictbetweenthetwoaspirations(Englishetal2002).Finally,Alexander(2009) claims speaking and listening in the National Curriculum is ‘conceptually weak andinsufficientlydemandinginpractice’andinitiatives,suchastheNationalOracyProject,needtobe‘revisited’togiveoracy‘itsproperplaceinthelanguagecurriculum’(p.47).Whilehighqualityspeakingandlisteningformsoneofthesevenstatedaimsofthe2013NationalCurriculum(DfE2013,3),itisworthnotingthatspeakingandlisteningisreferredtomostofteninterms of formal debating, presentation and performance,with only briefmentionmade of howoracycanbeusedasakeytooltosupportwriting.ThisisincontrasttoresearchconductedbytheDfE(2012),whichrepeatedlymakesreferenceto‘effectiveoralwork’tosupportwritingoutcomes.This document also refers to research which shows that teaching grammar in context has a‘significantpositiveeffect’onwritingoutcomes.Yetin2013,agrammartestwasintroducedforthefirsttimeforyear6children,whichtestedknowledgeofgrammaroutsideofawritingcontext.Thisfurtherconfirmedmyviewthatanewpedagogywasneeded,basedoneffectiveoral literacy, tocircumventthecurrentclimateof judgingwritingona ‘rubric that looks forconventions’ (Lamen2011,10).Researchershaveconsistentlydemonstratedthe linkbetweeneffectiveuseofspeakingandrole-playandsignificantlyimprovedwritingoutcomes.Teacherswhousetalkasanexploratorytoolandwho view writing as an extension of high quality speaking see ‘effective learning’ in theirclassrooms(BullockReport1975;Harrisetal2003;BarrsandCorks2001;Corson1988,27).Inlightofthis,itseemssensibletosuggestthateffectiveandhighqualityspeakingandlisteningactivitiesaretheteacher’ssecretweaponwhenseekingto improvewriting.AsWells (1986)states, ‘Thereare a number of children in almost every classroomwho are able to work on new ideasmoreeffectively in speech than in writing’ (p.138). Teachers will recognize the veracity of Wells’statement, andwill be able to identify the childrenwhoexperience a ‘cognitive overload’whenwriting. The writing process requires us to concentrate on spelling and handwriting as well asconstructingmeaningfulsentences.Removingthebarrierofspellingandhandwritingthroughtalkcan free up ourworkingmemory to allow a greater depth of creative composition (Fisher et al2010).TheinitialdatathatIsoughttocollectwasinformationontheeffectivenessofthe‘TalkforWriting’schemedevelopedbyPieCorbettandthesubsequentmovebysomeschoolstoadoptinga‘story-telling’approachtoteachingliteracyacrossallyeargroups.Firstly,Ireadanevaluationprojectonthevalueof‘TalkforWriting’(RookeandLawrence2012)Thereportwaspositive,statingthatinasurveyofchildrentakingpartinthetrialofa‘TalkforWriting’scheme,thenumberofchildrenwho


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enjoyed writing and who perceived themselves as good writers increased. However, a secondevaluation of the scheme suggested that the effects of the schemewere ‘small’ (Dockrall et al2015,6). Tomakemyownevaluation, I arrangedavisit toa school inTowerHamlets,whohadrecentlyadoptedawholeschool‘story-telling’approachtoteachingliteracy.Theschoolhasaverysimilardemographictomyown,andIthoughtitwouldprovideagoodcomparison.Idesignedasetofquestions,optingforaninformalconversationalstyleofinterviewconsistingofopen-endedquestionsrequiringlongerresponses(Cohenetal2011).AsIconductedtheinterviewsface-to-facewiththe literacycoordinatorandtheEYFSteacherattheschool inTowerHamlets, Iwantedtooptforastyleofinterviewthatresembleda‘conversationbetweenequalparticipants’(SapsfordandJupp1996,96). I learntthattheschoolhadbeenanaccreditedstory-tellingschoolforfouryearsunderthe‘Story-tellingSchools’schemepilotedbyPieCorbett.ThemovetoteachingliteracythroughstorytellingwaspromptedbythehighpercentagesofEALchildrenattheschool,as it is widely acknowledged that story-telling enhances acquisition of language as well ascomprehension and understanding of text-structures (Fitzgibbon andWilhelm 1998). The schoolhas trainingdays for staffeveryhalf-termandallphases receive targetedplanningsupport fromtrainedstory-tellingspecialists.TheteachersItalkedtoreportedthattheadultsintheschoolwerefullyengagedandthechildrenhadapositiveapproachandengagementwithstoriesandwriting.Iwasalso shown the school’swritingdata,whichdemonstrated thatwriting levels in the schoolwere improving; thedata foryear6 showed thatabove80%ofchildrenwereachievingnationalexpectationsbeforetheschoolintroducedstory-telling,andthisincreasedto95%inthemostup-to-datedataset.Themostrelevantimprovementformewasthejumpfrom16%ofyear6pupilsachievinga level5 to40%.This indicated that story-tellingwasn’t simplyanaid forSENDorEALchildren,butthatitcouldraisestandardsacrossacohort.Istillhadsomereservationsaboutholisticstory-tellingapproach;whilstIwaskeentotryteachingaunit of literacy in this way, it was not going to provide a long-term way of teaching unless allteachersinmyschoolcommittedtoit.Italsodidnotdealwithhowtoengagechildrenwithlongertextsorclassicaltexts,inlinewiththerequirementsofthecurrentNationalCurriculum(2013).Inaddition,theevaluationofthe‘TalkforWriting’schemestatesthatthereiscurrently‘noevidence’that‘dailyrepetitionoftextssupportsgenericwritingskills’(Dockrelletal2015,11),astatementwhich seems to conflict with Pie Corbett’s statement that ‘Children will implicitly internaliselanguagepatterns[…]iftheyreadrepetitively’(Corbett2008,1).Clearly,Ineedtoexploreawiderrange of speaking and listening strategies, as simple repetition of storieswould appear to havelimitedadvantages.Indiscussionswithcolleagues, Iwas introducedtothe ‘tell itdown’ (Lambeth2005)approachtostory-telling.Thisinvolvestellingastoryandthenaskingchildrentoembellishtheirfavouritepartandtell it toa friend.Thisprocess is thenrepeatedtwicemoresothatthestoryhasbeenorallyrehearsedthreetimes.Thechildrenarethenaskedtowritedownexactlywhattheyhavejustsaid.This seemed like an interesting approach that could be easily adapted and incorporated intoeverydayclassroompractice.


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EthicsBeforeconductingany research, I ensured thatpotentialethical issueshadbeenconsideredandappropriateactiontaken.Ifirstlygainedtheconsentofmyhead-teachertoundertaketheresearchandtovisitotherschoolsforresearchpurposes.ImademyintentionscleartotheadultsItalkedto,including‘whytheirparticipationisnecessary,howitwillbeusedandhowandtowhomitwillbereported’inlinewithBERAethicalguidelines(2011).IalsodiscussedwithmyclassthelessonsthatIwantedtoteach,andensuredthatallthechildrenknewthattheycouldoptoutofanydramaorrole-playactivities.Ifoundthattherewasatensionbetweenmyroleasteacherandmyroleasresearcher.Myroleasteacherrequiredthatchildrenparticipateinliteracylessons,butmyroleasresearcher dictated that I ‘must recognize the right of any participant to withdraw from theresearch for any or no reason, and at any time’ (BERA ethical guidelines 2011). I overcame thistensionbyensuringthatanywrittenworkproducedfromthelessonswasnotmarkedcriticallybymeorusedasevidenceforanyassessmentsandinformedthechildrenthatthiswasthecase.Furthertothis,IconsideredthequestionsposedbyZeni(1998),concerningthepowerIhadoverthe class.Wouldmy research strengthen their trust inmeas the teacherorwould itpotentiallyabuseit? Iensuredthattherewasnoabuseofpowerbygainingverbalconsentfromchildrentoparticipate inalldiscussionsby informing themofmy intentionsandallowing themtovolunteertheircontributionsaccordingly.I also adhered toBERA guidelines in regards to confidentiality andprivacy, by ensuring that theinformationgatheredwasnotshared inaway thatcould lead to the identityofanyparticipantsbeing disclosed; I kept all recordings in a password protected area, and ensured that no nameswereusedintherecordings.Inthisway,allparticipantsretainedtheirrighttoremainanonymous.

4.|ACTIONIdecidedtoplananddeliveraseriesoflessonswhichincorporateddifferentoralactivities.Inordertoevaluatetheeffectivenessofthelessons,Idecidedtoconductobservationsoftheclass,takingthe roleof a non-participant observer,watchingwithoutbeing involved (Cohenet al 2011), andmoving around the classroom, noting specifically attitudes to writing and engagement of thechildren, inparticular thechildrenwhofindwritingchallenging. Imadebrief ‘fieldnotes’which Ilaterwroteupinfull.Ialsochosetoconductinformalconversationalinterviewswiththechildrenin which I would record their thoughts on the writing process. The inherent danger with thismethodofresearchwasthepotentialforbias,inthatthechildrenwouldtellmewhattheythoughtI wanted to hear, and I would see what I wanted to see, as it is impossible to remain entirelyneutralasanobserver(Cohenetal2011).However,Iwasconfidentthatmyrelationshipwiththeclass was strong enough to overcome this potential barrier, and there were several otheradvantagestoconductingresearchinthisway:wewouldbeinafamiliarandcomfortablesettingand the class were already accustomed to me observing and questioning for the purposes ofassessment for learning. Additionally, I would be able to conduct research within a reasonabletime-frame,and‘minimizetheimpact’ofmyresearchonthe‘normalwork-load’oftheclass(BERAethical guidelines2011).Aswell as this, being in a largegroupallowedall children toengageattheirownlevelwithoutfeelinguncomfortableorunderintensescrutiny.Initially,IplannedaseriesoflessonswhichincorporatedelementsofPieCorbett’s‘TalkforWriting’


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scheme (2011). I took the class textBeowulfadaptedbyMichaelMorpurgo (2006) and retold itorallytotheclass.Oncethechildrenhadinternalizedthestoryandgotagraspofitsstructure,wethen explored the language around the story, generating reference chains to refer to thecharacters,andcreatingwordlists.Thechildrenthenretoldthestorytoeachother,andfromthis,theydiscoveredthattheycouldstartandfinishtheirstorieswiththecharacterofa ‘story-teller’.Thismade itselfapparent intheirwritingandAppendixBshowsexamplesofhowchildren inmyclassplayedwiththismeta-character,gettingintoroleasthe‘bard’anddrawingtheiraudienceinthrough their use of orally-rehearsed language. A clear sense ofwriter’s voice ismore apparentthanithadbeenpreviouslyandthechildrenarewritingwithanincreasedawarenessofapotentialreader. This supports Clarke’s claim that ‘talking the text is extremely powerful for children andhugelyengaging’(Clarke2010,citedinMallet2013,28).Iwantedtoexplorethe‘tellingitdown’approachtooralrehearsal,whichinvolveschildrenorallyrehearsingastoryorspeechthreetimesinformallyamongsttheirpeers.Iplannedanddeliveredalesson in which the children were asked to be tour guides at the National Gallery. Using theNationalGallerywebsite,IallocatedeachpairapicturethatcancurrentlybefoundintheNationalGalleryandthentogetherweexploredandgatheredvocabulary(GettyMuseum2015)thatwouldenablethemtocriticallyanalyseanddiscusstheirpictures.Oncethechildrenhadbeengivensomepairedtalking time, theywereaskedto findapartnerandtakethemtowheretheirpicturewas‘displayed’inourclassroom.Theythentalkedabouttheirpicturetotheirpartnerandthenlistenedtotheirpartnertalkabouttheirownpainting.Thiswasrepeatedtwicemoresothatthechildrenhadorally rehearsedtheir ideas threetimes. I thenaskedthemtowritedownexactlywhat theyhadsaid.HavingaskedthechildrentowriteasimilarcriticalanalysisofMonet’s‘WaterLilies’’theweek previously, I was interested to see how the two pieces of writing compared. Appendix Cshowstwopiecesofwritingfromthesamechild,onewhereIhavemodelledthestructureofthewritingandthechildhassubsequentlywritten,andonewherethechildhasorallyrehearsedandthen written. This activity and the writing that followed provided some fascinating analysis, asteachermodelling has featured prominently in recent pedagogy. The evaluation of the ‘Talk forWriting’programsuggestedthatteacherswhoparticipated‘wereinsistentthatmodellingwasthemostsignificantstrategytheyusedtodevelopchildren’s[…]qualityofwriting’(Rooke2012,6).Inmy own practice, modelling has been highly emphasized through Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment sessions and observation feedback. Yet the writing that my children producedwithout any teacher modelling had a feeling of immediacy, engagement and flow; it wasn’tpolishedoraccomplished,butitalsowasnotstiltedandhadlostallfeelingofneedingtousesemi-colonstoobtainhighlevels.Mostinterestingly,onechildcommented:‘I think that itwas flowingoutofmequiteeasilybecausewhenyouwroteamodelandsaidweshould write something like that it was kind of hard to get it in my own words and reallyunderstandit,butthenwhenyougaveustheopportunitytogoaroundandtalktopeopleabouttheworkweweredoingandthenwejusthadtowriteitdown,itseemedquiteeasy.’Anotherchildcommented:‘IfeltquiteemotionalwhenIwaswritingbecausethepenwasjustspeakingforitselfinmymindanditfeltquiterelaxing.’Andathirdstated:‘ThemethodIusedwastojustputwhatIsaidtomypartneronpaperandaddafewbitstoit.’


