Why does dining table conversation matter & what does it teach?

Have you ever observed other people at restaurants? I'm afraid I can't help but notice the behaviour of other people at times when I dine out. In the last five years I've noticed that when people under the age of 35 eat out, they usually do so with their smart phones on the table or in their hands. I've witnessed tables of 4-6 people with every person looking at devices; sometimes sharing photos, links or Facebook posts, but often doing emails, checking their own status on varied social media and generally playing with the technology. While it's a worry to see adults having trouble sustaining a face-to-face conversation, it may at least in part, reflect the general loss of the practice of sharing meals and talking at the dining room.

Photo courtesy Wiki Commons

We know already from social research that the family dinner is increasingly a curious practice from an earlier age. Reports suggest that as many as 10% to 20% of families never eat together, and most rarely eat together as a unit without a wide range of distractions such as television, eating standing up, at the kitchen bench and so on. Does this matter? I think it does. Not because I think all families should resemble the Waltons, but because I think we're losing the ability to listen to, ask questions of, and show genuine interest in the lives of other people. Our children are also missing out on many life lessons and key social practices that are vital for any community.

Let me offer 6 good reasons why a shared meal is something to protect:

1. The dining table is one of the few places that families sit down together and share things about their lives. The dining room table is a place where family members can let their guard down, and where previously unknown facts about school, friends, worries, hopes and frustrations can come to the surface.

2. The shared meal is also a place and time where children learn basic lessons about sharing, turn taking, avoiding gluttony, showing thoughtfulness, kindness to the one preparing the meal, nutrition and even food science. There will be challenges - tears about food not eaten, parents feeling like nags at times, the hard work of persisting with basic manners and so on - but they will learn many things that will help to shape their character.

3. Children learn how to ask questions of one another, and how to listen to the answers of others with patience, respect and kindness. Virtually all societies throughout the centuries have relied on the sharing of a meal as a key way to form children and build shared communities of varied kinds.

4. The dining table also trains children to listen and comprehend the conversations of others. At times a vibrant dinner table conversation will require children to keep in mind the comments of several people before framing their own responses. It also helps them to learn how to structure an argument, offer a point of view with politeness and humility, learn how to disagree calmly, and so on.

5. The dining room table also helps children to learn how to negotiate turn taking, how to be patient in conversations, when to speak and when to be quiet. They also learn what it means to be tactful and what others think it means to be rude and inconsiderate.

6. Finally, it is a place where relationships can be strained and strengthened. To be honest whether the conversation goes in a positive, or a negative direction, there is much to be learned about life.

Some quick suggestions for dining together

1. Try to remove all distractions other than people - switch the TV off, don't allow children to read at the table, switch off devices, let phones go to message banks and so on. While none of us can manage this all the time, and there can be wonderful dinner conversations over the sharing of a newspaper, a book, a YouTube video and so on, in families I think this should be avoided as much as possible.

2. If you're a parent think about some things to share and maybe make sure that everyone has a turn to share something about their day. Don't force this all the time, sometimes richer conversation can emerge without structure.

3. Be deliberate at times in the way you try to teach your children some basic social graces around turn taking, listening well, avoiding ridicule, showing kindness and so on.

4. Vary the way you share meals together and aim for a minimum number of meals together. Eat out together if you can afford it in places where talking is easy, or maybe just eat outdoors (BBQs, picnics etc). Invite guests to share meals with you, a visitor changes everything and can enrich the experience as well as introducing complexities that children need to learn to handle.

The reality is that in our fast paced world this isn't easy. You might need to set modest goals for eating together. For most families breakfast is an impossibility (and let's face it most teenagers can't communicate before 10.00am), and lunch through the week is at work and school. This leaves dinners and a few more options at weekend. At best most families will struggle to have more than a few meals together each week, but it's important to try. Families are all different of course and I have to say that for one of my daughters eating breakfast with her each day at 6.00am before rushing for an early train to university was a special time. And of course, all meals with toddlers are critical. They can be challenging and yet they are rich and important times.   

Readers' Theatre: A great way to build fluency, expression & comprehension

What is Readers' Theatre?

Photo courtesy 'Ultimatetomball.com'

Readers' Theatre is a simple method that presents literature in a dramatic form.  Essentially, it involves oral dramatic reading in groups of one kind or another. You need nothing more than some scripts and a few basic hints about the implementation of the strategy. You can adapt the scripts from published stories or can obtain many scripts in book form, as reusable masters or simply by downloading hundreds that are free online (more on this below).

