Thematic reading education with the whole team

Tekst Bea Ros - redactie Onderwijsblad - 23 april 2024 - 8 Minuten om te lezen

Image: Herman Engbers

“Yesterday we solved a murder,” teacher Maarten Adolfsen refreshes his students' memories. Oh yes, it sounds from various sides: 'Eaten poisonous mushrooms!' Group 7 of IKC De Akker is in the middle of the theme 'To life and death'. The four kingdoms of life have already been passed - fungi, bacteria, animals and plants - and words like 'microorganism' and 'chloroplasts' roll effortlessly from students' mouths. And they still know what they mean.

Today they zoom in further on fungi. They watch a video about rotting fruit with some horror, but they also learn that some fungi are quite tasty (blue cheese) or useful (medicines). A lively conversation ensues afterwards. “Sir, are there also molds in this room?”

About three years ago, De Akker opted for Focus on understanding, an approach that integrates reading education and world orientation (see box). The school had been dissatisfied with the Nieuwsbegrip reading comprehension method for some time, because of all the loose reading texts, and had doubts about offering the various world orientation subjects separately or together. “In addition, we had poor results for reading comprehension,” says teacher and upper school coordinator Rian de Brouwer. “We knew: things had to change, because the way we are doing it now is not working. When we were introduced to Focus on Understanding, everything fell into place.”

In many schools, reading is neglected

With the guidance of Mariëtte Konink from IJsselgroep Educational Services, the team started a metamorphosis step by step. First, half an hour of reading aloud and half an hour of free reading were added to the program every day, for groups 3 to 8. “In many schools, reading aloud is neglected,” says Debbie Nijhof, group 5 teacher and internal supervisor. “It is something you do quickly in between or while eating and drinking. We have learned to really take the time for this and to use it much more consciously.”  

Annerie Hofstede reads Children of the Quicksand by Efua Traoré. Quite a tough book for group 5, with exotic words such as 'frangipane' and 'python'. But that, says Nijhof, is the great advantage of reading aloud: you can bring students into contact with texts that they cannot yet handle themselves and thus enrich their vocabulary and understanding of the story.

After reading, Hofstede makes a summary with the class. She takes turns randomly - “this way you keep everyone active” - and asks students to say something in one sentence about the passage read aloud. Hofstede writes down the sentences on the digital whiteboard. She doesn't correct anything, at most she asks questions and when children only say a word, she asks: Can you make a sentence out of it? “An assignment like this keeps the story alive,” she explains afterwards. “You also ensure that everyone has a say in what has been read.” And talking about texts together is, as we know from reading research, one of the pillars of effective reading education.  

Reading to the labradoodle

With the daily half hour of free reading, students not only increase their vocabulary and knowledge of the world, but they also learn to concentrate on and become absorbed in a longer text. That took some getting used to in the beginning, also for the teachers. Read for half an hour?!, thought Sjoerd Weijers, group 6 teacher. “That really didn't seem feasible for children. But now they often say: Is it time again?

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So don't think too quickly: Our students can't do this. Not even if, like at De Akker, you have many students with a limited (Dutch) vocabulary. Where teachers used to discourage students from picking up books that were too thick or difficult, they now say: Just try. “And if it doesn't work, you can stop and look for another book,” says Hofstede. “But to start with, give them the feeling: you can do this.” Nijhof adds: “The advantage is that they read better stories than those AVI booklets. And once they have tasted that, they want more and they start to enjoy reading.”

Where the book to read aloud matches the theme, children can decide for themselves which book they choose during free reading. Because the school participates in the 'Library at school', there is an attractive book collection at school. In addition, library parents at school help students choose a book that suits their interests. This is how, in the team's experience, you really get children to read.  

For children who really have difficulty reading, audio books or Easy Reading books (content at their own level but with simple language) offer a solution. Or they let them read picture books to preschoolers (tutor reading). And very occasionally the teachers use the school dog as a weapon (wagging reading). “Then a child can read to our labradoodle. That dog thinks everything is fine and has no judgment when the child makes mistakes. That strengthens self-confidence.”  

Create your own word lists

In group 6, a fierce-looking man emits sounds. The class laughs about it. But they soon become fascinated by the video about how prehistoric people communicated. The vocal cords of ice mummy Ötzi and the cave drawings of Lascaux serve as 'sources' to learn something about the past. “Sources?” asks Weijers. You can get water from that, a student knows. Or oil, says another. But how does that fit into the story, asks Weijers. He looks around the classroom looking for help: “We have a problem, we don't know what sources are.”

Don't give the answer yourself, but encourage children to find it for themselves by talking about it together. So as a teacher, sit on your hands and let the answer come from the group, even if the question comes from the students themselves. Students' own input also applies to the word wall, which continues to grow as they work on a theme. “In the beginning we followed the words from the teaching method, but gradually we started making our own word lists,” says Weijers.

He asks the class which words belong to the section 'Communicating prehistoric people'. Together the class comes up with eight key words, from cave drawing to sources. In small groups they look up the meaning and write it down briefly on a sheet of paper together with a drawing. After the lesson, Weijers laminates their work and hangs it on the word wall. They can always refer back to it in subsequent lessons. “Because students are actively working with those words themselves, the words stick better and they acquire a deep understanding of the text.” Especially because those words appear again and again, in varying contexts.

It makes work more fun

The team uses the themes from the Blink world orientation method for each building (groups 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8), but searches for and creates teaching materials themselves. For each building, they put their heads together once every three weeks on Wednesday afternoon to collect reading texts and videos and to come up with assignments.

In the beginning that took a lot of time. For example, in each lesson they have to find three rich texts on the theme that also increase in difficulty. Because that is an important core of thematic reading education: because students gain more and more knowledge about a theme, they can read increasingly complex texts about it and they gradually become more literate. “In the beginning you don't know how to search and where,” says Weijers. “You finally found a nice text and you couldn't find any subsequent text. But at a certain point you get used to it.”

Moreover, as a team they build an archive of suitable texts and assignments. And, more importantly, they see the results of their efforts. In the past, students would start to sigh when reading comprehension was on the timetable, but now they work enthusiastically on the themes.

Nijhof is already dreaming about the next step: also integrating language and spelling lessons into the thematic work. “We are looking critically at how we can incorporate the learning objectives of SLO - such as referring words, recognizing the verb or cause-effect relationships - into our theme lessons. You don't actually need a separate language method for that.” De Brouwer adds: “Yesterday I had a language lesson about the difference between 'if' and 'then' in equations. How nice would it be if you could explain that with a text that we already use around the theme?”

There is growth in technical reading and especially in reading comprehension. And knowledge lasts better

The team members agree: their work has become more fun and creative since their new approach to reading instruction. And not unimportant: they also see it reflected in the reading scores. There is growth in technical reading and especially in reading comprehension. And knowledge lasts better. “I recently gave a lesson about slavery and a student said: Yes, that was also with Anton de Kom, right?”, says De Brouwer. “While that lesson about De Kom was months ago. Then I become very proud as a teacher.”

One of the keys to success is the connection within the team, says De Brouwer. “We opted for the new approach together and went for it together. We exchange a lot and constantly share ideas and tips. So there has not only been more cohesion in our lessons, but also in our team.” 

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