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These comments reveal that children felt more successful as writers and enjoyed the writingprocessmorewhen they ‘wrote aloud’, i.e. orally rehearsed the exactwords andphraseswhichtheythenwentontowrite.Formyclass,beingableto‘writealoud’relievedthemofthepressureto ‘get it right first time’ andenabled them towritewithmore confidence, a responsewhich ismirroredintheresearchofFisheretal(2010).From this activity, I questionedwhethermy carefully developed teachermodellingwas actuallystiflingmychildren’screativityandwhetheritwasinfactcontributingtothe‘tick-box’mentalityofmyclass.Idecidedtore-fashionourunitonpoetrytoseeifdramaactivitiescouldagainhelpmyclassfindafreedominwritingthatIhadnotyetunlocked.Asaclass,wereadthroughthepoem‘TheDaffodils’byWilliamWordsworth.Wefirstlycelebratedthepoembychoosingourfavouritewordsandallocatingthemanaction,goingaroundtheclassandsharingthesewitheachother.ThiswasanideaIhadgatheredfrommystory-tellingtrainingduringmy teacher training placements. It was an effective way of engaging the children in thelanguage of the poem, and supports the findings ofMallet that ‘itmay bemore appropriate to‘selectaspects’’ fromtheTalk forWriting scheme than follow itprescriptively (Mallet2013,9). Ithen allocated a verse to each group of children and they performed the verse frommemory,splittingthelinesupbetweenthemselves.Wewrotesome10wordversionsofthepoemtogetherto help the children summarise the key points, and then we re-wrote the poem as a letter,imaginingthatwewereanextremely‘posh’person.Thisallowedthechildrentofeelwhatitwasliketowriteinaparticular‘voice’.Ithenplayedthemarap-versionofthepoem,andfinallyaskedthemtoretellthepoemasanarrative intheirownchosenvoice.Someofthemchoseparticularrecognizable characters, such as soldiers or pirates. Some chose their favourite celebrities andothers chose on-line video bloggers (see Appendix D). One child questioned whether it wasacceptable towriteasher favouriteblogger,becauseshewouldneed to spellwords incorrectly.Oncewehadestablishedthatanywayofportrayingthevoicewasacceptable,thechildrenwereenthused and excited. As I watched them orally rehearse their narratives, I noted that severalchildren got into character by using hand gestures and body language, something I hadn’tpreviouslyseenthemdo.The writing that emerged was again unpolished and lacking in ‘tick-box’ elements. However, Inotedduringmyobservationoftheclassduringthiswritingsessionthatseveralchildrengotupoutoftheirseatsandexchangedtheirbooksbecausetheywantedtoseeothers’andsharetheirownwriting. This enthusiasm was something I had not previously witnessed. I decided to give thechildren time to share their writing with each other, and I noted that the child who had beenembarrassedabouthiswritingatthebeginningoftheyearwasnoweagerlyshowingoffhisworktohispeersandenjoying the sensationofmaking them laughand seeing them interested inhiswork.Thissamechildcommentedafterthelesson:‘Itwasreallyfunbecausewecoulddothisinourownstylewithoutfollowingwhatyousaid.Wecoulduseourimaginations.’Thiscommentisparticularlypertinent,asitsupportstheresearchofCreminetal(2006)whonotedtheimpressiveprogressinchildren’swritingwhenthey‘imaginatively[…]inhabitamoment’(p.9).Amongstothercommentsmade,themostinterestingandrelevantwere:‘Ilikethissortofwritingbecauseyoucanexpresswhatyouwanttosay.’‘Ilikethissubjectbecauseitmadeusfeelmorecomfortabletobewalkingaroundretellinginsteadofbeinglikelet’splanitoutandthendoityourway.Insteadwediditourway.’


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‘Ilikethisbecauseyoucouldaddinanycharacteryouwant,evenifit’sacharacterno-one’sseenbeforeandno-oneunderstands,youcanstilladdthemin.’Ananalysisofthesecommentsshowsthatalthoughtheoralrehearsalplayedapart inchildren’senjoyment of thewriting process, an equal factorwas the freedom to find their own voice andwrite as their own character. As the final comment shows, the children felt that their interests,suchasblogging, suddenlyhadvalueandcouldbeshared in thisnewstory-tellingmedium.ThissupportsStoyle’s(2003)commentthatstorytelling‘ismorethanawayofexchanginginformationandextending ideas […]Storiescan linknotonlybetweentheworldofclassroomandhomebutalso between the classroom and beyond’ (Stoyle 2003). For my class, we had made the linkbetweenourown interestsandothers’,andourhome livesandschool lives,andthisresulted inwritingthathadadistinctflowandavoiceuniquetoeachchild.

5.|INFLUENCESONPRACTICE

Throughmyresearch,Ihavebecomeincreasinglyawarethattheroleofspeakingandlisteningisatthe moment an under-utilized tool that has the potential to be an extremely powerful way ofengaging all writers of all abilities. High quality oral work is much broader than a scheme or aprogram, and needs to be carefully planned for to suit the needs of each cohort. As Malletconcludes, ‘Talk forWriting’ is ‘not something new’ and it is important to select from differentinitiativestheaspectswhich ‘suityouandyourclass’ (Mallet2013,9).Fromthisresearch, Ihaveconcludedthatthe‘tellitdown’approachiseasyandeffective,asitformsthebasisforanentirelesson rather than being an ‘add-on’ or a squeezed in drama activity that gets quickly droppedwhentimerunsout.Planning forentireunitsofworkwithstory-tellingororal rehearsalat theirhearthavealsoshownthemselvestobemoreeffectiveatimprovingwritingandengagingwritersthanstand-alonedramaactivitiessuchas‘hot-seating’charactersfromatext.Theseactivitieswillformanimportantpartofmyliteracypedagogyinthefuture.Usinganactionresearchmethodologyallowedmethefreedomtoexploreaproblematicareaofpractice in a reflective and controlledmanner. I discovered that collaboration is a fundamentalprincipleofthistypeofresearchandIfoundmyselfinnewcollaborativerelationshipsnotonlywithcolleaguesbutalsowithmyclass.Thisalliancebetweenteacherandclasstoimprovepedagogyandoutcomeswasdeeplysatisfying,andleadstoseveralquestionsabouthowthisresearchcouldnowbe extended. Does oral literacy present a useful tool for language acquisition for EAL children?Couldstory-tellingbeausefultoolforchildrenwhoareselectivelymute?Whatothermethodsandtechniquesaretherewhichcouldsupportanddevelopwritingoutcomes?Theseareallquestionswhichpresentfurtheravenuesforanactionresearchcycle.Finally,toconcludethisresearchproject,IfindmyselfagreeingwithLaman(2011),whostatesthat,‘Withouttalk,wewouldonlyhaveapartialglimpseofthesestudentsaswriters’(Lamen2011,10).Before starting this project, I had only a ‘partial glimpse’ of whatmy children were capable ofachievingintheirwriting.Morethanthat,Ionlyknewthempartiallyasindividuals.Itwasonlyaftergiving themfreedomtoexplore theirownvoices, first throughspeechandthenthroughwriting,that Iwasable toseeaspectsof theircharactersandpersonalities thathadpreviously remainedhidden.ForStoyle(2003),storiesarechildren’s‘meansofreachingoutandconnectingwithotherpeople’ and I found that through their stories, both oral and written, I was allowed to seemychildren reach out and make connections with both myself and their peers, enriching theirclassroomexperienceandvalidatingtheiruniquevoiceasawriter.


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6.|BIBLIOGRAPHYAlexander, R. (2009) Towards a new primary curriculum: a report from the Cambridge Primary Review. Part 2: The

future.Cambridge:UniversityofCambridge.Baldwin, J. and Dudding, K. (2007) Storytelling in Schools, a Reference Guide. Available at:

www.storytellinginschools.org(accessed:24thMay2016)Barrs, M., and Cork, V. (2001) The reader in the writer: The links between the study of literature and writing

developmentatKeyStage2.London:CLPE.Baumfield,V.,Hall,E.,andWall,K.(2012)ActionResearchinEducation:LearningThroughPractitionerEnquiry.London:

Sage.Berninger,V.,Richards,T.,Stock,P.,Abbott,R.,Trivedi,P.,Altemeier,L.,andHayes,J.R.(2008)Fromideageneration

to idea expression in written composition: Expressing thought in language by hand. British Journal ofEducationalPsychologyMonograph.

Boog,B., Preece, J., Slagter,M.andZeelen, J. (2010)TowardsQuality ImprovementofActionResearch -DevelopingEthicsandStandards.SensePublishers

BritishEducationalResearchAssociation(2011).EthicalGuidelinesforEducationalResearch.Bullock,A.(1975)Alanguageforlife.London:H.M.S.O.Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge and Action Research. Geelong: Deakin

UniversityPress.Cohen, L. & Manion, L. (1994) Research Methods in Education (Chapter. Action Research – pp. 186-202). London:

RoutledgeCohen,L.,Manion,L.,andMorrison,K.(2011)Researchmethodsineducation.London:RoutledgeCorbett,P.(2008)WriterTalk.PrimaryNationalStrategies.Corbett, P. and Strong, J. (2011)About Talk forWriting.Available at: http://www.talk4writing.co.uk (accessed: 24th

May2016).Corson,D.(1988)Orallanguageacrossthecurriculum.Avon:MultilingualMattersLtd.Cremin,T.,Goouch,K.,Blakemore, L.,Goff, E., andMacdonald,R. (2006)Connectingdramaandwriting: seizing the

momenttowrite.ResearchinDramainEducation11(3),273–291.DfE(2012)Whatistheresearchevidenceonwriting?Availableat:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183399/DFE-RR238.pdf(accessed:24thMay2016).

DfE(2013)Englishprogrammesofstudy:KeyStages1and2.London:DfE.DFEE(1998)Thenationalliteracystrategyframeworkforteaching.London:DfE.Dockrell,J.,Marshall,C.andWyse,D.(2015)TalkforWritingEvaluationReportandExecutiveSummary.London:UCL.Dunn, M. & Finley, S. (2010) ‘Children's Struggles with theWriting Process: Exploring Storytelling, Visual Arts, and

KeyboardingtoPromoteNarrativeStoryWriting’.MulticulturalEducation18(1),33-42.English, E., Hargreaves, L., andHislam, J. (2002) Pedagogical dilemmas in theNational Literacy Strategy.Cambridge

JournalofEducation32(1),9-26.Feldman,A.(1994)Erzberger'sDilemma:Validityinactionresearchandscienceteachers'needtoknow.Universityof

Massachusetts/Amherst.Fisher,R.,Jones,S.,Larkin,S.andMyhill,D.(2010)UsingTalktoSupportWriting.London:Sage.Fitzgibbon,H.andWilhelm,K.(1998)‘StorytellinginESL/EFLclassrooms’.TESLReporter31(2),21-31.Gay, L., Mills. G. & Airasian, P. (2006) Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (8th ed.)

