MASARYK UNIVERSITY IN BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE DEVELOPING READING AND VISUAL LITERACY DIPLOMA THESIS BRNO 2008 Supervisor: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková Written by: Bc. Lucie Žigárdyová
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY IN BRNO
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
DEVELOPING READING AND VISUAL
LITERACY
DIPLOMA THESIS
BRNO 2008
Supervisor: Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková Written by: Bc. Lucie Žigárdyová
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Bibliografický záznam
Žigárdyová, Lucie diplomová práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita,
Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, vedoucí diplomové práce
Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková.
Anotace
Diplomová práce "Rozvoj čtenářské a vizuální gramotnosti" popisuje, jak je důležité u
dětí rozvíjet znalosti cizího jazyka pomocí čtení. Cílem práce je poskytnout učitelům
různé strategie, které mohou využít při výuce literatury a při užití autentických knih ve
své výuce.
Annotation
The Diploma thesis ‘Development of Reading and Visual Literacy’ describes how
important it is to teach children the ways to extend their knowledge of foreign langure
through reading. The objective of the thesis is to provide teachers with the strategy to
teach literature and use authentic books in their English lessons.
Klíčová slova
Reading literacy, visual literacy, storytelling, reading projects, strategies
Key words
Čtenářská gramotnost, vizuální gramotnost, práce s příběhem, čtenářské programy,
strategie
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I declare that I wrote this thesis by myself and used only the literature listed. In Brno
2008.
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I would like to express my acknowledge to Mrs. Naděžda Vojtková for her inspiring
encouragement and helpful support
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Content
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 7
2. Theoretical part ........................................................................................................... 9
2.1. Literacy .................................................................................................................. 9
2.2. Reading literacy (RL) and visual literacy (VL) in English language teaching ... 9
2.3. Family and its importance ................................................................................... 10
2.4. Reading background in a family ......................................................................... 11
2.5. Cooperation with parents ..................................................................................... 11
2.6. Situation at Czech schools ................................................................................... 12
2.7. Reading situation at the Czech schools ............................................................... 13
2.8. Teaching reading – reading literacy .................................................................... 13
2.9. Motivation ........................................................................................................... 15
2.10. School Library ................................................................................................... 16
2.11. Learning strategies ............................................................................................ 18
2.12. Using authentic books ....................................................................................... 20
2.13. Why is literature so important in language-learning process? .......................... 21
2.14. Literature syllabus ............................................................................................. 22
2.15. The power of Reading ....................................................................................... 24
2.16. Use of the mother tongue (MT) in English language teaching ......................... 25
2.17. The teacher and the learner ............................................................................... 26
2.18. What have the students learned? ....................................................................... 28
2.19. Young children learning languages ................................................................... 29
2.20. Visual literacy (VL) and its assessment ............................................................ 30
2.21. Story .................................................................................................................. 31
2.22. Importance of reading in a foreign language ..................................................... 33
2.23. Creation of reading projects .............................................................................. 34
3. Practical part ............................................................................................................. 36
3.1. Introduction to the Reading literacy project ........................................................ 36
3.2. Hypothesis ........................................................................................................... 37
3.3. Hypothesis scale .................................................................................................. 37
3.4. Recording of hypothesis and predictions ............................................................ 37
3.5. Questionnaires for children and parents .............................................................. 37
3.6. Use of the mother tongue (MT) ........................................................................... 38
3.7. Timing ................................................................................................................. 38
3.8. Cooperation with parents ..................................................................................... 38
3.8. Cooperation with other teachers and pupils ........................................................ 38
3.9. Creating new library ............................................................................................ 39
3.10. Portfolio ............................................................................................................. 39
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3.11. Difficulties ......................................................................................................... 39
3.12. Examples of individual projects ........................................................................ 40
3.12.1. Project for the year one .............................................................................. 40
3.12.2. Project for the year two.............................................................................. 48
3.12.3. Project for the year three............................................................................ 59
3.12.4. Project for the year four ............................................................................. 72
3.12.5. Project for the year five ............................................................................. 79
3.13. Reflections ......................................................................................................... 91
3.13.1. Meg and Mog ............................................................................................. 91
3.13.2. Toot and Puddle ......................................................................................... 93
4. Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 96
5. Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 98
5.1 Collections ............................................................................................................ 98
5.2 Magazines ............................................................................................................. 99
5.3 Books .................................................................................................................... 99
5.4 Electronic sources ............................................................................................... 100
6. Résumé ..................................................................................................................... 103
7. List of Appendices ................................................................................................... 106
7.1. Ketchup on Your Cornflakes ............................................................................. 106
7.2 Is Your Mama a Llama? ..................................................................................... 121
7.3 Meg and Mog .................................................................................................... 124
7.4 The Mice who lived in the Shoe ......................................................................... 137
7.5 Toot and Puddle .................................................................................................. 143
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1. Introduction
“Few children learn to love books by themselves. Someone has to lure them into the
wonderful world of the written word, someone has to show them the way.”
Orville Prescot
The aim of this work is to provide a theoretical as well as practical background
to the development of reading and visual literacy in English language teaching (ELT) at
the primary level of the Czech schools. A range of questions appears when speaking
about ELT. There are an inexhaustible number of methods that displaying how to teach
children the English language that different authors recommend to a teacher. And it is
the teacher who should carefully select his or her method or a combination of them.
In this paper it is shown why it is important not only to teach the English
language but to develop children’s reading and visual literacy at the same time. The
methods described in this thesis offer enjoyable ways how the young learners of English
can advance, in cooperation with their teachers.
It can be stated that children should be taught “the culture” in order to become
more tolerant towards others and to increase the awareness of belonging to one
multicultural society. Although it may seem quite difficult to extend the pupils’
knowledge of the culture, it is believed that stories and authentic books offer a solid
ground for this.
The diploma thesis consists of two major parts. The first one describes relevant
theoretical methods that are important in teaching and developing reading and visual
literacy. Subsequently, a significant piece of the theoretical part is devoted to using
authentic literature in ELT and to various tasks teachers have to undertake if they are to
be good promoters of reading and visual literacy.
The practical part introduces a series of lessons that are created on a base of five
different authentic books. Each book offers various activities, methods and approaches
aimed to develop reading and visual literacy. The practical part is distinctly longer than
the theoretical one as I have chosen one book for every year of English teaching at the
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primary level and each one offers a great variety of activities. The conclusion of the
thesis is formed by the appendix.
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2. Theoretical part
2.1. Literacy
Literacy can be described in a variety of words now although it originally meant
the ability of reading, writing and counting. Along with changing conditions in society,
the content of literacy is being shifted to different positions, step by step it is being
extended by additional branches and skills. Nowadays various types of literacy can be
found. People are surrounded by a big amount of information and for this reason the
best way to deal with the information flow is to support people’s ability to read and put
the information from the text to a context i.e. to connect it to their lives and therefore
the literacy is “understood as an ability to extract information and meaning from coded
messages, which can be visual and verbal, and to express feelings, ideas and thoughts in
these code systems” (Klippel 81). The South Australian Curriculum and Accountability
Framework defines literacy as “the ability to understand, analyze, critically respond to
and produce appropriate spoken, written, visual and multimedia communication in
different context1”. It is now clear that ELT teachers should apply these ideas into their
lessons and develop their teaching methods in correspondence with the above
mentioned theories because literacy has always been linked to language.
2.2. Reading literacy (RL) and visual literacy (VL) in
English language teaching
This work is focused on RL and VL that can be supported by using authentic
literature in English lessons. The first term (RL) covers the complex of knowledge and
skills of an individual person which enable him or her to treat written texts that people
come across in ordinary life. Straková (2002, 10) says that reading literacy is not only
1 The South Australian Curriculum and Accountability Framework. Available at: http://www.thenetwork.sa.au/general/glossary.htm,accessed [Accessed April 24, 2008].
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the simple ability to read a text but the ability to find information out of it and transform
and reproduce it, think about it and use the information to reach individual goals, to
develop individual knowledge in order to become an active participant of a society.
When talking about reading literacy it is extremely important to mention its
influence on people´s use. Straková (2002 10) stresses that reading literacy should be
perceived for a number of reasons1:
- the first reading affects the pupil´s progress in the whole educational process
- the content of RL is permanently changing according to changing conditions
- the quality of RL is maintained and increased by permanent contact with text
Information
2.3. Family and its importance
Family plays an irreplaceable role during the process of children’s
familiarization with the function and importance of literature. Parents transmit to their
children their knowledge about the usage of books, create reading habits, inform about
the advantage of reading in life and generally they help to familiarize their children with
various functions of literature – education, leisure, relaxation, amusement, etc. The
development of literacy is the long-term and complicated procedure because the process
of constituting literacy is influenced and conditioned by a range of components.
Story-reading at home is obviously productive, and it is more so when it
transforms into a special ritual because children love being involved in regular repeating
activities. Sharing information and feelings about books represents the most suitable
way for developing speaking and reading skills. It stimulates children’s desire to read
by themselves especially when they are offered picture books.
1 It is translated from the original version
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2.4. Reading background in a family
Reading as an activity practiced by the members of the family represents a very
stimulating environment children love being a part of. By sharing their own knowledge
of the world parents and other relatives can extend children’s perception of the world to
a large extent.
There is another significant point that can be mentioned here in connection with
sharing reading: adults can talk about their favourite books - what they think of them, if
they agree with all the information mentioned there, they show where to find more
information if the children are interested, etc.
For this reason it is important to support children´ s own desire to read. Teachers
should study to learn how to develop their teaching methods and so contribute to their
pupils’ reading literacy.
2.5. Cooperation with parents
It follows from the above mentioned facts that reading at schools should be
involved in reading programmes and parents should be asked for their active support.
At the present time when people are surrounded by an enormous amount of
information a great number of parents have not realized the importance of being a good
reader. It seems they often have to be told how significant this ability for their children
is. It is obvious that children should be encouraged to read every day.
One of ways how to reach the goal is to present the school reading programme to
the pupils’ parents. It should be explained that the improvement of the children’s
reading skills requires only five or ten minutes a day for certain period of time but it
should be an everyday routine.
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Some authors think that it should be twenty minutes a day and therefore parents
should be informed that just twenty minutes spent reading with their child significantly
improves his or her reading. Twenty minutes every day or twenty minutes once or
twice a week – it will make a difference.
2.6. Situation at Czech schools
It can be said that many people nowadays do not have a desire to read and that
only a minority call themselves passionate readers. Unfortunately, this can be said both
about the adults and the children. Children often argue that they do not need to read and
that they have others preferences like the TV, the computer and the internet. For lots of
people it is significant that they cannot interconnect data covered in ordinary texts and
they do not realize how disqualified they may be in life. The contemporary society is
dependent on reading and the treatment of reading materials as never before. A person
who cannot make sense of a certain text, operate with the information written in it and
deduce proper consequences for himself or herself has a very difficult position. He or
she may not find a job, fill forms in the right way or make up his or her own opinion.
Pupils in Czech schools are taught how to read which means that teachers help
them develop reading skills. Unfortunately this is true only on the elementary level.
According to outcomes of recent research Doleželová (2005) it can be said that a
majority of Czech pupils attending primary school are able to read in appropriate level
and are able to understand information given in a text. However, it is important to
continue in this process in higher years at school. Some teachers wrongly suppose that
the process of development of reading literacy was finished on the primary level and do
not pay their attention on its development at higher years.
The development of reading literacy is a long term process and therefore the
cooperation between the school, the teachers and the parents is crucial. Teachers should
have appropriate knowledge and attend if it is possible special methodological courses
aimed at this problem. The attitude towards education will have to be changed. The
prevailing mechanical thinking should be transformed to the critical one. For this reason
it is obvious that both teachers and pupils have a long way in front of them. When
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teachers are well prepared, they will be able to use their knowledge and also to create a
good, functional and rich “Framework Education Programme”.
2.7. Reading situation at the Czech schools
It is expected of schools that they substitute or compensate insufficient family
reading background and give children number of possibilities to extend their reading
competence. As it is obvious from the results that reveal situation at Czech schools
From Najvarová’s research (2008) - 71% of children called themselves as an average
reader and only 15% said that they consider themselves as an excellent reader. 41% of
children claimed that they enjoy reading. Children read different reading materials in
this sequence: books, magazines, comics. Some of them (30%) read newspapers or
advertisements. Teachers should support reading and in addition they should explain
their pupils’ how important is being a good reader for them. It is very surprising and
warning that only 13% of pupils state that teachers of foreign languages bring additional
reading materials into their classes. Vojtková (2006 113) claims that “teachers enjoy
using stories” in their lessons in order to motivate and stimulate children and develop
their listening and reading skills. Unfortunately, they “do not use the full potential of
stories” that means they do not bear in their minds the importance of other relevant
pedagogic principles e.g. “cross-curricular and intercultural potential, tradition of
storytelling and reading (113).”
2.8. Teaching reading – reading literacy
According to Louisa Moats1 teaching reading is a complex process that requires
an extensive knowledge base and a variety of strategies. It means that teaching reading
is a “job for an expert”. “Contrary to the theory that learning to read is natural and easy,
1 Reading Rockets : The Challenges of Learning to Teach Reading.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://http://www.readingrockets.org/article/250
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learning to read is a complex linguistic achievement1”. There are some demands
towards the teacher:
• Children’s interest in reading must be stimulated through regular exposure to
interesting books and through discussions in which students respond to many
kinds of texts.
• For best results, the teacher must instruct most students directly, systematically,
and explicitly to decipher words in print, all the while keeping in mind the
ultimate purpose of reading, which is to learn, enjoy, and understand.
• To accommodate children’s variability, the teacher must asses children and
tailor lessons to individuals. He or she must interpret errors, give corrective
feedback, select examples to illustrate concepts, explain new ideas in several
ways, and connect linguistic symbols with “real” reading and writing2.
Luisa Moat3 warns that without deeper knowledge, the specific techniques of lesson
delivery cannot be acquired. Krashen (2004) adds that the children should be taught
how to read in the first language as well as in the second. Therefore teachers’ role at
school is to cooperate and give pupils a variety of possibilities to develop their reading
literacy. It is true that we “learn to read by reading4”. Krashen (2004) adds that it is
obviously easier to learn to read in a language the reader understands. This natural fact
is the most suitable one but in some cases children can be taught how to read in their
English lessons. The main factor is proper motivation.
1 Reading Rockets : The Challenges of Learning to Teach Reading.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://http://www.readingrockets.org/article/250
2 see 1
3 See 1
4 “CACD.” 24 Nov 2008 <http://ase.tufts.edu/cacd_outreach/what.htm>.
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2.9. Motivation
Many school pupils have grown up in the world where TV represents the main
source of information about the world. TV and similar media are the means of
entertainment that provide “immediate short- term satisfaction, they switch topic or
scene rapidly and do not demand sustained concentration, they are invariably of a short
time span” (Carter and Long 16). In contrast to this, reading requires adequate
concentration and therefore children often replace reading by TV watching. This theory
about the effect of the TV is partly true. “TV watching, however, is related to
socioeconomic class, with lower-income families watching significantly more
television”(Krashen 140). Therefore teachers should increase the children’s interest in
reading at schools because television does not provide high-quality linguistic input. One
of the means how to do it is to establish a well-functioning school library where books
are available for everybody. The next but not least is suitable motivation. When pupils
are motivated to read by teachers they can make success in reading. For example, pupils
can vote for the books they would like to read and, in addition, they can help in finding
interesting books to be bought to the library. Another way how to get children read
could be in using enjoyable and amusing pre-reading activities like discussing different
topics of the children’s interests. There are lots of methodological books that offer a
variety of these activities. These pre-reading activities prepare ground for a successful
reading projects and perhaps also for independent learning later. Generally, children like
topics that are somehow challenging, strange, enjoyable, etc. Teachers should give the
children something that catches their attention and so create suitable conditions for
reading. Further, children can exchange their books they like with their friends and
discuss favourite images, pages, ideas, etc. They in addition can also read to their
friends from these books. It is extremely important to use the literature not only as a
teaching tool but teacher have to love reading because children are remarkably sensible
and they quite quickly recognize that the teacher is not interested in this activity.
Another significant motivation factor is class atmosphere. Teachers should be as
susceptive as possible. They should listen to their pupils, whatever they say, because
respecting them helps create a good class atmosphere. Correction has its place when
children do guided language exercises, but not when they use the language for
communication. Children want to tell the teacher what they have learned and are very
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enthusiastic when they obtain positive feedback. Establishing certain routines like:
singing songs at the beginning of each lesson, greetings, ‘Friday is the day we read the
book’, lighting a candle or switching on some background music on each reading
lesson, etc. can be a successful way to “build up familiarity and security” (Scott and
Ytreberg 11). The children should feel comfortable during the lessons, so the teacher
should prepare and plan the lessons in a way that suits them.
Students will be motivated to read if the process of reading is related to them as
individuals. Teachers should start with eliciting their students “own ideas, feelings and
attitudes” (Carter and Long 17) before they started their reading. Students will be better
motivated to read a “literary text “(Carter and Long 17) when they can relate them to
their own experience. One of the most suitable motivation is creation of the school full
of books. Books should be therefore visible and allowed to touch. According to Krashen
(2004) the print-rich environment causes that children read more. These ways of
motivation could help to change children’s attitude towards reading.
2.10. School Library
The better school library is result in more reading as it is obvious from many
research results. Children should have as many chances to read as possible. Enriching
the “print environment1” in the classrooms leads to better attitude towards reading.
