Reading cafe Kelly Grove

Context I   teach  at  Altmore   Infant  School,  a  5-­‐form  entry   infant  and  nursery  school   that   forms  part  of   the  Altmore  and  Lathom   Federation   in   East   Ham,   London.  My   school   is   privileged   enough   to   have   a   Children’s   Centre   on   site  which  is  visited  by  a  wide  range  of  the  community,  daily.  From  Reception  to  Year  2  we  have  450  children  along  with  120  Nursery  children  and  2  year  old  provision.    I  am  the  Reading  Leader  for  the  infant  part  of  the  Federation.    Developing  reading  for  pleasure  and  home/school  links  is  a  priority  on  our  School  Development  Plan  and  for  my  specific  development  plan  as  a  Reading  Leader.  To  date  we  have  held  five  termly  activities.                

   

Research inspiration and rationale I  was  inspired  by  the  TaRs  research  into  the  need  to  build  an  increased  reciprocity  between  children,   families  and   teachers   as   readers   and   the   finding   that   suggested   that   new   social   spaces   which   encourage   parental  involvement  need  to  be  created;  shared  spaces  and  experiences  for  parents  and  children  to  learn  together.    At  Altmore  we  have  lots  of  parents  who  want  to  support  their  children  with  reading  but  lack  confidence  in  knowing  how  best  to  do  this.      Aims  My   aims  were   and   still   are   to   foster   a   love   for   reading   and   to   create   a   school  where   reading   is   exciting   and  enjoyed  by  ALL  children.  In  this  work  though  I  wanted  to  increase  school-­‐parent  communication  about  reading  and  for  the  parents  to  feel  invested  in  by  the  school.    My  school  is  privileged  enough  to  have  parents  who  want  to  come  to  school  to  learn  how  to  support  their  children  at  home  and  I  wanted  to  take  build  on  this.  In  particular  I  wanted   to   nurture   parents’   confidence   and   give   them   and   their   children   access   to   different   types   of   reading  strategies  and  different  texts,  and  to  share  with  them  how  these  can  be  enjoyed,  not  just  in  school  but  at  home  too.    

                           

       

Outline As   part   of   a   'Sharing   of   good   practice'  my   school   formed   a   partnership  with   schools   in   Rotherham.  We   each  hosted  a  day  to  share  best  practice  linked  to  reading  and  phonics.    I  was  fortunate  enough  to  visit  a  school  where  they  had  organised  a  Reading  Café  event  on  a  small  scale.  The  vision  behind  the  Reading  Café  was  to  get  parents  in  to  choose  and  read  books  with  their  children.  I  decided  to  trial  this  concept  in  my  school  setting  where  I  was  aware  parents  would  attend  and  enjoy  such  a  session  and  where  I  support  them  -­‐  to  support  their  children  at  home.  I  decided  to  organise  two  different  Reading  Cafés:  one  focused  on  Modelling  and  one  Book  Sharing.    1.Modelling  (1  hour  session)  In  this  Reading  Café  session  parents  had  the  opportunity  to  watch  their  child’s  class  teacher  model  reading  and  observe:  

• general  questioning  about  books  • prediction    • retrieval  questions  • inference  questions    

 Example  of  parent  support  sheets:  

                   

         They  were   then   invited   to   participate   in   a   craft   activity   related   to   the   book  with   their   child.   The   aim   of   this  activity   was   to   demonstrate   how   pleasure   can   be   promoted   through   collaborative,   interactive   activities   that  don’t  cost  a  lot  of  money  but  provide  opportunities  to  talk  further  about  different  books.    Lastly,  parents  were  then  given  a  sheet  to  take  home  to  support  them  with  different  question  prompts  they  could  use  when  reading  with  their  children.    

                                             

2.  Sharing  books  (half  hour  session)  In  this  Reading  Café  session,  parents  were  invited  into  classrooms  at  the  start  of  the  day  simply  to  enjoy  sharing  books  with   their  children.    Classrooms  were  set  up  with  books   in  all  areas/spaces  with   lots  of  puppets,  props  and  story  sacks  to  engage  children  with  texts.  Books  chosen  in  each  classroom  consisted  of  fiction  books,  non-­‐fiction  books,  texts  in  dual  language,  ipads  with  stories  on  etc.      

                   After  the  event  In   order   to   celebrate   the   success   of   the   two   Reading   Cafés   we   created   a   school   Reading   Café   Scrapbook   to  showcase   the   brilliant   time   all   the   children   and   parents   had   and   we   created   displays   around   the   school   to  remind  children  and  parents  of  the  event.    Many  photos  taken  have  been  showcased  on  our  school  website  too.    

   

Impact Parental  feedback  was  extremely  positive  and  it  was  great  to  see  and  hear  that  our  parents  felt  empowered.  Some  voiced  the  view  that  they  were  starting  to  feel  more  confident  in  supporting  their  children  at  home  in  reading.    Observing  the  families  play  with  their  children  as  they  read  has  also  helped  the  staff  and  myself  think  about  how  we  communicate  with  families  and  how  we  can  further  encourage  the  joy  of  reading  for  pleasure,  helping  them  begin  to  recognise    reading  as  a  social,  active,  affective  and  enjoyable  event,  not  a  struggle  with  sounds  and  words.      I  am  also  thinking  about  how  we  can  diversify  further  the  range  of  texts  we  have  in  our  classrooms  and  would  like  to  conduct  a  survey  of  both  parents  and  children  to  see  what  other  types  of  text  they  would  like  to  have  available,  both  at  future  Reading  Café  events  and  also  in  the  classroom  generally.    

Reflections on impact the TaRs research had on practice What  I  hadn’t  anticipated  was  the  extent  to  which  observing  families  engage  with  texts  and  activities  during  the  Reading  Café  events  has  made  me  reflect  on  what  it  means  to  be  a  reader  in  the  21st  century  and  particularly  in  our  community  –   this   is   something  else   that   I  have   taken   from  the  TaRs  research;   learning   from  children  and  parents  and  seeking  to  create  two-­‐way  traffic  between  home  and  school  reading  practices.  We  are  lucky  in  our  school  to  have  parents  who  want  to  come  in  and  support  what  we  are  doing.  I  am  interested  in  seeing  how  I  can  engage  parents  in  the  junior  school  too.  We  have  thought  about  running  the  Café  on  a  much  more  frequent  basis,  but  we  don’t  want  to  lose  the  impact  and  ‘specialness’  of  this  community  occasion.