Engaging Children in Literacy Talk about Texts in Early Grade Classrooms

Pauline Harrispharris@uow.edu.au

© 2008

Contact InformationDr Pauline Harris is Associate Professor of Language and Literacy and Early Childhood Education at the University of Wollongong in Australia (www.uow.edu.au). She can be contacted as follows:

Dr Pauline HarrisFaculty of EducationUniversity of WollongongWollongong NSWAustralia 2522Email: pharris@uow.edu.au

Pauline’s University webpage is located at:http://misprd.uow.edu.au/ris_public/WebObjects/RISPublic.woa/wa/Staff/selectPerson;jsessionid=148241B398486FE683E3F0C1AB75E0FA?id=3629&group=9

Dr Pauline Harris is Associate Professor of Language and Literacy and Early Childhood Education at the University of Wollongong in Australia (www.uow.edu.au). She can be contacted as follows:

Dr Pauline HarrisFaculty of EducationUniversity of WollongongWollongong NSWAustralia 2522Email: pharris@uow.edu.au

Pauline’s University webpage is located at:http://misprd.uow.edu.au/ris_public/WebObjects/RISPublic.woa/wa/Staff/selectPerson;jsessionid=148241B398486FE683E3F0C1AB75E0FA?id=3629&group=9

Project Details» A three year study funded by the Australian

Research Council (ARC Large Grant)» Chief Investigators: Pauline Harris, Jillian

Trezise & Bill Winser» Relevant publications further detailing this

study: Harris, P. J., Trezise, J. M. & Winser, W. (2002). Is the story

on my face?: Intertextural Conflicts during Teacher-Class Interactions around Texts in Early Grade Classrooms. Research in the Teaching of English, 37 (1), 9-54.

Harris, P. J., Trezise, J. M. & Winser, W. (2004). Where is the story?:Intertextual reflections on literary research and practices in the early school years. Research in the Teaching of English, 38 (3), 250-261.

» A three year study funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC Large Grant)

» Chief Investigators: Pauline Harris, Jillian Trezise & Bill Winser

» Relevant publications further detailing this study: Harris, P. J., Trezise, J. M. & Winser, W. (2002). Is the story

on my face?: Intertextural Conflicts during Teacher-Class Interactions around Texts in Early Grade Classrooms. Research in the Teaching of English, 37 (1), 9-54.

Harris, P. J., Trezise, J. M. & Winser, W. (2004). Where is the story?:Intertextual reflections on literary research and practices in the early school years. Research in the Teaching of English, 38 (3), 250-261.

Uncle Zell‘Sometimes my Mum and Dad make me read a whole book, they [the book] got a spine, like, and it’s really thick, and sometimes my Mum gets me out this big book, it’s about that big, and it’s got all these things in them, and I look at them and read them. It helps me learn more things. It says how big is one of these snakes, it’s a lot, but I forget. I can’t bring in it ’cause it’s not mine, it’s my Uncle Zell’s, he’s dead now, but it’s really old.’

Objectives

» To identify different kinds of connections that teachers and children make when talking about texts.

» To demonstrate the relevance of these connections to children’s literacy understandings and processes.

» To develop interactional strategies for enhancing engagement with these connections in teacher-class talk around texts.

» To identify different kinds of connections that teachers and children make when talking about texts.

» To demonstrate the relevance of these connections to children’s literacy understandings and processes.

» To develop interactional strategies for enhancing engagement with these connections in teacher-class talk around texts.

Significance» Making connections is commonplace

Part and parcel of being a member of a literate community of practice in early grade classrooms

» Making connections fosters reader comprehension and engagement

» Making connections builds bridges among children’s school and out-of-school experiences

(Bloome & Egan-Robertson, 1993; Cairney, 1990, 1992; Hartman, 1995; Kaser & Short, 1998; Lemke, 1990; Oyler & Barry, 1996; Pantaleo, 2005;

Roache-Jamieson, 2005; Sipe, 1993, 2000; 2001)

» Making connections is commonplace Part and parcel of being a member of a literate

community of practice in early grade classrooms

» Making connections fosters reader comprehension and engagement

» Making connections builds bridges among children’s school and out-of-school experiences