Below is some internet recommendation that can help in establishing a new library2:
• Create a dedicate area, which is not used for other purposes
• Give your library a theme and decorate it accordingly
• Tailor your stock to provide equal coverage across all subjects and themes. Use
termly planning lists to check adequate provision. Set up a simple classification
system and borrowing routine, encouraging pupil independence
1 Everything that can be connected with books (magazines, articles, comics, posters, etc.)
2 “National Year of Reading: Reading ideas.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.yearofreading.org.uk/index.php?id=82&nech_chal=134>.
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The school libraries can give high quality reading and learning opportunities to
all children when they consist of carefully chosen titles. The library books should both
entertain and educate and the children can contribute in establishing their school
libraries as it was mentioned above. The next step is as important as all the previous
ideas - the pupils should find a way to a public library in their locality where
experienced librarians provide “a unique community space where children can browse,
read, enjoy all kinds of books and follow their individual passions1”.
According to the National Literacy Trust survey “magazines, websites and
emails are read most frequently outside the school while poetry, manuals/instruction
and factual books are read least often2”. This research also presents that most children
like reading and associate it with positive feelings, minority of them claim that they feel
bored and only a minimum of respondents answer that reading is stressful and makes
them nervous. These results may serve in support of teachers and their effort to extend
their pupils’ reading skills and literacy and in building the school library. There is one
research outcome that is quite alarming and teachers should make an environment that
can change children’s view. In that opinion being a good reader means being able to
read long books, to read frequently, to read different materials. Children should know
and be taught that reading for pleasure can also improve their reading literacy. As
Kraschen (2004) maintains, schools should encourage them to read not only fiction
books, factual books and poetry. As it is true children often choose reading materials
that their friends and schoolmates like to read, so it is advisable to involve pupils in the
foundation and further extension of the school library. “The way to get children reading
is to leave the library door open and let them read anything and everything they want3”
1 “The Reading Agency | Young people.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.readingagency.org.uk/young/>.
2 “Literacy - National Literacy Trust home page.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/>. 3 School Libraries - Making A Difference. Available at:
http://www.schoollibrariesadvocacy.org.uk/schoollibrarians/index.asp [Accessed
November 24, 2008].
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(T.Pratchet). For many children, especially boys and readers with special needs, non-
fiction is more appealing than fiction and therefore picture books and graphic novels
may attract them to reading more. Further reading resources are magazines, comics and
newspapers. Teachers have to explain to their pupils the importance of both silent and
loud reading and help to establish some strategies that help children.
2.11. Learning strategies
In foreign language learning it is usually only the successful few who continue
to learn after their school lessons are finished because the language is “a highly complex
set of systems, structures, and rules, and consequently the process of learning is fairly
complicated” (Dickinson and Carver 17). Those who want to extend their knowledge of
foreign language, need to know how to do it. These students have to reach certain
independence in learning foreign languages and use techniques that enable them to
reach the right goal through becoming as autonomous as possible. The first step is that
students should be taught that their independence is highly important in their education
and life. Techniques that support the student’s autonomy should be taught at schools
and teachers should pay their attention to activities that lead to the development of
pupils’ autonomy.
“Learning to learn and the development of the knowledge, skills, self-
confidence, and positive attitudes to manage one’s own learning not only underpin all
the language learning skills, but can also transfer to the learning of other subjects”
(Dickinson and Carver 4). It is often presupposed that children are too young to realise
how they learn. However, Dickinson and Carver (2004) claim that children are able to
understand this process and teachers should be prepared to support children’s natural
way of learning. Dickinson and Carver point out that in doing this, teachers should
cover three useful aspects: “methodological, psychological, and practice in self-
direction”. (4). A teacher needs to know how to develop pupils’ self-confidence and
ability to work independently and hopefully change their attitude towards language
learning.
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Good learning strategies help pupils learn the foreign language in the most
appropriate way and help become an autonomous learner. It means, students should
learn how to plan, make a hypothesis, self-assessment, review, etc. Guessing the
meaning of new words, training the memory, self-testing and predicting are also
important components of this process. In addition to that the development of study skills
like making, understanding and interpreting charts and graphs, learning to use and
making dictionaries and organizing work, contributes a great deal to the success in the
learning process.
Children should know that it is highly important to be able to talk in a foreign
language because we all are dependent on oral language communication. In concord
with school educational programmes that highlight communicative competence as one
of the most important goals, this skill can be developed through rhymes and stories at
the beginning of the learning process. Reading is another relevant technique that enables
students to understand a foreign language. They should know, for example, that good
readers do not read everything on the page, but can read only things that are important
for them or catch their interest.
Schools should have a variety of books to offer to a wide number of pupils in
their libraries in order to let them select books and read for themselves or to each other.
Pupils should be involved in producing drawing or paintings, written work or other
items and so decorate notice boards where they present the books they are reading.
Finally, it should be mentioned that to children need to co-operate with other
learners because “autonomous learning does not imply learning in isolation”(Dicrinson
and Carver 19). This can be done by some group work or project work. Children should
be taught some of the following techniques: “self-monitoring, self-correction, group
work, project work, extensive reading/listening, choice of activities, use of ‘pupil
teachers’, sharing objectives” (21). When they get familiar with these techniques, they
can take responsibility for their learning process and became autonomous learners.
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2.12. Using authentic books
Children enjoy listening to stories in their mother tongue and are familiar with
“narrative conventions”( Ellis and Brewster 1). For this reason storybooks are suitable
sources for an introduction to a foreign language. The new language they present is
expressed in a familiar context.
An authentic book, whether it is a story or a factual or reference book, is an
extremely valuable resource for young English language learners because it gives them
contextualized language. Once the language is contextualized, it is easier to understand
the meaning of any new language item because the context supports this understanding.
Authentic books offer English learners a natural use of English.
Authentic books usually provide illustrations that not only attract the reader but
they also support the new language and its acquisition because, along with the context
of the text, they help the student to resolve what the new language means. Good quality
illustrations provide a stimulus for a quality visual literacy approach.
A research1 shows that programmes based on using authentic literature in the
teaching process produce pupils who can make reading their lifelong habit. In addition
it presents that such pupils are more successful in their learning process than those who
are only taught to read from textbooks and workbooks.
Authentic books can be used to provide extra language practice as Ellis and
Brewster (2002) claim. In addition they can enrich a language course as they can offer
other opportunities for practicing certain language functions e.g. offers, requests, etc.
According to the research, there is another significant reason for using authentic
books. It is the fact that “children develop readings problems partly because basal texts
and workbooks emphasize word recognition at the expense of comprehension skills,
1Using “Real Books” To Teach Reading Said To Heighten Skill,Interest. Available at: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1983 [Accessed August 6, 2008].
21
rely primarily on a “fill-in-blank” format, and are so simple that children find them
boring1”.
Irma Ghosn (2004) states in her article that using authentic books in ELT
classrooms is closely connected with the acquisition-based methodology, which
recognizes the true value of using literature and storytelling techniques in order to
promote ideal learning conditions.
To conclude with, there is another opinion in support of using authentic books in
a foreign language curriculum. Authentic books provide rich examples of natural
language and move children away from the standard lessons and basic dialogues and
temporal daily activities. The literature aimed programmes prepare children for English-
medium instruction and finally they can change children’s “interpersonal and
intercultural attitudes”. ( Davies 7)
2.13. Why is literature so important in language-learning
process?
“The significance of providing pupils with a mixture of books has increased in
order to encourage them to read at home”2. It is supposed that children of pre-school age
become good readers if their parents read to them. These days, unfortunately, parents do
not have enough time to spend reading to their children. The moments of pleasure
experienced during parents’ reading are step by step replaced by children’s sitting in
front of television. There is an increasing amount of input offered by TV programmes,
videos, DVDs, computer games, internet and children are losing contact with a book.
Therefore teachers should offer as many chances for reading as possible. Reading can
evoke talking about books. Reading authentic books in classes provides an important
affective atmosphere that helps pupils to realise more about the world and themselves.
1 Using “Real Books” To Teach Reading Said To Heighten Skill,Interest. Available at: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1983 [Accessed August 6, 2008
]. 2 Using “Real Books” To Teach Reading Said To Heighten Skill,Interest. Available at:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1983 [Accessed August 6, 2008].
22
The books that are written in an enjoyable way give children an opportunity to
understand even more difficult texts when they are caught by them.
“Most language teachers agree that to get students talking in a second language
is both the most difficult and the most satisfying thing in the classroom1”. Of course
children love talking about things they enjoy or like doing but talking in a foreign
language is a problem for them. There is a range of ways of doing this. Teachers can use
pop songs or cartoons but their use suffers from the absence of a rationale or coherent
methodology. So they often end up with it as pleasing thing to fill out the last ten
minutes of a lesson, rather than integrating it properly and fully into the language-
learning process. For that reason, “a great many teachers reject such materials as trivial,
mindless entertainment, incapable of making a real contribution to student’s
learning”(McRae 5). Creative teachers, however, can take advantage of it and prepare
lessons that will be both enjoyable and educative.
Moreover, books, fairy tales, folk tales and stories help enlarge the children’s
imagination. They both give joy and instruct because they present the world of stories
that children know and perceive.
2.14. Literature syllabus
In second language and foreign language teaching there are at least three
distinguishable major ways to treat a literary text as Brumfit and Carter (1987 23)
presented in their book. The first approach works with literature as “tool of developing
competence in the language” (Brumfit and Carter 23). It means that the prime intention
is to teach language, not literature. It suggests that the texts are used for practicing
grammar, vocabulary, etc. The weak point of this approach is that the language used in
authentic literature frequently breaks a substantial number of syntax rules. However,
Read (2004) maintains that a carefully selected storybook provides in itself “a focus for
1 Using “Real Books” To Teach Reading Said To Heighten Skill,Interest. Available at: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1983 [Accessed August 6, 2008].
23
the creation of inter-subjective1 states and a potential scaffold2 to learning”(2004 14). It
seems very important to link the story to previous child’s knowledge and experience.
This process should take certain time and in addition, children should be taught how to
use a variety of strategies that help them in creating a good habit.
The second approach for including literary texts in ELT classes is to teach
“culture”. Teaching culture means to inform students about the ways people around the
world behave, show them their customs, art, beliefs, etc. The description of “manners,
dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behaviour such as law and morality, and
systems of belief as well as the art3” gives teachers an opportunity to extend their
students’ understanding of a foreign culture. Although information about culture
described in literary texts can extend students’ knowledge of the world they sometimes
present not realistic description of the world, which gives inaccurate picture of people
and their customs in foreign countries. For this reason the teacher’s role is
irreplaceable. They should give children as much real information as they can or they
should explain to their pupils what is unrealistic.
The third literature syllabus is called “educational and should not be confused
with syllabuses for the teaching of language and of culture. This syllabus, usually at
advanced levels, may be primarily informative in intention and may legitimately be
concerned with the history of English literature, or of parts of it”. (Brumfit and Carter
28). Authentic books such as novels offer a great number of shared frames and
references and many students educated in “literature courses” can operate successfully
in this way. These nearly professional courses are aimed to advanced students and
therefore are not applicable at basic schools. Brumfit and Carter (1987) emphasize that
1 Intersubjectivity is the sharing of subjective states by two or more individuals.
2 scafolding – is a multi-layered process, a metaphor used to describe the teacher’s guidance in ELT
3 Culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture [Accessed November 24, 2008].
24
literary response starts when fluent reading has already been established. The
educational syllabus is divided into three stages:
1. Students working in their mother tongue on literature, with a great deal of
aesthetically structured speech and children’s writing behind them
2. Students working through a foreign or second language coming from a
culture with a well-developed literary tradition, with which they are already
slightly familiar (these will probably a little older than those in (1) above)
3. Students working through a second language whose experience of
artistically organized language is primary oral, and whose culture may
indeed have very different assumptions from those of western Europe about
aesthetics and language (Brumfit and Carter 30)
These three positions are relative to each other and it is possible to combine
them all together. A very important part in lessons using literature as their source is
students’ previous experience with literature. Ellis and Brewster add that using of
“cross-curricular” reference is another important issue in teaching ‘literature’(3).
There is some foreign language syllabuses that may now include a “cognitive
(learning to learn), cultural/citizenship, and cross-curricular focus thereby contributing
to the child’s global development” (3). Consequently, the key criterion for literature
course is whether the books on syllabus are accessible for serious discussion and
personal experience to a particular group of students.
2.15. The power of Reading
Competence in reading literacy can be increased indirectly through reading for
real interest with a focus on meaning. Krashen (1989) refers to this kind of reading as
“reading exposure”. (Krashen 48). He reports that reading exposure alone has a strong
effect on the development of language abilities necessary for school success and he
claims that both current language acquisition and reading theory together support
children literacy.
25
Krashen (1989) presents several ways of reading that have particularly enormous
influence on language development:
1. Sustained silent reading (SSR) programs
2. Self-selected reading programs
3. Living in a print environment or having reading resourses
4. Pleasure reading, as reported by the readers themselves
5. Reading out loud to children
He emphasizes that children should be given a certain period of time (ten to
thirty minutes) in the school day for them to read their own books or other materials
according to their interests. The research and many author remind how important role
represents own selection of books. Selection of books in compliance with pupils’
interests gives teachers possibilities how to make RL progress stronger. Reading is
regarded as the most important tool of RL development. The majority of people are
educated how to develop their reading skills but on the other hand not everybody is able
to obtain all information that certain texts offer to the reader. For this reason they should
be learned by the teachers who are competent enough different strategies that support
RL flowering.
2.16. Use of the mother tongue (MT) in English language
teaching
Although the usage of the English language in the English learning process is
widely recommended, some situations require an acceptance of children’s MT. Children
feel more confident when they are allowed to use their MT in some activities e.g. when
making hypothesis, predicting, commenting illustrations, etc. David Carless (2004) in
his article claims that switching from the target language to MT and vice versa is
suitable in some cases. It is obvious that some situations bring “an opportunity for
pupils to clarify the meaning what the teacher has said, discussion of the requirements
26
of a task, and a social function, in terms of creating a sense of group cohesion, or
reducing students’ anxiety” in the English lessons (Carless p 39).
Pupils’ use of their MT in reading lessons is an important way from the familiar
to the new. C.Read (Read 19) maintains that MT allows children to “relate the story to
their lives, they can enjoy humour, predict, guess and imagine”. Although the texts are
rather long, children can understand the story quite well as it is always accompanied
with pictures. They are able to give comments on them and work out the text meaning.
Nikolov (28) adds that “commenting provides all children in the classroom with
comprehensive input”. He stresses the fact that when the children read and work with
illustrations at schools in English as well as in MT and than read in English at home,
they are more exposed to English. It seems that switching from the MT to English and
vice versa builds a solid base for improving learning strategies and consequently for
better English language usage.
2.17. The teacher and the learner
The teacher’s role in the process of teaching literature or in the process of
developing students’ reading competence is very important. Firstly, the teacher is to
some extent a missionary who should keep carefully in mind a professional awareness
of why he or she is using a particular text. Lack of experience and unsuitable
methodology together can cause certain difficulties which could lead to “students’
frustration and they can create students’ deprecatory attitude towards literature and
reading in a foreign language” (McRae 8). Louisa Moats1 in her article cultivates this
idea and adds that “teaching reading is a job for an expert” because it is a complex
process that requires an extensive knowledge core and a variety of strategies.
1 “Reading Rockets : The Challenges of Learning to Teach Reading.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.readingrockets.org/article/250>.
27
“No previous experience of literature as ‘literature’ is necessary for a teacher to
be able to use materials aimed to literature in language teaching. What should good
teachers keep in mind is the aim of their teaching – to help students become better
readers of the world they live in”(McRae 10). Teachers should be prepared for reading
books to their children. They should provide suitable reading projects as well as be
ready to become story tellers. They should do the following, as Bauer (1993)
recommends: read the book before talking about it, prepare the programme well in
advance, think of the audience, keep the programme brief, choose his or her your
favourite books.
The teaching method needs to be chosen not only on the basis of what seems
“theoretically plausible, but also in the light of the experience, personality, and
expectations of the students involved”(Lugossy 30). Teaching reading is often
undervalued and there are some suggestions what a good teacher should follow:
• Children's interest in reading must be stimulated through regular exposure to
interesting books and through discussions in which students respond to many
kinds of texts.
• For best results, the teacher must instruct most students directly, systematically,
and explicitly to decipher words in print, all the while keeping in mind the
ultimate purpose of reading, which is to learn, enjoy, and understand.
• To accommodate children's variability, the teacher must assess children and
tailor lessons to individuals. He or he must interpret errors, give corrective
feedback, select examples to illustrate concepts, explain new ideas in several
ways, and connect linguistic symbols with "real" reading and writing1.
1 “Reading Rockets : The Challenges of Learning to Teach Reading.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.readingrockets.org/article/250>.
28
All materials used in the learning process should appeal to the learner and pupils
will probably let the teacher know what they think of the texts chosen for them. As
McRae highlights the teacher should offer a great deal of different issues like topical
relevance, theme, extra-curricular reference, visual impact, humour, emotional impact,
etc. (McRae 9)..The student learns from the surrounding world rather than just from the
teacher and the course book “Comprehension is a stimulus rather than an end in itself,
so what happens in the learner’s consciousness, after a level of understanding of the text
has been reached, becomes a highly significant part of the learning experience”(McRae
13).
