Book reviews

I have had the great good fortune to be asked to review lots of children’s books over the last few months. I had not written a book review for some considerable time and I realised whilst writing the reviews for the books I had read, how essentially dull writing a review can be.

The exception was when I got tremendously excited about a particular book I had read and then it became much easier to write. Often, however, we expect children to write reviews about many of the books they read and children may find this task dry and unexciting.

How can we make it a more enjoyable learning experience for children ? This is particularly important as the aim has to be to create lifelong readers.

· Ask for something different each time so it is neither boring to write or read. E.g. give it a rating in stars or smiley faces and the next time just talk about the character you might like to meet and then next time make it an advert for the book or a picture of your favourite part of the story. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life.

· Vary the audience- If you have a computerised library system, they quite often have opportunities for book recommendations for other children to use. Or it might be a review for the teachers so they can suggest books for their class, or a sort of what to read next if you liked a particular book.

· Instead of writing book reviews try reading them and see if you agree with the reviewer.  Readingzone.com,  https://www.primarytimes.net/reviews/book-reviews, and most newspapers.

· Write letters, to parents, friends, teachers about the books and get them to respond with comments and questions.

· Put comments on Twitter– it is easy to link with authors there and they usually respond if you say positive things.

· ENJOY the books!

Homework

I’ve seen homework from all sides now– as a child, as a teacher and now as a parent– and I have to confess I grow less and less sure that there is any value in homework at Primary School level.

My own memories of homework are of learning spellings, doing comprehensions which I found incredibly dull and pages of maths calculations (also very dull). As well as this I had endless ‘What did you do in the holidays?’ type projects, which only became exciting the summer my little brother was born, and then I really wanted to write all about that.

Broadly speaking you get three types of homework children; those who always do it and get it done quickly and independently, those who have lots of help from their parents and those who never really get round to doing anything very much.  Some parents love homework, particularly ones where they can get their child to sit and do a worksheet. Most parents hate the ‘make a model of the Parthenon’ type homework, especially if they feel they have to make it themselves, so it resembles the edifice being asked for. Some parents like to know what their child is doing at school and therefore like to see this in the homework they bring home– but is it a true reflection of what is going on in class?

Personally I can see very little value in the homework being sent home. None of it is too much for my children to manage– a very important factor, as I’d much rather my children were playing on the weekend– but neither does it do very much in terms of helping them learn. I would much rather they had just reading and then may be a question or two to talk about with me. Instead the older one has a comprehension exercise which is not terribly exciting.  My oldest child reads all the time and I’d much rather we spent the homework time talking about what he is reading. I also think that this kind of discussion would support his reading far more than a comprehension, as we could discuss the book in depth. Parents would just need a few generic questions each week to support this kind of learning.

When I was teaching I always tried to send home some sort of speaking and listening homework rather than worksheets. Whilst some parents would groan at the thought of talking rather than just leaving children to get on with it, the quality was always significantly better and could be used in school. I also used to set ‘going to the library’ homework. Knowing how important regular library use is, setting it for homework ensured a far larger proportion of my class actually went.  Again some parents could not be bothered or had no time one week, but when the majority had got used to the idea that this would be part of the homework every few weeks, more children started to go. I used to set simple tasks, sometimes related to topics covered in school, and it helped the children understand how libraries are organised and even how the Dewey system works.

One of the most successful homework tasks was getting the children to become a ‘helpdesk’ at the end of a telephone line. The children had to teach their parents what to do with a computer or board game, but over the ‘phone’. The parents then had to evaluate the service they had received. This was specifically for work on instructions, but it could easily be adapted for other uses.

You might very well have cracked the homework conundrum and only send home really worthwhile and interesting tasks. If so, please let me know!

Early Years- Books or phonics?

Believe it or not there really is a debate on whether Nursery aged children should be taught formal phonics lessons instead of having books read to them. It was born out of the sincerest of motives, to try and narrow the gap between the most disadvantaged children and those who have a background rich in language and literature. Considering the latest OFSTED report 'Bold Beginnings', it seems appropriate to discuss this issue now.

Whilst the intentions are obviously very good, it seems to me, entirely unnecessary to start children on formal phonics teaching whilst they are so young.  For a start there are  few Nursery teachers who have had detailed phonics training and I suspect it would be quite overwhelming for some without such training. More importantly, there is plenty already in place that a good Nursery or preschool can do that will actually have more impact.

· Read to children, all the time. Good quality children’s books introduce pre-schoolers to a world of language. They will encounter words and ideas they might never meet in their everyday lives. Take Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, for example, it is crammed with wonderful vocabulary, including words like squabble, row and racket. It has marvellous rhythmic language and detailed, rich illustrations. The potential for learning through books is enormous, particularly in this age of hundreds of amazing books being published all the time.

· Use Phase 1 of  Letters and Sounds. It is, for a Government publication, incredibly well thought out and researched. It is based on good Early Years practice and is easy to use as well as being free. It gives opportunities for children to learn all the basic skills in small groups and bite sized pieces. Most importantly it focusses on hearing the phonemes. Being able to hear phonemes is more important at this stage than recognising the letters, as hearing all the sounds in words is often the sign of a good reader. Children in Key Stage 1 who struggle with blending and segmenting, have often missed out or failed to grasp Phase 1. Without it, all the letter recognition in the world will not make children into decoders or readers. Phase 1 also is part of a rich language curriculum and using it enables children to explore language, through, for example, rhyming words. 

I will use my own children as examples of children learning phonics. They both attended the same outstanding nursery and are not the target children, in that they had a rich language environment at home. I never, however, did any sort of teaching with either of them, we just read to them a lot and they were regular library visitors. 

My son is one of the oldest in his year group and also a fairly mature child. He became very interested in letters and sounds when he was at nursery. The nursery taught Phase 1 but realised my son wanted something more and was ready to try new things. They responded to his questions and showed him letter formation when he asked for it. Unusually my son wanted the phonics so he could write rather than read. Rather than being bored when he started Reception, his very able teachers interested him still further and consistently challenged him. Learning phonics was, for him, very active and all about application.

My daughter, in direct contrast, is one of the younger ones in her year and not particularly mature. She was not even remotely interested in phonics, reading or writing, whilst in Nursery, which was not a problem or an issue for the staff, and happily no-one tried to force her into doing anything she did not want to do, as they recognised this would be entirely counter-productive.  When she started school she had no idea of phonics and the only letter she recognised was the start of her name. Once formal phonics teaching began with Phase 2 of Letters and Sounds my daughter quickly picked it up and within a few weeks had begun to read and write. She was approximately the same age as my son when he showed an interest, but had started school significantly younger.

Both of my children were ably supported at an appropriate level at Nursery, neither of them would have benefitted or even been interested in formal phonics lessons at that stage. In fact one of the Nursery staff once told me they would not be teaching the children to read. I said 'good' as I did not want them to have formal lessons- but actually she was wrong; through excellent play and speaking activities, they did indeed teach both children to read, through giving them the right foundations for doing so later on.

Lastly, why are we forcing younger and younger children into formal education? There is no evidence that the earlier you start formal learning the better the outcome. In fact, countries like Finland, which have very good outcomes, do not start children in formal school until they are seven years old.  Nursery aged children need time to play and the freedom to learn through play, including learning about language and phonemes. They need wonderful books and richness of language to become story tellers as well as readers. There is no rush; they are in formal education for so long, there is no advantage in trying to get them there sooner.