Readers Theatre allows repeated reading without monotony and boredom. We have known for some time that repeated reading improves fluency and comprehension. The work of LaBerge & Samuels (1974) on automaticity in reading was one of the earliest studies to present evidence for its effectiveness, but in recent times Young & Rasinski, (2009) and Vasinda & McLeod (2011) have reminded us of the benefits in helpful papers. Many teachers have found that the research is backed up with results in their classrooms. As a strategy it can be used regularly on a weekly basis (e.g. one day per week) or it can be used intensively for a block of 8-10 weeks. Teachers' experiences reflect the research findings that suggest that just 10 weeks of Readers' Theatre can lead to significant gains in reading fluency and comprehension.

Key Elements of the Strategy
 

#1 - Readers' Theatre does not require any props or costumes, although sometimes children will enjoy having one item to identify their part, such as a hat or simple object or piece of clothing.

#2 - Children can sit in a circle facing one another, sit on stools facing an audience, or secure their script on a clipboard and hold it in one hand allowing them to move their body and make basic gestures as they read dramatically.

#3 - Make sure that all participants have their own script that clearly identifies their character. You might also allow them to underline, add phrase marks, or circle punctuation as appropriate. You can allow children to share a character or you can have multiple narrators to allow greater participation.

#4 - Try to have varied parts, some more demanding, and others less demanding. This allows children of varying abilities (and even ages) to participate together.

#5 - Encourage children to practise their parts before trying to perform as a group.

#6 - A good pattern to use in introducing Readers' Theatre is to spread it over a week. On day 1 hand out the scripts to all children and explain how it works. Some teachers have the whole class working on the same material, but my preference is to see 2-3 groups used, allowing children of varying abilities to be 'stretched'. On day 2 take the groups one at a time for turns reading the script. This is effectively just round robin reading to help familiarise them with the script and story line. On days 3 and 4 allocate characters and practice. Allow children to try different parts in lesson 3 before making final choices. On day 5 perform the plays by each group for the whole class.

#7 - If you need more guidance Laurie Henry has four excellent lesson plans that show how Readers' Theatre can be introduced for the first time (here).

#8 - Don't forget that while literature is most commonly used for Readers' Theatre that poetry, history and biography also work well.

Readers' Theatre Scripts

As I said above, there are many resource books that contain scripts, but there are also hundreds of scripts available FREE and online. Here are some of the best resource sites:  

'Dr Young's Website' with almost 200 scripts (HERE)
'Teaching Heart' has a section on 'Reader's Theater Scripts and Plays' (HERE)
'Aaron Shepard's Free Scripts' (HERE)
'Timeless Teacher' site (HERE)
Some quirky science scripts on 'Adrian Bruce's Free Educational Resources' site (HERE)
'Stories to Grow By' Scripts (HERE)

One of the largest collections of Reader's Theatre scripts is at 'Dr Young's Website' where you'll find almost 200 scripts ready to use at school or at home. Some are simple like 'The Three Billy-Goats Gruff', while other are more complex like 'Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes'. There are some wonderful scripts here including 'Bad Case of Stripes', and classics like 'Chicken Little', 'Cinderella', 'Hansel and Gretel' and the 'Magic Porridge Pot'. Great scripts for children aged 6-10 years.

Aaron Shepard also has some good general tips on Readers' Theatre, including scripting, staging and reading (HERE).

Growing Preschool Writers & Learners: 12 Basics

Many parents ask me what they need to do to help their preschool children to become writers. They see this as one of the keys to success in school. Most start by asking some specific questions. Should I:

"Make sure they know their sounds before schools?"
"Teach them the letter names?"
"Teach them to write their name?"
"Make sure they can write neatly?"
"Teach them to read some simple words?"
"Teach them about numbers?"

These are all legitimate questions, but they side step the real writing 'basics' in the preschool years. If you want your child to succeed at school and in the workplace, and be able to use writing as creative people who solve problems, adapt to varied situations, feed varied life interests and become lifelong learners, then here are the things you want them to be able to do by the time they are five and head off to school. Ask yourself about the following areas of learning.

Enjoying playing with language - Do they know unusual words, enjoy finding out new ones, and play with rhyme and rhythm in language? Do they love telling stories, jokes and generally talking with other people?

Enjoying new stories with others in all their forms - Do they enjoy stories you tell them of your life, stories read to them, or even stories watched with others in the form of film and on television? Can they sustain concentration across a story?