2.18. What have the students learned?
A traditional conception of a language-learning process incorporates four skills,
namely speaking, listening, reading and writing. These abilities are very important for a
language-learner but there is one more discipline which is extremely significant for
everybody who wants to be a good second language producer and it is not often stressed
enough: it is thinking in the target language and it could be labeled by the term “the fifth
skill” (McRae 6). Many teachers take their interest in practicing grammar, they
concentrate on “the mechanical aspects of grammatical manipulation” and do not
develop this fifth skill (McRae 6). McRae recommends using literature and developing
reading competence in order to support pupils’ own capability for self-awareness and
claims that it can promote the knowledge of the target language. It is obvious that the
earlier children will be familiarized with reading, the better it will be for the
development of their second language competence.
29
2.19. Young children learning languages
There are different reading projects for children of different ages. For example,
six year old children differ from ten year old ones and these differences have to be
considered. Apart of that some children develop earlier some later. Generally, the older
ones are more independent, can cooperate better, have a certain view of the world and
know the difference between facts and fiction.
When it comes to learning a foreign language, the following is obviously true:
“At first children operate with concrete words and later when they develop their abstract
thinking they try to use abstract words in their speech. The more concrete the words are,
the more children learn. They need many real things, pictures and associations to create
a second language”(Žigárdyová 8). There is an interesting observation that can enrich a
view of a foreign language learning.
“An intriguing paradox in the development of young children is their ability to
establish their first language at a time when they are unable to understand anything
about the system which they come to use with such competence. From experiences of
learning other languages at later ages there is much that indicates that learning a
language is not easy. Yet young children the world over persist and make progress even
though it later appears to be difficult.
The fact that young children learn their first language with such speed and
competence must mean that if the process can be better understood, it should be
possible to design methods through which children learn a second language in much the
same way as they learn their first language”: (Scott and Ytreberg 213).
Using storytelling methods and developing children’s reading literacy through a
variety of projects can promote the process of learning second language.
30
2.20. Visual literacy (VL) and its assessment
The development of reading literacy represents the development of visual
literacy at the same time. “To develop children’s visual literacy as providing
information through visual images is an important means of communication in global
world”. (Ellis and Brewster 8). It is not only the story and beauty of the pictures that the
children would like to communicate, “but the very essence of the book itself: fine paper,
binding, and design” (Bauer 339).
These texts often use more than “one mode, such as the visual and written
modes1”. Students should be taught how to interpret a variety of texts that can “include
a combination of writing, speech, visual images, and electronic and interactive media2”.
The teachers should be able to use the “metalanguage3” in order to make their students
discuss what they can see in different modes and what they understand. Teachers should
know “why these concepts and skills are so crucial as well as what aspects and features
of multimodal texts” should be highlighted and “how to assess students’ understanding
and skills4”. They should use appropriate questions and tasks in order to assess their
students’ VL development. They can speak about “high or low angles, use of colours
and shot distances and organizational meanings5”. A broader visuality allows
discussion, critique, and enjoyment around all types of visual texts as J.Callow (2008)
recommends. The VL assessment has three dimensions – “the affective, the
compositional and the critical one”. Teachers can assess the children’s expressions of
enjoyment when watching illustrations (the affective assessment), how they use the
metalanguage (the compositional assessment) and how they understand the author’s
1 Callow J. Show Me: Principles for Assessing Students‘ Visual Literacy,The Reading Teacher, 61(8),p.616
2 see 1
3 Metalanguage is a language for talking about language, images, texts and meaning-making interactions
4 see 1
5 Organizational meaning means where composition and layout choices influence an image.
31
sociocritical images (the critical assessment). The questions and tags can be viewed as
summative1 and formative2 assessment.
In order to support their VL pupils should be involved in projects. Teachers can
exploit their pupils’ own desire to draw and colour because children mostly like these
activities. Then they should be encouraged to draw a picture, and to write a short text
related to a picture. (Carless 41). During all these activities the teachers have an
opportunity to record their pupils’ reactions and answers on well formed and aimed
questions. The creation of a natural atmosphere could help to receive as credible pupils’
reactions as possible and therefore the teachers should carefully consider and plan all
questions that can appear when they make up series of reading and visual literacy
lessons.
2.21. Story
Children love stories and their predictable patterns and for this reason they can
make predictions about what comes next. For this reason the storybooks are the suitable
sources for an ideal introduction to the foreign language as they present language in a
familiar and memorable context. Ellis and Brewster highlight:
• Stories are a useful tool in linking fantasy and the imagination with the
child’s real world and forge links between home and school
• Listening to stories in class is a shared social experience
• Children enjoy listening to stories over and over again. This frequent
repetition allows certain language items to be acquired while others are
being overtly reinforced. Many stories contain natural repetition of key
vocabulary and structures
1 Summative assessment (or Summative evaluation) refers to the assessment of the learning and summarizes the development of learners at a particular time.
2 Formative assessment is a self-reflective process that intends to promote student attainment and it focus
on process, it helps teachers to check the current status of their students’ language ability
32
• Listening to stories allows the teacher to introduce or revise new vocabulary
and sentence structures by exposing the children to language in varied,
memorable and familiar contexts.
• Listening to stories helps children become aware of the rhythm, intonation
and pronunciation of the language.
• Storybooks develop the different types of intelligences and reflect the culture
of the authors and illustrators, in addition they develop children’s learning
strategies.
Teachers can retell stories in many ways in order to eliminate the rather old-
fashioned style. The teacher can make sentences shorter, remove dependent clauses and
clefting ones and use easier verbs, as McRae (1991) recommends. However, it is
believed that once students have read whatever “simplified” version the teacher decides
to use, it is useful to have them compare it with the original. The comparison of some
passages, between simplified and original versions, helps students understand how
language works can it be “richer/poorer, more complex/simpler, more or less modern”,
and so on. (McRae 48)
The greatest value of the use of stories in Language teaching is in their
encouragement of students towards extensive reading, towards reading for pleasure.
“What will happen next?” is the basic motivation which keeps the reader interested –
and keeps him/her reading. (McRae 49). It is not only the story and beauty of the
pictures that children want to communicate but “the very essence of the book
itself”(Bauer 339).
33
2.22. Importance of reading in a foreign language
Reading is highly important in children’s overall development and it brings
pleasure to children’s lives. Although children go through a series of predictable steps
on their journey to becoming foreign book readers, many things can distract them, such
as having “inadequate exposure to language at schools or having a learning disability”1.
Teachers who know the art and science of teaching reading, though, are able to provide
skillful, effective reading instructions, and can help students who need it overcome
barrier to becoming readers. Children don't learn to read just from being exposed to
books. For many children, reading must be taught “explicitly and systematically, one
small step at a time”2.
Most foreign language reading specialists view reading as “interactive”3. The
reader interacts with the text to create meaning as “the reader's mental processes work
together at different levels”4. There are certain similarities between the reading in a
mother tongue and in the second language Barnet5 stresses and he adds that
“expectations defined by a reader’s culture influence what the reader understands when
reading”3. Reading in English in the early stages remains at the “word level” ( Ellis and
Brewster 55) where children play simple games e.g. Dominoes, word chains, Bingo in
order to become familiar with typical letter combinations. Harmer (1994) highlights the
importance of skimming, reading for gist and scanning in the process of reading.
Children should know these techniques in order to become good second language
1 “Reading Rockets : Techniques for Teaching Reading Effectively.” 25 Nov 2008
<http://www.readingrockets.org/teaching>.
2 see 1
3 “Teaching Reading in a Foreign Language. ERIC Digest..” 29 Nov 2008 <http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9211/reading.htm>.
4 “Teaching Reading in a Foreign Language. ERIC Digest..” 29 Nov 2008
<http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9211/reading.htm>.
2, 3, 4, 5, 6 see 1
34
readers. Barner in his article4 says that children should also use illustrations and titles to
understand a passage. He stresses that “risk taking” is another important technique that
teachers should put stress on. It means that children should be encouraged to “guess a
word meaning”5. These techniques together can enable the student to become “aware of
the reading process”6.
A good reader can be characterized in three dimensions as it is mentioned the
research7: “linguistic, cognitive, and metacognitive. Linguistic knowledge and
processing ability refer to readers’ formal knowledge of vocabulary, syntax, and
discourse and their abilities to use this knowledge in their interaction with texts.
Cognitive ability is concerned with readers’ use of prior knowledge and various
strategies in their efforts to construct meaning in the comprehension process.
Metacognitive strategic competence reflects readers’ monitoring and control of reading
strategies8”.
2.23. Creation of reading projects
When teachers want to create their own reading projects they should think about
suitable books at first and than they should plan a content of series of lessons aimed to
reading. In addition they should know that management is inherent for reading literacy
projects as well as previous issues. Good management is important in so far as it
involves the efficiency of a teacher and the learning activities. The most effective
activities can be made almost “useless if the teacher does not organize them properly”
7 “Reading in a Foreign Language: April 2008: Research on good and poor reader
characteristics: Implications for L2 reading research in China.” 29 Nov 2008
<http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/April2008/pang/pang.html>.
8 “Reading in a Foreign Language: April 2008: Research on good and poor reader
characteristics: Implications for L2 reading research in China.” 29 Nov 2008
<http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/April2008/pang/pang.html>.
35
(Maclennan 51). To create a good reading project means according to Maclennan that
“the basis for selection of language items and the planning of activities is defined in
terms of language” (ELT 2004). It signifies that teachers should be aware of: “structural
content, lexical content, integrating material, and rounding off a lesson” (Maclennan
51). Ellis and Brewster add that teachers should bear in their minds illustrative style and
layout of books and setting – urban/rural stories from different cultures/seasons/places
(2002). Maclennan stresses that this management is very much “an art and professional
skills in its own right” and for these reasons it deserves more time and attention than it
normally gets (Maclennan 52). Ellis and Brewster highlight (1991) that good
management can positively influence children’s learning process and they add that
teachers should think about how to organize storytelling, what audio-visual aids they are
going to use, how they will collect and organize resources, if they want to use pair or
group work, how they will display children’s works and how they together with
children are going to organize a book corner (1991). To be a good reading projects
organizer means that a teacher should plan when they are going to do to begin the
storytime and how they are going to acquaint with the audience e.g. a teacher should use
a puppet when he or she want to introduce a story. All above mentioned steps and
methods should be carefully planned in advance according to Scott and Ytreberg (1991)
because:
• It makes life much easier for teachers in the classroom.
• They can adapt the plan for the future use.
• They become aware of how much time activities take.
• They know what they will need for each lesson.
• It allows teachers to use more of their energy and enthusiasm to enjoy what they
are doing instead of worrying about what to do next, or looking at the next page
of the book. etc.(97)
36
3. Practical part
3.1. Introduction to the Reading literacy project
Children enjoy listening to stories and therefore using them in the English
language learning process is an opportunity to increase their interest in reading.
Generally, children do not read very much nowadays, they do not like spending their
free time by doing this kind of activity. They prefer watching TV and playing computer
games. For this reason I asked my pupils’ parents for their support and help. In my
project I have prepared series of lessons based on my pupils’ own reading and their
parents represent an important part in this process.
The main idea of this programme is sharing feelings and experiences. Children
can share their feelings either with their parents or with other children. In my opinion,
this cooperation could be very useful and important both for me as a teacher and for my
pupils. I hope they will improve their reading skills and so develop their reading
literacy. Although children have often difficulties to understand a text and search for
information hidden within it, I expect this series of lessons could start a process of
improving it.
Our school has been included in a special programme which supports English
learning from the very beginning. This programme is called “Angličtina do prvních
tříd” and it was developed in cooperation with local authorities. There are ten schools in
Brno that started this special programme two years ago, and therefore all classes at our
school learn the English language regularly twice or three times a week.
From the first class to the fifth one there is quite enough time to introduce the reading
literacy project.
It was created to support the development of reading skills, the sense of
imagination, pleasure and enjoyment of reading. The children started to work with real,
authentic books.
Authentic books are full of beautiful and text supporting illustrations that help
explain the books content in the most appropriate way. They develop children’s fantasy
and prediction skills, and they are suitable for English lessons. Although in these books
there is a certain amount of unknown vocabulary and grammar that is above the pupils’
37
knowledge in these books they offer authentic language and so enrich the children’s
language.
3.2. Hypothesis
After finishing this reading literacy project the children’s ability to translate texts
accompanied by illustrations will approve and they will be able to talk about
illustrations.
Although the development of reading skills is the main goal, it is impossible to do that
without an exhaustive illustration analysis.
3.3. Hypothesis scale
The hypothesis scale is at first represented by two identical texts. Children will
be given a text without any illustrations at the very beginning of the project in order to
retell it in the Czech language or somehow express main ideas. They should do it
without any dictionary or the teacher’s help. At the end of the project they will be given
the same text but accompanied with illustrations and children should retell it again. The
quality of their expressions will demonstrate the children’s improvement in reading
literacy and understanding of illustrations.
The second approach how to evaluate children’s RL will be realized during the
whole project. The children are going to answer variety of the teacher’s questions that
will be related to the text and illustrations. Their real reactions show either the
improvement or stagnation in RL development. The teacher should take the children’s
reactions down after each lesson in order to sum up them carefully.
3.4. Recording of hypothesis and predictions
The teacher should record the pupils’ predictions and hypothesis and then
rewrite them to be seen by everybody.
3.5. Questionnaires for children and parents
The parents are expected to provide further feedback that can be exploited for
the assessment of each pupil’s reading development.
38
3.6. Use of the mother tongue (MT)
It is extremely important to prepare an atmosphere in the classroom which
insures safe and creative environment. The children should feel comfortable and self-
confident during their reading lessons so usage of MT in activities like predicting,
making hypothesis and describing the text and illustrations can be helpful. It can
support their creativity as well as their predictions skills.
3.7. Timing
The third week in September 2008 was the starting point of the “Reading
literacy” project. The project should spread over four month and finish at the end of
December 2008.
3.8. Cooperation with parents
The parents will be sent a letter of request for the support of the reading literacy
project. At the same time they will be asked to contribute and help to build the school
library. It is advisable to explain to the children’s parents that a fundamental factor in
their children’s enthusiasm and success in learning English is the parents’ interest and
support. This does not mean that they should be speakers of English themselves
(although it is an advantage). They can just share the feelings of togetherness. This
factor together with good motivation influences positively the children’s process of
learning. Sharing the feelings helps to create a good atmosphere besides the fact that the
parents will be informed about what their children are doing at school.
3.8. Cooperation with other teachers and pupils
The development of reading and visual literacy covers more than just the
development of simple reading skills in English lessons as it is explained in the
theoretical part. However it would not be possible without cooperation with other
teachers. It would for example be very suitable if teachers of the Czech language could
prepare similar programmes for their subject. Creating literature supporting
39
environment in the school could improve the relationships between the school and its
pupils, the parents and their children, the school and the parents, the teachers among
themselves, etc. There is a possibility to involve higher class pupils to substitute English
teachers in their role. It means that good students or volunteers can read to their younger
schoolmates during these lessons. They can in addition help with an organization of
parties, trips, etc.
3.9. Creating new library
Authentic books are rather expensive and therefore the parents’ financial support
helps a lot in establishing or enlarging the school library. The Ministry of Education
sometimes promotes good projects and can contribute financially to the school library
formation.
3.10. Portfolio
The children and the parents will be informed about the project through work
sheets which will be a part of the children’s portfolios.
3.11. Difficulties
Naturally, during the work many different questions may appear. For example,
our school library consists of only three or four pieces of graded readers because the
purchase of any new books represents considerable amount of money and the school as
an institution cannot afford to pay for all the books needed for this project. Although the
school provided some support it is not still enough. Therefore we addressed our pupils’
parents for sponsorship. They were sent a letter which introduced the “Reading
Literacy” programme and which describes how they could help and support their
children. Beside financial support the parents should also encourage their children in
their learning experiences.
Then the parents were familiarized with the project content where each lesson is
organized around a story with a variety of charming characters, situations and events
that should capture the interest and imagination of the children of this age.
40
Furthermore, they obtain concrete suggestions how they can support their child in this
letter.
3.12. Examples of individual projects
In the following session there are examples of individual projects that I would
like to present how different authentic books can be used for developing of reading and
visual literacy.
3.12.1. Project for the year one
Ketchup On Your Cornflakes
By Nick Sharrat
This tiny book brings children into the world of common words that are used
both in an ordinary and funny way. It is aimed at readers who like to play either with
words or with food. While playing with split pages children can make a variety of
fantastic and surprising meals.
Recommendation
If you want to use this book in year one it is advisable to use it in the second half
of the school year when the children have already been taken into the English language
learning process. At that time you can introduce a written form of the English language
because children have already improved their reading skills in their mother tongue.
Brainstorming ideas for activities to use with this story
1. Food vocabulary – likes and dislikes,
2. House – practising vocabulary and learning the difference between prepositions
“in” and “on”
3. Thinking about funny combinations of different items of food
4. Cooperation with other teachers e.g. art (making illustrations)
5. Creating a poem in English e.g. “I like apples” (appendix 5.1)
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6. Cooperation with parents - a party with the pupils’ parents
7. Creation of a book of different food combinations
Main theme: Playing with words and split pages of the book
Language: Food, house, furniture and items we need for our everyday life, clothes,
prepositions “in”, “on”, colours, parts of t body, toys
Lesson 1
Aims
To predict what the book is about.
To practice and recognize food words.
To name all pictures (use both Czech and English words).
To create the rhyme “I like ketchup”.
Materials
Food flash cards (you can make copies of pictures from the book)
Basket with some food items covered with a headscarf
Language
Ketchup, cornflakes, apple pie, custard, lemonade, chips, ice cubes, egg, salt, toast, jam,
milk
Motivation
Bring a big basket into the first special reading lesson and let children guess what is
hidden in the basket. Write their predictions on the board.