(Chapter9:ActionResearch-pp.261-274).NewYork:PrenticeHall.Getty Museum (2015) Introducing Formal Analysis: Landscape. Available at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIbTrG-SlDE(accessed:5thMarch2016).Harris,P.,McKenzie,B.,Fitzsimmons,P.andTurbill, J. (2003)Writing in theprimaryschoolyears.Melbourne:Social

SciencePress.Koshy,V.(2005)ActionResearchforImprovingPractice.APracticalGuide.PaulChapmanPublishing.Laman,T.(2011)TheFunctionsofTalkWithina4th-GradeWritingWorkshop:InsightsintoUnderstanding.Journalof

ResearchinChildhoodEducation,25(2),133-144.Lambeth,A.(2005)TellingDown:StoryTellinginAction.Mallett,J.(2013)TheexplorationoftheimplementationofTalkforWritinginaYear4class.Education3-1341(1),23-

31.McAteer,M.(2013)Actionresearchineducation.ThousandOaks,CA:SagePublications.McGregor,D.(2007)DevelopingThinking;DevelopingLearning.Maidenhead:OxfordUniversityPress.McNiff,J.andWhitehead,J.(2010)YouandYourActionResearchProject(3rded).London:Routledge.


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Morpurgo,M.(2006)Beowulf.London:WalkerBooks.Myhill,D.(2006)Talk,talk,talk:teachingandlearninginwholeclassdiscourse.ResearchPapersinEducation21(1),19-

41.NationalCouncilofTeachersofEnglish(1992).GuidelineonTeachingStorytelling.Pine, G. J. (2009) Teacher action research: Collaborative, participatory, and democratic inquiry. In Teacher action

research:Buildingknowledgedemocracies.(pp.29-62).ThousandOaks,CA:SAGEPublications,Inc.Pullman,P.(2000)TheAmberSpyglass.Scholastic.Rooke,J.andLawrence,P.(2012)TransformingWriting:InterimEvaluationReport.London:NationalLiteracyTrust.Sapsford,R.andJupp,V.(1996)DataCollectionandAnalysis.London:Sage.Somekh,B.(2006)ActionResearch-amethodologyforchangeanddevelopment.Maidenhead:OpenUniversityPress/

McGraw-HillEducation.Stoyle, P. (2008)What Can Storytelling Offer? Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/storytelling-

benefits-tips(accessed:24thMay2016).Stringer, E., Christensen, L. and Baldwin, S. (2010) Integrating teaching, learning, and action research: enhancing

instruction in the K-12 classroom (Chapter 1: Action research in Teaching and Learning). Thousand Oaks,California:Sage.

Wells, G. (1986) The meaning makers: Children learning language and using language to learn. Portsmouth:Heinemann.

Zeni,J.(1998)Aguidetoethicalissuesandactionresearch.EducationalActionResearch6(1),9-19.


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3|EXPLORATIONOFMETHODSTOIMPROVEREADINGCOMPREHENSIONINPUPILS

WITHENGLISHASANADDITIONALLANGUAGE(EAL)

IsobelApseyKidbrookeParkPrimarySchool

1.|INTRODUCTIONBackgroundLearningandusingforeignlanguages ineverydaycircumstances isaskill Ihavegreat interest in.Having livedabroad to studyandwork I have foundmyself in situationswhere, although I havebeen able to read the main idea of a sentence, I have not understood the true meaning ofindividualwords therefore limitingmy understanding of the text. I enjoy the search to find thetranslationofwordsbutinthecontextofamultilingualprimaryschoolclassroom,wheremyactionresearchproject tookplace, effective anddynamic actionsmustbe taken to support children tounderstandEnglishtextsfortruecomprehension.IbeganmyteachingcareerinthisschoolandhavetaughtacrossKeyStage1and2forthreeyears.Iama year 2 class teacher of a class of 28 children forwhom someuse English as anAdditionalLanguage (EAL). This work was carried out in larger than average primary school in South EastLondon. A total 33% of pupils on roll are recorded as being children who speak English as anAdditionalLanguagewhichishigherthanthenationalaverage.Inmyclassroom,thecompetencyofthepupil’scomprehensionofEnglishvariesand Ihadonlyasmallunderstandingofsomeof thechildren’sunderstandingoftextsintheirhomelanguage.‘Homelanguage’inthisreportreferstothelanguagespokenbytheirfamilieswhichmaybetheirstrongestlanguage.AimThis project aims to improve the reading comprehension of EAL pupils in my class. My actionresearchprojectistryingtofindeffectivemethodstoadvancethecomprehensionskillsinreadingofchildrenwithEAL.InmyclassIidentifiedthatEALpupilswerenotachievingaswellwhentheywererequiredtonotonly decode but also comprehend the text, therefore I thought that I would focus on this skillspecifically and identifywhichmethodsweremost effective in improving their understandingofEnglish texts. This mirrored the trend from data analysed by NALDIC (National Association forLanguage Development in the Curriculum) (NALDIC, 2013) which demonstrated that fewer EALpupils in Key Stage 1 achieved the expected level in Year 2 SATs (Standard Achievement Tests)comprehensionassessmentsincomparisontomonolinguisticpupils.Thiswasdespitethefactthatdata from2012 showed thatwhen thesepupilswere inyear1, therewasnonotabledifferencebetweenthedecodingskillsonbilingualandmonolinguisticpupils.


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Objectives1)TounderstandtheextenttowhichEALstudentscomprehendtheirhomelanguages.2) To explore methods of encouraging the use student’s home languages to improve theircomprehensionofEnglishtexts.3)Tousedatafrommyprojectandwiderliteraturetoimprovemypractice.

2.|METHODOLOGYIusedActionResearchtoconductmyproject.Actionresearchinvolvesanumberofcyclicalstagesatillustratedinfigure1.Ifollowedthesestepsinordertocarryoutmyproject.

Fig.1-Theactionresearchcycle(WarwickUniversity,2012)MyconcernwhileplanningmyprojectwasmyawarenessthatEALpupilsinmyclasswereabletodecodetextsfluentlybutwerehavingdifficultywithcomprehendingwhattheyhadread.ThisisaconcernascomprehensionofatextisakeyskillasnotedbySpeizmanWilsonandSmetana(2011)whostressedthatameaning-basedapproachdevelopsliteracyskills.InordertoinformmyactionIreadanumberofarticlesrelatingspecificallytotheteachingofEALpupils fromwhich I recognised the theme of high quality teaching andMistry and Sood (2010)encouraging teachers to “celebrate EAL pupils”which led tomy further research in how I couldundertake this in my classroom. From my reading I took action from from Chumak-Horbatsch(2012)whereIfollowedrecommendationsfortheset-upofmyclassroom.FromtheseactionsIobservedEALpupilsinmyclasswiththeintentiontoseeifhavingtheirhomelanguages celebrated at school in a number of ways would lead them to improve theircomprehensionofEnglish.Furthermore,Iengagedinsemistructuredinterviewswithsomeparentsof the EAL pupil’s to gain understanding of the child’s use of their home language in order tocomparethiswiththeircomprehensionofEnglish.Fromtheseobservations Iwould reflectonmypractice in theclassroom inorder to judge if thepupils felt more comfortable celebrating their home languages and if their comprehension ofEnglishhadimproved.


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I have conducted action research to achieve the aims of my project. Action research has beendefinedbyCarrandKemmis(1986)as“self-reflectiveenquiryundertakenbyparticipantsinordertoimprovetherationalityandjusticeoftheirownpractices,theirunderstandingofthesepractices,andthesituationsinwhichthepracticesarecarriedout.”Inadditiontothis,ithasbeenarguedbyBogdan et al (1992) that action research “seeks to improve social issues affecting the lives ofeverydaypeople.”Asmyactionresearchwasconcernedwithimprovingpupil’scomprehensionoftexts, my project is an example of how action research improves the lives of participants. ThiscorrespondswiththebeliefofHenson(2013)whoprovidedmultiplereasonshowactionresearchcarriedoutbyteachers“hasbeendirectly linkedtotheprofessionalgrowthanddevelopmentofteachers.” Action Research as described by Heller (1993) is able to create new knowledge byprovidingsolutions toconcernsnotedbypractitioners.Thesesolutionsmustbebasedon theorywhichthenhasitsvaluedeterminedinordertoinformanyfurtherpractice.Thesolutionscarriedout by the researcher within Action Research are able to fulfil a number of roles in creatingknowledgeasitadvicespractitionersaccordingtohowtheactionsaffectedtheparticipantsanditcontributestotheoryintheareabeingstudied.

3.|FOCUSOFTHESTUDY

Atthebeginningoftheyear, Iconductedanexercise inmyclassroomtohearthechildrensharetheirhomelanguageswitheachother. Iobservedwhowaswillingtoshareandwhatwordstheycould translate. I invited all the children to speak another language andwould ask the childrenquestionsregardingtheiruseofthe language.Therewerechildren intheclasswhoIhaveheardspeak their home languageswith their parentswhen they are collectedwho did not raise theirhand to offer any examples of this.When I discussed this eventwith other colleagues from theactionresearchgroupatameetingIwasconvincedthatthatanexercisehadbeenineffectiveandseemedtoonlyprovideanecdotalevidenceofchildren’sknowledgeofanotherlanguageasnotallchildren had wanted to share their language skills. Nevertheless, through discussion with thegroup, I realised that I could usemy research to establish away of celebrating children’s homelanguagesintheclassroom.In order to contextualise my study, I performed a literature review about EAL. Evidence fromGillborn and Gipps (1996) asserts that some EAL childrenmake good progress throughout theirtimeatschool.Thiswasnotinevidencefromthedatacollectedatmyschool.MyanalysisofthewholeschooldatawouldbethatthereisastrongemphasisondecodinginYear1wherechildren’slevelofcomprehensionofthetext isnotthemainskillbeingevaluated,howeverasthechildrenprogress through the school, their comprehension is tested which shows little improvementthroughouttheirtimeinKeyStage2.Collier(1992,1995)andCummins(1993)claimthatEALpupilsmake good progress academically if their cultures are “valued and incorporated into the schoolcurriculum.”IntheschoolthereisatrendofhigherthanaveragereadinglevelsforEALstudentsinYear 1. I interpret this data to demonstrate how EAL children have been taught effectively tocorrectly decode texts. This is monitored in the phonics assessment when pupil’s phoneticdecoding skills are tested. However, in the subsequent years, the pupils are assessed on theircomprehensionofatextandtheselevelsarebelowthenationalaverage.Comprehensionskillsaredifferent fromphoneticdecodingskillsandrequireadeeper levelofunderstandingofwhattheyhavereadandalsorequirethestudentstorespondtothetext.Byanalysingthedataoftheschool,Irecognisedatrendthatwhenthereismoreemphasisplacedoncomprehensionofthetext,EALpupils were scoring below the national average. These concerns followed the trend noted byBurgoyne2009,that“readingachievementislowerforthisgroupoflearners.”