(Bloome & Egan-Robertson, 1993; Cairney, 1990, 1992; Hartman, 1995; Kaser & Short, 1998; Lemke, 1990; Oyler & Barry, 1996; Pantaleo, 2005;

Roache-Jamieson, 2005; Sipe, 1993, 2000; 2001)

Making connections

‘Transtextual work’

(after Genette, 1992, 1997, 1998)

Evidence Base

The Study and its Theoretical Framework

Conceptual Frame:

Theories of intertextuality and transtextuality to understand connections

(Genette, 1992, 1997, 1998; Kristeva, 1984)

Constructionist theories of reading to identify implications of connections for reading

(Bransford, Barclay & Franks, 1972; Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978; Ruddell & Unrau, 2004).

Evidence base:

Observational & interactional transcripts

Teachers’ Interviews Children’s Interviews

Artefacts

Classroom Orientation

Unstructured Interviews Observational Fieldnotes

Purposive SamplingTeacher-Class Interactions Around Texts and Related Activities

Audiotape Transcripts

Observational Fieldnotes

Ongoing Interviews

Text and work samples

Emergent Categories of Types of Connections and their Associated Consequences, Challenges and Conflicts

Emergent Analysis and TriangulationAcross Data Types and Sources

Genette’s Categories of Transtextuality:Mapping onto Emergent Categories of Type

And Collapsing Categories

Sub-categorical Analysis of Type According toPlacement, Connection, Dimensions, Processes and Understandings

Manifestation and Operationalisation of Transtextuality in Teacher-Class Interactions Around Texts

Categorical Analysis of How Transtextuality was Operationalised

Interactional Strategies

Intervening Conditions

Consequences Power Structures & Relations

Intertextuality» Texts as mosaics (Kristeva, 1984)

» Texts read in light of other texts (Barthes, 1988)

» No text has a single correct reading

» Children bring their own experiences

» Texts as mosaics (Kristeva, 1984)

» Texts read in light of other texts (Barthes, 1988)

» No text has a single correct reading

» Children bring their own experiences

‘I have a giant book at home, it’s not “The Hungry Giant”. It climbed up this tree, a man cut it down. The tree fell on the man and it fell on the fence flat to the ground. And in “The Hungry Giant”, he eats all his, he eats his house! [laughing]’

(Matthew, Kinder, 5 years)

TranstextualityIntratextuality Connections inside a text

Paratextuality Connections between a text and its presentation features

Intertextuality Connections across texts

Architextuality

Connections between a text and broader groups of texts such as genres

Hypotextuality

Connections between a text and other texts on which it is based but transforms

Different Kinds of Connections

and their Literacy Processes &

Understandings

IT: Connections inside texts

Sub-categories

» IT/WP Links between words and pictures in a text

» IT/CS Links between content and structure in a text

» IT/PP Links between stages or parts in a text

Transtextual category

» Intratextuality Links among

elements within a text

For example, exploring story structure

In a later lesson, the teacher's opening comment drew children'sattention to the first part of a narrative (‘orientation’) and its function:

T: In the beginning of the story we learnt about who the story

was meant to be about, didn't we? And it was going to be about...?

All: Farmyard cat. T: So that, the beginning part of the story is called the what? E: Orientation. T: Orientation. Good. Then what was the next part of the story,

E.? All these things started to happen.

E: Well they disturbed the ... T: They disturbed the ......bull, they disturbed the... M: Nanny goat. E: And then they disturbed the horse. T: OK, that part of the story is called what? Patrick. P: The complication.

When making intratextual connections, focus is placed inside

the text where…» Teachers and

children engage in processes of

Analyzing meaning Building meaning Reviewing meaning.

» Teachers and children engage in processes of

Analyzing meaning Building meaning Reviewing meaning.

» At play are children’s understandings about

Elements that make up texts

Modes through which texts are presented

Structures that organize texts.

» At play are children’s understandings about

Elements that make up texts

Modes through which texts are presented

Structures that organize texts.