Activities
1. Guessing game – let the children touch, smell and taste the food items and guess what
they are.
2. Show everything to your pupils and ask them to name the things in English. Help if
necessary.
3. Likes and dislikes – divide these items into likes and dislikes by labeling them with a
happy face or a sad one.
4. Give the pupils worksheets and they can draw some kinds of food they like or dislike
5. Practice vocabulary that appears in the book. Play different flash card games.
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Reading
Create a special atmosphere and seating order. Tell the children that they are going to
listen to your reading.
Read each food combination that fits to each other. Let the pupils clap their hands every
time they will hear some food words.
Art
1. Say a short chant “I like ketchup, you like chips
I like you and you like me”
2. Let the children identify the familiar words and explain the meaning of this chant.
3. Teach the chant.
4. Let the pupils create their own version in pairs.
Discussion
Ask the children what words from the reading they remember. Ask: What appeals to
you? And why? Can you identify some of these pictures?
Homework
Bring some items that appeared in the book to school.
Lesson 2
Aims
To practice body vocabulary
To learn or practice the song “Head and shoulders”
To get acquainted with various combination that this book offers
Materials
Real objects that the children have brought to school
Flash cards
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Cooperation with other teachers or parents
Ask a teacher who teaches the mother tongue to discuss suitable varieties for
combinations that can be presented as a booklet. (a duck and bath, ketchup and chips,
milk and cornflakes and other different combinations, etc.).
They can make a list of them and bring them into reading lessons.
Language
Hat, head, toes – words from the book
Revision
Revise food vocabulary from the previous lesson.
Activities
1. Divide real objects into categories and match them with word cards.
2. Teach the song “Head and shoulders”
3. Show flash cards of body words to your pupils and arrange them in the order they
appeared in the song.
4. Show and read word cards to the children and let them repeat them after you.
5. Give the children a big silhouette of the human body and let them label its parts
Reading
Read the whole text again, do not show the illustrations and sometimes make “a
mistake”. It means do not read the text according to the colours that indicate the right
combinations but mix the coloured pages and read a funny combination e.g. “Do you
like a duck in your lemonade?”
Observe your pupils when they recognize it. Then you can enjoy this funny system with
them.
Discussion (use MT)
Ask the children if they have recognized some regular patterns. (a right combination is
signalized by the same colour).
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Lesson 3
Aims
To learn the phrase “Do you like ....?” and answer “Yes, I do, No, I don’t”
To learn the prepositions “in”, “on”
To work with each other
To decorate a text with one’s pictures
Materials
Real objects from the previous lessons
Language
The phrase “Do you like.........?”, Yes, I do, No, I don’t”
Cooperation with other teachers
Ask your colleague who teaches art lessons to prepare pictures of items that appeared in
the book. Give him or her a list of them. Show the system of the book – pages that are
split in halves, coloured in the same colour and these two parts fit together (duck and
bath, ketchup and chips, milk and cornflakes, etc.)
Revision
Revise the vocabulary and some word combinations from the previous lesson. Read the
prepared combinations from MT lessons.
Game
Play the “Chinese whisper” (adapted from Wright, Storytelling with Children). Divide
the pupils into two lines standing opposite each other. Whisper an English word to the
first member of the group. He or she then whispers the same word to the next child.
They continue whispering and the last one should touch the right picture placed on the
desk.
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Activities
1. Teach the phrase “Do you like?” as a melody. You can choose any melody you know
in order to motivate the children.
2. Show the pictures when you sing the melody. Sing the text from the beginning to the
end.
3. The children repeat in chorus “Yes, I do, No, I don’t” according to colours (right
combinations)
4. Ask an individual child to repeat the answers according to their likes or dislikes
5. Give them a worksheet with the text (appendix 5.1). The children can decorate it
with pictures of each item.
6. Practice reading.
7. Finish the lesson with the song and encourage children to sing with you.
Homework
Children should try to read the text to the parents.
Lesson 4
Aims
To recognize the difference between “in” and “on”
To learn the rhymes “Rolly Polly” and “Rain on the green grass”
To make a class survey and practice speaking skills
Materials
Work sheet with “Do you like.................?”
Language
“in”, “on”
Questionnaire
1. Let the children choose some food items from the book and stick them on the board.
2. Ask: Do you like ketchup, salt, milk, ......?
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3. Write your name or draw a simple picture of yourself on the board and the children
will give you the same question. Draw a cross or a tick that stands for No or Yes
answer.
4. Give the children a piece of paper where they should copy the sentence “Do you like
..........?” (or a work sheet where the question is already given)
5. Divide them into pairs and let them fill the questionnaire with three or four partners.
Rhymes
1. Say the rhyme “Rain on the green grass” (appendix 5.1.) and accompany it with body
movement. Draw simple icons (rain, grass. tree, house, me) on the board and write the
preposition “on” next to the icons.
2. Say the second rhyme “Rolly, Polly” with body movements. Emphasize the
preposition “in”.
3. Let the children find out these prepositions in the book and read them together.
Lesson 5
Aims
To create the children’s own book of items
To practice speaking
Materials
Pre-prepared pictures of different pairs of items from art lessons
Summary
Try to elicit as many correct combinations as the pupils have remembered. Put the flash
cards on the board as they are saying the combinations.
Reading
Read the correct combinations together with the children. Turn some pictures face down
and continue reading from memory.
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Art
Let the children copy the correct words with suitable prepositions on the back sides of
their pictures in order to make the booklet. Bind the booklets together with a ribbon.
Help if necessary.
Ending the lesson
Ask: Why have you chosen these items? Why are you using these colours?
Ending the course
1. Invite your pupils’ parents to the school and present the whole project. Let the
children sing the songs, say the rhymes and chants and read out from their own
booklets.
2. Prepare a little snack for the parents together with the pupils. Prepare tea for
everybody.
3. Discuss the project with parent. Ask them about their opinions and ideas for
improving reading and visual literacy of their children.
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3.12.2. Project for the year two
Is Your Mama a Llama?
by Deborah Guarino
The story
This work tells a story about the importance of being a member of one’s own family.
The reader is taken through various stages of searching for the right mum into the story
and so gets involved in. Little llama is looking for her mum and she is meeting a
number of different animals who are her good friends. The repetitiveness gives this
story a touch of something the children are familiar with, and in addition illustrates and
supports the process of their learning about the world they live in. This predictable
pattern allows them to anticipate and so become actively involved in the story.
The bright, colourful illustrations in the book play an important role as they help in
comprehension.
Art work
All illustrations and work sheets should be put into a portfolio by the children in order
be seen by the children’s parents.
They can make a picture booklet of animals and their young ones which appear in the
story
Brainstorming ideas
1. Animals – wild and domestic animals, young ones around the world
2. Family – why people do not want be alone when they are young
3. Creating, drawing animals from the story, continents, map of the world
4. Visiting ZOO
5. Using computers and encyclopedias with parents
Main theme: Searching for mum
Language: food, wild and domestic animals, continents, family, parts of an animal
body
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Lesson 1
Aims
To introduce a teacher’s favourite book
To learn a chant
To predict what is a teacher’s favourite story about
Materials
Your favourite book, basket, puppy doll, headscarf, pictures of flowers, family photos
Language
Swan, numbers, members of family
Introduction
Try to get the children much nearer to you than is normally the case. All children should
see you and the book illustrations. It brings feeling of sharing into your reading lessons.
Some children can sit on the chairs arranged in a U-shape and some can sit on the floor
on carpet. Use a bell to indicate that something special is coming. You can light a
candle that can again remind the children that there is the time to settle down and listen.
After the last word of the story one child blows out the candle and everyone silently
makes a wish for himself/herself or for another member of the class. This process you
can repeat each reading lesson in order to create good listening habit.
Motivation
Show the children a basket which is covered by a headscarf and let them guess what
could be hidden within the basket. (a puppy) Ask why the puppy is in the basket.
Then let the children guess what else is hidden in your basket.
Give the children a clue if necessary: It is my favourite thing and I’ve loved it since I
was a child. When they cannot guess correctly your task will give them another clue till
they are able to recognize it.
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Reading
Demonstrate your favourite book and let the guess what it could be about. (I
recommend this book: “Dášeňka, čili život štěněte”, written by Karel Čapek.
Illustrations on the cover of the book could help children in their guessing.
Read a part of this book (page 7,8) where the relationship between a little puppy and its
mother is described.
Discussion
Discuss the extract the children have heard. Emphasize the relationship between mother
dog and her child- puppy. Ask children to describe the relationship with their parents,
siblings and grandparents. Elicit what is important for being happy and feeling safe.
Ask: Where is the place you feel happiest and safest?
Draw a basis of “word web” with the key word “mum” in it on a blackboard. Let the
children think out as many modifiers as they know to describe their mothers. The
children can select either English or Czech words.
Art
The children should draw a place where they feel safe and like it very much. When they
finish their drawings they will discuss ideas that their pictures present.
Chant
Tell the chant “Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you”.
Demonstrate pictures of key words and let the children guess meaning of them.
This rhyme represents a kind of a riddle, and therefore you should ask the children to
guess its meaning. Help if necessary: What is sweet? Who is sweet? Do you know
another meaning of the word sweet? (your mum)
Repeat the rhyme line by line to make the children learn it. Give them a copy of the
rhyme. They can decorate it and after that they could show this picture to their parents.
Recommend to your pupils that they can repeat the same process they did in the school
with their parents. (let parents guess the riddle’s meaning and meaning of their picture)
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Rhyme
The Swans (appendix 5.2)
(adapted from the “New Handbook for Storytellers”)
Tell the children that they should listen what is the rhyme about. You can show alive
swans on this internet address (appendix 5.2.)
Read the rhyme and let the pupils guess what animal represents the main character in
this rhyme. If the children will not be able to guess the animal recover piece by piece a
picture of a swan and let them guess what kind of animal it is.
Repeat the rhyme with four little swans until the mother swan is all alone. She quacks
loudly and all five swans come back.
Ducks are fingers of the right hand. The head is the hill they go over, the left hand
makes the mother swan’s bill.
Homework
Pupils are supposed to bring their favourite animal books. If they do not have any, they
can bring any other book which they like.
Ask the children to bring some family photos to the next lesson.
Lesson 2
Aims
To introduce children’s favourite animal books
To speak about members of family
To describe a favourite animal
To introduce a song “Old McDonald”
Materials: computers (song “Old McDonald”)
Introduction (use MT)
Ask the children to talk about their favourite animal book. They should say what is the
most important and significant for their book. Optional – the children can vote a book
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that seems interesting for them by labelling it by a point. Then you can discuss what the
book they appreciate is about. What they like to read about.
Sing a Song: Bingo (appendix 5.2.)
Art work (use MT)
The children should draw their favourite animal they have read about. They can write as
many modifiers as they are able to think out around their animal.
You can finish this lesson by discussion on theme: Why have I drawn exactly this
animal? What does it mean to be at home with my family?
You should have prepared your own family decoration to inspire your pupils.
Tell the children to stick their photos on a paper and let them decorate outer boundary of
the photo in order to make a frame. Then they should label this photo by Czech
expressions describing their relationship to their family (family is security, my mum is
my best friend, my dad is like a bear – big and I feel safe next to him, etc.) Discuss all
important things that children have talked about before.
Homework
Pupils should bring some cut-out animals to the next lesson. Tell them: Try to find out
everything about these animals with your parents.
Lesson 3
Aims
To introduce a topic of the book “Is Your Mama A Llama?”
To divide animals into categories: wild, domestic, living in the Czech Republic and
other continents
To listen to the story
Materials
Pictures of different animals, posters, basket with “Is Your Mama A Llama? inside, map
of the ZOO, computers
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Language
animal, llama-cria, , bat-pup, swan-flapper, cow-calf, seal-pup, kangaroo-joey, tree,
water
Motivation (use MT)
Repeat reading procedure to remind that reading lesson is on the point to come.
Show the basket covered by a headscarf again to your pupils. Let them guess what is
hidden inside. Tell that there is something small, fluffy and kind and explain that it lives
in America or it can be found in the ZOOs. (little llama)
Ask: Has anyone ever been to America? Which countries have you visited? What did
you see? Which animals did you see? What kinds of animals live in America? Who has
visited any ZOO yet?
Motivation
Elicit the word “llama” and introduce the cover of the book to your children. Tell them
that they are going to work on a story that takes place around the world or it could
happen in a ZOO somewhere in the world.
Predictions
Show the cover of the book and ask: What can you see? (llama, owl, trees, water,
leaves,...)
When looking at llama, what can you say about it? How does it feel? Is she a boy or a
girl? Can you describe the relationship between a little llama and an owlet? etc.
Show first three illustrations and talk about them. Describe the country, relationship
between animals, place of living, etc.
Working with internet
Put an enlarged map of the ZOO on the board. Ask the children whether they know any
continents these animals come from or whether they are wild living animals or domestic
ones living in the farms.
Go to visit Information technology classroom to find out more about animals living
around
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the world. You can find information and many printable pictures of animals and names
of young ones on this page on this internet page (appendix 5.2.)
Animals on this page can inspire your pupils. They can recognize some of them and
they can try to read English vocabulary.
Activity
Then go back to your classroom and seat the children around the map. Discuss what
animals live in each continent. You should have prepared all animals that appear in the
story. Show them to your pupils and divide them according to different places they live
in. Then the children can stick their pre-prepared animals to the map.
Game
For each of the animal flashcards do a mime and ask the children which animal you are
miming.
Give some children the pictures and others the words cards. Ask the pupils to find their
word or a picture. Then place these pairs on the blackboard, floor, etc.
Listening to the story
Tell the story partly in English and partly in learners’ mother tongue. Increase the
amount of English each time you tell it again. Let the children repeat simple sentences
after you.
They can predict which animal comes next because there is certain rhyming pattern that
allows children to predict what could come next. (That – bat, go on – swan, now – cow,
feel – seal, true – kangaroo).
Ask: What is a little llama doing? (looking for her mum), Is she happy when she is
alone? Why do the young ones need to be nurtured by their parents, especially by their
mums? Is she going to find her mum on the right place? How do you recognize that she
is not going to find her on the right place? (llamas do not live in the water, cave, pond,
etc.)
Do not read the end. Try to elicit possibilities of the story ending.
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Homework
Give the children a piece of photocopied book home. They should together with their
parents predict the story ending. They should bring their own photo.
Lesson 4
Aims
To develop the children’s imagination and creative thinking skills
To develop predictions and hypothesizing skills
To introduce a theme of friendship
Language: Other animals that can be seen in the book: owl-owlet, seagull-duck, turtle-
hatchling, rabbit-bunny, fish-fingerling, opossum-joey.
Retelling the story
Ask the children to retell the story. Write everything they remember on a big sheet of
paper or a poster. They can again say the words both in English and Czech language.
For example: mother swan bat said llama finding neck pond cave love
Next lesson they should bring pictures cut-out from magazines to decorate the poster.
They can also draw pictures of above mentioned items and match them with word
prepared cards.
Read the story again and let the children repeat the key phrases after you. Give each
child a photocopy of the text and highlight phrases they should read to their parents at
home as a homework.
Repeat if it is true
(adapted from “Storytelling with Children”, page 27)
Show a picture an animal that appeared in the story. Make a statement about it. If the
statement is true, the children should repeat it, and if it is not true they should remain
silent.
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Pictures of the mind
(adapted from “Storytelling with Children”, page 34)
Every now and again, stop and ask the children to close their eyes and see if they can
see a picture of the story in their minds. Ask them to share this picture with other
children – theirs will be different.
You can also ask them what they can hear, feel, taste, and smell. Children can use their
mother tongue.
Activities (use MT)
1. Show an illustration of the little llama and her friends to your pupils and let them
speak about this picture. They can simply describe the picture however the main idea is
to describe the relationship between llama and her friend.
2. Ask: How can you describe your best friend?
Why it is important to have good friends is the main theme of this activity. Elicit that a
friend is someone who listens to you, plays with you, helps you, works with you, talks
to you, understands you, likes you, shares things with you, defends you, can keep the
secret, etc.
Explain that actually all people have something that is admirable and that we should
respect.
3. Give the children a sheet of paper and tell them to stick their photo on it. Spread out
these papers around the classroom and let all members of the class to write something
sweet/kind about their schoolmates on the blank space around the photo.
4. Finally, collect the papers, read aloud the personal characteristics aloud and let the
children guess the name of the described person.
5. Each child should have his or her own separate paper with all modifiers that his or
her friends had written on it now. Collect the characteristics and do not show the papers
to your children till a trip to the ZOO that will finish the reading course.
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Ending
Finish he lesson by singing a song “Old McDonald”
Lesson five and six
Aims
To retell the story in the right order
To play role-play
To recognize parts of animal bodies
To make a book of adults and young ones
Language
Wings, horn, hair, bill, armour, flipper, pouch, tail
Materials
Worksheets and word cards with parts of animal bodies
Pre-prepared pictures of animal adults and young ones from art lessons
Introduction
Use the poster from the last lesson where words that describe the story are written.
Retell the story again, elicit the key phrases and write them on the board. let children
repeat them. Sing the song “Old McDonald” to remind different animals.
Motivation
Ask: Is the llama on the first double-spread happy? How does she feel? Can you
recognize it from the illustrations? Are there any differences between the picture of a
little llama at the beginning of the story and at the end?
Reading
Read the whole story in a quiet voice. Show illustrations and let the children repeat
some passages that they like.
