The Power of Story: Address to ALEA 2011

I spoke today at the 2011 Australian Literacy Educators' Association in Melbourne. My talk was centred on the importance of words, story and literature. In an age where images, film, gaming and digital forms of meaning are more important, I wanted to remind people of the foundational importance of words and language. While I value visual literacy (see HERE), I've been worried at the loss of emphasis that literature and story receives.

I started a little controversially by suggesting that the statement “…a picture is worth a thousand words” is simply not accurate. While a picture can be more effective than a 1,000 poorly written words, the words of literature are economical and powerful. They offend us (‘old baldy’), amuse us ('Frobscottle'), rebuke us (‘get out’!), malign and vilify us (‘liar’), frighten us (‘an evil act’), inform us (‘Danger!’), sadden us (‘She’s dead’), disempower us (‘bloody wog’), hurt us (‘I hate you’), persuade us (‘it’s a bargain’), give us hope (‘she’s conscious’) and so on.

When words form stories they have power to do extraordinary things. Here are examples of just some of my favourite lead sentences from children's and adult books:

‘Late one night, for no particular reason, something stirred in the black mud at the bottom of Berkley’s Creek, (Jenny Wagner, illustrations Ron Brooks,' ‘The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek’)

'All happy families resemble each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' (Leo Tolstoy, 'Anna Karenina').

'Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.' (Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’)

'Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.' (J.K. Rowling, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’)

‘It was the night before the Fund-raising Effort that the devils came.’ (Robert Westall, ‘The Scarecrows’).

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife' (Jane Austen, 'Pride and Prejudice').

‘Jackson was thin, small and ugly, and stank like a drain.’ (Leon Garfield, ‘Fair’s Fair’)

‘Deep in the still cold shadows the last Theefyspray looked out from her lonely lair’ (Paul Jennings, illustrated by Jane Tanner, ‘The Fisherman and the Theefyspray’).

Each of the authors who wrote these words agonised over the choice and order of every word. The agony was due to their desire to engage their readers, to transport us in time and space, to enrich us through their stories.


The importance of story (narrative)

Harold Rosen once suggested that 'Narratives in all their diversity and multiplicity make up the fabric of our lives; they are constitutive moments in the formation of our identities and our sense of community affiliation'.

Narrative is central to how our minds order experience, whether real or virtual, human minds order experience in the mode of story. Jerome Bruner and others have taught us that narrative is 'a fundamental mode of thought through which we construct our world or worlds.'


Literature is important in the classroom

Literature is an important part of any school curriculum. Language and story are foundational to what it is to be human, and literature is the pinnacle of narrative development. Literature is where story demonstrates its richness and complexity. It is here that we see the best possible words in the best possible order, used to the best possible effect. It is where the craft of representing ideas, giving information, challenging ideologies and views of the world, sharing history, sustaining and reinventing culture is at its peak.

In short, words and story matter and so we need to create classrooms that value literature and enable it to impact on children as readers. The use of literature in such classrooms has six key elements:

a) Independent reading – you need books and you need time (15-20 mins a day).

b) Shared literature is important – we need to read books out loud and share them in groups. Being able to read the same books as other class members is important, so some should be shared.

c) Talk about books – Talk about books is important and can take many forms, including individual conferences, literature circles and roving conferences. But the best talk is often that initiated by members of the class, born from the excitement of story.

d) Some deep study of meaning – Reading of literature needs to be 'deep' at times. Readers should tackle longer texts, read many books by same author, read harder material, engage in sustained reading, develop reading stamina, do word study & explore languages, and learn new things through reading

e) Literature is connected to other ways of meanings – Story always has a relationship to other modes of learning and meaning making – drawing, video, film, sound, drama, firsthand experiences.

f) Reader Response – response is important to the reading of literature, and can involve planned activities, spontaneous talk or even silence, writing, drama, craft and so on.

My colleague Professor Claire Woods said many years ago:

“Children’s response to literature is often unpredictable. We as teachers should learn to expect the unexpected.” 