Interest in numbers, letters and words - Do they want to learn about numbers, letters and words (e.g. "Show me what a thousand is Mum")? Do they try to write symbols and even include them in their creative play and drawing?

Creative story making with skills established early

Staying on task and sitting still for up to 30 minutes - Are they able to play alone or with others, complete a task they're interested in, listen to stories, engage in a play situation etc?

An expanding vocabulary - Are they learning new words, trying to invent their own, asking you about words and what they mean?

Learning from experience & support

Enjoying knowledge and the gaining of it - Are they curious about some area of interest (e.g. insects, dragons, horses, pets), and do they have a desire to know more and share it ("Did you know Mum that a stick insect is called a Phasmid, and there are lots of types")?

Possessing a love of books - Are books amongst your child's most special possessions because of the knowledge, stories and wonder that they hold?

Having an emerging knowledge of words, letters and the sounds associated with them - Does your child have some knowledge of letter names, some concepts of print and an interest in knowing how to read and write?

An interest in technology - Do they have a desire to explore their world with computers, and an interest in the knowledge and learning that technology can deliver and how it can expand our world?

An ability to be creative and inventive - Do they draw and make things inspired by a story, TV show, movie or experience? Do they want to dress up and act out characters and experiences, making shops, cubbies under the table, giving names and characters to their dolls and toys, using toys and other objects for creative story telling or re-creation?

Creative play in action, the foundation of imagination & problem solving

An interest in problem solving - Do they try to see how things work, try fixing things that are broken? Do they try to come up with ideas for how the problems of his or her world can be solved ("Mum, if we could knock off three palings on the fence I could make a gate to Cheryl's house")?

 

The ability to listen to, learn and comprehend - Do they listen to and learn from stories, lifestyle programs, movies, television shows, stories you tell them, recipes and instructions (spoken or pictorial)? 

The above are the real basics that children need to know to become greater writers and learners at school. The problem with them is that you can't just cram in the year before school. These basics are things that take time and effort by parents and preschool teachers. Each requires knowledge of the child, an interest in their learning and interests and the ability to observe our children in order to scaffold their learning. It takes years to create a writer and a learner.

'Welcome to My Country' - A Review & Author Interview

Allen and Unwin recently published a wonderful book called 'Welcome to My Country' by Laklak Burarrwanga, Ritjilili Ganambarr, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Banbapuy Ganambarr, Djawundil Maymuru, Sarah Wright, Sandie Suchet-Pearson and Kate Lloyd. The book is a collaboration between three academics and six Indigenous women from Bawaka and Yirrkala. It is a publication that literally welcomes you to the Country of Laklak Burarrwanga in Arhhem Land Northern Australia. This is a coastal land of crystal clear waters filled with fish, turtle, crab and stingray. The land that adjoins has varied bush fruits, pandanus for weaving, wood for spears, and all that is needed for daily life. But this isn't just a beautiful country, it is a land rich in meaning. This is the place where Laklak Burarrwanga heard great stories, told them to others and learned the great history of her people. These stories were learned from a special library, "a library in the land". This is a library that you cannot destroy.

Laklak's personal story includes her long walk across Arnhem Land as a child, and her people's fight for land rights and the right to have a say in their children's schooling. Laklak and her family are a proud and successful Indigenous community. There are many things to love about this book. First, I love the fact that the book records the richness of the history of the people of this special place in a manner that preserves the voices of the Indigenous women and the authenticity of their stories. The non-Indigenous academics who offered leadership to the project have done what few have done before; they have contributed and led the project, but they haven't attempted to reinterpret or explain for others. Rather, the narrator is always an authentic voice of the people whose stories are being told. Second, I appreciate the richness of the stories and the choices that have been made to introduce the reader to the people and their country. Third, I enjoyed the varied genres used to communicate the story of this country. This place welcomes the reader through story, recount, poetry, exposition, lists, explanation and song. Finally, this is a book that changed the authors. The writing of the book and the collaboration between these eight women has enriched their lives. And of course, good writing should always do this. What a wonderful work!

Ros Moriarty, author of 'Listening to Country', expresses her delight in the book this way:
 
Welcome to My Country is a beautifully warm, inviting experience. As soon as I read 'When the moon goes past you can see its reflection (in the water) like the inside of your heart', I knew this would be a very special read. Being immersed in an 'experience' is the way I would describe this book. It is an enticing journey into the heart of Yolngu life, in all its wonder across the physical, artistic and spiritual world. I love the conversational style - we walk, talk and sit down with family on every page. Lovely. 