TS: Connections between a text and its presentation

Sub-categories» TS/FC Links between text

and its front cover » TS/BC Links between text

and its back cover» TS/TP Links between a text

and title page» TS/D Links between a text

and its dedication» TS/TC Links between a text

and its table of contents» TS/AI Links between a text

and identification of its author or illustrator

» TS/P Links between a text and its publisher

Transtextual category

» Paratextuality Links between a text

and its artifice (presentation)

For example, exploring a title page

T. turns to page immediately before the title page, showing characters walking in line.T: Where do you think they’re going to? Joh: On an excursion. T: How has the teacher organized them? Tam: Tell them to get their hats and bags…and get in line.T: Why do you think the teacher does that?Ali: So they don’t get lost.

T. points to names labelling the characters on this same page:. T: We’ve got the names of people [reads each name aloud]. Teacher come the the last label, ‘me’, that points to a child.T: [reading] Me.Ste: That means the person, you… It said me. It must be you.Lac: Um, ‘me’ must be a person that says…the story. Teacher confirms Lachlan’s response.

When making paratextual connections, focus is placed between the text and

its presentation where…» Teachers and

children engage in processes of

Anticipating text Predicting text genre Establishing initial

expectations Framing the reading

task at hand.

» Teachers and children engage in processes of

Anticipating text Predicting text genre Establishing initial

expectations Framing the reading

task at hand.

» At play are children’s understandings about

Relevance of a text’s presentation to reader engagement

Ways in which presentation mediates between reader & text

Features that make up a text’s presentation.

» At play are children’s understandings about

Relevance of a text’s presentation to reader engagement

Ways in which presentation mediates between reader & text

Features that make up a text’s presentation.

TT: Connections between texts

Sub-categories

» TT/T Links between one text and other specific texts

» TT/E Links between a text and personal experience

» TT/A Links between a text and classroom activity

Transtextual category» Intertextuality

Links across texts, personal experiences and classroom activities

For example, ‘What’s a tram?’T: What’s a tram? Jac: Um a trailer.T: A trailer?Jac: Um, a tractor.T: A tractor? I have brainwashed you about farm words, haven’t I? …Talk shifts to electric powering of trams ‘to help the tram go’.Rho:It’s like a cord that goes off onto the wires, but it’s not. It’s not onto a pole or

something. It’s on to a really metal pole… Cause I went to Melbourne. Pet: Well, I’ve been on [a tram] in Perth and you have to catch one two times

because we caught one going to— T: Somewhere. Pet: Yeah! Like I don’t know, then we had to take it back again.…T. re-directs talk and repeats the idea of bringing in a picture of a tram. Rho: I could bring one in with horses.Ste: They used to be pulled by horses Pet: I’ve got a London Transport book that’s got all the trams in it.

When making intertextual connections, focus is placed between texts, where…

» Teachers and children engage in processes of

Comparing and contrasting perspectives from different texts and experiences

Synthesizing meaning Reviewing meaning.

» Teachers and children engage in processes of

Comparing and contrasting perspectives from different texts and experiences

Synthesizing meaning Reviewing meaning.

» At play are children’s understandings about

The permeable nature of texts

Relationships among texts

Impact of these networks on reader interpretation.

» At play are children’s understandings about

The permeable nature of texts

Relationships among texts

Impact of these networks on reader interpretation.

BBT: Connections with broader bodies of texts

Sub-categories

» BBT/G Links between text and genre

» BBT/GG Links among genres

» BBT/S Links between text and series

» BBT/C Links between text and corpus

» BBT/CT Links between text and character types

Transtextual category

» Architextuality Links to broader

bodies of texts such as genres, series, corpuses and archetypes

For example, ‘Like a rock-a-bye’

A Kindergarten teacher had read ‘Meg’s Eggs’ (Nicoll & Pienkowski, 1975) aloud to the class. This picture book presents a comic-style story of a witch whose spells go hilariously wrong. The teacher revisited one of Meg’s spells with the intention of making links between the spell and procedural text genre:

T: Listen to this. [Reading]‘Lizards and newts, Three loud hoots, Green frogs’ legs, Three big eggs’. What does that sound like?

Cat: Like a rock-a-bye.

T: It doesn’t sound like anything that would put me to sleep.

Edw: It’s a spell.

T: Good boy, it’s a spell.

When making architextual connections, focus is paced between texts and

genres, where…» Teachers and

children engage in processes of

Framing purpose of the reading task and text at hand

Using the structure of a text to guide and anticipate its reading

Classifying texts.