We need to avoid preconceived notions of how children should respond.

All 6 elements above are related to one another. In classrooms where the teacher shares books, children will want to read books. When children are given a chance to talk about books, they will encourage one another to read, they’ll share books, stories will find their way into conversations, playground games for younger children and so on. Our aim as teachers should be to create learning communities in our classrooms in which literature has an important place.

Such communities develop ‘underground’ communication systems, notes are passes, messages sent, ideas are shared about things that matter (e.g. jokes, images, bits they like). As well, ‘literary grapevines’ emerge as kids pass around a book with unusual features (e.g. ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, a funny or ‘rude’ bit), and ‘secret codes’ are invented known only to people who have read the book.

Summing up

If literature is to be effective, and have an enriching and transforming effect on readers, it must be embedded within authentic communities of readers and writers. It is in the interactions, relationships and shared knowledge that are connected with literature that learning and change occurs. The key to a successful literature classroom is one in which story is important and is part of the glue that binds the classroom community together.

A search for meaning, the heart of literacy

The title of this post is one that I am using for a keynote address that I will give to an Australian Literacy Educators' Association conference in Adelaide South Australia on Friday 16th April. This post is an introduction to the address and is a way to organise the various posts that relate to my talk as a resource for the attendees at the conference. Hopefully, it will be of interest to other readers too, especially those who are early childhood or primary school teachers interested in reading comprehension. The post covers one of the 5 sections of my address and draws on ideas from my book Pathways to Literacy (1995).

Helping young readers with comprehension

The foundations of reading comprehension occur in the first 5 years of life when children learn language as they relate to other people. Language learning occurs in rich social contexts as an extension of their relationships with others.

Research conducted with one of my students in the 1980s into the way language is socially situated (Cairney & Langbien, 1989) illustrates just how deeply embedded early literacy experiences are within the social relationships that they experience at home and school.

The following description based on field notes from Susan Langbien's classroom give a rich sense of what was going on one typical day in this Kindergarten in the Queensland Canefields.

Susan was reading to her children. Nineteen small four-year old faces were looking up at her as she chatted with them about the story, 'The three little pigs' (in Jacobs, 1969). The children were sitting cross-legged on a large carpet square at the front of the room, the venue for news, music, discussion, sharing ideas, and last, but not least, stories. The group had been asked to comment upon the story and was responding enthusiastically. Ideas flowed quickly as the comment of one child stimulated other responses. The discussion moved from one part of the story to another. Different characters were mentioned, and favourite parts shared. Sometimes the comments related closely to the story, at other times they were more egocentric. Their attention turned to the big bad wolf and Robert announced:

I've got a big bad wolf and I put him in hot water

Louise replied:

My bad wolf got shot with hot rocks

Christian responded with a somewhat deeper and more emotional thought:

The wolf got hurt because he tried to hurt the pigs

These young children were part of a small learning community in their Kindergarten (we'd call it a preschool in New South Wales), where language was important to them. They were delighting in the sharing of reading and writing. There was a nature table in one corner, large and small building blocks, easels, paints, clay, and a reading corner that was physically appealing. The reading corner included a brightly covered divan, a few cushions, a variety of books, newspapers and magazines. A sign was hanging on the wall asking "Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?" Artwork displays also showed the influence of literature, and group craft efforts to depict characters from books were proudly on show.

Above: A preschool classroom (this is NOT Susan's classroom)

The teacher in this classroom had been actively attempting to develop a community of readers and writers. Observations of the room showed that literacy was an important part of the world of this class. Each session of the day included the reading of a piece of poetry or prose. Frequently, these sessions were followed by lively discussion. Daily independent reading time was provided on the carpet area. News time frequently involved the spontaneous sharing of books. Opportunities were provided for response to reading, and this took many forms - drawing, writing, dramatic re-enactment, mime, and singing.