In the interview that follows Sarah Wright (the University of Newcastle), Kate Lloyd (Macquarie University), and Sandie Suchet-Pearson (Macquarie University) answer my questions and share their insights into the wonderful collaboration that has led to the creation of this special book. 

The Interview

1. How did this special collaboration with the Yolŋu people come about?

Our research collaboration at Bawaka began in 2006 when we (Sarah Wright, Kate Lloyd, and Sandie Suchet-Pearson who are geographers at Newcastle and Macquarie Universities) formed a partnership with Laklak and her extended family who own and manage the successful tourism business Bawaka Cultural Experiences (BCE). BCE is centered on Bawaka homeland two hours south of Yirrkala in north east Arnhem Land. We were introduced by a mutual friend who asked us whether we would be interested in working collaboratively with some amazing women from Northeast Arnhem Land. Of course, we said yes.

From that initial visit, our relationship has grown. It has been a long-term endeavor where we have learnt to trust and respect each other. All of us are teachers in some way, either at the University, at schools in Arnhem Land or as educators working with visitors who come to learn at Bawaka. As teachers, we share a desire to create and distribute knowledge. For Laklak and the other Yolŋu women in our team, it is really important to teach other people about Yolŋu culture and the complexity of Yolŋu knowledge. This is part of their mission in life and part of Laklak’s responsibilities as Elder and Eldest sister. She sees books and other outputs as a way of communicating Yolŋu knowledge to diverse audiences that include tourists, university students, and the general public. It is also a way of reclaiming knowledge that has been provided to academic researchers but is no longer easily accessible to Yolngu people, and of creating a rich resource for cultural transmission for their children.

We have told other stories with Laklak and her family. In 2008, we published a book on weaving and culture (published by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Newcastle). The sharing of these stories was made possible by our being women, since in Yolŋu culture basket weaving is women’s business. From the start, our shared womanhood, including our families and children, was an important part of our connection.

This most recent book aims to encourage readers to understand and respect different cultures and is part of the family’s strong desire for non-Indigenous and Indigenous people to learn from each other. As Laklak says in the book:

“I see a boy standing with a spear learning in the bush university, the real life the land and nature. I also see the boy sitting on a rock at Bawaka playing with a computer. This kid can see a wider world, learning through a computer. That is the new generation, mixing the knowledges together. The boys can change over, the boy with the spear can play with the computer and vice versa.”

2. How did your own research team’s collaboration come about?

Our research team is broad. There are the academic researchers Kate, Sarah and Sandie. We were all starting our careers at a similar time and wanted to create a research team that would work collaboratively in a different way from the lone endeavour that you often find in academia. We started working together in 2004. Then we developed our research relationship with Laklak and family in 2006 so our research team became an intercultural team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, and of people working within universities as well as beyond them. Our research team grew to include the four sisters, elders and caretakers for Bawaka country Laklak Burrawanga, Ritjilili Ganambarr, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Banbapuy Ganambarr - and their daughter, Djawundil Maymuru.

Now we are trying to include Bawaka Country as part of our research team too. For Indigenous people, it is important to take the knowledge and agency of animals, plants, winds and other aspects of Country seriously. It is a world-view that is not human-centric. So we are expanding our thinking to see the ways animals and other aspects of Country are important in our collaboration. 

3. Is there a next step to the project and the desire to tell the story of Laklak and the Yolŋu people?

This book is just one part of a collaborative journey we have been on since 2006 when Laklak asked us to work with them to assist them telling stories to tourists as part of their cultural tourism business. We are all committed to long term collaboration and it has taken us on a lot of twists and turns along the way. We have written, and will continue to write, academic articles together as well as writing books aimed at university students and children. The book has been a long term project and so the next step is for all the authors and their families to go up to Bawaka and celebrate the book and spend time with each other. Laklak says that that this is her last book but who knows…

4. Are there other stories to be told from Bawaka country?

There are layers and layers of stories, some too sacred to be shared and so much that still can be told. There are many, many other stories that Laklak and her family are keen and willing to share. You don’t have to just read it from our book, Laklak and her family invite you to come to Bawaka, sit on the beach, have a cup of tea and listen to the stories (for more information see - http://www.lirrwitourism.com.au/.)

