Literacy

[Susan]

Im interested to know if you have any sort of core texts in your schools, for Reception and years 1 and 2, to avoid the "we've done that" syndrome where children only experience a few fairy stories, for example, rather than a wide range. Do you have a range of books that are used in each year group?

[Guest]

No we haven't Susan but i think it is something we do need to do as only just a week ago we had a situation where year 1 were doing the same as what we had been doing (this happens a lot so the children in year had done Gruffalo in reception last year) The children have loved animals so we have been doing that a working around that topic and have been doing the bear hunt/mini beast hunts then we said about shall we go on a gruffalo hunt?? they loved it but then found out that year 1 were doing gruffalo that week as well. We are working from the childrens interest but there just ar some really good stories like you say are core texts that we do tend to do every year as they do get the children talking/playing like whatever next for space always sparks the role play, they love the bear hunt, we also also have some of the story sacks so the children can use them to play with so use them for our work like Grandpas journey home, owl babies and If only. Will be interetsing to hear what people say as we do have a medium term plan wehre evry books etc is all decided we go with the children - whereas year 1 is all mapped out etc

[finleysmaid]

im not school based but can i ask ..why is this a problem? ...most children love repetition. I know some pre-schools who read the same story(not always the same text) for a whole week. I suspect that children will get different things out of these stories at different times of their life. we have some 'themes' that come up regularly...pirates/mini beasts/castles and sports seem to pop their head up all the time just because it has come up before doesn't mean there is no more to learn ...does it?

on the other hand i do think that it means that we have to be inventive with these things ...i do remember my children moaning about doing Tudors AGAIN! there was very little new information when re-visited and all the previous information was rehashed. We began to wonder if there was only one exciting period in history!!!

[Guest]

At first i thought that it is not a problem just as you have said children love reading the stories and we do read stories over and over but when you are focusing on a particular book for say a writing prupose or a focussed activity in reception then use it again in year for the same thing. There are so many books why year 1 would need to do all the same books again?? Yes agree we do get different ideas etc as the children get older/different ideas but just want to keep it fun you don;t want liek you said finsleymaid oh no this story again. I think for me in reception it is nice to have familiar books they may have been read at home/pre school/nursery. For some of the more popular picture books they are books with words/sounds they know and starting to learn so they are then familiar books which they can start reading. I thinks ours is more a in school thing as year 1 are often doing the same us us maybe the week after its hard as we are our only little class we areth only class we do not have breaks as we have free flo outside/rolling snack.

[Guest]

We have this situation at our school, too. I think the problem is that many teacher's like to use big books and there aren't actually that many available. There are so many books that 'we can't do' according to Year 1 and 2, because they 'do' them. We now tend to use less popular books (sometimes we make them into PowerPoint) and find other ways of introducing topics. There are hundreds of books available, so it seems silly just to stick to ones that are available as big books. It is difficult being child-led in Reception and Year 1 and 2, at least in our school, having fixed books and plans, that seem not to have changed for at least 10 years (that's a whole different topic though!).

[finleysmaid]

... i think that i should admit here that i find most stories quite difficult to read again and again ! i am an avid fan of trawling the shelves of my local book shop and finding something new... i think my pre-school has more books than most schools! ( i can usually quote a book title for most topics!!)

[Susan]

Children reading or being read and enjoying the same books is not a problem.

 

Children experiencing the same books/ texts every year as a focus for their work is. The range of books they experience in this instance is too limited and evokes the oh no not that again response. It does not allow the children to develop their skills sufficiently.

[finleysmaid]

Children reading or being read and enjoying the same books is not a problem.

 

Children experiencing the same books/ texts every year as a focus for their work is. The range of books they experience in this instance is too limited and evokes the oh no not that again response. It does not allow the children to develop their skills sufficiently.

fair enough...perhaps got the wrong end of the stick with your initial post!

just remember a poor nursery teacher some years ago who was unable to use a range of books because reception and year one used them and so she was not even allowed to read them....including classic texts like the hungry caterpillar

[Guest]

so what we would say then should be say the stories that all reception experience and the ones we should leave for year 1 and 2?

 

Will be interesting to see what we all say - this is really something i feel i need to sit down and speak to our year 1 and 2 teachers about for september.

 

Carrots7078 we have that too with yr 1 and 2 liking to stick what we have in big book style and we have limited books. We have been trawling books shelfs and other places to find alternatives.

[mundia]

We used to have set texts for literacy in year one and two, usually they were based on whatever the focus teaching point was from the then literacy strategy. I dont know who designed it, I expect at some point it would have been the literacy coordinator who would have looked at all the books we had (we had many many big books) and linked them across. In the front of each big book bag, which were stored centrally, there were links to possible literacy ideas within the text.

 

Im not so familiar with the literacy framework now so I don't know it links?

 

Im sure though that if a number of members are thinking about this, we would be able to come up with suggestions.

[catma]

When I was in primary we had the CLPE core book lists to structure our book provision around - there were core books for each year group so there was progression and every class had some of the previous core books to bridge the transition. There is a need to build in progression and challenge I feel and if they just have the same old same old there isn't anything to move them forward and develop reading skills of fluency and comprehension.

 

With this structure we had clarity about the books and could also use them to support the different genres we were focused on in literacy.

 

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http://www.clpe.co.uk/library/core-book-collections

[Guest]

Thank you Catma i have not seen that book before (my year 1 teacher is senior mangement and literacy lead !!!)

[Susan]

Not sure Im aware of that either, catma so many thanks!

[catma]

Welcome!

 

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[Guest]

We have had that problem this year - but the only problem was with traditional tales (a limited amount!). We have used texts that have been used before but the focus has been different things e.g. Handa's surprise - used in reception for fruits & used in Y1 for Geography - contrasting localities - Kenya & UK, writing their own version based on a familiar story etc. For the latter knowing and having already experienced the text helped. To be honest there are so many new texts and also digital media that can be used, so we have decided not to have a list of Year 1/2/Reception texts. This year we have adapted the Literacy planning from last year changing the texts we have used as we have found better texts to use. Plus we rarely use big books so our supply of texts are not restricted - we tend to use small copies, a visualiser and the highlighting tools on the WB software to highlight and annotate. I think having a list is restricting as other posters have said to limit when a child can read a specific text - I am reading Roald Dahls' twits to Y1 and they love it but they also look at it in Y3) and many have already read at home. Another thing we did think about, was if we did have a list would we then tell parents not to read them to their children at home? We imagined the fury and decided it was a no go!

[Susan]

I dont mean that they shouldnt experience these books, but that they should be focus texts in a specific year group and not in all 3---which, unfortunately, seems/ tends to be the case at the moment and children are not getting a wide range of experiences.

[catma]

I do think you have to consider the range of genres the children need to experience by the end of KS1 and know about - and having an updated list of new texts that are age appropriate does build the children's repertoire. Often teachers stick to the same old same old because it's easier than looking for something fresh and new (I can't tell you how many lessons I've seen on Handa's surprise as the teaching text in every class I visit, when there are other books on African fruit!

 

Of course children should be able to go back to favourites and re read - but if we don't expand our repertoire as adults sometimes this can become overly repetitive and we get stuck in a rut especially if they are the texts used for direct teaching. There's no challenge as the children know them too well!

 

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