Best Practice In Teaching Early English
In schools and other educational institutions around the UK, teachers should be demonstrating good practise in their lessons throughout their classrooms. Good practice is defined as the methods that teachers use to an outstanding level to bring the best out of their children – it could be argued that all teachers should be using good practise in their teaching throughout their lessons. Good practice must be constructive, positive, and consistent, criterion set as well as be acknowledged as outstanding, and educators across the nation should be physically representing this practise.
There are numerous learning theories based on good practise for teachers to have access to in relation to teach early language, reading and writing. One of these learning theories is called Talk for Writing which is CPD (Continuing Professional Development) developed and written by Pie Corbett in 2008. Within the CPD Corbett says “To be productive, Talk for writing needs to be extensively embedded in every phase of this teaching sequence” (Corbett, 2008, p. 5). There are five fundamental components; “Book-talk”, “Writer-talk”, “Storytelling and Story making”, “Word and language games” and finally “Role play and drama”. Book-talk is firstly about eliciting response using open questions to see if the children understand the text as well as can they relate to it. Secondly, book-talk is about teachers extending responses by asking the students ‘why’ to get them to lengthen their responses. Lastly, in the book-talk section children are encouraged to listen to each other’s opinions whether they agree or disagree and discuss it with each other.
Writer-talk is described as “talk that helps children to think and behave like a writer. ‘Reading as a writer’ and ‘writing as reader’ ” (Corbett, 2008, p. 6). ‘Reading as a writer’ is thinking what the author wants the person to feel, whereas ‘writing as a reader’ is what the person writing wants you to feel. Storytelling and story making is devised into three parts; imitation, innovation and invention. The children repeat the stories they have learnt, after this they then adapt the stories – by adding, subtracting or changing characters, writing a completely different beginning or ending – and finally the children create a brand ‘new’ story.
The fourth Talk for Writing strategy is; word and language games, similar to the previous strategy of making up stories but doing it orally. The final strategy is Role-play and drama, “Role play and other drama techniques can help pupils to identify with and explore characters” (DfE, 2014, p. 29). Drama helps children explore their creative sides and helps with spoken language as well as writing in the classroom.
In the Children & Young People’s Workforce Diploma, The National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE) describes creativity as “‘imagination, fashioned so as to produce outcomes which are original and of value’ ” (Hodder Education, 2014, p. 2). Creativity within the classroom environment is vital, Whitehead (2010, p.214) said “Children said complex needs to have a right to an imaginative life, to dreams and ambitions and to pleasure and enjoyment”. Within the six years children spend at primary school, teachers must ensure that the children are maintaining focus and are engaged in all their lessons by making their classrooms aesthetically pleasing to the eye with the use of props, displays and themes. Adonis (2006) featured, in the Primary National Strategy document about classroom techniques teachers should be using; one of the techniques mentioned was ‘photos and paintings’ and ‘glove puppets and shadow theatre’. The use of these methods can help children explore their creativity through listening and speaking as well as writing.
Early language, reading and writing is essential from a young age, National Curriculum (2013) specifies that “English is both a subject in its own right and the medium for teaching… Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects” this means that without learning the English language, or any language for that fact from an early age, can hinder a child’s academic achievements in other subjects, as well as their knowledge in reading and writing. This is further supported by a statement from Ofsted “…poor development of speaking and listening skills at an early age is holding children back from learning to read and write” (Ofsted Press Release, 2011). In terms of ‘good practise’ when teaching early language, educators should be; speaking clearly at a slow pace, asking fewer questions and making general comments instead, using repetition – in the form of nursery rhymes and songs, eye contact with the students, teaching action words and rewarding the children with praise by smiling and clapping (Hounslow Council, 2010).
Early reading goes hand in hand with early language; reading from a young age helps children to be able to write and develops their spoken language skills. Furthermore reading from a young age helps in the future when learning how to utilise different types of communication; emails, texts and other forms of social media. Whitehead (2010, p140) declared, “phonics is a method for teaching reading that focuses on the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes)” this is additionally supported by a document from EYFSF (2014), “reading – children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately”. Without the basic knowledge of how to use phonics, children are unable to read basic sentences and advance their reading ability.
Teachers should be demonstrating good practise when teaching phonics by annunciating their words. They can do this by speaking slowly and clearly, using repetition, having access to props and various kinds of material so children can learn either visually, kinaesthetically or verbally and most importantly giving the students praise and showing enthusiasm. However the most vital example of good practise when it comes to teaching phonics is; planning. Planning a phonics lessons requires; an introduction to what the children will be learning that lesson, a revision of the previous lesson, the teaching of new material, practising the new material with activities and applying the skills learnt, then finally at the end of the phonics lesson summarising what has been learnt and finding out if the children have met their learning outcomes that were set earlier in the lesson by the teacher.
A requirement all teachers should have when teaching is; subject knowledge. Subject knowledge is depicted as being educated in a certain area or subject. Glazzard (2016, p38) mentioned “Research suggests that good subject knowledge is critical to securing good outcomes for learners”. If a teacher is knowledgeable within the subject area they are teaching, they will appear more enthusiastic and confident to the learners they are teaching. The students will reciprocate their teacher’s confidence, and possibly find the task they are learning easier. In order for me to become a good teacher, I must be able to recognise my strengths and weaknesses in my English subject knowledge. My strengths are; ‘creativity’, ‘writing – handwriting’ and ‘writing – vocabulary, grammar and punctuation’. However my weak areas are; ‘children’s literature’, and ‘reading – word reading i.e. phonics’. I think having good subject knowledge in children’s literature – past and present – is essential as I would like to be familiar with the classics as well as current children’s literature from the last decade. To make sure I achieve this, I should visit my local library or bookstore and see what books are included in the bestsellers list. Having good subject knowledge in phonics is vital to helping children learn to read and write. If I am unable to understand the basic knowledge of phonics then I will not be successful in teaching it. In order to improve my phonics knowledge I should be using a wide range of resources – books or the internet – to improve my phonics skills.
Good practice is essential to teaching early language, reading and writing. If teachers can apply the skills of ‘good practice’ from the very start of the education spectrum, this can create the foundation for excellent teaching standards throughout the primary school system. Teachers displaying good practise in their lessons can also inspire as well as influence their children when learning. Early language, reading and writing are all well connected with each other and without one another the child’s literacy and spoken language skills cannot progress. However with the enforcement of good practise within early English lessons and teachers being consistent within their lesson plans, failure with early language, reading and writing can be avoided.