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AsaclassteachermyroleistoremovebarrierstolearningforEALstudents.ForEALstudents,thisbarriermaydirectlyrelatetotheircomprehensionoftheEnglishlanguageratherthantheirabilityto complete thework independently. For childrenwhohavenoknowledgeof spokenorwrittenEnglish,supportcanbeprovidedthroughdifferentiatedresourcesorworkingcloselywithanadultto achieve an appropriate outcome for their ability of written or spoken English. Through myassessment of children’s learning and further reading, it is key to remember thatwhile childrenmaybeabletoengagein“playgroundEnglish”(Flynn2007)thismayconcealtheirlackoftechnicalknowledgeofEnglishwhichwillallowthemtousethe languageto itsfulleffecttocommunicateanddevelop“culturally,emotionally,intellectually,sociallyandspiritually”whichissetoutasakeyaim of the 2016 literacy curriculum. A further aim of the curriculum is to improve children’sknowledge of vocabulary and grammar. For children who can use “playground English” tocommunicate and comprehend texts in the classroom, it is recognised that their depth ofunderstandingofthelanguageislimited.Therefore,beingabletoconfidentlyandsuccessfullyuse‘languageaboutlanguage’todemonstratetheirunderstandingmaybelimited.Readingisassessedinseparatestrandsofphoneticallydecodingthewordsandcomprehendingthetext.InoticedinmyclassdatathatEALchildrenwerespreadthroughoutmyreadingdataaspoordecoders with poor comprehension, good decoders with poor comprehension or competent inbothskills.ThroughinterviewswiththechildrenInoticedatrendwhichissupportedbytheviewsofMistry(2010.)ThisfindingthatchildrenwhoengagedinreadingactivitiesintheirhomelearningwerelikelytobebetteratcomprehendingEnglishtextscorrelatedwithMistrywhostatesthat“EALmay find it easier to transfer skills, knowledge and understanding as they already have a baselanguage”ThisledtoakeyaimwithinmyprojecttocelebratethehomeliteraciesofEALchildren.Throughdevelopingtheirengagementwiththeirhomelanguage,IwantedtotrackhowtheymayimprovetheirreadingcomprehensionofEnglish.Byengagingwithmultipleliteracies,itisacceptedthat EAL pupils have a heightened understanding of the structure of language ormetalinguisticawarenesswhichcanbeusedtodevelopgreaterunderstandingofmeaning(Flynn2007).Thisledto my primary focus on how I would focus on children with good decoding skills but poorcomprehension.A further responsibilityasa class teacher is to contactparentsandkeep them informedof theirchild’sprogress.ForfamilieswhocannotcommunicateinEnglish,itmaybedifficulttogetsupportfromschoolabouthowtheycanbestsupporttheirchild’slearning.Moreover,theschool,whichisrequired to provide verbal and written feedback throughout the year, may not be able to letparentsknowabouttheirchild’sachievementsorneedswithouttheuseofatranslator.In order to encourage pupil’s engagement with their home language, the reading of Chumak-Horbatsch(2012)givesexamplestopractitionersofhowtosetupaclassroomenvironmentthatencourages children to use their home languages. One suggestion put forward by Chumak-Horbatschistosharefoodwiththeirpackagesandcontainersasthiscanbeamethodofcreatingamultilingual classroom by sharing what can be similarities among speakers of varied languages.Chumak-Horbatsch intends this “housekeeping centre” (2012) to be used in such a way that ateacher“plansadiscussion”aboutwhathasbeenbroughtin.


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4.|DATACOLLECTIONTOINFORMTHEACTION

InterviewswiththeparentsI conductedeight informal interviewswithparents that lastedup to fifteenminutes. Iplannedashort interviewwithacombinationofopenandclosedquestion toguide theconversationwhileinviting open discussion. The interviews were conducted at school at convenient times for theparents.Iwrotefieldnotesduringtheseconversations.ThesemistructuredinterviewsIheldwiththeparentswereusefulbecauseIwasabletocomparewhat the children had saidwith the parent’s view of their use of the home language. AlthoughtherewerekeyquestionsthatIusedtostructuretheinterviewIchoseamorenaturalmannerofaskingquestionsastheroleofaclassteacheristohaveapositiverelationshipwiththeparentsofpupils. This correlateswith the viewof Sapsfordand Jupp (2006)whoexplainhowunstructuredinterviewscanbeusedtoappearlikea“conversationbetweenequalparticipants.”WhileIhaveaprofessionalunderstandingofhowto improvepupil’scomprehension,onlytheparentswouldbeabletofullyinformmeoftheirchildrencomprehensionoftheirhomelanguage.Adisadvantageofusingthismethodofdatacollectionisthedifferingassessmentofhowparentsreporttheirchild’sunderstandingoftheirhomelanguage.Iaskedaseriesofquestionsabouttheirassessment of the child’s level of understanding when reading or being read to in their homelanguage.Astheseweretheparent’sseparateassessmentsoftheirchild’scomprehension itwasnot possible to measure them against each other and therefore a strong correlation was notpossible as some of the parentsmay have been biased. Thismirrors the disadvantages of semistructures interviews as explained by Walsh and Wigens (2003). They explain that reliability issometimes compromised as comparing responses is complex. A further limitation of having aparentassestheirchild’sskillinreadingisthatIwasnotabletospeaktoalltheparentsandcarersoftheEALpupilsinmyclassassomeofthemcannotspeakEnglish.Thismadethesamplesmaller.FocusgroupwiththepupilsIhelda focusgroupwithin thesettingofmyclassroom.Allmembersofmyclassparticipatedofwhich16useEALand12aremonolinguistic.Icreatedaquestionguideforthefocusgroupinordertoassesstheiruseofhomelanguages.Iusedanaudiorecordingdeviceandthentranscribedandmade fieldnotesof the focusgroup. I chose this techniquebecause it isamethodofqualitativeresearch that enables participants to have a collaborative discussion as stated by Walsh andWiggens (2003) I was able to identify themes within their answers that informed furtherobservations. A disadvantage of using this data collection technique highlighted by Walsh andWiggens (2003) is thatmore vocal participantsmay affect the input of others however as I hadplannedthefocusgrouptoinformmyknowledgeofwhowasconfidentinsharingtheirknowledgeofanotherlanguageinmyclassroom,thiswasaddedtomyfieldnotesfromtheactivity.ThefocusgroupsessiontookplaceatthebeginningoftheSpringTerm.Theaimofthefocusgroupwastohearthechildrensharetheirhomelanguageswitheachother.Iuseddifferentmethodsofquestioningthechildrentoprovoketheirdiscussionaboutlanguagesspokenathome.Iinvolvedallpupils frommyclass in thisgroupas Ididnotbelieve itwouldbebest to separate thepupils interms of their home language. Thiswould not demonstrate an inclusive classroom as theymayhavefeltuncomfortablehavingakeyaspectoftheirhomelifediscussedassomethingthatcouldseparatethemfromtheirpeers.


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As a group I enabled a discussion between children regarding what languages were spoken athome. I invitedall the children to speakanother languageandwouldask the childrenquestionsregarding their home literacy. I observedwhowaswilling to share andwhatwords they couldtranslate. I used structured set of questions to guide the discussion. I filmed the discussion andtranscribedtheresponses.FromthisItrackedthedifferencesinchildren’sresponsesatlatertimesintheyear.During this initial interview I learnt that the childrenwere engaged in their home language in anumberofways.TheytoldmetheygotoSaturdayschoolsortheyarereadanother language inbooks,poems,songsoratreligiousevents.IobservedtheclassindifferentsituationsthroughouttheyearwhereIassessedtheirengagementwith their home languages. These unstructured observations allowed me to identify thesignificance of the pupils actions after I had observed the pupil in this situation as explained byCohen, Manion and Morrison (2011) This method was particularly useful, as through the semistructured interviews, I found that some childrenwhere notwilling to share their knowledgeoflanguages they use outside school. Therefore, during an observation of the pupils in differentcontexts throughout the year, Iwas able to collect data. Also, as these observationswere donewithinthecontextoflessonsandworkshopswithintheclassroomleadbyme,thepupilswereinanaturalenvironmentwheretheyfeltcomfortableasmyobservationswerenon-intrusive,akeyaimfor all my data collection techniques as pointed out my Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2011).However, I foundtheobservationsproveddifficult to identifystrong trendsandtheyweremoreuseful for collecting datawhich could be compared over the year. Itmay have been difficult toidentify strong trends frommy observations as Cohen,Manion andMarrion (2011) explain thetechniquerequirestrainingtomakeinformedjudgementsandtheinclusionofimportantdetails.EthicsI hadadiscussionwith theexecutivehead teacherofmy school to gainethical approval formyresearch. I was conducting research on children which is a high risk group and would also begathering information from theirparentsof theirhomepracticesof reading. For these reasons Iwasobligedtoabidebyhigherethicalguidelines.Throughmyobservationsofadvisedclassroompractice I did not cause and emotional harm on the children. Before asking questions of thechildren’s readinghabits in theirhome languages Iasked forverbalconsent that theywantedtorespondtothequestions.All responses are anonymised and confidential as explain by the Data Protection Act (1998) byBERA (2011). In reference to the ethical guidelines put forward by BERA (2011) I took all thenecessarystepstoreducethesenseofintrusion.Itookspecificcautionwhenaskingpupilsabouttheirhomelivesregardingtheirpracticingofengagingwithanotherlanguage.


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5.|ACTION

ActivitiesduringCulturalEnrichmentWeekIcollectedanumberofideasfrommyreadingstoinformpracticethatwouldcreateanatmospherewhere the cultures of the pupils and their home language would be celebrated using differentmethods throughout the year. This included an action I took was informed by my reading ofChumak-Horbatsch (2012). In regards to creating a learning environment that catered for thevariedlinguisticneedsofmyclassroom,Imadeanumberofchangesovertheyearandworkingincollaboration with a member of the senior leadership team, I suggested activities for CulturalEnrichmentweek. Isuggestedthatthereshouldbeasharedfoodafternoonandaskedifparentswouldwritethenameofthedishandsharetheingredientstheyused.Thisbecameanexerciseinsharing languagesandIobservedinmyclassroom,thatduetothe increasedawarenessofhomelanguagesthattheseconversationscamefromthechildrenwithoutmyprompting.DualLanguagebookdisplaysA further suggestion by Chumak-Horbatsch (2012) is to have “book displays”. Inmy classroom Ihaveanumberofduallanguagebooks.Thesebooksareavailableforfreechoosingbythechildrenandpupilsofmonolinguisticbackgrounds.Ihaveobservedconversationsbetweenpupilsdiscussingthe language and the writing systems of the languages.The use of dual language books in myclassroomledtopupilssharingtheirknowledgeofanother languageandculturewitheachotherwhichisrecognisedamainbenefittoduallanguageresourcesbySemingson,PoleandTommerdahl(2015)isthatpupilsareabletorecognisethemselvesasanexpertwhentheysharetheircultureswith others. I also noted hoe the dual language books allowed pupils that had previously beenhesitanttosharetheirhomelanguagehadthefreedomandprivacyduringquietreadingtoexplorethebooksoftheirhomelanguagewhentheychose.Before theproject thedual languagebookshadbeenusedby the adult reader inmy classwhovolunteers for onemorning eachweek. I had taughther son in theprevious academic year andduringparent’seveningshehadaskedmewhatshecoulddotohelpherson’sreadingasherfirstlanguagewasTurkishandshedidnotfeelconfidentinherabilitytohelphimdecodeEnglishtexts.Lastyear,before Ihadbeguntheactionresearchproject, Ihadprovidedthe familywithsimplertextswhichIknewhecouldeasilyphoneticallydecodeandadvisedhertoaskhimsimplequestionsabout the sequenceof events or todiscuss the actionsof characters as I thought that itwasofgreatervaluetohavehimengageinEnglish languagetexts,howeverbasictheywere,topracticethesecomprehensionskills.Throughmyresearchandbyfollowingthecycleofactionresearchtoseetheoutcomeofmyactions,Iwouldchangemyadviceforthisparent.Whenshevolunteeredasanadultreaderinmyclass,insteadofgivingheralowabilitymonolingualEnglishchildtopracticetheirdecodingskills,partofhertimeinclassisspentreadingwithchildreninmyclasswhospeakTurkish.WhentalkingwithheraftereachsessionIaskedifthesechildrenunderstoodthetextandhowshewouldassesstheircomprehensionandherobservationsoftheircomprehensionofTurkishregardinghowitmayhavechangedovertime. Iwantedtosee ifshefoundtheircomprehensionskills improveinTurkishjustasIhadnoticedtheirimprovedcomprehensionofEnglishtexts.Thisactionthereforehadanumberofsuccessfuloutcomes in that it isonemanner that thechildrenacquiredheightenedcomprehensionskillsbyimprovingtheirskillsintheirhomelanguage.Also,itshowed how working collaboratively with the communities linked to the school can improveunderstanding of how they can help their child’s education. I had told the volunteer about theresearchIwastakingpartinandencouragedhertoreadinTurkishwithherchildandsheandthecurrentteacherhavenotedanimprovementwiththepupilsunderstandingoftexts.


