● interacting with the text to assist understanding
● considering issues of validity and bias
● presenting information to different audiences.
In the following section I suggest how we might teach the skills that children need for these stages in a creative way.
Locating information
It is important to remember that the term ‘text’ as used throughout this chapter, indeed throughout this book, refers to ‘language organised to communicate (which) includes written, spoken and electronic forms’ (NLS Glossary) but also to still and moving image. Our understanding of the ‘text’ will depend on the knowledge that we bring to it. This may be culturally specific. As teachers we must be aware of the skills and experiences that children bring to school and build upon them.
While recognising the importance of teaching where and how to get informa-tion, we need to consider the way children today receive information. As we have
already mentioned, there is a vast range of information available through paper-based texts, the media and ICT. With such information overload, teachers have an important role in helping children to decide where they might find the infor-mation the need. Children will have some understanding of contents, index and glossary from their work in KS1. They may have used simple search engines. At KS2 children need to develop their understanding of such tools and evaluate how effective they are.
Currently there is a preoccupation with pupils’ ability to decode texts and
‘synthetic phonics’ is to become a statutory teaching strategy in our schools in the light of the Rose Report www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/rosereview/finalreport/.
While not denying the importance of decoding skills, although how these should be taught is contentious, the higher order skills of skimming and scanning, infer-ence, personal response and critical reflection need to be taught concomitantly.
Children at KS2 who have difficulty with print texts or children in the early stages of learning English may employ higher order reading skills with still or moving image. The creative teacher will develop these skills and help children to transfer their knowledge to print texts too.
Skimming and scanning
Many children today have videos and DVDs in their bedrooms. They are accom-plished at finding their way round films to select their favourite scenes to revisit or to share with friends. They rewind, fast forward, pause, freeze scenes. These skills are very similar to the skills that children need to find information from print, whether it is hard copy or on a screen, and we can build on them. I tell children that skim reading is like fast-forwarding their video. They are famil-iar with the material and stop when they notice a familfamil-iar image. They then play the scene slowly to gain more detailed information. This is what is meant by scanning. It is important that children are encouraged to create and develop their own strategies and share them with their peers. One child in my class compared scanning to a person on a till scanning the barcode on an item to get the details from it.
Accessing electronic texts
The growth of the internet and ICT texts has had a considerable impact on the way we access information. Children today have access to electronic non-fiction texts when they are using the Web to research material or CD-ROM information texts. Many children at KS2 will already have some strategies for negotiating web pages and interactive books but they may need guidance in negotiating the material effectively, as well as critically reflecting on it. To encour-age children to use ICT as a research tool we must teach them how to access the information.
Teaching non-fiction creatively at key stage 2
Creative Teaching:English in the Early Years and Primary Classroom
The Teaching Ideas website www.teachingideas.co.uk/welcome provides information on the use of the internet with children. Children can use this site to practise using the tools that they need to navigate the material. The instructions are clear and they have to click on hyperlinks to negotiate the pages. Children can transfer the skills that they have learnt to other websites. Once they have the basic tools to access a site, they can evaluate the accessibility of web pages and the information they provide. This will involve higher-order thinking skills as well as reading skills as they compare and contrast, decide on what is relevant and what should be discarded, judge, rate and justify. As with paper texts essential informa-tion may be hidden among less relevant material. It may be conveyed in different ways: through diagrams, graphs, photographs.
Evaluating materials
The following activities are designed to help children select appropriate resources and locate information using higher-order reading skills. To provide an additional purpose for the activities they are linked to writing for a ‘real’ audience.
Tell children that they are to review some non-fiction books for a publishing company. Provide a selection of information texts on a topic that the children are interested in. Ask them to write the titles at the top of their page. Once children have formulated some questions they want answered, they work with a partner to locate the information. As well as noting where they found the answers, children can record their answers to the following questions:
● How helpful were the books in signposting the information?
● How long did it take to find the information?
● How often did they use the contents, the index?
● What did they use if these features were not present? For example, chapter headings, table of illustrations.
Use this information to compile a class letter to the publisher or editor suggesting any improvements that would make the material more accessible.
A similar activity to the one outlined above can be carried out with websites or digitexts. Children can record and evaluate ease of access, navigation and success in locating relevant information. A further question to explore is:
● What are the advantages and disadvantages of interactive, electronic texts?
Use the information collected on a specific resource to write a review for the publisher or for another class who might be using the resources.