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Activity – role-play
Divide the class in two halves. The first one represents a little llama and they are asking
the question: Is your mama a llama?. The second half of the class represents other
animals (llamas friends) and they are answering No, she is not. She lives in a cave. The
first half answer: Oh, you right about that. Continue with other animals till the end of
the story.
Game
One of the children pretends that he or she is one of the mentioned animals and the rest
of the class guess which one he or she represents. Then the whole class can express all
animals from the story. They can play a game “Simon says: You are a swan.”
Activity
Draw a silhouette of a bird, fish and animal on the board. Let the children guess what
are you drawing and then put the word cards of parts of animal bodies next to them.
Practise saying the words.
Art work
Show your own book of young ones and adults. Try to elicit right words for each animal
and stick all word cards on the board next to the pictures. The children can copy them to
their own pictures and then they can make a booklet of them.
Optional - Trip to the ZOO together with parents (appendix 5.2.)
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3.12.3. Project for the year three
Story: Meg and Mog
Written by: Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkovsky
This story presents a little witch Meg and her cat Mog enjoying their cooking adventure
and magic making adventure. Children can see how the process of cooking can be
creative and motivating and in addition it can be puzzling. Clear and understandable
illustrations make the text easy to follow and though they offer an opportunity for
predicting what is going to happen.
Brainstorming ideas for activities to use with the story:
1. Food – recognition of the withes’ typical food, extension of food words, using
adjectives, creating witch’s menu
2. Creating the poem “In a big, big forest”
3. Clothes – what are typical witches’ clothes
4. Organisation of the witch’s party
5. Making predictions about the book content
Main theme
Food and spells
Language
Food, time, clothes, adjectives, parts of a house, prepositions, colours
Materials
Portfolios
Lesson 1 and 2
Aims
To introduce the topic
To introduce main characters from the story
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To play a memory play
To make predictions
Language: clothes, different creatures that a typical witch often has
Materials
A big cauldron and puppets that appear in the story – spider, frog, mouse, rat, cat, snake
A black witch’s hat and cloak
Pictures of typical witch’s food ingredients
Poster of the “concept web”
Children’s illustrations of key words
Motivation - Introducing the story
Tell the children that they are going to guess why there is such a big unknown thing in
the classroom (a cauldron covered by a black cloak). Use variety of your pitch to
encourage the children in making some hypothesis – What could be this thing? What is
hidden under this black material?
Then let the children touch the cauldron hidden under the cloak and encourage them in
guessing.
When they have finished their predictions let them guess again what could be hidden
inside the big cauldron. The children are supposed to repeat the same procedure –
touching things inside the cauldron and guessing what they are.
One by one, the children pull the animals out of the cauldron and then they should put
these creatures down to a circle that is drawn on the floor.
Take an advantage of children’s interest in watching the animals and put on the cloak
and a witch’s hat and start to mumble the magic spell “Abracadabra” (appendix 5.3.)
Elicit new vocabulary by putting stress on the words – cat, frog, snake, spider, bat and
rat.
Tell the spell more times till the children remember new words.
Game
Put the creatures back into the cauldron and call out one volunteer to come at the
covered cauldron. He or she must put his or her hand inside the cauldron and try to find
certain creature by touch. Other volunteer can touch anything in the cauldron and he or
61
she must say the right name of it. For special effect you can put something cold or
frozen in the cauldron in order to bring more enjoyment into the game.
Rhyme
Teach the spell. Let the children repeat piece by piece the spell after you. It is very
important to remind that nobody can speak simultaneously with you. They must repeat
it unison for better understanding.
Activities
Seat the children into a circle and start to mumble the spell again. While you are
mumbling the spell take out the book “Meg and Mog” and put it among the animals in
the magic circle on the floor. Ask: Why do we have everything placed down in the
circle? – (to catch the magic of this story)
Tell your children that we all now help to catch the magic by mumbling the spell
together. After that show the pupils the cover of the book where they can see a witch
Meg and ask: Who is it? What will the story be about? What is the witch wearing on? Is
it typical? Do witches have any special assistants? Who are they? Why do witches raise
these little creatures? What clothes do witches usually wear?
Introduction of RL project
The next step brings explanation of the reading literacy project. Introduce to pupils that
they are going to work on a story where the witch is a main character.
Predictions
Let children guess the witch’s name. Write their guesses on the board.
Ask pupils: What are ´typical´ witches like? What kinds of things
´usually´ happen in these stories? What are the typical activities
that witches often do?
Discuss or brainstorm ideas to obtain some ´typical´ features. For example, some
witches are good and kind, some are evil and ugly, they often wear black or purple hats
and cloaks, they have animals with special features which can speak and make some
magic, they live in old cottages, in the wood, etc.
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Make a concept web on the board – write all typical features that pupils have mentioned
and stick this poster on the wall.
Let the pupils draw everything that is written on the “concept web poster” and stick
their drawings right to the appropriate word.
Game “Typical”
(adapted from Ellis and Gail, p.124)
This is the reading and classifying task to introduce/revise vocabulary that pupils will
need to understand the story and to encourage them to think about things that are
´typical´ or ´usual´ for witches.
Use the word cards (appendix 5.3.) to demonstrate the game. Start by showing the two
cards with ´typical´ and ´not typical´ written on them. Stick these cards on the
blackboard.
Then choose other statements to match them with ones from previous activity, eg.
“witches are usually bad”. Ask pupils which category it belongs to. For example,
“witches are usually bad” belongs to the category “typical witch”. Stick this card under
the correct heading on the blackboard. Repeat the procedure with all cards. For more
fun you can put some cards into the wrong category. Use gestures to mime unknown
words.
Further discussion
Ask the pupils if they know any other magic characters that appear in the stories or if
there are any witches or wizards in our real life. Pupils may speak about people who are
able to bring love, happiness and other positive feelings.
Lesson 3 and 4
Aims
To read first six pages of the story
To present new vocabulary – clothes, body
To a draw simple picture of a witch according to instructions
To dress the witch according to the text
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To sing a song “One little, two little witches in the sky”
To make predictions (MT)
Materials
The storybook “Meg and Mog”
Picture dictionaries
Pictures of clothes and word cards
Working sheets with different pieces of witches’ clothes and words stand for them
Text of a short introduction to the story
Witch puppet, cat, cauldron, broomstick, lantern (in shape of moon)
Quiet atmosphered music
Language
Clothes
Introducing the story
Give the children a piece of paper with a brief summary of the whole story which is
written by the author on the first page and let them translate it without help of
dictionaries. The text is simple enough and some key words can help children to
translate its meaning (witch, cat, bang, spell, party, Halloween).
Then write the children’s predictions on the “concept web”. At the end of the “reading
literacy project” the children will be able to compare their predictions with the real story
content.
Create a spooky atmosphere in your class before you start sing the song: draw curtains,
turn out lights, light lantern placed in the middle of the classroom.
Put on the cloak and the hat and start to recite a rhyme
“In a dark, dark forest or night”
There’s a dark, dark meadow, house, room, cauldron, clothes
As you tell the rhyme show children illustration from the book, real object or pictures.
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Reading
Switch on the atmosphered music and open the book on the first double spread and start
to read. Read the text in a slow, quiet voice and point to the pictures to allow children
better understanding.
When you stop reading on the third double spread ask children what was the beginning
of the story about and what hint had helped them in understanding of the text.
Predictions (MT)
Show them a page where is the witch “Meg” putting on her witch’s clothes and ask your
children other questions: What does she look like?, Is she happy or sad?, Why is she sad
here? (she does not have any clothes), Why is she happy now? (she is wearing all her
favourite clothes)
Try to read the text again and emphasize the clothes words by putting stress on them or
change your voice.
Activity n. 1
Then close the book and try to elicit clothes vocabulary (stockings, shoes, cloak, hat).
Write the words on the blackboard and let the children match them with pictures of
clothes.
Give the pupils prepared work sheets with a simple silhouette of a witch and dictate
what they should draw: Draw a hat on the witch’s head. Draw stockings on witch’s
legs. Draw shoes on the witch’s feet. Draw a cloak on the witch’s body and make your
witch happy (draw a happy face).
“Likes and dislikes” activity n. 2
1. Divide the children into groups of four. Give each group a sheet of paper. One half
of the paper stands for “likes” and the second one for “dislikes”.
2. Tell the children that they are supposed to draw everything that witches like on one
side of the paper and what they dislike on the other side of the paper.
3. When they have brainstormed all ideas they find appropriate words in picture
dictionaries, on the computer or in Czech and English dictionaries. While some
members of the group are looking for unknown words, the rest can colour the pictures
or write new vocabulary next to the pictures.
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4. After finishing drawing and writing the children present their ideas to the rest of the
class. They can compare what they have different.
Activity n. 3
1. Write the text on a paper and cut it to individual words. Put these words into
envelopes and give one of the envelopes to each group. Read the text again and let the
children find some words they had heard in the story. It could be difficult for them but
you can encourage your pupils and tell them that this activity is only a game and they do
not have to worry if they are not able to do it. You can recreate them into the best reader
in the world by special magic spell and help them to feel more comfortable.
2. Draw steps on the big card that is on a board in order to be seen by everybody. Put
word cards from the story on the board next to these steps. The children are supposed to
listen to the text again and then they should recreate the text by putting these words into
right order. You can hand out work sheets with the same picture of steps and the
children can copy the words in and decorate the work sheet on their own.
Reading and predicting
Read “In the kitchen lay her big striped cat Mog. He was fast asleep”. (Meg and Mog )
Ask: What is it about? (a cat, kitchen)
What is the cat’s name? (Mog)
What is the cat doing? (sleeping)
Is it a boy or a girl? (boy because of a pronoun he)
Set the children homework. They should retell the story to their parents and together
with them they try to predict what will come next. Remind your pupils to describe the
illustrations to their parents because it can help them work out better predictions.
Ending the lesson
To finish the lesson sing the song “One little” (appendix 5.3.)
Cooperation with other teachers
Ask your colleague to draw or create withes in one art lesson and in another they can
draw stars, moon, black sky, bats, awls, cats, snakes, spiders.
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Arrange these pictures on walls around the classroom.
Lesson 5 and 6
Aims
To create ingredients
To listen to stories
To extend food and house vocabulary
To create witches’ menu
Language
Egg, jam, kipper milk, cocoa, bread, kipper, breakfast, stir, take, breakfast, house,
kitchen, bed, stairs, cupboard, chimney, shelve,
Materials
Cauldron, stirrer, real ingredients from the story, (you can put kipper into a plastic bag),
pictures of different parts of the house and furniture
Brainstorming
Start to draw a house line by line and let the children guess what the picture could be.
Then continue and finish the whole house. Around the house arrange pictures of
different parts of the house as pupils are mentioning them. Let the children mention
pieces of furniture that are often there in these rooms.
Rhyme
“There’s a big, big house” you can use this rhyme structure for extending vocabulary
items.
You can follow these lines (appendix 5.3.)
As you say the rhyme put the pictures on a board in order they appear in the chant. You
can create many version of this chant and practice as many new words as you can.
Repetition makes children more confident because they like chanting.
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Introduction
Try to elicit all predictions the children made together with their parents. Read the text
about Mog’s tail accident and show them illustrations.
Prediction
Demonstrate the cauldron covered by the cloak and let children guess what is inside
today. Write their guesses on the board.
Reading
When reading the text point to appropriate pictures and indicate three action verbs by
your body movement.
Ask: What are they cooking? Do you think that it could be tasty? Have you ever cooked
anything without any help by yourself?
Sense developing time
Now it is the time to develop another of children’s senses – smell. Sit them around the
cauldron where all ingredients are prepared. Call out one volunteer to come in front of
you. Cover their eyes by headscarf and put one of the ingredients under their nose and
let them guess it. Continue the same action till children guess everything.
Lesson ending by creating witches’ menu
Tell the children that they should think about witches’ menu. Ask: What do witches like
to eat? What is their favourite meal? What don’t they like and why? Is there anything
that witches hate?
After that give your pupils a sheet of paper and encourage them to draw and then label
witches’ menu.
Homework
Children should read the text to your parents and try to translate it. They should try to
cook something easy with their parents and use some of ingredients mentioned in the
book.
Children are supposed to show and read menu to parents.
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Lesson 7
Aims
To develop children’s prediction skills and fantasy
Language
Broomstick, 1 o’clock, chimney, up, sky, moon, star, friend, party
Materials
Stars, moon, broomstick, cauldron,
Motivate your pupils
Bring some cookies to the classroom and tell the children that they are magic ones and
that they can help them understand English better. Explain that feelings are very
important in the process of learning especially English and they can help everybody to
improve his or her learning results. Give each child some cookies and permit them to
enjoy eating during listening to the next part of the story. Tell them that another surprise
is waiting behind the door.
Predictions
Read the next pages, show illustrations and ask:
“What is going to happen?”, (Meg is going to the party),
“Who is she going there with? (with her cat and spider),
“What is she going to take with her? (her cauldron and broomstick),
“What kind of conveyance is she going to use?” (fly through chimney)
“Where is the party taking place?” (in the sky)
Divide pupils to groups of four. Give them a big paper and ask them to draw their
predictions on it. After finishing the task each group will introduce their work. Compare
what is similar and what is different. Stick these pictures on the wall in order to be seen.
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Reading – cooperation with older classes
Choose one of older pupils who want to read to their younger schoolmates. Practise
reading with them and then let them read a part of the text to your pupils.
Switch on some atmosphere music without any words. Invite a volunteer dressed in a
witch’s cloak and a hat. Let children guess who it is. Then introduce their older
schoolmate and explain that he or she is going to read today instead of you.
After finishing reading they can speak together about the text. A reading volunteer can
help make predictions about the end of the story. Use MT in conversation.
True or false?
Use the sentences to ask True/False questions. Meg took a dog with her. True or false?
After some practice the pupils can ask each other True/false questions in their mother
tongue.
Ending the lesson (use MT)
Eat the rest of the cookies and make predictions about the end of the story. Write them
on the prediction paper placed on the wall. Ask both your pupils and the volunteer if
they enjoy their common lesson. What do they like or dislike. Say good-bye to the
volunteer and thank him/her for help. Ask pupils to bring certain amount of money next
lesson in order to bake some cookies.
Lesson 8
Aims
To introduce “Halloween”
To make a spell
To practice reading
To learn chant “Halloween chant”
To bake cookies for the Halloween party
Materials
Pumpkin, picture of a mouse, frog, beetle, worm, bat, spider, cauldron, candle
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Language
Butter, flower, egg, salt, sugar, mix, knead, dough, rolling pin, carve out form, baking
tray, electric oven, bake
Revision
Revise the magic spell “Abracadabra” and let children create their own version of this
spell. They write it on the paper and decorate it. Stick these spells on the wall.
Reading
Take the prediction sheet and revise the children’s predictions. Then tell the children
that you are going to read the end of the story. Seat them around yourself in a circle and
start reading. Elicit any vocabulary by pointing to details or explain it to the children.
Ask the children if they remember something about Halloween. Practice all vocabulary
they have already known.
Sequencing of the story
Make a copy of some key illustrations from the story. Divide a class into pairs and give
each pair these pictures. They should organize them in the right order.
Then distribute key phrases or words and let the children match them with the right
pictures. End this activity by reading key phrases. The children can copy the sentences
into their portfolios and as their homework they can read them to their parents.
Making an invitation card
Tell the children that they are going to have a Halloween party together with their
parents and they now must write and decorate invitation cards.
Prepare a card to present it to pupils in order to inspire them. Write date, hour, materials
needed (small pumpkin, knives, candle, Halloween costumes).
You are invited to a Halloween Party (invitation text)
Preparation of cookies
Bring all needed ingredients to a school kitchen. Seat the children around a table and
show all ingredients to them. Introduce new vocabulary to them by showing it. The
children should touch, smell and see it. Then present and describe the process of dough
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making. Allow pupils to knead the dough and carve out different shapes of cookies. If it
is possible carve out shapes of cats, frogs, spiders, etc.
Put the dough into an oven and in the meantime tell the chant “The mouse”. Give
children a copy of the chant to learn it at home. They can decorate the sheet and put it
into their Meg’s portfolio.
Cooperation with other teachers
Ask your colleague for co-operation. Explain that the children should illustrate the book
that they have read. They should in groups draw certain part of the story. They will
obtain text of their part written in Czech language. First they make decision what to
draw and then they work on their task.
Group 1. Introduction to the story to clothes
Group 2. In the kitchen
Group 3. Process of getting to the witches’ party
Group 4. Spell and book cover with the title: Meg and Mog
Halloween party – optional (appendix 5.3.)
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3.12.4. Project for the year four
The Mice Lived in a Shoe
Written by: Rodney Peppé
“The Mice Lived in a Shoe” is a story about a mouse family who lives in a tattered
shoe. The story is about animals, mouse family members and parts of a house with a
simple text written in the past tense. The partly rhymed text is used to make it more
enjoyable and catchier. The simple text and illustrations allow the children to predict the
story and join in spontaneously during the storytelling. At the same time it gives them
more confidence in using the English language.
Brainstorming ideas for activities to use with this story:
1. House – describing parts of the house, using adjectives, creating plans of a new house
2. Furniture – flash card games, dominoes
3. Crafts – making a house for a mouse family
4. Creating a poem – “There was a big, big shoe”
- children’s own poem about a house
5. Thinking about family relationship
6. Using computers – finding some info about mice
Main theme: Life within a family
Language: parts of a house, weather, animals, colours, adjectives, furniture,
describing personal qualities, describing pictures
Lesson 1
Aims
To introduce various authentic books to children (use MT)
To make prediction about the content of these books (use MT)
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Materials
Authentic books in a big box
The teacher’s favourite book written in the Czech language
Motivation
Show pupils a big box and let them guess what is hidden inside it. Tell them that there
are lots of important and interesting things which they can find nearly anywhere in the
world around them. Write their guesses on the board. Encourage them to make various
predictions. If children do not guess what is in the box, try to describe what is there in
your own words, till they recognize it.