» Teachers and children engage in processes of

Framing purpose of the reading task and text at hand

Using the structure of a text to guide and anticipate its reading

Classifying texts.

» At play are children’s understandings about

Text genres Associations of texts

with genres Purposes, schematic

structures and language features of text genres.

» At play are children’s understandings about

Text genres Associations of texts

with genres Purposes, schematic

structures and language features of text genres.

TC: Connections between a text and other texts it transformsSub-categories

» TC/T Links between a text and another text that is based on but transforms the former text

» TC/A Links between a text and an activity that is based on but transforms the former text

» TC/C Links between a text and another text composed by the class that transforms the former text

Transtextual category

» Hypotextuality Links between a text

and other texts it transforms

For example…

Engagement with retellings of traditional tales such as ‘The Little Red Hen’ (implicit)

Engagement with parodies such as ‘Our Excursion’ (implicit)

Comparing video/film and print versions of a particular text, such as ‘Babe’

Class re-enactments of shared texts, such as a re-enactment of The Little Red Hen which changed the text from a written/visual ‘story’ with ‘characters’ and the children as ’readers’, into a drama with children as ‘actors’ and ‘storytellers’

When making architextual connections, focus is placed between a text and other

texts it transforms, where…» Teachers and

children engage in processes of

Identifying changes in texts

Reflecting on effect of specific changes to texts

Exploring generic changes such as character archetypes and schematic structures.

Building bridges to new textual insights.

» Teachers and children engage in processes of

Identifying changes in texts

Reflecting on effect of specific changes to texts

Exploring generic changes such as character archetypes and schematic structures.

Building bridges to new textual insights.

» At play are children’s understandings about

How texts transform other texts and genres

Changeable nature of texts and new insights into meaning and texts arising from this transformation.

» At play are children’s understandings about

How texts transform other texts and genres

Changeable nature of texts and new insights into meaning and texts arising from this transformation.

Challenges of Transtextual Work

In Class Interactions Around Texts

What’s a report?

NSW English K-6 Syllabus as factual texts that present information about a certain topic

You get one at the end of

every school year

Like if she did something and um, and you report it to the other person

and tell it to the other person

‘It's like um, if you found something like treasure,

or something on the ground or maybe some jewels or something or

other...[stops]

When you've invented something

When you report that means that

something happened and you have to

report to somebody like to

a police station

Newspaper reports

Weather reports

Just say, um, T. was not behaving on the bus and I was sitting in the seat opposite and I reported

him to the Principal’

Access in Transtextual Work

• To texts

• To connections made among texts

• To language used to talk about connections

• To interpretations of connections and their relevance

What are the rules governing relevance of connections and do children have access to these rules?

How can children discern the nature and intent behind the question if these are not made explicit to them?

What are the rules governing relevance of connections and do children have access to these rules?

How can children discern the nature and intent behind the question if these are not made explicit to them?

Key Access Issues for Children

When is a fox a predator and when is it a villain?

T: Stories sometime have bad characters in them, people who do bad things. In movies we call them ‘baddies’ but what’s the correct word?

M: Predators.T: That’s a big word. What does that mean?M: Like, um, like an animal eats another animal,

like a fox eats a hen.T: Where did you hear that before?M: From ‘Hattie and the Fox’.

T: They’re called ‘villains’. Villains don’t usually win, except we did have one story where the

villain won.

T: Stories sometime have bad characters in them, people who do bad things. In movies we call them ‘baddies’ but what’s the correct word?

M: Predators.T: That’s a big word. What does that mean?M: Like, um, like an animal eats another animal,

like a fox eats a hen.T: Where did you hear that before?M: From ‘Hattie and the Fox’.

T: They’re called ‘villains’. Villains don’t usually win, except we did have one story where the

villain won.