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CreatingofaSchoolMottoA final outcome that I observed inmy classroom as evidence that the childrenwere embracingtheirhomelanguagesandthattheirvariousbackgroundswerevaluedbyeachotherwasduringaPSHE lesson.Ataskwassetforthechildrentocreateaschoolmotto.Wedecidedonthemesbyrankinga listandfindingcommonvaluesthatthechildrenfeltourschoolrepresented. Ingroupstheythencreatedmottos.Asaplenarytothislesson,IspoketotheclassabouthowLatincanbeusedinmottosandwhatthismeant,introducingtheideathataninstitutionwithaLatinmottohasastronghistoryas it isnota languagespokenanymore.Furtherfromthis,thechildrenaskedtouseGoogletranslatetotranslatetheirschoolmottosintotheirhomelanguages.ThisrangedfromCantonese, Turkish, Arabic, French, Lithuanian, Russian, Guajarati, Polish, Kurdish, Hindi, Igbo,YorubaandNepali.This exercise clearly demonstrated tome the value thatmy class nowplaceof their heritage astheyfeelthatthisishowtheyshouldberepresentedbytheschool.ThiswasinstarkcontrasttotheinitialexerciseIcarriedoutatthebeginningoftheyearwhensomepupilsdidnotevenadmittospeakinganotherlanguageandnowtheywereaskingfortheirhomelanguagetobedisplayedonthewhiteboardandheardbytherestoftheclass.

6.|OUTCOMESANDINFLUENCEONPRACTICEFrommyinterviewwiththeclassIidentifiedathemeregardingchildren’swillingnesstosharetheirhome literacies and their comprehension of English texts. This changed throughout the year. Aspupils grew in confidence in sharing theirhome language sodid their comprehensionofwrittenEnglish. The trend in my class followed that EAL children who could not read in their homelanguage were poor readers in English, while children who were learning their home languageformally or who reported to me that they engaged with written texts demonstrated bettercomprehensionskillsinreadingEnglish.During the initial interview I learnt that the childrenwere engaged in their home language in anumberofways.TheytoldmetheygotoSaturdayschoolsortheyarereadanother language inbooks,poems,songsoratreligiousevents.WithinmyclassthereisawiderangeoflinguisticbackgroundsandIfoundthatthechildrenthatsharedcommonlanguagesoftensharedacommonskillin reading comprehension and decoding. This also correlated with parent’s responses to theirchildren’sunderstandingoflisteningandreadingintheirhomelanguages.Accordingtotheparentswho could respond during the semi structured interviews, the childrenwho engagedwith theirhomelanguage,IknewwerealsocompetentatreadingEnglish.However,parentswhosaidtheirchildrendidnothaveagoodunderstandingoftheirhomelanguage,Ifoundwerethechildrenwhodidnothaveaconfidentcomprehensionskillastheirduallanguageandmonolinguisticpeers.AccordingtomysemistructuredinterviewswiththepupilsIwasabletomapthetrendsasfollows.Thechildrenhavehadtheircomprehensionof text judgedaccordingtoKeyStage1SATscriteriawhichcorrelatedwithmyteacherassessmentattheendoftheacademicyear.


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At age related expectations

and exceeding age relatedexpectationsinreading

Below age relatedexpectationsinreading

Children who said they readorlistentoanotherlanguagebeingreadtothem

11 1

Children who said they donot reador listentoanotherlanguagebeingreadtothem

1 3

Table1.Dataconcerningagerelatedexpectationsinreadingandreadingandlisteningtoanotherlanguagebeingreadtothechildren..AttheendoftheacademicyearwhenIhadtrackedtheirreadingcomprehensionlevelsandIfoundthatalargemajorityoftheEALpupilshadmadegoodprogressthroughouttheyearwithanumberofthembeingassessedasworkingabovetheagerelatedexpectationforyear2pupilsinKeyStage1.AsrecognisedbyBourne(2002),bychildrenengagingwiththehomelanguagethroughtexts,theyareimprovingtheircognitivedevelopmentthroughanenhancedmetalinguisticawareness.Thisismirroredinthetrendinmyclass.Bylisteningtoorreadingavarietyoftextsindifferentcontexts,the children are improving their comprehension skills which transfers to their ability to findmeaningintextandthereforeengagewithwhattheyhavereadthroughdiscussions.ItisimportanttonotehoweverthattherearefurtherreasonstoexplainwhythemajorityofEALpupils inmyclasswereworkingatage relatedorexceedingage relatedexpectations.Aswellascelebratingthe literaciesofEALpupils inmyclassroom,similarlytothefindingsofFlynn(2006) Ideliver literacy lessons are based on my sound teaching of literacy for all pupils. Flynn (2006)recognisesthateffectiveliteracyformultilingualandmonolingualpupilsinvolvesencouragingtheuse of Standard English which I use to communicate effectively with pupils. Furthermore, I putlearningincontextthroughtheuseofarangeoftextstoengagepupils.My observation in my classroom that language diversity being celebrated tends to raise themotivationandattainmentofEALpupilsreflectstheadviceofArnotetal(2014)thattodevelopanEAL pupil’s academic process the school should make reference to home cultures and use thehomelanguagesofpupils.There are a number of actions I have taken during the project that will influence my teachingpractice.OneofthekeyactionsthatIwillusetoimproveEALpupil’scomprehensionisencouragingthe parents to use their home language to engage their child in reading and develop theircomprehensionskills.Frommyreadingtoresearchmyactionsandseeingthepositiveoutcomeithadon thepupils inmyclass, Inowunderstood thevalue inparents improvingcomprehensionsskillsastheseareabletotransferbetweenlanguages.Thevalueofsocialinteractionbetweentheschool and the communities of the families is valued by Arnot et al (2014) who stronglyrecommendbuildingcommunicationbetweentheschoolandEALparentswhocansupport theirchild.Asstated,aroleoftheclassteacheristoinformparentsoftheirchild’sprogressandifasked,tobeabletosuggestwayforthefamilytosupporttheirchild’slearning.


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IhavefoundthisprojecttohaveanaffectonmypracticeinthemannerthatIwillplaceimportanceofunderstandinghowchildrenengagewiththeirhomelanguages.BynoticingapatterninmyclassIwasabletodifferentiatethetypeofspecificsupportIcouldprovideforthepupils.Forexample,thechildrenthatareexplicitlytaughtanother languagemayneedmoredifferentiatedsupport inthenuancesofEnglishwhilethechildrenthatcannotreadtheirhomelanguagesmustbeshownthevalueinthisandhowitwillpositivelyimpacttheircomprehensionofreadingEnglish.Furtheraction Iwould like to taketomeasurethe impact ithadonEALpupilscomprehension isworkingwithbilingual teachingassistantswhocoulddeliver focusguidedreadingsessions in thepupil’shomelanguage.Whilemyvolunteerreaderwasabletoofferheropinionofthechildren’slanguageskills inTurkish,havingafocused lessondeliveredbyaneducationalpractitionerwouldhaveanimpactonthechildren’slearning.

7.|BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnot,M.,Schneider,C.,Evans,M.,Liu,Y.,Welply,O.andDavies-Tutt,D.(2014)SchoolapproachestotheeducationofEALstudent.UniversityofCambridge:TheBellFoundation.

Chumak-Horbatsch,R.(2012)LinguisticallyAppropriatePractice.AGuideforWorkingwithYoungImmigrantChildren.Toronto:UniversityofTorontoPress.

Burgoyne, K., Kelly (née Hutchinson), J.,Whiteley, H., and Spooner, A. (2009) The comprehension skills of childrenlearningEnglishasanadditionallanguage.BritishJournalofEducationalPsychology79,735-747.

Cline, T. and Shamsi, T. (2000) Language needs or special needs? The assessment of learning difficulties in literacyamongchildren learningEnglishasanadditional language:a literaturereview,UniversityofLuton:DepartmentforEducationandEmployment.

Flynn, N. (2007) Good practice for pupils learning English as an additional language: Lessons from effective literacyteachersininner-cityprimaryschools.JournalofEarlyChildhoodLiteracy7(2),177–198.

Mistry,M.,Krishan,S. (2012)Raisingstandards forpupilswhohaveEnglishasanAdditionalLanguage (EAL) throughmonitoringandevaluationofprovisioninprimaryschools.Education3-13,40(3),281-293.

National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (2013). EAL Achievement. Available at:http://www.naldic.org.uk/research-and-information/eal-statistics/ealachievement/.[Accessed8August2016].

Sapsford,R.&Jupp,V.(2006)DataCollectionandAnalysis(2nded.).London:SagePublicationsLtd.Semingson, P, Pole, K, and Tommerdahl, J. (2015) Using Bilingual Books to Enhance Literacy Around the

World.EuropeanScientificJournal3(1),132-139.Walsh,M.andWigens,L.(2003).IntroductiontoResearch.Cheltenham:NelsonThornes.Wilson,N.&Smetana,L. (2011)QuestioningAsThinking,aMetacognitiveFrameworkto ImproveComprehensionof

ExpositoryText.Literacy45(2),84-93.UniversityofWarwick(2012)ActionResearch.Availableat:

https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ldc/resource/evaluation/tools/action/(Accessed:10August2016)


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4|HOWCANWESUPPORTPARENTSOFCHILDRENINTHEEARLYYEARSTOACHIEVEPROGRESSINTHEAREAOFPERSONAL,SOCIALANDEMOTIONAL

DEVELOPMENT?

TermaineMarandureKidbrookeParkPrimarySchool

1.|INTRODUCTION

Iamateachertothecoreofmybeing.IlovebeingabletomakeadifferenceinthelivesofyoungpeopleandworkingcloselywithfamiliesasanEarlyYearsPrimarySchoolteacher.Iloveteachingandhavebeendoingsofor10years.IamcurrentlyemployedfulltimeandIhavebeenworkinginthesameschoolfortwoandahalfyears.IenjoyEarlyYearsaspreferencealthoughmyskillssetisspread beyond primary school. My in-school responsibilities are Nursery teacher and I am alsoEasterandSummerSchoolleader.ThetworolesareverydifferentasonerequiresthatIteachandcarry out the daily, termly and yearly responsibilities of a class teacher, whilst the other rolerequiresthatIworkasanindividualbuildingasmallteamandworkingwiththewidercommunitytoengagepupilsoverthetwoholidays.ThisreportportraysanactionresearchprojectaboutthesupportparentscangivetotheirchildrenintheEarlyYearsFoundationStage.ThestudycommencedinSeptember2015andwasconcludedinJanuary2017.ThisprojectwasinspiredbymyexperienceofworkinginEarlyYears.IhaveworkedinthreeEarlyYearssettingssince2008andIhavebeenatthisschoolsince2014.Thisismysecondcohortatthisparticular setting. My school is a community schoolwhich is located in South-East London andcurrentlyhas350+pupilsonroll; twothirdsofthepupilsarefromminorityethnicgroups.Therearehigh levelsofEAL(EnglishasanAdditionalLanguage)pupilsandamuchhigherthanaverageproportionofpupilsareeligible forFreeSchoolMeals (FSM).DisabledpupilsandSENpupilsareaboveaverage(incomparisontolocalandnationaldata)andthesepupilsmainlyhavebehavioural,socialandemotionaldifficultiesorspeech,languageandcommunicationdifficulties.TheschoolhasaNurserywith50part-timeplacesfor3-and4-yearolds.Historically,pupilsatBoxgroveentertheNurseryworkingbelow theage relatedexpectations (30-50months) andby the time they leaveReception,mostofourpupilsachievetheEarlyLearningGoalwhichputstheminlinewithNationalexpectations.Thebaselinedataisasfollows:the2014-2015cohortofNurserypupilsenteredourNurseryworkingatanaverageof36%workingat22-36months.This trendwasmatchedbyour2015-2016cohortwhoalsocameinat36%workingat22-36months.Thisdatainformsmethatourpupilsonentryareworkingat‘lower’thannationalaverage/agerelatedexpectations.Overathirdofourpupilsareworkingattheagelevelofa2-3yearold,with51%workingbelow22-36months-thismeans87%ofourpupilsenterNurseryworkingbelow22-36months.Theneedsofthis87%vary from social communication needs, behavioural and emotional immaturity, ASD, Asperger’sandarangeofundiagnosedfactorssuchaspupilsofparentswhodisplaysymptomsofFactitiousDisorder. This information highlights that there has been a change in our pupils. Some of these


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changescanbeattributedtonormalchangesthathappenincommunitiesaspeoplemoveinandoutofareas,asresearchandinformationprogressesandasthemedicalandeducationindustriesworktogetheronacloserandcloserspectrum.Thisprojectwillattempttoaddressthistrendandmarrymyexperiencesandskillsinwayswhichwilladdressthekeyresearchquestion.Iamgoingtodescribetheprojectinthisreportthroughthelensesofactionresearch.Ihavetakenthelibertyofsectioningthereportwhich,forthebenefitofthereader,willhelpinunderstandingthepremiseoftheproject.