After they guessed what is in the box show them all books and introduce your favourite
one. Tell them briefly what the story is about and why do you like it. Show your interest
in reading and describe pleasant feelings you had when your parents read to you or
feelings that you share with the main characters of the book you read.
Predictions
Distribute the books among the pupils or let them choose one of the books by
themselves. Tell your pupils that they should leave their books closed and try to predict
the content. The only clue is the cover of the book with its illustration.
The next step gives opportunity to develop the pupils’ own prediction skills. They
should explain what they think the book is about to their partner.
Art
Finish this lesson by drawing a picture that can express children’s predictions. Children
can present their predictions to the rest of the class. Choose or vote for the nicest built
prediction. Tell children why do you like some predictions (children used lots of
fantasy, created beautiful plot, think out about any other characters appeared in the
book, etc.).
Homework
Ask the children to bring their favourite book next lesson. They can bring magazines or
comics as well.
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Lesson 2
Aims
To introduce my favourite book
To make a prediction what the book we are going to read is about
To speak about my family and relationships inside the family
Materials
Worksheets with a picture of a tattered shoe for each pupil (appendix 5.4.)
Pictures of each member of the family lived in the shoe
Introduction
Divide children into pairs and tell them: “Introduce your favourite book to your
partner”.
Show a picture of the tattered shoe and let the children describe it. Then let them guess
what the story is going to be about. Use both the Czech and the English language for the
process of predicting. After that write the anagram “cemi” on the board and the children
will find out the meaning of the word “mice”.
Tell them that this story is about a mouse family who live in this shoe. Ask this
question: “Can you tell your partner your own ideas about this story?”
Listening to the story
Create an unusual atmosphere either by special sitting order or by playing appropriate
quiet music or by lighting a candle.
Read the first pages of the story in a quiet and pleasant voice to encourage pupils in the
reception of the story.
Show the illustrations to your pupils and so give them the opportunity to speak about
the text they heard before.
Make a picture of the mouse family
Sing the song “One little, two little, three little mice”
Learn a rhyme “The mouse” (appendix 5.4.)
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Pupils will draw their own ideas about the mouse family on the work sheet that they got
at the beginning of the lesson. They can draw as many members of mice family as they
want. The pupils can use their fantasy in drawing the pictures of the mouse family.
Homework
Explain in MT to the class that in the next lesson they will speak about mice. For this
reason they should ask their parents for help them find out some information about
mice. They can use internet or encyclopedia books. They should bring their information
written on the sheet of paper to the next reading lesson.
Pupils should show their pictures to their parents and tell them about the story they
listened to at school.
Lesson 3
Aims
To support the pupils’ fantasy
To tell everything about mice (MT)
To develop the pupils’ word stock
Materials
Pictures of different houses and furniture
Word cards
Work sheet with the tattered shoe and family inside it they had prepared
Language
Family, house
Warm up activity
Revise members of the mouse family and play “Whisper race”. Divide pupils into two
teams and encourage them to find the right picture of the mouse family placed on a
desk. Talk about everything they have found out about mice on the internet.
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Shared reading
Read the next part of the story, show the pictures accompanying the text and let the
children talk about its content. Ask them questions: “Why did Pa ask his family
members to bring some own ideas about their new house?”, “Why is it important to
work together and feel yourself as a part of the whole?”, How can we cooperate with
each other?”, etc.
Making new house plans
Explain that they are going to make plans for a new house and they will vote for the
best plans together. Each pupil draws his or her plan of the new house. Then divide the
class into groups of four and let them discuss what is important for constructing a new
house (like the mice did in the story). Give the children some pictures of different
houses to help them think about important things that connect with the houses.
Ending the lesson
Finish the lesson by singing the song “One little, two little”.
For the next lesson children should bring some boxes and water colours.
Remind your pupils to bring little boxes and water colours next lesson.
Lesson 4
Aims
To create the poem “There’s a big, big, shoe”
To construct a house for the mice
Materials
Water colours
Paper boxes and old shoes
Language
Furniture
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Introduction
Explain to the pupils that they are going to play dominoes to practice furniture
vocabulary. Check vocabulary with the pupils and make sure they look at the domino
cards carefully. Play the game in groups of three or four children. Help if necessary and
monitor pronunciation carefully.
Shared reading
Make some predictions about the end of the story and discuss them with the whole
class. Then read the rest of the story. Give the children an opportunity to look through
the illustrations and then let them talk about the story by themselves in pairs. Write the
pupils’ main ideas on the board.
Creating a poem
Write the house words that children have already learned and the beginning of the poem
“There’s a big, big shoe” on the board. The children will finish the poem using words
that they learned before eg. “In the big, big shoe there’s a big, big house”, etc. The
children can create their own version of this poem.
Making a new house
Explain to the class that they are going to present their new houses to other classes and
their parents after finishing them. Divide the class into groups of four and tell them that
they will construct a new house and decorate it.
Reflections
Firstly, I would appreciate that these lessons gave me lots of opportunities to share
feelings and pleasant atmosphere with my pupils judging by the interest the children
showed. I also hope that they had lots of opportunities to develop their sense of reading.
They enjoyed nearly all the activities very much in spite of the fact that sometimes my
instructions were not clear enough perhaps due to their limited knowledge of English.
Therefore, it is better to ask questions in the Czech language – their enjoyment may be
even more intensive.
This series of lessons took more time than I had supposed. For this reason I would
recommend to divide them into several parts.
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The first lesson was quite busy but at the end the children grasped the rules and were
able to cooperate with each other and share the atmosphere of happiness and success.
The pupils were presenting their houses and knowledge of the story to their parents
during the parents’ meeting at our school. The parents could see that their children were
personally involved in the story because the houses were built with fantasy and looked
very, very nice.
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3.12.5. Project for the year five
Story: Toot and Puddle
Written by: Holly Hobbie
This story brings us to a fantastic world of two pig friends “Toot and Puddle”.
Moreover, it shows not only their lovely friendship but also their special kind of living.
Toot represents a pig that loves being at home, plays his favourite games, lives his
ordinary life. On the other hand Puddle loves being in a danger, he loves adventure
trips, he wants to discover faraway countries and animals living there.
Although these two little friends prefer different kinds of living they love each other
very much and their relationship they put above everything they had enjoyed alone.
Their adventures enrich them both and give them solid ground for their common and
ordinary life.
Brainstorming ideas for activities to use with this story:
1. Friendship between people and animals.
2. World- watching TV presentation - internet addresses (appendix5.4.)
3. Cooperation with parents and other teachers.
4. Creation of a place of my dream, where I would like to be and why, what is the best
place I would like to go, to live or to be with my friend, family (cooperation with
teachers of art).
5. Creation of a short story. The children should choose from main ideas appeared in the
story (animals, friendship, adventure, being at home) In groups they create a project.
(some can draw pictures, some can think out a new, short story, some can rewrite the
story on a paper).
6. Writing postcards from the world.
7. Vocabulary list – the children underline words they do not know in the text,
the next lesson teacher can rewrite them on the world list and the children will rewrite
pronunciation marks next to the words).
8. Texts – the children will be given by a piece of the text each lesson. They should
highlight the words they can read and pronounce.
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Main theme
Relationship between two friends, who prefer different kinds of activities, hobbies,
sports and adventures
Language
Countries and continents around the world, animals, seasons and month, habits,
hobbies, adjectives describing trips and adventure, holidays, landscape, likes and
dislikes, verbs and noun phrases
Lesson 1
Aims
To translate unknown text about a little penguin
“Little Penguin” written by Patrick Benson
(You can choose any text in order to compare pupil’s reading literacy before and after
finishing the programme).
To introduce the main topic to the children
To make predictions about “Toot and Puddle” content
Materials
The extract from the book about the little penguin
Two pigs – one of them has got a backpack on its back and other things that can
represents the pig that likes travelling.
Postcards from foreign countries
House in which all things will be hidden in order not being seen
Reading exercise
Give the children the text from the book “Little Penguin”. Let them translate it without
any dictionary or your help.
Tell the children that they will discuss their ideas in the end of this programme. Save the
pupil’s ideas-translations in order to compare them with ones they will translate at the
end of the reading literacy project. These texts will be joined by illustrations and the
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children will be able to use either their current language knowledge or visual support of
illustrations.
Motivation (MT)
Let the children guess what is hidden in the house you have prepared. Let them touch
the things in the house. They should guess them with support of their senses. Help if
necessary. Ask: Why are these pigs here?
Predictions (MT)
1. Show the book “Toot and Puddle” to your pupils and let them guess what it is about.
What is a main idea of this book?, Who are these little pigs? What do they like doing?,
etc.
Try to elicit what main interests and hobbies of these two little pigs are. (they like being
at home, travelling, discovering new countries, have special habits, like readings, etc.)
Divide them into groups of four and let them write their ideas on a paper.
After the lesson rewrite all ideas on a special poster. During the project you can add
other hypothesis and at the end of the project you can compare them with the real book
together with your pupils.
Sing a song
Sing the song “The tail of a pig” (appendix 5.5.)
Tell your children that they should write down words that they will understand while
they will be listening to the song. After that they can compare them with their
classmates. Then write new words on the board and tell the children that they are parts
of pig’s body that they have not known yet. (snout, hooves, etc.). Sing the song again
and try to demonstrate meaning of unknown words while singing by body movement.
Remind some verbs that can be connected with pigs – run, eat, sleep, lie, etc. and write
on the board action words that appear in the song “The tail of a pig” – curls, roots,
twitches.
Try to demonstrate the action words again and let the children guess them or find them
in dictionaries.
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Game
Play “Echo game” – repeat line by line of the song to the children in order to learn the
song. Be as enthusiastic as possible to encourage all the children to repeat words and
melody after you.
Homework
As homework the pupils should find out some information about pigs.(life of pigs, films
of pigs, books of pigs, stories, etc).
Lesson 2
Aims
To make hypothesis
To sing a song
To describe likes and dislikes
To support multicultural education, feeling of being a part of the whole world
To listen to pages 1-6
Materials
Pictures of “Cape Cod” and “Grand Canyon”
Work sheets with the text
Cards with parts of the body and verbs (appendix 5.5.)
eye, ear, body, snout, mouth, hooves, tail, head, teeth, legs
see, hear, lie, root, eat, twitch, curl, shake, bite, run,
Motivation
Discuss all information the children have found out on the internet. Draw a “web map”
on the board.
Activities:
1. Draw a picture of a pig on the board and let the children describe its parts. Divide the
pupils in groups of three or four and hand out work sheets with the picture of a pig’s
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body and word cards with parts of the pig’s body. The children should put them on the
right place. Check the pupil’s work. Then remind a verb “can”. Describe the action that
the pig can do. (It can run, stand, sleep, hear, etc.)
2. Give the children the lyrics of the song written on a sheet of paper and with a picture
of a pig. The children can colour the pig and label the pig’s parts with the right name:
tail, mouth, snout, hooves, ears, legs, head, ears, body
Play a game:
Can a pig’s snout run? No, it can’t.
Let the children write five questions on the paper. They can write true or false ones, eg.
Can a pig’s head run?
Divide a class into pairs and let them answer these questions. Elicit the right answer
beforehead: Yes, it can, No, it can’t.
Likes and dislikes (MT)
Divide the pupils into pairs and let them predict Toot’s and Puddle’s likes and dislikes.
They can find out useful expressions in dictionaries.
Predictions (MT)
Summarise the hypothesis from the previous lesson. Then show other illustrations on
pages one to five. Let the children add new predictions about the book (add them to the
poster). Do not pay attention on a picture on the third page where a pig is sitting and
reading a book. Let the children either to recognize the pig’s hobby or not. This piece of
information you can highlight at the end of the project.
Reading (pages 1-6)
Switch on a candle or special music and start to read the text on pages one to six. At the
same time you can show illustrations to your pupils.
Ask: What are the pigs’ names? Can you guess? What do you think “Cape Cod and
Grand Canyon”are? Elicit that they are very famous, beautiful and interesting places in
the USA that many people like to visit every year.
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Homework
The children should find out some info about other interesting places around the world
together with their parents. They can bring photos or postcards from their holidays or
they can think about places what they would want to visit in the future. Challenge your
pupils in finding interesting places around the whole world.
Lesson 3
Aims
To describe interesting places around the world
To learn new vocabulary - adjectives from the whole book
To improve reading skills
To write a postcard
Materials
Work sheets with the next part of the story for everybody
Photos, pictures or a book of some interesting place around the world
The postcard from the puddle’s first trip.
Language: beautiful, nice, great, wonderful, good, large, dark, sunny, awe-inspiring,
horrifying, strange, wide, perfect, biggest, warm, wild, new, boring, awesome, great,
scary, cold, happy,
Motivation
Show the children a postcard (photo) from Africa and India. (appendix 5.5.)
Read the postcard. Translate it together with the children and give them an opportunity
to predict what Puddle is doing at the same time when Toot is on his trip to Africa.
Activities
1. Discuss different seasons and describe them. (It’s warm, hot, sunny in summer, It’s
cold, chilling, windy, snowy in winter, etc.
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2. Give the children the list of seasons and month and let them divide month into four
seasons.
Divide the children into four groups and they should draw pictures that are typical for
different seasons.
Predicting (MT)
Let the children look at the picture on page 7 and ask: Who is it? Look at the shape of
Toot’s luggage and say: Why is it so big? Why did the author draw the luggage so big?
(he wanted to emphasize that Toot likes travelling a lot)
Reading
Read pages 7-11
Show illustrations and discus the meaning of the text. Ask: Why does Puddle prefer to
stay at home? (he likes being at home) and discus Toot’s likes. (traveling)
How does the author show the pigs’ feelings? How can you recognize it?
Writing
Let the children write their own postcard from the world. They can write the postcard in
the Czech language. Brainstorm useful phrases in MT and let the children write their
own versions.
Homework
The children should try to read a piece of text or their postcards to their parents.
Lesson 4
Aims
To improve writing skills (writing of postcard)
To learn how to find out information on the internet
To cooperate with other teachers – decorate postcards in art lessons
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Materials: computers, postcard patterns
Introduction
Discuss whether it is difficult to read the text or not. Read the text again and let the
children repeat it after you.
Predictions
Discuss where Toot is going to go next time. Elicit as many countries as possible.
Activities
1. Divide the children into groups of three or four and let them think about different
continents. (Europe, Asia, America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica)
2. Give each group their continent and sheet with information that they should find and
go to the IT room to find out as many information about native wild animals,
population, main language, biggest rivers, countries, capital city, customs that can be
found on these continents.
Main aim is to learn names of typical animals that live in each continent (appendix 5.5.)
3. Write a postcard from Africa. The children should write something that they had
learned on the internet. (I swim in Nil. I can see crocodiles. I play with mandrills. I feed
lions).
The children can draw a picture that is significant for this continent on the postcard in
art lessons.
4. Hand out work sheets with different kinds of animals on them and let the children
match English expressions with Czech ones (appendix 5.5.). After finishing this activity
give each pupil his/her own work sheet with both English and Czech expressions.
5. You can practice words and play animal domino (appendix 5.5.).
Homework
Give each group one of the continents or countries and tell them to find out what
animals live there together with their parents. They are supposed to bring this
information to the next lesson. They can use the address they worked with it in the
school.
87
Lesson 5
Aims
To learn about sport, hobbies
To practice month
To describe an animal
Materials
Labels with different animals written on them
Motivation
Show a picture of some animal to your children and let them describe it. Than choose
another one as a secret and let the children guess it. You should remind some useful
questions before this activity.
Activities
1. Stick labels of different animals on your children’s forehead or back. Explain that
they are going to guess their animals. They should use only yes/no questions eg. ‘Am I
big? Have I got four legs? Can I swim?’ etc. You can practice these questions before
this activity in regular lessons. Write different kind of questions on the board or give the
children a piece of paper with questions written on it.
2. The children must keep their animal and write short description of it. They can use
dictionaries and they can follow this pattern:
I´m a ……………............
I´m from ..........................
I´ve got ............................
I like ................................
I can ................................
Predictions
Ask: What way of expressing different characters does the author use in his
illustrations? Does he emphasize it by different shape of objects or colours?
What country is Toot going to visit next? What activity is he going to do? What is
Puddle going to do at home? (write it on the poster)
88
Reading pages 14-20
Read and show illustrations. Discuss the content.
What countries did Toot visit and what was typical for them? What did Puddle do at
home? Is it typical for Puddle?
Homework
Draw a picture of the described animal
Lesson 6
Aims
To describe the friend’s character (how a good friend should behave).
To think about illustration
To practice writing skills
Materials
CD-player and microphone
Concept of postcard
To think about a perfect place of living
Introduction
The children should retell their animal description and the rest of the class can guess the
animal.
Motivation
Tell your pupils that you are going to record them in order to remember all their
predictions.
Predicting
1. Make some predictions about what is coming text.
2. Show all illustrations and let the children work in pairs in order to recognize the text
meaning from the illustrations. They can write them on a paper.
89
3. Ask: What picture do you really like and why? What do you think about different
activities of these two pigs? Are they really friends when they have different hobbies
and activities? What story do the pictures tell? Are these pictures presenting actions,
events or setting?