Teacher’s narrative frame

Teacher’s quest for technical term appropriate to narrative frame

Child shifts teacher’s frame to a factual one

Child’s recall of a particular narrative text that links with his example - suggests he took ‘that’ as referring to his example

Teacher’s brief deviation to clarify

Child’s generic definition matching factual frame

Child’s example

Ambiguity of ‘that’

Teacher takes control of framing focus

Access to Resources

» Children draw on their resources to do what they perceive is required and valued Funds of knowledge (Moll and Gonzalez, 1994) Cultural capital (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990)

» These resources are the raw materials of transtextual work in classrooms

» Children draw on their resources to do what they perceive is required and valued Funds of knowledge (Moll and Gonzalez, 1994) Cultural capital (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990)

» These resources are the raw materials of transtextual work in classrooms

Capitalising on children’s resources

» Balance between literacy work and identity work

Creating access to myriad connections that see children readily engage in the conversationwhile

Guiding access to those particular texts and connections that serve the instructional plan

How might teachers do this without marginalizing children’s participation or limiting their access?

» Balance between literacy work and identity work

Creating access to myriad connections that see children readily engage in the conversationwhile

Guiding access to those particular texts and connections that serve the instructional plan

How might teachers do this without marginalizing children’s participation or limiting their access?

Participation

Reading the Text andReading the Community

A first grade teacher was guiding the class through a choral reading of a big book called ‘The Farmyard Cat’.

At one point, she re-directed Steven, who she saw was losing attention:

T: Steven, I don’t really think you can see from there because you were reading and looking at me. Is the story on my face?

S: I was looking with one eye at you and one eye at the book.

Participation

» Engaging with literacy processes and understandings

» Learning to become a literate member of a community of practice

» Engaging with literacy processes and understandings

» Learning to become a literate member of a community of practice

Challenges to Participation

» Connections unfold in intricate ways

Cf. neat categories of transtextual work

Fleeting (e.g., ‘Henny Penny’) Barely noticed (e.g., ‘That’s not the same as my video’) Sustained discussion (e.g., inferring characters’

motives from word/picture relationships)

» Connections shift in the course of a lesson

» Connections unfold in intricate ways

Cf. neat categories of transtextual work

Fleeting (e.g., ‘Henny Penny’) Barely noticed (e.g., ‘That’s not the same as my video’) Sustained discussion (e.g., inferring characters’

motives from word/picture relationships)

» Connections shift in the course of a lesson

Connections between the text & broader bodies of texts

TEXT-IN-HAND

Connections inside the text

Connectionsbetween thetext & its surrounds

Connections between the text and other texts & experiences Connections

between the text and other texts, genres, discourses and archetypes that it transforms

TEACHER

CHILD

T: What kinds of stories usually start with ‘once upon a time’?

C1: Three Little Pigs.

T: Listen to this again. What kinds of stories, not, I didn’t say, ‘tell me a story’. What are all the stories that begin with ‘once upon a time’.

C2: Fairy tale.

Teacher’s frame of reference is fairy tale genre (an architextual connection)

Child’s frame of reference is a particular fairy tale (an intertextual connection)

Clarifying the generic frame and the way it is referred to

Preferred frame is mobilised

Challenges to Participation

» Familiarity with the connection Is everyone on the same page?

» Threads of continuity that waver(e.g., ‘There’s been a lot of bus crashes lately’)

» Timing and relevance(e.g., ‘My Dad owned a farm once…’)

» Children’s condensed utterances such as ‘Duckville’ Are/can these contributions be understood and more

clearly explored? …/

» Familiarity with the connection Is everyone on the same page?

» Threads of continuity that waver(e.g., ‘There’s been a lot of bus crashes lately’)

» Timing and relevance(e.g., ‘My Dad owned a farm once…’)

» Children’s condensed utterances such as ‘Duckville’ Are/can these contributions be understood and more

clearly explored? …/

A levelled reader… a story about families…A family tree: ‘father’… ‘mother’… ‘aunt’… ‘uncle’… ‘niece’…

‘nephew’Duckville

(Harris & Trezise, 2002)

Strategies

For Supporting Children’s Engagement

in Transtextual Work Around Texts

How might teachers find a balance between their instructional plan and mandatory outcomes

and

the assurance that learning occurs for all children in

ways that are meaningful and inclusive?

Negotiation

» Working with diversity.

» Expressing, clarifying, elaborating, extending, challenging and responding to connections and interpretations.

» Working with diversity.

» Expressing, clarifying, elaborating, extending, challenging and responding to connections and interpretations.

Revisiting ‘Villains versus Predators’

» Did children understand the connections and different frames that came into view?

» Did they understand why ‘predators’ was not taken up in this context?