The stories will take us where they do. We are constantly surprised! There is a connection between us that endures. In reflecting on our collaboration during our first book we wrote:

“We feel that writing this book has been like creating a basket. We have tried to make sure that the colors go together and that we have woven something big and beautiful that’s full of meaning and knowledge. We’ve made a connection with each other that’s like a thread linking us together. In the same way the baskets are connected we are all connected now. We all have a desire to work together to build understanding between cultures and to help others learn about, and learn from, Yolŋu culture (Burarrwanga et al. 2008, p. 36).

Above image courtesy of Bawaka.com.au

5. How do you hope to see this book used? What has been its impact so far?

We would like to see it used in a range of contexts and we can see it reaching people of all ages. There are stories and messages suitable for young people and we have recently written teaching notes which can be accessed via (http://www.allenandunwin.com) so that the book can be used in primary and secondary schools in all sections of the curriculum including maths, science, English, geography and history. It is also accessible to a broader audience including people working in cutting edge science, to help communicate Indigenous world views, including an Indigenous understanding of mathematics and science. We have had wonderful feedback from a range of people from kids to people working in public health at the University and from those in Indigenous policy setting.

Laklak and her family also recognize the book as important knowledge. At the book launch up in Arnhem Land, Elders and representative from different clans came to pay respect to the book and acknowledge the importance of this written form. That was really important to us all and we hope there will be ongoing positive impacts for the community in Arnhem Land - not least because all of the royalties for the book are going up there!

6. Is there some part of the story of the Yolŋu people that has personally touched each of you? How has hearing the story of this people changed you?

Writing this book has been a journey for all of us. We have learnt so much about and from each other. For example, in working on the text for this book and discussing the tone we wanted to use, Laklak asked us, ‘‘Do you understand? Do you feel it? Because you need to feel it and have emotions about it to write it in the book and for the readers to start understanding it.’’

For us to be able to engage meaningfully with Laklak, her family, and Bawaka, requires a deep emotional investment. The emotional entanglements are fundamental to our work and need to be explicitly acknowledged and foregrounded. Exploring the terrain beyond the words of our research invigorates our reflections and findings, adding other registers for meaning and understanding to be conveyed and developed. To borrow de Carteret’s (2008) metaphor, words from our storytelling encounters become like the thread for patterns in lace: the spaces in between make the patterns visible and more meaningful.

Working with Laklak and her family has fundamentally changed the way we think about ourselves. We have been challenged to see ourselves as deeply connected with each other and with our environment. There is no individual that stands separate from anyone else or from Country. It has taken our initial desire for collaboration to a depth we would never have envisioned when we began.

7. Can you see ways that the stories of the Yolŋu connect with European stories?

Yes, the stories in some ways connect strongly with European stories, though in other ways they teach us quite different messages. One of the main messages of the book is about sustainability and connection. Laklak introduces the reader to some of the Bawaka/Yolŋu relationships that weave everything together and ensure we remain in balance. Through the stories, songs and actions, she shows how these relationships are kept alive. As non-Indigenous people listen to the stories, hopefully they will think about what they mean for them and how they can live in a connected way in any place. The importance of connection and sustainability doesn’t seem to be stressed as strongly in non-Indigenous stories, or certainly not in the same way, though they are themes that have been increasingly important within contemporary Australian children’s literature. In a way, sustainability is a new story for non-Indigenous people, but for Yolŋu, it is fundamental.

There are other similarities and connections between Yolŋu and European stories. For example, the story of Djet tells about a boy who doesn’t share. This concept of sharing and greed is common in European stories too. It is in everything from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' to episodes on Peppa Pig.

Yolŋu stories, whether about sustainability, sharing or any of the other major themes in the book, emphasize the messages as fundamentally important. They are understood in very deep ways, and are not provided just as entertainment. These are also stories that are animate in the land unlike European stories that are often understood as fiction. Djet, the sea-eagle, is always there with his cries reminding Yolŋu about sharing. It is a real thing, and very alive. 

Thank you to Sarah Wright, Kate Lloyd, and Sandie Suchet-Pearson for taking to time to answer my questions. 

How Drawing Can Improve Reading Comprehension

Every teacher wants to help children to read deeply, to grasp the richness of characterisation, the devices the author uses to create mood and tension, the intent and purpose of the writer and the language devices employed. We also want them to be moved by the text and able to reflect and respond critically to it. I've written lots of posts about comprehension, but in this one I want to revisit a previously discussed strategy that I've used with children aged 3 to 12 years and which I continue to see as one of the most powerful comprehension strategies I have used.