Reading pages 21-26
Follow the reading pattern (switch on the candle) and then read the text. Compare the
predictions with the text. Ask: What words does the author use to describe
characteristic features of different countries? What means does the illustrator use to
draw the same?
Activities
adapted from Storytelling with Children, Wright A.
Divide the children into groups of three and let them choose one picture or situation
from the book. Each group should express this picture by his or her body movement.
The others will guess the picture.
Writing
The children should write postcards from countries that Toot visited.
Homework
1. The children can choose any part of the story and read it to their parents.
2. They should think about a perfect place of living. Where do they would like to live
and why.
Cooperation with other teachers
In art lesson the children should draw the perfect place of living
In Czech language lessons they should describe this picture. (MT)
90
Lesson 7
Aims
To talk about illustrations - mood, actions, etc.
To predict the story ending
To think about friendship
To learn sport, hobby vocabulary
To play with words – verbs and noun phrases
To support the pupil’s cultural feelings
Materials
Work sheets – appendix
Postcards – patterns
CD-player and microphone
Motivation
Show two toy pigs to the pupils. One of them represents Toot and the second Puddle.
Let the children guess the story ending. Show illustrations and let the children guess
some words that will appear in the end of the story according to the pictures they have
seen.
Reading
Read the last pages and check the children’s predictions.
Summary
Ask: How does Toot behave in different countries? How does he feel there? Can you
find some illustrations to declare that? Do the other creatures like him? Can you find
some illustrations to demonstrate your opinion?
What about Puddle? Do any illustrations describe his character? How?
91
Activities
1. Let the children describe the pig’s characters and make a web-map on the board.
2. Match verbs and noun phrases and check them with the whole class (take a trip, write
postcards, jump out of the plane, etc.)
3. Say a verb and the children should find the right noun phrase (appendix 5.5.)
4. The children can memorize the expressions and then try to rewrite as much as they
can remember.
6. They can practice guessing game in pairs
Optional
The children can practice reading of story passages every ordinary English lesson and
then they should read it to their parents at home. In addition they can borrow books
form the school library and talk about pictures.
Visit and examination of British Council library
Let the children choose some books and look through them. Let them choose one of
them and try to read some information about this book.
3.13. Reflections
3.13.1. Meg and Mog
This tiny book brings much enjoyment into series of reading lessons for my pupils of
the third year. Although the children have already known some of ‘Meg’s’ stories, they
were able to show their interest in this story. The story presents a great number of
possibilities how to extend pupils’ knowledge of new vocabulary and grammar
structures and on the other hand there are lots of visual effects that can support this
process.
The topic of the book is enjoyable and the children liked being surrounded by
everything that was somehow connected with witches and ‘Halloween’. Moreover, the
92
Halloween party brought their parents to school where the children could present what
they had learned and together with their parents could spend pleasant time with
‘English’.
According to my short survey, the children liked being read books by their parents when
they were younger. Besides this they like reading by themselves. I and my pupils took
an advantage of it because nearly all lessons were educational, enjoyable and full of
enthusiasm from the beginning to the end. The children noticed nearly all the details
hidden in the illustrations and were able to connect them to the texts. This book presents
intimate connection between words and illustrations that helped children in better
understanding of the text. There is a variety of letter shapes that express different
extraordinary situations and actions or colours that denote feelings and mood.
Some pictures evoked the children’s fantasy in an incredible way. The children were
able to guess the word meanings and besides that they were able to describe the moods
and feelings of the characters. These clear and intelligible illustrations enabled the
children in better comprehension of the text. After finishing several lessons the children
showed improvement in working with the story, it means that they simply guessed
word meanings without any recognizable embarrassment and in addition their memory
demonstrated broad improvement. Although they are pupils of the third year, they
enjoyed reading in English and repeating some structures did not cause them any
troubles. They liked playing with words and they very often insisted on activities in
which they could connect words and pictures or sequencing of words to make sentences
that appeared in the story.
The most enjoyable activity was cooking with Meg. At first the pupils made some
predictions about what was the witches’ favourite food and then they spoke about the
ingredients that they liked. The integration of guessing these ingredients caused much
pleasure because the children used sense of touch and smell to guess food items. After
that they prepared breakfast for themselves and cookies for the Halloween party.
At the party the children presented what they had learnt to their parents. They talked
about the illustrations, read the text and explained what the story was about. Together
with the parents they made hypotheses about possible book endings. They wrote these
hypotheses on the poster and then listened to the real ending of the story. After that they
ate cookies and played some games together with the parents.
93
3.13.2. Toot and Puddle
To begin with, this class according to answers from the short questionnaire can be
divided into several categories. The majority of the children of the fifth year liked being
read stories and fairytales by their parents and grandparents. Although they enjoyed this
activity when they were little babies, they do not want to read in mother tongue
themselves because they have lots of serious reading disabilities. However, a
considerable number of them prefers reading comics and magazines and some of them
spend their time reading interesting issues on the internet. A minority of the children
claimed that they did not read for pleasure at all. The time they spend by reading differs
a lot. The girls stated that they liked to read animal stories and fairy tales. Boys
preferred reading adventure and fantasy books.
At the beginning of the project the children were to paraphrase a short extract from the
book “Little Penguin”. This extract was not accompanied by illustrations and therefore
the children had considerable difficulties with manipulation with words. Although they
were informed that they could use their imagination and retell the text in any way, their
ideas were quite holistic. Generally, children expressed only words and short phrases
that they could recognize and were not able to enrich their retellings. Only three
children used their imagination and were able to create longer sentences. Generally, all
the children markedly did not enjoy this retelling activity and in addition, they were
nervous and some of them seemed stressed when they were confronted with that cut-out
text.
The next step brought different activities into the reading literacy project and the
children started to cooperate slowly but steadily. It was obvious that when they were
introduced to a text accompanied with illustrations they felt more confident in
rephrasing it. Firstly, they did not use their imagination much although I tried to
encourage them. They had serious difficulties to express themselves and sometimes
they seemed too embarrassed. After a series of lessons they showed their ability to
predict and made interesting hypotheses which they wrote in order to be seen on a big
poster placed on the class wall. At the end of each lesson the children enjoyed adding
some new predictions in order to compare them with the real text next lesson. When the
children spoke about the two little pig friends, they made a number of beautiful and
94
surprising predictions. They sometimes used the illustrations only as a base for their
trips to a world of fantasy. It was not very surprising that making prediction was the
activity they liked a lot. On the other hand the actual reading of the text caused them
difficulties although the text was accompanied by pronunciation marks for unknown
words. Although it is questionable whether it is useful for children to read aloud, I tried
to encourage my pupils to do this activity. At the beginning it was rather sluggish,
however, after several lessons I and my pupils were able not only to repeat the text but
enjoy it as well. I think that children should be taught to reading aloud and I tried to
explain this to my pupils and their parents.
As to the next activity, the children enjoyed it a lot: it was finding information on the
internet. The reason is that in ordinary English lessons they do not often visit the school
information technology room and work with computers. It seemed that this activity
helped to create better environment for the reading project.
I appreciate that these lessons have given me lots of opportunities to share the feelings
and pleasant atmosphere with my pupils, judging by the interest the children showed. I
also hope that they had lots of opportunities to develop their sense of reading. They
enjoyed nearly all the activities very much in spite of the fact that sometimes my
English instructions were not always clear to them perhaps due to their limited
knowledge of English. Therefore, I think it is better to ask some questions in the Czech
language – their enjoyment may be even more intensive.
This series of lessons took more time than I had supposed. For this reason I would
recommend to divide them into several parts.
At the beginning the lessons were quite busy and at the end the children grasped the
rules and were able to cooperate with each other and share the atmosphere of happiness
and success.
The pupils were presenting their project and knowledge of the story to their parents
during the parents’ meeting at our school. The parents could see that their children were
personally involved in the story because the illustrations and postcards they made were
created with fantasy and enthusiasm.
95
On the parents’ meeting I informed them about this project and they agreed that they
would read together with their children at home. This activity as it was suggested in the
practical part does not require parents’ knowledge of the English language. They were
asked to spend certain time with their children and listen to them and their ideas.
Surprisingly, nearly all the parents supported their children and gave them their
attention.
The idea of the ‘pupil teacher’ brings another enjoyment into English language lessons.
The volunteers who were reading to their schoolmates brought a moment of amazement
and although these lessons were slightly busy, both my pupils and the ‘volunteers’
showed substantial interest in them. Surprisingly, the pupils cooperated with their older
schoolmates and were able to answer their questions and make predictions.
Next, I would like to assess my pupils’ interest in illustrations. At first, they tried to
simply describe the pictures. Then they gradually were able to notice more details which
they were able to connect with the plot of the story. They were taught how shapes,
colours and space of illustrations can depict the author’s intention. Especially, the series
of pictures where a little pig ‘Puddle’ changed his attitude the children richly
commented. Answers like “The author tries to express that Puddle is getting bored by
removing the TV set from the series of pictures”, “The winter atmosphere is peaceful
because the author used light blue and grey colours”, “Toot is as horrified as the
Capricorn is big” give evidence that the children, when they are taught how to do it, are
able to extend their visual perception of illustrations.
The children were divided into groups and they were asked to create other story endings
and illustrate them. These various rich illustrations showed how creative the pupils were
and how able they were to use the previous learned knowledge.
Finally, at the end of the project the children were to retell again the text about a little
penguin, and this time the text was accompanied by illustrations. The previous
knowledge of how to connect the illustrations and the text helped my pupils to create
vivid and interesting ideas. A majority of them noticed nearly all the details on the
illustrations and in addition they were able to put them into words. The children’s ideas
were expressed by more complicated words and sentence structures.
96
To sum up, I would recommend using authentic literature at basic schools because it
brings to English language learning not only pleasure but especially improvement in
reading and visual literacy.
4. Conclusion
The diploma thesis provides an overview of using authentic literature in English
language lessons in order to support pupils’ reading and visual literacy. This work
presents a series of lessons that are aimed to children at the primary level of a basic
school. The focus of the theoretical part is the benefits that using authentic literature in
educational process offers. It shows a wide range of tasks that teachers should carry out
when they want to get their pupils forward and give them as many opportunities to
develop their knowledge of a foreign language as possible. The practical part offers a
variety of activities - songs, readings, games, topics for discussions, etc., and my own
experiences with two of these courses. The aim of the practical part is to present
coherent methodological materials that teachers can use in their own lessons.
I have discovered some basic principles of using authentic literature in ELT and I have
realized that ‘reading lessons’ brought lots of enjoyment into the process of learning. It
was necessary to create an atmosphere where the children felt comfortable and safe in
order to fulfill all the needs that the process of education requires.
When choosing the books “Meg and Mog” and “Toot and Puddle”, I carefully
considered whether they are interesting, motivating and suitable for the children at this
age. The language used in these books is rich and inspiring. The illustrations in both
books provoke a variety of questions, predictions and hypotheses.
The children were taught how illustrations could support the text meaning. They have
learned how to notice shapes, space and colours of the illustrations in order to
understand them better. At first, the pupils described the illustrations in one or two
words and the activity took a very short time. However at the end of the project the time
of the children’s description was longer and their narrations became richer, and the
children were also able to find out secondary ideas hidden in the pictures. The “Meg and
97
Mog” book contains a wide range of factual illustrations that are intimately
interconnected with the text and therefore it contributed in better understanding of the
book content. Thanks to this the children even expressed some implicit ideas and
explained unknown words. In reflections concrete words predominated and only some
ideas were described by indirect expressions. After a few lessons the pupils grasped
what they were supposed to do and they were able to work with the stories. It can be
claimed that clear and understandable illustrations lead to better understanding and
support the statement that they affect visual and reading literacy a lot. For this reason I
would highly recommend to use an authentic literature at basic schools.
The process of reading itself showed vivid progression. At the end of the course the
children were able to recognize nearly all the words and the improvement of their
reading was noticeable. The time that the children spent reading to their parents
reflected in their reading skills.
Looking back at the lessons, I dare say they were dynamic and effective. The children
cooperated with each other in a friendly way. They looked forward to every following
lesson and were full of enthusiasm.
Finally, I appreciate that the number of books that children can now borrow from the
school library has rapidly increased. The children’s parents contributed by donation to
the library establishment and positively assessed these reading projects because they
had a lot of opportunities to notice the improvement of their children’s knowledge in
English and their enthusiasm in these projects.
98
5. Bibliography
5.1 Collections
Dickinson, L, and D Carver. “Learning how to lear:steps towards self-direction in foreign language learning in schools." Ellis and Morrow 17-24.
Maclennan, S. “Integrating lesson planning and class management.” Ellis and Morrow 51-56.
Ghosn, I. “Four reasons to use literature in primary school ELT.” Ellis and Morrow 56-65
Carless, D. “Implementing task-based learning with young learners.” Ellis and Morrow 36-44
Davies, C. “Extensive reading: an expensive extravagance.” Ellis and Morrow 69-77
Ellis, G, and K Morrow, eds. Year of the Young Learner. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
Read, C. “Supporting teachers in supporting learners.” Enever and Schmid-Schonbein 11-23
Klippel, F. “Literacy through picture books” Enever and Schmid-Schonbein 81-91
Vojtková, N. “What do teachers find challenging in introducing picture books?” Enever and Schmid-Schonbein 109-113
Lugossy, R. “Browsing and borrowing your way to motivation through picture books.” Enever and Schmid-Schonbein 23-35
Enever, J, and G S Schmid-Schonbein, eds. Picture Books and Young Learners of English. Augsburg: Langenscheidt, 2006
99
5.2 Magazines
Callow, J.. "Show Me: Principles for Assessing Student’s Visual Literacy.." The Reading Teacher 61(2008): 616-626.
5.3 Books
Benson P. Little Penguin. London: Walker Books. 1997.
Brumfit C.J. and R.A. Carter. Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP. 1987.
Carter R. and M.N. Long. Teaching Literature. Burnt Mill, Harlow: Longman Group.
1991.
Doležalová J. Funkční gramotnost – proměny a faktory gramotnosti ve vztazích a souvislostech. Hradec Králové: Gaudeamus, 2005.
Duff A. and A. Maley. Literature. Oxford: OUP. 1991.
Ellis G. and J. Brewster. Tell it Again. Harlow-Essex: Penguin Group. 2002.
Ellis G. and J. McRae. The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers. London:
Penguin Group. 1991.
Ellis G. and J. McRae. Reading Handbook for Secondary Teachers. London: Penguin
Group. 1991.
Harmer J. The Practise of English Language Teaching. London: Longman. 1994.
Hobbie H. Toot and Puddle. New York: Little, brown and Company. 2007.
Guarino D. Is Your Mama a Llama? New York: Scholastic. 2004.
Krashen, Stephen D. Language acquisition and language education. London: Prentice
International. 1989.
Krashen S.D. The Power of Reading. Westport: Heineman. 2004.
McRae J. Literature with a small ‘l‘. London: Maxmillan Publishers Limited. 1991.
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Morgan J. and M. Rinvolucri. Once Upon a Time. Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the
University of Cambridge. 1993.
Najvarová V. Čtenářská gramotnost žáků 1. stupně základní školy. Brno: Masarykova univerzita. 2008.
Nicoll H. and J. Pienkowski. Meg and Mog. London: Penguin Group. 1972.
Peppe R. The Mice Who Lived in a Shoe. London: Puffin Books. 1984.
Scott A. and L Ytreberg. Teaching English to Children, Harlow: Longman Group. 1990.
Sharrat N. Ketchup On Your Cornflakes. London: Scholastic. 1994.
Straková J. eds. Vědomosti a dovednosti pro život. Praha: UIV, 2002.
Wright A. Storytelling with Children. Oxford: OUP. 1995.
Žigárdyová, L. Using Stories in Teaching English to Young Learners, Brno, 2006.
5.4 Electronic sources
“Real Books” To Teach Reading Said To Heighten Skill,Interest. Available at:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1983 [Accessed August 6, 2008].
“Reading Rockets : The Challenges of Learning to Teach Reading.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.readingrockets.org/article/250>.
“Literacy - National Literacy Trust home page.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/>.
School Libraries - Making A Difference. Available at:
http://www.schoollibrariesadvocacy.org.uk/schoollibrarians/index.asp [Accessed
November 24, 2008].
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Culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture [Accessed November 24, 2008].
National Year of Reading: Reading ideas. Available at:
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November 24, 2008].
“CACD.” 24 Nov 2008 <http://ase.tufts.edu/cacd_outreach/what.htm>.
School Libraries - Making A Difference. Available at:
http://www.schoollibrariesadvocacy.org.uk/schoollibrarians/index.asp [Accessed
November 24, 2008].
“National Year of Reading: Reading ideas.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.yearofreading.org.uk/index.php?id=82&nech_chal=134>.
“The Reading Agency | Young people.” 24 Nov 2008
<http://www.readingagency.org.uk/young/>.
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<http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/>.
The South Australian Curriculum and Accountability Framework. Available at:
http://www.thenetwork.sa.au/general/glossary.htm,accessed [Accessed April 24, 2008].
“Reading in a Foreign Language: April 2008: Research on good and poor reader
characteristics: Implications for L2 reading research in China.” 29 Nov 2008
<http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/April2008/pang/pang.html>.
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<http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9211/reading.htm>
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<http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/searchsite_pub.cfm?keyword=PragmaticsLL&display_or
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6. Résumé
This thesis deals with the question of development of reading and visual literacy in
English language teaching (ELT) at the primary level of the Czech schools. The work
consists of the theoretical and practical part.