» Did they appreciate why a fox in a story might be called a villain but in a factual piece be called a predator?

» Did children understand the connections and different frames that came into view?

» Did they understand why ‘predators’ was not taken up in this context?

» Did they appreciate why a fox in a story might be called a villain but in a factual piece be called a predator?

» Clarifying instructional plans and goals with children

» Fostering mutual awareness of the instructional intent behind a teacher’s transtextual questions, prompts, directives and comments

» Being clear, consistent and contingent (McNaughton, 2002)

» Clarifying instructional plans and goals with children

» Fostering mutual awareness of the instructional intent behind a teacher’s transtextual questions, prompts, directives and comments

» Being clear, consistent and contingent (McNaughton, 2002)

Supporting Children’s Understanding of Instructional

Focus

Being explicit

» Criteria for relevance

To the text-in-hand To other texts and experiences they

have encountered To the teacher’s instructional plan

» Criteria for relevance

To the text-in-hand To other texts and experiences they

have encountered To the teacher’s instructional plan

Approaching Children as Informants

» Finding out children’s relevant knowledge and

experiences and building on these resources

» Providing time, opportunity and support for children to present, elaborate and explain their ideas and lines of thinking

» Providing opportunities for children to respond to one another’s connection and enhance opportunities for recognition, acknowledgment and clarification of children’s lines of thinking.

» Finding out children’s relevant knowledge and experiences and building on these resources

» Providing time, opportunity and support for children to present, elaborate and explain their ideas and lines of thinking

» Providing opportunities for children to respond to one another’s connection and enhance opportunities for recognition, acknowledgment and clarification of children’s lines of thinking.

Tuning into How Children Make Connections

» Tuning in to both what children mean and how they mean

How children notice and express connections How children build a sense of continuity from one

moment to the next in and across lessons

» Exploring what lies beneath children’s utterances

» Tuning in to both what children mean and how they mean

How children notice and express connections How children build a sense of continuity from one

moment to the next in and across lessons

» Exploring what lies beneath children’s utterances

Creating Shared Experiences

» Using shared experience as a base for creating:

Common connections Shared purposes Mutually accessible points and frames of reference.

» Using shared experience as a base for creating:

Common connections Shared purposes Mutually accessible points and frames of reference.

Fostering Children’s Awareness of Connectedness

» Carefully planning for sustained and orchestrated engagement with texts, experiences and situations that interconnect

» Carefully planning for sustained and orchestrated engagement with texts, experiences and situations that interconnect

Engaging in Dialogic Interactions

Principle (Alexander, 2006)

Application to Transtextual Work in Classrooms

COLLECTIVE Children and teachers engage in the work together (as group or class, not in isolation), with shared access to instructional plan.

RECIPROCAL Children and teachers listen to each other, share, explore and clarify connections and consider alternative view points.

CUMULATIVE Children and teachers build on their own and each other’s connections and chain them into coherent & relevant lines of thinking & meaning.

SUPPORTIVE Children articulate their ideas guided by explicit criteria of relevance and significance, and help each other to reach common understandings.

Aligning Frames of Reference

» Aligning a teacher’s frames with children’s frames

» Ensuring the frame is accessible to children, makes sense to them and mobilizes desired connections to achieve planned objectives

» Remaining aware of other texts that shift frames.

» Aligning a teacher’s frames with children’s frames

» Ensuring the frame is accessible to children, makes sense to them and mobilizes desired connections to achieve planned objectives

» Remaining aware of other texts that shift frames.

In closing

Basil

Where’s Basil?A teacher sat down with his first grade to share a picturebook

narrative called ‘Our Excursion’ by Walker and Cox (1995). The book was especially pertinent, for the next day the class was going on an excursion to a farm. The teacher made explicit links to the excursion:

T: When I was planning today, I was looking for a book that might have something to do with our excursion and I found this book and it’s called…?

Chn: [chorusing] ‘Our excursion.’ The teacher confirmed its title. Next, he gazed to the front

cover that portrayed children and an adult.T: Who do you think these people are? Eric? Eri: The teacher and the children? T: Yeah, the teacher and children, who are doing--. Eri: [interrupting the teacher] Basil.

In search of Basil and from whence he

comes…

And Duckville, rock-a-byes and Uncle Zell and to where

they might lead…