Even when the teacher was not initiating reading or writing, the classroom was filled with literate behaviour. In the dress-up corner several children were including story reading in creative play. Children took turns as mother reading to her baby. Genevieve was asking her pretend mum to explain why the dog in I'll Always Love You (Wilhelm, 1985) had such a sad face (this is a book about death). Mum was doing a wonderful job explaining the relationships within the story. Another group playing shops was using a receipt book to record purchases. Receipt books were often referred to in the home corner. 'Mum' and 'Dad' were reading the newspaper and later flicking through the pages of the telephone book.

This classroom was living evidence of the complex social nature of literacy. A teacher and her class were talking, listening, reading and writing as parts of a dynamic community. Literacy was being learned as children related to each other, meaning was being jointly constructed and negotiated within a complex community of relationships.

Susan's class was being introduced to the world of literacy in an environment where it was valued. Reading and writing were being shared and enjoyed, as an extension of close relationships (teacher-to-child, child-to-child). Whether inside the classroom, or in the playground, reading and writing often found their way into the language of the group. For example, at recess Christian began to chant:

Wombat stew, wombat stew, crunchy munchy for my lunchy,
wombat stew

This was obviously inspired by 'Wombat Stew' (Vaughan & Lofts, 1984), a book that Susan had shared.

Other children soon joined in and pretended their morning teas were lizards' eyes, a cane toad, mud and slime and a crocodile's tooth. A new and complex 'socially' constituted wombat stew was created. As they played they not only relived the experience of the book, they learned about language.

The linguist Michael Halliday Meaning demonstrated to us in the 1970s how language is constructed and used in social contexts (Halliday, 1975; 1978). Catherine Snow (1983) a little later showed how language learning is dependent upon social relationships. Snow examined the language interactions of parents and children in the preschool years. A particular focus of her work was the role of adults in children's language development and she noted that teachers and parents frequently facilitated language development in a number of ways:

First, adults often continued or elaborated topics that the child introduced.
Second, they reduced the uncertainty in the language task by structuring the dialogue.
Third, they constantly encouraged the pursuit of the task or the language interaction.

Homes and classrooms that create, sustain and encourage opportunities for rich language communities like Susan's classroom, will be places where literacy is stimulated and comprehension develops.

Other blog posts related to this topic

'Teaching and Supporting Children's Reading Comprehension' (HERE)
'Truth and the Internet' (HERE)
'Reading to Learn Using Text Sets' (HERE)
'Improving Comprehension: Sketch to Stretch' (HERE)
'Improving Comprehension: Map Making' (HERE)
'Improving Comprehension: Advance Organisers' (HERE)
'Children as Bloggers' (HERE)
'Why Kids Re-read Books' (HERE)
'Making Books Come Alive' (HERE)
'Online Reading is Different' (HERE)
'What Rappers can Teach us About Language'? (HERE)
'Getting Boys into Books Through Non-fiction' (HERE)
'Great Science and Technology Books for Children Aged 3-12 years' (HERE)
All posts on 'Children's Literature' (HERE)
'The Power of Literature' series (HERE)
'Juvenilia: The Study of Writing from Youth' (HERE)

Books I've written that are relevant

Cairney, T.H. (1990). Teaching Reading Comprehension: Meaning Makers at Work, London: Open University Press.

Cairney, T.H. (1991). Other Worlds: The Endless Possibilities of Literature. Portsmouth (NH): Henemann.

Cairney, T.H. (1995). Pathways to Literacy, London: Cassell.

References cited in this Post

Cairney, T.H. (1995). Pathways to Literacy. London: Cassell.

Cairney, T.H. & Langbien, S. (1989). Building Communities of Readers and Writers, The Reading Teacher, Vol. 42, No. 8, pp 560-567.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1975). Learning how to mean. London: Edward Arnold, 1975.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning, Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978; London: Edward Arnold, 1978.

Snow, C.E. (1983). Literacy and language: Relationships during the preschool years. Harvard. Educational Review, 53, pp165-189.