Theoretical part
Chapters 1 and 2 describe the importance of development of children’s reading and
visual literacy
Chapters 3, 4 and 5 show the importance of the family role in the process of
development of RL and VL.
Chapters 6 and 7 show the situation in Czech schools.
Chapter 8 describes how to teach reading literacy.
Chapter 9 highlights the significance of the motivation in the process of developing RL.
Chapter 10 presents some ideas that can help establish a school library.
Chapter 11 deals with learning strategies that should children use when reading.
Chapter 12 describes the ways teachers should use authentic books.
Chapter 13 explains why literature is so important in language-learning process.
Chapter 14 offers some ideas for creating literature syllabus.
Chapter 15 speaks about the power of reading.
Chapter 16 shows activities where the teacher and the children can use their mother
tongue.
Chapter 17 explains the teacher’s and the learner’s role in the process of reading literacy
development.
Chapter 18 presents what the students have learned.
Chapter 19 describes young children learning foreign languages.
Chapter 20 shows a significant base for visual literacy assessment.
Chapter 21 describes what role a story represents for the teacher and the pupils.
Chapter 22 deals with the importance of reading in a foreign language
Chapter 23 is a brief summary of suitable methods that the teachers can use when they
want to create their own reading projects.
104
Practical part
The practical part contains a description of the reading project and a set of lesson plans
suitable for developing pupils’ reading and visual literacy and evaluations of two of
them.
105
Shrnutí
Tato diplomová práce se zabývá otázkami rozvoje čtenářské a vizuální gramotnosti v
anglickém jazyce u dětí navštěvujících první stupeň základní školy. Práce obsahuje
teoretickou a praktickou část.
Teoretická část
Kapitola 1 a 2 popisuje důležitost rozvoje čtenářské a vizuální gramotnosti.
Kapitola 3,4 a 5 ukazuje jakou roli hraje rodina v rozvoji čtenářské gramotnosti
Kapitola 6 a 7 ukazuje situaci na českých školách
Kapitola 8 popisuje jakým způsobem může být čtenářská gramotnost učena.
Kapitola 9 zdůrazňuje jak může motivace ovlivnit rozvoj čtenářské gramotnosti
Kapitola 10 předkládá různé nápady, jak vytvořit školní knihovnu.
Kapitola 11 se zabývá učebními strategiemi
Kapitola 12 popisuje jak mohou učitelé využít autentickou literaturu ve výuce.
Kapitola 13 vysvětluje proč důležité používat autentickou literaturu ve výuce.
Kapitola 14 nabízí nápady vhodné pro vytvoření školní knihovny.
Kapitola 16 předkládá různé aktivity ve kterých je možno použít mateřský jazyk.
Kapitola 17 vysvětluje úlohu hraje učitele a žáka v procesu rozvoje čtenářské
gramotnosti.
Kapitola 18 prezentuje co ba se měli děti naučit.
Kapitola 19 popisuje žáka prvního stupně základní školy učícího se cizí jazyk.
Kapitola 20 ukazuje jak hodnotit vizuální gramotnost.
Kapitola 21 popisuje jakou úlohu ve výuce představují pohádky pro děti i učitele.
Kapitola 22 zdůrazňuje důležitost čtení v cizím jazyce.
Kapitola 23 je rychlým shrnutím vhodných metod, které může učitel použít v případě,
že by chtěl vytvořit svůj vlastní čtenářský projekt.
106
7. List of Appendices
7.1. Ketchup on Your Cornflakes
I like ketchup
I like ketchup, you like tea, I like you and you like me
Do you like
Do you like: Ketchup on your chips?
Custard on your apple pie?
Toothpaste on your toothbrush?
A wolly hat on your head?
Salt on your egg?
Talcum powder on your toes?
Jam on your toast?
Milk on your cornflakes?
Ice cubes in your lemonade?
A duck in your bath?
A teddy in your bed?
107
Draw a picture of each item next to the right word
Do you like
Ketchup on your chips?
Custard on your apple pie?
Toothpaste on your toothbrush?
A woolly hat on your head?
Salt on your egg?
Talcum powder on your toes?
Jam on your toast?
108
Milk on your cornflakes?
Ice cubes in your lemonade?
A duck in your bath?
A teddy in your bed?
Rain on the green grass
Rain on the green grass
rain on the tree
rain on the house
but not on me.
Rolly Polly up, up, up
Rolly Polly up, up, up
Rolly Polly down, down, down
Rolly Polly out, out, out
Rolly Polly in, in, in
109
Word cards
ketchup
on your
chips
110
custard
on your
111
apple pie
toothpaste
on your
112
toothbrush
a woolly hat
on your
113
head
salt
on your
114
egg
talcum powder
on your
115
toes
jam
on your
116
toast
milk
on your
117
cornflakes
ice cubes
in your
118
lemonade
a duck
in your
119
bath
a teddy
in your
120
bed
121
7.2 Is Your Mama a Llama?
The Swans
(adapted from the New Handbook for Storytellers, 1993)
Five little swans
Over the hills and far away
Mother swan said “Quack,
Quack, quack”
But only four little swans
Came back
Song “Old McDonald”
(adapted from: “Old MacDonald Had A Farm -EnchantedLearning.com.” 11 Aug 2008
<http://www.enchantedlearning.com/rhymes/oldmacdonald.shtml>.)
Animal printable pictures
(adapted from: “Animal Coloring/Info Pages: Aa-Af - AllAboutNature.com.” 1 Dec
2008 <http://www.enchantedlearning.com/coloring/>.)
Animals - Young ones
(adapted from: “Animal Groups and Young.” 1 Dec 2008
<http://mistupid.com/animals/groups.htm>.)
Optional
122
Trip to the ZOO together with parents
Children together with parents should pre-prepare some information about different animals
Each child has his own animal for description and when they find this animal in the ZOO they
will inform others about it.
Arranged visit of llamas pavilion in the ZOO, feeding animals
Lecture aimed on young animals
Give children the poster of their characteristic written by their classmates covered by clingfilm.
123
124
7.3 Meg and Mog
Abracadabra
(adapted from Little Bugs 2, Carol Read and Ana Soberón)
Abracadabra! The witches spell. I like bats and frogs as well.
Abracadabra! The Witches spell. I like cats and snakes as well.
Abracadabra! The Witches spell. I like rats and spiders as well.
Printable animals
(adapted from: “Animal Coloring/Info Pages: Aa-Af - AllAboutNature.com.” 1 Oct
2008 <http://www.enchantedlearning.com/coloring/>.)
125
126
127
128
\
129
One Little
(adapted from “Super Songs for Very Young Learners”)
One little, two little, three little witches,
four little, five little, six little witches,
seven little, eight little, nine little witches,
ten witches in the sky
130
There’s a big house
(adapted from Tell it Again, 2002)
In a big big house there’s a big big kitchen
In the big, big kitchen – cupboard
In the big, big cupboard – shelf
On the big, big shelve – cauldron
In the big, big cauldron – stirrer
On the big, big stirrer – jam
131
In a dark, dark forest
In a dark, dark forest
There’s a dark, dark meadow.
In a dark, dark meadow
There’s a dark, dark house.
In a dark, dark house
There’s a dark, dark room.
In a dark, dark room
There’s a dark, dark cauldron.
In a dark, dark cauldron
There’re dark, dark witch’s clothes.
132
Write missing words and draw their icons
In a dark, dark ............................
There’s a dark, dark ...................
In a dark, dark .............................
There’s a dark, dark ....................
In a dark, dark ..............................
There’s a dark, dark .....................
In a dark, dark ..............................
There’s a dark, dark .....................
In a dark, dark ...............................
There’re dark, dark ........................
133
Halloween chant
(adapted from Little Bugs 2, Carol Read and Ana Soberón)
In a big, big house
Lives a small, small witch
With a big, big hat.
And the small, small witch
With a big, big hat
Has got a small, small cat
And the small, small witch
With a big, big hat
Has got a small, small cat
And a big, big bat.
And the small, small witch
With a big, big hat
Has got a small, small cat
And a big, big bat
Say .....Happy Halloween!!!
134
Halloween party – optional
1. Pumpkin production
Children bring a pumpkin on a Halloween party and together with their parents create
their own lantern
2. Chair game
3. Trick or treat
4. Tea and cookies
5. Chants: Abracadabra, The mouse, In a big, big cauldron, In a big, big house,
6. Song: One little
135
136
137
7.4 The Mice who lived in the Shoe
The mouse
(adapted from “New Handbook for Storytellers, 1993)
There is such a little tiny mouse
Living safely in my house
Out at night he’ll quietly creep
When everyone is fast asleep
But always by the light of day
He’ll quietly, quietly creep away.
138
Picture of a tattered shoe
139
140
141
142
143
7.5 Toot and Puddle
Internet addresses where all photos and animals are available
“Jakob Øster - Travel Photography.” 1 Dec 2008
<http://www.jakoboester.dk/indexuk.html>.
The tail of a pig
(adapted from: “Preschool Education Songs & Fingerplays : Animals > Farm.” 9 Sep
2008 <http://www.preschooleducation.com/sfarm.shtml>.)
added 4-2-99 Original Author Unknown
Sung to: "The Wheels on a Bus"
The tail of a pig curls round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The tail of a pig curls round and round
All through the mud.
The mouth of a pig goes oink, oink, oink,
Oink, oink, oink, oink, oink, oink.
The mouth of a pig goes oink, oink, oink,
All day long.
The snout of a pig goes root, root, root,
144
Root, root, root, root, root, root.
The snout of a pig goes root, root, root,
All day long.
The hooves of a pig go run, run, run,
Run, run, run, run, run, run.
The hooves of a pig go run, run, run,
All day long.
The ears of a pig go twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch,
Twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch, twitch.
The ears of a pig go twitch, twitch, twitch,
All day long.
Examples of an animal description
I´m a ……………
I´m from the Antarctic.
I´ve got short wings and short legs.
I like fish.
I´m an …………
I´m from Afrika.
I´ve got long legs.
I like grass and leaves.
145
Oink, Oink, Oink, Oink, Little Pig
(adapted from: “Preschool Education Songs & Fingerplays : Animals > Farm.” 9 Sep
2008 <http://www.preschooleducation.com/sfarm.shtml>.)
added 4-2-99 Original Author Unknown
Sung to: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"
Oink, oink, oink, oink, little pig,
Can you do a little jig?
In the bright light of the sun,
Are you having lots of fun?
Oink, oink, oink, oink, little pig,
I think that you will grow big.
P-I-G-G-Y added 3-06-01 Original Author Unknown
(adapted from: “Preschool Education Songs & Fingerplays : Animals > Farm.” 9 Sep
2008 <http://www.preschooleducation.com/sfarm.shtml>.)
Sung to: "Bingo"
There was a hungry little hog,
And Piggy was his name-o.
P-I-G-G-Y, P-I-G-G-Y, P-I-G-G-Y,
And Piggy was his name-o!
146
Printable picture of a pig
147
Toot and Puddle – rewritten story
Lesson 2
Text p.6
It was such a perfect place to be that Puddle never wanted to go anywhere else.
Toot, on the other hand, loved to take trips. He had been to Cape Cod, the Grand Canyon, and the redwood forest.
Was anywhere Grand Canyon
Such other redwood
Never been forest
Wanted Cape Cod
Lesson 3
p.7
One day in January, Toot decided to set off on his biggest trip ever. He decided to see the world. “Do you want to come along?” he asked Puddle. “We could start with someplace warm and wild.”
decided could someplace
set off warm world
ever wild
world along
p.8
148
Puddle preferred to stay home.
P.9
I love snow, he thought.
P10 – postcard
Dear Puddle, I’ve made some new Friends in Africa! Is winter getting boring? Toot
p.11
Meanwhile..... presenting Puddle at Pocket Pond!
preferred made
stay meanwhile
thought
p.12 - postcard
Dear Puddle, Egypt is awesome. The pyramids are the greatest. Wish YOU COULD MEET me at the Oasis. Your friend Toot
P. 13
March meant maple syrup. Puddle wished Toot were there to taste the pancakes.
Egypt greatest maple
awesome Oasis syrup
pyramids meant were
149
taste pancakes
Lesson 5
p. 14 – postcard
Dear Puddle, Can you believe I’m in the Solomon Islands? They’re in the Pacific Ocean. I spend all day under water. I like being in a school – OF Fish. Has spring come yet? Your Pal, Toot
p. 14
Yes, spring had arrived. Puddle was having mud seasons. Yay!
believe Ocean arrived
Solomon Islands being mud
Pacific yet season
p. 15 – PC
Hi, Puds, Am I in INDIA, or is this a dream? It’s your birthday – May 3! Hope your Party is the best. Friends forever, Toot
p. 16
Back at Woodcock Pocket .....
“For he’s a jolly good fellow,
for he’s a jolly good fellow,
for he’s a jolly good fellow,
That nobody can deny!”
150
p. 17 – PC
Dear Puddle, Help! Mountain climbing is scarier than jumping out of a plane. Remember when I talked you to into going parachuting?
Your friend in the Alps, Toot
p. 18
Puddle remembered!
India mountain remember
hope climbing parachuting
forever scarier deny
p. 19 – PC
Dear Puddle, You would love Matador Camp. The bull’s name is DANDIO! Bravo from Spain, Toot
p. 20
In July... presenting Puddle at Pocket Pond! Every time he jumped in, he cheered, “Olé!”
151
Lesson 6
p. 21 – PC
Dear Puddle, August is COLD in Antarctica, but I’ve made more friends here than anywhere yet. Are you going to the beach this year? I miss you. Do you miss me? Friends Forever, Toot
p. 22
Yes, Puddle missed his friend.
would presenting
matador cheered
bull Antarctica
Spain beach
forever
p. 23 – PC
Dear Pudsy, Bonjour from Paris, Art is everywhere! Love is in the air! Au revoir, Toot
p. 24
I love art, thought Puddle.
p. 25 – PC
Dearest Pudsio, Italy is heaven- it’s one big treat! Your friend, Tootsio
p. 26
152
Meanwhile, it was Halloween in Woodcock Pocket. Puddle decided to be horrifying.
Lesson 7
p. 27
One morning in November, Toot woke up and thought, It’s time to go home.
p. 28
Yay, Toot’s coming!
bonjour heaven
Paris treat
Au revoir was
thought horrifying
dearest
p. 29
December called for celebration. “Here’s to all your adventures around the world,” said Puddle. Here’s to all your adventures right at home,” said Toot
p. 30
“And here’s to being together again,” Toot and Puddle said at the same time.
p. 31
Toot was happy to be back in his own bed, and Puddle was happy, too.
153
“I wonder if it will snow all night” Puddle said.
“I hope so,” said Toot.
“Then we’ll go sliding,” said Puddle.
“And skiing,” said Toot
“Good night, Toot.”
“Good night, Puddle.”
called together
celebration wonder
adventure will
world hope
so sliding
154
Animal table
goat penguin
ostrich hen
koala parrot
llama giraffe
snake camel
bear tortoise
elephant kangaroo
crocodile tiger
fox duck
horse wolf
guinea pig budgie
seal gold fish
dolphin hamster
lion zebra
155
želva křeček
krokodýl tučňák
klokan kůň
žirafa lev
tuleň koala
slon vlk
velbloud kačena
koza medvěd
had pštros
andulka liška
slepice tygr
zebra papoušek
lama zlatá rybka
delfín morče
156
Animal domino
hamster zlatá rybka gold fish želva
hamster želva gold fish had
hamster had gold fish andulka
hamster andulka gold fish morče
hamster morče gold fish papoušek
hamster papoušek gold fish křeček
tortoise had snake papoušek
tortoise andulka snake křeček
tortoise morče snake zlatá rybka
tortoise papoušek snake želva
tortoise křeček parrot morče
157
tortoise zlatá rybka parrot papoušek
snake andulka parrot křeček
snake morče parrot zlatá rybka
parrot želva budgie křeček
parrot had budgie zlatá rybka
guinea pig andulka budgie želva
guinea pig křeček budgie had
guinea pig zlatá rybka budgie papoušek
guinea pig želva budgie morče
guinea pig had spider křeček
158
guinea pig papoušek spider zlatá rybka
hamster pavouk spider želva
gold fish pavouk spider had
tortoise pavouk spider papoušek
snake pavouk spider morče
parrot pavouk spider andulka
guinea pig pavouk budgie pavouk
159
Continents and categorization of animals
Europe
Asia
Africa
Australia
Antarctica
America
Europe
wild animals
farm animals
pets
160
Seasons and month
winter January
spring February
summer March
autumn August
April October
May November
June December
July September
161
Opposites - adjectives from the book
perfect imperfect great boring
biggest smallest horrifying gentle
warm cold scary gentle
wild domesticated happy sad
new old awesome pleasant
162
Verbs and noun phrases
live in a house climb mountains
take a trip jump out of a plane
set off on a trip go parachuting
watch TV go to the beach
go skiing miss a friend
go sliding love art, friend
love snow sweep the floor
make friends wake up in the
morning
taste pancakes be happy,
together
spend all day under the
write a letter
163
water
have mud season read a letter
cook lunch carry flowers
brush your teeth decide to be
horrifying
164
165
166
167
Photos
Africa - Egypt
Africa –
Kenya
168
169
India – Tach Mahal
170
India
171
India - elephant
172
Solomon islands – the South Pacific Ocean, near Australia
173
Africa - elephant
174
Tibet
175
176
Usa – Grand Canyon
177
USA – Cape Cod
178
Antarctica
179
Italy - Venecia
Italy - Rome
180
France - Paris
181
Spain - corrida
182
Seasons
183
184
185
Little penguin
186
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