2.|METHODOLOGY

I haveadoptedan ‘action research’ approachas I amattempting toaddressandexamine issueswithinmypracticewhichhaveriseninlightofmyin-classexperiences.ActionresearchisdefinedbyCarrandKemis(1986)asbeingabouttwospecificthings:thefirstis‘action’(whatyoudo)andthe second is ‘research’ (how you learn about and explain what you do). The action aspect isdefined as being a process where ones ‘actions’ during research are specifically for improvingpractice.The‘research’aspect isdefinedasbeingaboutcreatingknowledgeaboutyourpractice.Theknowledgethatmyself,astheresearchercreates,ismyknowledgeofpractice(CarrandKemis,1986).ThestudiesdevelopedusinganActionResearchapproachfollowanActionResearchcycle.ThiscycleisdefinedbyTripp(2003)asfourmainsequences,namely;PlanAction,ActThoughtfully,ResearchActionandEvaluateAction.Toexpandonthiscycle,Cohenetal (2011)summarise thecycle as ‘initial problem, proposed intervention, implementation and outcome’. In recent years,concern has been expressed by many, for example, Hargreaves (1996) and Rose (2002) that“education research was not always reaching the practitioners, as quite often work done byacademicswaspublished in journals generallynot readby them”.Action research combines theideasoftakingpurposefulactionwitheducational intent. Italsoentailstestingthevalidityofanyclaims that we, as educators, make about the process we become involved in during actionresearch(McNiff,2010).“Actionresearchisasmall-scaleinterventioninthefunctioningoftherealworld to address practitioners own issues, and a close examination of the effects of such anintervention”(KemmisandMcTaggart,1992).CarrandKemmis(1986)describeactionresearchasbeing about three core factors, including the improvement of practice, the improvement of theunderstandingofpracticeandtheimprovementofthesituationinwhichthepracticetakesplace.Actionresearchmakesitpossibleforpractisingteacherstoexperiencetheresearchprocess,whilstalso benefiting from the experiences they become involved in. Action research is unique in itsresearch approachbecause it opens upopportunities for practitioners to actually be involved inresearch,whichhas immediaterelevanceandapplication(Koshy2005).“Thefundamentalaimofactionresearch is to improvepractice rather thantoproduceknowledge” (Elliott,1991).Gaininginsights and planning action are twoof themain purposes of being engaged in action research.Duringthisactionresearchproject, Iadaptedacore fociwhichsupportedme inhelpingtocarryout this project successfully. I adopted Cohen, Manion & Morrison’s (2011) model whichencouragesactionresearchersto‘staysmallandfocused,toidentifyaclearresearchquestion,toremain realisticaboutwhatonecanpracticallydo, toplan the researchcarefully, to set realistictime scales whilst involving other professional and observers (including participants, validators,criticalfriendsorpotentialresearchers).Action research is the appropriate method for my aims because unlike other formal types ofresearch,itintegratesresearchandactioninaseriesofflexiblecyclesinvolving,holisticallyratherthanasseparatesteps-everythingfromthecollectionofdataaboutthetopicofinvestigation,toreaching an outcome or decision. Another reason why I chose action research was because it


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involvesexploratoryengagementwithawiderangeofexistingknowledgedrawnfromavarietyofschools of learning, such as from psychology, philosophy, sociology and other fields of socialsciences.Actionresearchlocatestheinquiryinanunderstandingofbroaderhistorical,politicalandideological contexts that shape and constrain human activity at both the local (school) andinternational(culturalfactors)levels(Somekh,2006).EthicsThe 2011 edition of the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) ethical guidelines forEducational Research (BERA, 2011) considers that all educational research should be conductedwithin: an ethic based respect for the person, knowledge, democratic values, the quality ofeducational research and academic freedom. There was a set of standards associated with theresearchpracticewhich I followedwith relation tomyproject: during this researchprocess, thewellbeing of all participants was of high importance and it was a priority. As the research andparticipant involvementwasverygeneric,non-intrusiveandvoluntary, all participants’wellbeinghasbeenmaintainedandprotected.AnotherethicalconsiderationIhadtomakewasensuringthatthe rights of the childwereof paramount importance throughout thewhole researchprocess. Icompliedwith Articles 3 and 12 (of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child);whichrequiresthat‘inallactionsconcerningchildren,thebest interestsofthechildmustbetheprimaryconsideration’(BERA,2011).Someof the ethical considerations I had tomakeduring this process included gaining voluntaryconsentfrommyparticipants;asaresearcheritwasimportantformetotakethenecessarystepstoensurethatalltheparticipantsinthisprojectunderstoodtheprocessinwhichtheyweretobeengaged. Ialso informedallparticipantsonwhy theirparticipationwasnecessaryandhowtheirdatawouldbeusedandhowandtowhomitwouldbereported.Allparticipantsweregiventheright towithdrawparticipationatanypointandthiswasmadeveryclear toallparticipants.Thelettersinvitingthemtotakepartintheresearchrightdowntotheparentworkshopsallowedthemtowithdrawparticipation.Forexample,duringoneworkshop,aparentwithdrewherparticipationand Iamassumingthat itwasbecauseshedidnot feel thatthe information Iwasprovidingwasrelevant,norapplicabletoherson.Participantconfidentialitywasmaintainedandupheldsonoparentorchildrenwerenamedsoastoidentifythem.Theconfidentialandanonymoustreatmentofparticipants’datawasconsideredthe norm for the duration of the research process and during thewriting of this project. As anethicalconsideration, Iheld inhighregardtheparticipants’entitlementtoprivacyandIawardedthemaccordthemthisrighttoconfidentialityandanonymity;noparentsorguardiansatanypointwaivedthatright.

3.|FOCUSOFTHESTUDYANDINITIALDATACOLLECTIONTOINFORMTHEACTIONMyconcernstartedtobuildupwhen,inSeptember2015,theEarlyYearsPractitioner(EYP)andIattended home visits in preparation for the 2015-2016 cohort of pupils who would be startingNursery that September. Home visits are used by school teachers as a way of introducingthemselves to theirprospectivepupils, togiveparentsachance toaskanyquestions theymighthaveregardingtheupcomingschoolyearandtobuildapersonalrelationshipoutsideoftheschoolbuildingwithboth child and family. Iwork closelywith theEYPduringhomevisits. During thehomevisit,Itakethelibertyofaskingtheparent/squestionswhichinformmeaboutthechild.Thisincludescrucialinformationsuchasnameanddateofbirth,tomedicalhistory,generalinformation


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aboutthechild’sfamily,interestsandtheparents’hopes.Ialsousetheopportunitytogiveparentsastartdate,answeranyquestionsthattheymighthaveandputinplace,ifnecessary,aspecialisedsettlinginourclassroomorwithintheroutineforthepupilathand.Wevisiteverychildwhowillbestartingschoolthatyear,inthiscase,ittotalled52children;includingsomewhoaresiblingsandthosewhoarenewtotheschool.WhenpupilsstartNursery,webegintocollectdataontheirfirstday. The data we collect initially is qualitative; we complete a formative assessment form. Thisgivesusaninitialsnapshotofthechildontheirfirstdayandbecomesveryinformativeastheyearprogresses. It is always nice to look back and compare the progress; whether measurable orotherwise,thateachchildmakesoverthecourseofatermorayear.Withinthefirsthalfterm,wecollectbaselinedata(aroundOctober).ThisshowsuswherechildrenareworkinginrelationtotheEarlyYearsOutcomes(DfE,2013).Theadvantagesofdoinghomevisitsarethatitputsthechild’smindatease;theyareabletomaketheassociationbetweenselfandschoolandtheyarebetterpreparedforschooloncetheystart.Italsogivesusagreatopportunitytodiscusswiththefamily,anyconcernstheymighthave.Itputseveryone’smindatease.Thedisadvantagesofdoinghomevisitsarethattherearesomeparentshowfeelreluctanttoallow‘strangers’intotheirhomes;thiscouldbeforfearof judgementormistrust intheeducationsystem.Breakingdownthisbarrier ischallenginganditisalwaysattheforefrontofourmindswhenwedohomevisits.Wearefirstournaturalselvesandwetrytobeopenandwarmtoallparents,childrenandfamilymemberswhoarepresent.Insum,IthinkthattheyareanecessarypartofEarlyYears.Theygiveusagreatinsightandprovide invaluable informationabout thechild, theirneeds, their familiesand their religiousand cultural background. The information that these home visits provide played a large partinspiringthefocusofthisproject.Someofthequestionsthat Iaskparentsduringhomevisits,whichallowmeamicro insight intochildren’slifeexperiencespriortocomingintonurseryinclude:-“Whatdoyouenjoydoingtogetherasafamily?”-“Hasyourchildbeenreferredtoanyprofessionalagenciessuchassocialservicesandspeechandlanguagetherapists?”-“Whatareyourexpectationsofusasanursery?”SomeoftheresponsesIreceivedincluded;-“Wegotochurchtogether”-“Idonotreadtomychild”-“HeusedtogotospeechtherapybuttheygavemetheoptiontowithdrawhimsoItookhimout”-“Iwanthimtolearneverything[youknow]hisabc’sandalsohisnumbersandthingslikethat”Inmyprofessionalanalysisandsubsequentconclusions,therewasevidencethatindicatedthat:

1:Therewerelittletonotrendstoconsiderwithregardstotheearlychildhood/pre-schoolexperiencesofourpupils.Eachchildhadaveryuniqueandindividualhomelifewhichwasreflectedintheirbriefinitialcontactwithus,duringthe15minuteshomevisits2: The area in which we are located serves a wide community with diverse languages,backgrounds, cultures and experiences. Thus, this meant that the 2015-2016 cohort ofpupilswouldindeedreflectthediversityofthelocalcommunity.3:Eachadult/carerwhomwespoketohadrelativeknowledgeofthechildrenwithwhomwewerevisitingthehomes.Alladultswereabletoprovideanswerstoallthequestionsthatwe asked. Even if some of the answers were very brief, the adults were able to


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communicateasoundlevelofknowledgeabouttheyoungpupilswhowouldbejoiningthenursery.4:About 65%of parentswere keen/eager for their child to start school,with about 15%displayingareluctancetoseparating fromtheirchildrenoncetheystartedschool.20%ofparents would be classed as those who had no previous experiences with the Britisheducational system thus expressing a desire to become involved and to support theirchildrenasbestastheycouldduringtheiryearinNursery.5: It was evident from the home visits that we would have a much higher than pre-registerednumberofpupilswhowouldrequireadditionalsupport.Theschoolregistrationformallowedparentstodisclosepriorknowledgeofadditionalneeds. Ihad15%ofpupilsonpaperashavingbeendiagnosedoridentifiedashighneed.However,itwasclearwithinthefirsttermthatthisfigurewascloserto60/70%-whichisreflectedinthe87%ofpupilswhoworkedat22-36monthsonentry(againsttheDMscores,2012).

