| How can we develop parents’ understanding of the processes of learning to read? |
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Research taster
Parents support their children’s reading in different ways when they bring books from school. Some parents think of reading primarily as decoding letters into sounds, and even cover up pictures to stop their children from ‘cheating’ by using them to ‘guess’ the meaning of the text. Teachers on the other hand encourage children to use this ‘cueing’ system as an important strategy in learning to read. 
Your evidence
In order to get an idea of what parents do while they are reading with their children, pick a group of four pupils in your class and discuss their home reading experiences. List the types of things a parent might do, for example repeat words, ask their child to sound out letters, use the pictures etc, and tick ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as a child mentions the action. You might also like to make a note of how the child feels about home reading – is it enjoyable? hard work? etc. Over time you could collect this information for all the children in your class. (Adapted from reflective activity 4-2c) Moving forward Now you have more detailed information on how children experience home teaching, what opportunities are there to discuss this further with parents? Could you use reading logs to write more targeted comments to parents, for example? Could you also use this information as a starting point for your own enquiry into the nature of reading, and the rationale for teaching strategies? Why is it, for example, that a parent would want to cover pictures? Find out more about the TLRP Home-school knowledge exchange project at: http://www.tlrp.org/project%20sites/HomeSchool/index.htm Find out more about effective home-school liaisons at: http://www.gtce.org.uk/policyandresearch/research/ROMtopics/parentalrom/ or http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research/themes/parents/ Richards, C. and Taylor, P.H. (eds) (1998) How shall we school our children? Primary Education and its future. London: Falmer |
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