An analysis of all qualitative and quantitative data for the class of 2015-2016 allowed me toconcludethattherewasaneedforprovidingsupporttothefamilies-notjustthepupilswhomIwasteaching.Literaturereviewtoinformtheaction.The nature of a home visit allowedme to be able to discusswith parentswhat their parentingphilosophies, ideologies and priorities are, their adult-child interactions and their familyenrichment activities- to name but a few. Home visits also allowed me access in to children’scultures, traditions and beliefs. I then, as a practitioner, use this information to set up anenvironmentthatissupportive,reflectiveofallpupils-andonethatcelebratestheirsense-of-selfandtheirpersonal identities.Forthepupilswhoenter intothenursery,Bridge(2001)statesthat“…teachersmustbeawareoftheimportanceofcultureandcontextinchildren’slearning’andthisphilosophyisechoedbyArndtandMcGuire-Schwartz(2008)whostatedthat“whenteachersareabletoconversewithfamilies,theycancollectdetailedinformationabouttheirincomingstudentssothattheyarebetterabletomeetthechildren’sneeds”.Literature about parental involvement in pre-school children’s learning tells us that it isinstrumentalinchildren’seducationalsuccess(Bridge,2001).Piotrkowski(2000)echoesthebasesofmycontextualanalysisandpreliminaryaction-“topreventschoolfailure,communitiesneedtofacilitate children’s school readiness” for the individual child. School readiness refers to thepersonalreadinessresources(humancapital)achildmaybringtoschooltohelphimorheradaptsuccessfullytothechallengesof[earlyyearsprovision](Piotrkowski,2000).Usingthescale,“PublicSchoolKindergartenTeachers’ViewsonChildren’sReadinessforSchool,”Nelson(1995)examined1,339kindergartenteachersfromasampleof860schoolsacrossthecountry.Theresultsrevealedthat the metropolitan status of the schools, race and socioeconomic status of the childreninfluencedteachers’viewsofreadiness(Nelson,1995,ascitedinLinetal,2003).Inmyclassroom,pupil scored very low in their Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) and in theCommunication, Language and Literacy (CLL). PSED is where young children’s ‘school readiness’derives from.Considering thatour scoreswere reflecting3 yearoldswhowereemotionally andliterallyfunctioningatthelevelof2to2½yearolds,Iwasinspiredtoconcludethatpupilsenteringintotheschoolsettingwerejustnotreadyforschool.InastudydonebyPiotrkowskietal(2000),astudy titled “Parents’ and Teachers’ Beliefs About Children’s School Readiness in a High-NeedCommunity” compared the beliefs of preschool teachers, Nursery teachers, and parents in onemostly Hispanic and Black high-need urban school district to learn their views of what children


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shouldknowandbeabletodoatschoolentry-level.Beliefsregardingtheimportanceof12schoolreadiness“resources”wereassessedwith theCARESsurveydesigned for this study inparticular.Researchers found that parents held remarkably similar beliefs, regardless of ethnicity oreducation; the same generalisations can be applied in my setting based on the results of thesurveys I collected. Parents and teachers agreed that children must be healthy and sociallycompetent,andbeabletocomplywithteacherauthority-parentsratedthislatterresourcehigher.Parentsratedallclassroom-relatedreadinessresourcesasmoreimportantthanteachersdidwhichisamisunderstandingthatmostoftheparentswithinmyNurserysettinghad;thehomevisitdatasuggeststhatparentsbelievethatachild’sabilitytoread,writeandhavenumberknowledgewasinfactofmoreconcernthantheiremotionaldevelopment.ParticipantsinPiotrkowskietal’s(2000)studybelievedthatitwasnecessaryforachildtobeabletocommunicateinEnglishandtohavebasic knowledge and skills, also stating that thiswasmore important than a child’s approach tolearning.Raver and Knitzer (2002) integrated important evidenced-based corollaries of social–emotionalcompetenceduringthepre-schoolyears,whichbearontheneedforsocial–emotionalassessment.Thesecanbesummarizedasfollows:

1.Youngchildrenwithoutdevelopmentallyappropriateemotionalandsocialcompetenciesparticipate less in the classroom, and are less accepted by classmates and teachers.Teachersprovidethemwithlessinstructionandpositivefeedback.Theylikeschoollessandthus,theylearnless.Insupportofthistheory,mydatahasshownthatwithoutadditionalsupportandinterventionsprovidedforpupilsonanongoingbasis,thosepupilswhoscorelowduringthebaselinedatacollectionperiod,thuswouldhavestruggledmoreduringthefirstterm(beforewestartourinterventions).However,itisimportanttoalsonotethatthistrend is not static and somechildrenwho scorehighonourPSED scoresduringbaselinedatacollectionsubsequentlyneedinterventionsforotherareassuchasbehaviourandwithregards to teacher acceptance, thiswould be a challenging scale tomeasure as I believethatItreatallmypupilsfairlyandhaveequallyhighexpectationsofallofthem.2. Such social–emotional competences (PSED) of young children predicts their academicperformanceinfirstgrade,evenwhencontrollingfortheiractualcognitiveskillsandfamilybackgrounds.Withrelationtothepupilswhoentermyclassroomlowandthuspresentasneeding additional support as the year progresses, it has been a trend as they progressthrough the school. For example, those pupils who formed the focus group and whoseparentsweregivenadditionalinformationandsupport,havecontinuedtoneeditrightupuntil theyenter receptionat theageof4.What isnotauniversal trendhowever, is thatthese same pupils will achieve poor academic performance as they progress throughouttheirschoolandacademiclives.Ibelievethatachangeincircumstances,differentpracticesat home or a child’s maturation can play a large factor in helping a low achieving childchangetheirgradesfromlowtoaverageandabove.3. This situation persists into the later elementary years. Young children who behaveaggressivelyorantisociallyaremorelikelytoperformpoorlyonearlyacademictasks,andtobe held back. Later on, they are more likely to drop out and persist in their antisocialbehaviour.Given these circumstances, it is imperative for children’s long-termwell-beingand academic success to have assessment tools that help pinpoint strengths andweaknessesinsocial–emotionalcompetencies,aswellasprograms’abilitiestofostersuchcompetencies(Denham,2006).


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Varying research projects over time have concluded that children entering kindergarten (orNursery)with‘positive’profilesofsocial–emotionalcompetencehavemoresuccessindevelopingpositiveattitudesaboutschoolandsuccessfulearlyadjustmenttoschool,andthesechildrenalsoshowimprovedgradesandachievementovertime(Birch,Ladd,&Blecher-Sass,1997;Ladd,Birch,&Buhs,1999;Ladd,Kochenderfer,&Coleman,1996).Childrenwhostartschoolwith‘friends’,arewellliked,abletomakeandsustainnewfriendships,andareabletoinitiatepositiverelationshipswith their teachers overtime, display a difference to those who enter school displaying theopposite.Namely, theygenerally feelmorepositiveaboutschool,participate inschoolmoreandachievehigherandmore incomparisontotheircounterparts.WithinthegroupofpupilswhomIteach,itisevidentthatthereisavariedrangeofsocialandemotionalcompetenciesonentry-thisisreflectedinboththeirbaselinedataandtheirqualitativeassessment(Tapestry).Someofthesecompetencies(or‘factors’)include:positiveinteractionswithteachers,positiverepresentationsofself-derivedfromattachmentrelationships,emotionknowledge,emotionregulatoryabilities,socialskillsandnon-rejectedpeerstatus-suchcompetencieshavebeendescribedasbeinggreatmarkersof uniquely predicting academic success, even when other pertinent variables, such as earlieracademicsuccess,arealreadytakenintoaccount(Denham,2006).Itisimportantthentonotethatalthough Raver and Knitzer (2002) provided an excellent study with great corollaries of social–emotionalcompetencesbutthesearenotstaticanduniversal.Eachchildisuniqueandindividualand it isup tousasadults,educatorsandcarers toput inplaceadditional support tohelpchild‘catch-up’emotionallyiftheyenterschoolworkinglowonthesocio-emotionalscales.Whetherornottheterm“schoolreadiness” isused,helpingyoungchildrenbepreparedfor initialsuccess inschool is an extraordinarily important challenge that is especially pressing in high-needcommunities. Kagan (1994) advocates that schools and communities work together in creatingschoolsthatarereadyforyoungchildren,notonlygettingchildrenreadyforschoolbyprovidingdevelopmentally appropriate preschool programs, but also getting schools ready for children.Teachers play pivotal roles in creating environments that nurture children’s development andlearningthroughpositiveinteractionsandage-appropriateinstruction(Willer&Bredekamp,1990).Thus,findingsrelatedtokindergartenteachers’perceptionsaboutreadinesshaveimplicationsforunderstandingwhatthoseteachers,basedupontheirownunderstandingsofchildren’sreadiness,mayactuallydointheirclassroomstobereadyforchildren(Linetal,2003).

4.|ACTION

InAutumnterm,Istartedouttheresearchbyassessingchildren’sbaseline/onentryscoresagainstEYFSP/nationalexpectations.Onebenefitofassessing thesepupils is that ithighlights theirneedfor support at an early stage which allows us to put individual need interventions in place. Alimitationofdoingthebaselinedatacouldbethatpupilswhoareidentifiedsosoonintheschoolyearhavenotyetbeengivenachancetosocialiseandgetusedtosocialising inanenvironmentthattheyarenotusedtobeingin.IcomparedthedataofpupilswithinmyclassagainstNationaldata,previousschoolsbaselineandDevelopmental Expectations (DFE) and decided to develop my action around the strategies tosupportparentstoachieveprogressintheareasofpersonal,socialandemotionaldevelopment.IntheNursery,thereare52pupilsintotal,splitintotwoclassesof26.Allchildrencomefromahomewithatleastoneparentorcarer;noneofthepupilsinthisstudywerelookedafterchildren.ThenextstepafterthiswastodiscussmyfindingswiththemembersofstaffwhoworkinNurseryastheyoccasionallyhavehistoricalknowledgeofpupilswithinfamilies;thishelpedtostrengthenmy‘core’groupofpupilsandparentswhoIwouldworkclosely.Totrackchildren’sprogress,Iusedthe


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JohnSinnetttrackingprogrammeandthisisagoodtooltousebecauseitgivesaclearcolourcodedpicture.Towardstheendof theAutumnterm, I trackedchildren’sprogressafter theirsettling inperiodandusedthedatatoputchildrenininterventiongroups.Coincidentally,theparent-teachermeetings occur in Autumn and l took the opportunity to have meetings with parents whosechildrenlhadparticularconcernsabout.Thiswasaparticularlybusytimewithregardstoprovidingsupport for pupils. I put together an action plan for the core group of pupils which included,interventions,meetings,stayandplaysessions, liaisingwithSENCO’s,workingtogetherwithGPs,SALTs and other professionals and refer children to the appropriate authorities (i.e. apaediatrician).InJanuary2015,Iinvitedparentstocompleteaquestionnairethatwasanonymous.Questionnaires are a practicalway of gathering data. They allow the researcher to collect largeamountsofinformationinashortperiodoftimeandacosteffectiveway.Parentsweregiventwoweekstocompletethequestionnaireandreturnit.Thisquestionnairegaveparentsthefreedomtorespondbygivingmeanswersabouttheirpersonalrelationshipswiththeirchildren, theirbeliefsabouttheirstrengthsandinformationaboutareaswhichtheyfelttheyneededadditionalsupportor information in. I sent out 52 surveys: one per 'family'. I got back 17 questionnaires (allwereanonymous).Theresultsofthequestionnairehighlightedtwosignificantissues:thefirstwasthatmostparentsbelieved that they spent sufficientquality timewith their children and the secondwasthatallparentswhoreturnedthequestionnairerequestedfurtherinformationofonekindoranother.Forexample,parentsrequestedfurtherinformationonissuessuchasMathsandEnglish,developmentalstagesofdevelopmentand/ormoreinformationoncognitivegrowth(inrelationtoagerelatedexpectations),andbehaviourmanagement.TheconclusionsthatIdrewbasedonthisinformation supported the idea to hold workshops which touched on: the importance ofsupporting learning through play and strategies to develop life-long learners (Spring Term).Unfortunately,only8%ofparents came to theworkshops. Ibelieve therewere reasons for this.Thetimingcouldhavebeenbetterplanned;first-itwasintheendoftheyearwereparentscouldhavefeltthatthebetterpartoftheyearhadpassedthereforelittleimpactonpupilprogresswouldbe implemented at this point and also, the workshop was held at 9:00am. This was the mostconvenienttimewiththeleastdistractionforpupilsandthewiderschool,however,itmeantthatparentswhousuallydrop their childrenoff at 12:30werenowexpected to comeat 9:00,whichwouldundoubtedlyputoff someparentswhohadadouble journey tomakeon thatday.8%ofparentswhoattended theworkshopswerebothmorningandafternoonparents in theNursery,10%werefromReceptionandYear1classes.Parentswerealso invitedtoweekly ‘stayandplay’sessions (amandpmdoneseparately)wheretheycontactedwith the teacherandotherprofessional suchasSpeechandLanguageTherapistsandreceivedhandoutsaboutlearningandcognitivedevelopment.Theattendancewassuccessful(Nurseryamclass-85%andNurserypmclass-92%).

5.|OUTCOMESANDINFLUENCEONPRACTICECarrying out this research has been an interesting and fulfilling process. It has been wonderfulwatchingtheresearchprogressfromanideatoresearchandfinally,toconcludingtheresearch.It is clear fromanalysing the trackingdata that pupilsmadeprogress, however, therewere alsopupilswhohavenotmadeprogress.Someof thesepupils’ lackofprogresscanbeassigned toavariety of reasons including the fact that some pupils could have undiagnosed additional needssuch as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Selective Mutism or Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD).


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PupilsinNurserymadethebestprogressintheSpringterm,wheretheyjumpedfrom69%belowexpectations in theAutumn term, to71%aboveexpectations in the Spring term.This change indata may be credited to a number of factors including the parent workshop, the Stay ‘N Playsessionsthatwereputinplace,thehandoutsgiventoparentswithinformationonhowtosupporttheirchildrenathome,invitingthespeechtherapisttothesessionsandthein-schoolinterventionsthatarecarriedoutonaweeklybasis.Although this project seems tohavebeen successful in ensuring that pupilsmadeprogress, it isimportanttonotethelowreturnoftheclasssurveys.Lessthanhalfofparents(40%)returnedthesurveys. Someparentsmighthave seen theprocess as intrusive, thusdismissing the completionandreturnofthesurveys.Otherparentsmightnothavejudgedthesurveysasimportantnorfoundit toberelevanttotheirchild’s learning-sotheydidnotreturnthesurveysatall.A fewways inwhichwecouldovercomethelowattendance(8%)ofparentstotheworkshops,wouldbe;tocallthem ‘coffeemornings’ insteadofworkshops, tocarryoutaseriesofworkshops throughout thewholeyear(notjustinSpringTerm)andtodoworkshopsbasedonparentsrequestandneed(suchasMathsandEnglish)ratherthanwhatIsolely,asresearcherandteacher,foundimportantinthisinstance.Onelimitationofthisactionresearchproject isthatmyownperceptionof ‘schoolreadiness’hasbeeninfluencedbymybackground,myunderstandingandtheexpectationsoftheauthoritieswithwhich I am employed. This has been studied by Smith and Shepard (1988) interviewed 40kindergartenteacherswhoworkedindifferentadministrativeschoolstructuresandfoundthattheteachers’ conceptions of learning and development seemed to be congruent with theadministrativepracticesandphilosophiesoftheirownschoolsystems(SmithandShepard,1988ascited in Lin et al, 2003). Embedded in a sociocultural context, kindergarten teachers’ readinessperceptionsareshapedbymanyfactors,includingtheirownexperiencesaslearnersandteachers,schoolstructure,schoolteachingconditions,theexpectationsofschoolsforchildren,socialforces,communityneedsandvalues,children’sbackgrounds,andexternalsocietalattitudestowardearlychildhoodeducation(Linetal,2003).Anotherlimitationofthisstudyandactionpointforfutureresearchisthatwhenschoolreadinessexpectations differ substantially between the variables of home and school. Some early yearspractitioners potentially view some children as “unready”- thus, treating them differently upontheirstart inmainstreameducation(Westetal.,1993).However,thisnotionisnotuniversalandshouldnotbeappliedassuch.Teachers’viewsare importantbecausetheirearlyassessmentsofyoungchildren’sreadinessplayanimportantroleinspecialeducationplacement,abilitygrouping,grade retention (e.g., Entwisle, 1995; Gredler, 1992; Powell, 1995; Rist, 1970; Shepard& Smith,1986 as cited in Piotrkowski, 2000). Providing childrenwith access to the interactive life of theclassroom, to develop social skills, and to acquire appropriate forms of behaviour in groups areconsistentlyvaluededucationalattainmentgoalsinearlyyears(nursery/kindergarten)(Heaviside&Farris,1993).Thisfindingissimilartothefindingsreportedbypublicschoolkindergartenteachersa decade ago (Heaviside & Farris, 1993). In that survey, more than half of the teachers placedconsiderable emphasis on following directions, not being disruptive in class, being sensitive toothers,andtakingturns.Teachersappeartobeconsistentacrossthedecadeintheirperceptionsofimportant aspects of development in kindergarten children’s development; thus, reflecting arelativelysustainedconceptionaboutthevalueofkindergartenasthebeginningofacademic lifefor children. These types of social skills help set the stage for students to be able to engage inacademicactivities,either individuallyor ingroups (Heaviside&Farris,1993ascited inLinetal,2003).


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ConclusionTheaction researchproject I carriedout suggested thatahostof factors,aswellashighqualityteachingandanoutstanding learningenvironment,supportchildrentomakeprogressovertime.Someofthesefactorsthatsupportchildrenasideformdailyclassroomroutineinclude:providingdaily interventions based on class need, working with outside agencies [such as Speech andLanguage Therapists] to provide advice and support to teachers and parents, building strongrapportwithallparents,providingopportunitiesforparentstocomeintotheclassroomto ‘play’alongside their children and making or making referrals to appropriate outside bodies such aspaediatriciansortheschoolnurse[tosupportpupilswhopresentwithhavinganadditionalneed].On reflection, it is not a conclusive statement to say that parent workshops do not work, theysimply did not work on this occasion because we had a very low attendance rate and as priormentioned,someofourparent’sabsencescanbejustifiedandothers,notsomuch.Theresultsofthisprojecthaveinspiredmetofirst,carryonwithalltheadditionalsupportthatIprovidepupils,secondly- to provide early intervention workshops to all Nursery pupils and third, to continueworkingwithexternalagenciessuchasSpeechtherapiststosupportpupilsasearlyaspossibleintheschoolyear.Professionally,theresearchandtheresultsthemselveshavebeenalearningcurveforme. This is because inAutumn2015, Iwasunprepared for thehigh rateof lowentrees intoNursery.However,beingabletodotheresearchalongsidesupportingparentsandpupils,hasbeenan invaluable experience. In the future I am going to start doing parent workshops from theAutumnTerm;Ithinkthiswillhelptogetparentsusedtotheflowandfrequencyofworkshops,or‘coffeesessions’asIwouldprefertocallthem.Ihavealsolearntthatbuildingpositive,strongandconsistentrapportwithparentsinthebeginningstagesofourworkingrelationshipshelpswhenIneedtohavethosechallengingconversations.ThemostimportantlessonsIwilltakeintomyfuturecareer is that first, I cannot change parenting styles on a major scale. Small scale changesconsistently done over a long period of time are effective and enough. I will also take intoconsiderationthenotionthat‘ittakesavillagetoraiseachild’(Africanproverb):parentscannotdoit alone, teacher’s cannot do it alone, the medical industry cannot do it alone and of-course,childrenneedustodoitalltogether.My action research journey has been fulfilling; I havewe enjoyed every part of it including thechallengesandthevictories.Ithastakenalotofextrawork,commitmentanddedicationfrommyend.ItisapaththatIamgladItookbecauseIhavenowbeenabletoputintopractisewhatwouldhave been a lingering question in my classroom. I would take the opportunity to share theinformation that Igatheredand the resultsofmyprojectwithotherEarlyYearpractitioners if itshouldarise.Iwoulddothissoastoencouragethemandinformthemthattherearevariouspaths,avenuesandwaysthatyoucanusetosupportyour loweron-entrypupilstoachievehigherthanexpectedresultsbytheendofNursery.Howhasthisjourneytransformedyourimageofteacher,teaching, students, schools, learning?Howhaveyourparadigmsbeenaltered,confirmed,and/orchallenged?Ihavelearntthatactionresearchisauniqueandexcellentopportunitytobeactivelyinvolved in research that is relevant andunscrupulous. I haveenjoyed the journeyof the actionresearcherandIhavelearntinvaluablelessonsknowingthatthefundamentalaimofmyresearchwas to improve the practicewhich Iwas a part of. I knew thatmy goal herewas to enrich thelearningexperiencesofallthosearoundme.Mydefinitionofactionresearchhasnotchanged,infact,ithasbeeninterestinglivingoutthetheory.Icanattesttothenotionthatactionresearchasdefinedby itsmanywriters, isdifferent to traditional formsof research.Namely,becauseactionresearch as defined by Carr and Kemis (1986) is first about ‘action’ (what you do) and secondlyaboutthe‘research’(whatllearnandexplainingwhatIdo).Iwouldtaketheopportunitytocarryoutactionresearchagain.Itisaworthyprocessthatisinvaluableinanyindustryorpublicservicefield.


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6.|BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ackroyd,S.andHughes,J.A.(1981)DataCollectioninContext.Longman.BritishEducationalResearchAssociation (BERA) (2011)EthicalGuidelines foreducationalResearch.Available from

https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BERA-Ethical-Guidelines-2011.pdf (last accessed August2016)

Carr,W.andKemmis,S. (1986)BecomingCritical.Education,KnowledgeandActionResearch.SchoolofEducation,DeakinUniversityPress.

Cohen,L.andManion,L(1994)ResearchMethodsinEducation.FourthEdition.RoutledgePress.Denham, S. A. (2006) Social-Emotional Competence as Support for School Readiness:What Is It and HowDoWe

AssessIt?EarlyEducationandDevelopment.17(1),57-89.DepartmentforEducation(2013)EarlyYearsOutcomes:Anon-statutoryguideforpractitionersandinspectorstohelp

inform understanding of child development through the early years. Available fromhttp://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/Early_Years_Outcomes.pdf(lastaccessedAugust2016).

DepartmentforEducationandOfficeforNationalStatistics(2015)EarlyYearsFoundationStageProfileresultsinEngland.Availablefrom:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/467070/SFR_36-2015_Main_Text.pdfSFR36/2015(lastaccessedAugust2016).EarlyEducation:TheBritishAssociationforEarlyChildhoodEducation(2012)DevelopmentMattersintheEarlyYears

FoundationStage(EYFS)Avaliablefrom:http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/Development-Matters-FINAL-PRINT-AMENDED.pdf(August2016).

Kemmis,S.andMcTaggart,R.(1982&1992)Theactionresearchplanner.Geelong,Victoria,DeakinPublishing.Koshy,V.(2005)ActionResearchforImprovingPractice:APracticalGuide.London.PaulChapmanPublishing.Popper,K.(1959)reprinted(2004)TheLogicofScientificDiscovery.Routledge,Taylor&Francis.Lin, H., Lawrence, F., Gorrell, J. (2003) Kindergarten Teachers' Views of Children's Readiness for School. Early

ChildhoodResearchQuarterly18(2),225-237.McNiff,J.andWhitehead,J.(2010)YouandYourActionResearchProject.Thirdedition.RoutledgePress.National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) (2012) Research Code of Practice. Available from

https://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/about-nfer/code-of-practice/nfercop.pdf(lastaccessedAugust2016).Piotrkowski,C.S,Botsko,M.andMatthews,E.(2000&2001)Parents’andTeachers’BeliefsAboutChildren’sSchool

ReadinessinaHigh-NeedCommunity.ElsevierPublishingUniversityPress.

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