‘Sketch to Stretch’ is essentially a strategy that involves asking children to sketch in response to reading, hearing or even viewing a story. It requires them to use drawing to 'stretch' or enhance the meaning as they are reading. You can do it during and after reading and there is even a place for drawing as an ‘advance organizer’ before reading, but that’s another post. It can involve varied directions including:

Sketch what just happened.
Sketch what he/she [insert character name] did, lost, saw, heard etc.
Sketch how this [insert and event] makes you feel.
Sketch a picture that shows what might happen next.
Sketch a picture of [insert character].

The sketches on the left are from my book 'Teaching Reading Comprehension', and show just some of the responses from a group of 10 year-old children I had been teaching as part of a research project. I had interrupted a reading of the graphic novel ‘The Wedding Ghost’ (1985) written by Leon Garfield and illustrated by Charles Keeping.

Garfield's book is set in the late 19th century, in a small village in Hertfordshire in England. Like all of Garfield’s books it is rich in historical detail and a depth of language and mastery of storytelling that few children’s authors have ever achieved. The book tells the story of a young couple (Gillian and Jack) who are about to be married. It follows the normal sequence of events for a wedding in the 19th century, beginning with the invitation, preparations, then the rehearsal, present opening, more preparations and eventually the wedding.

Much of the story centres on a journey taken by Jack after he opens an unusual gift addressed only to him. This is the first moment of intrigue. Jack sets off armed with an old map sent by an unknown person, and the events and discoveries that lead ultimately to the dramatic events of the wedding and the outcome.

On the occasion that sketches above were drawn I had introduced the book by sharing the title, showing the cover and then explaining a little about the author. I told the class that Leon Garfield usually wrote what is known as historical fiction, and that this is the writing of fictional stories that are inspired by real events, setting and characters.

I interrupted my oral reading after a few minutes at a point where Jack is to open the mysterious present. This is just a few from the start of the story and the guests are gathered around watching the groom to be. People are making jokes and speculating about the gift and why it might just have his name on it.

I asked my students to quickly sketch what the gift might be. As you can see from the sample of the sketches, the responses varied greatly and included a ghost, map (an uncanny prediction), book, hourglass (suggesting time), a genie’s lamp letter and so. The sketches offer an insight into the level and depth of children’s comprehension of this complex picture book up to this point. As well, they illustrate that they are trying to make sense of what’s going on, where the story might go next and the extent to which they are picking up on the themes in Garfield’s book. As well, they show something of their literary history and the background knowledge that they bring to the reading and the sketching.

Even when children drew the same object there was great diversity. For example, a number of students drew ghosts probably basing their prediction upon the book's title (there had been nothing explicit in the text to suggest this); and yet, the drawings showed a diverse range of ghosts. One student drew a genie type 'ghost' emerging from lamps, several drew 'Casper like' ghosts and others drew ghosts more human in form. Each reflected different literary histories and background knowledge. Where they were at the point of the sketch involved each in a different literary journey and experience of this book.



Summing up

'Sketch to Stretch' as its name implies, stretches children’s understanding, and their knowledge of and appreciation of literature. It is enhanced of course by discussion and skilful teaching, as sketches are shared and responded to by students as well as the teacher. It isn't really an easy strategy; in fact it is a very sophisticated multimodal strategy that requires reading, discussion, response, drawing and sometimes writing in association with it. It can also be used with film in a similar way to the way I used it with the 'Wedding Ghost'.

One of the strengths of Sketch to Stretch and in fact drawing generally, is that it offers an alternative to word-based strategies for heightening engagement. Each response whether it is written, spoken, drawn or displayed in any form, helps children to read more ‘deeply’. The sketches also help us to understand how our children are empathizing with characters, evaluating the text, what they are predicting will come next, how they are reflecting upon earlier events, how they are connecting with life situations and so on. This offers us greater insight into our children’s comprehension as they read and it helps us to enrich the mental journey children are making as they read a book.

Related Resources

Previous posts on 'Comprehension' (here)

'Pathways to Literacy', Trevor H. Cairney (1995). This is a book I wrote and which has more material on reading comprehension and 'Sketch to Stretch'. 

2013 Children's Book Council (Australia) Awards Announced

The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) announced the winners of the 2013 awards yesterday in Canberra. I reviewed the full shortlist earlier in the year (here) as well as the Notable Book List that is announced each year to acknowledge at least 100 books of note. However, the winners and honour books this year were as follows.

1. 'Older Readers' category (Young Adult Readers)

Winner

'Sea Hearts' by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)

Margo Lanagan is a multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed Australian author well known for her exciting speculative fiction. This story tells of an unremarkable young woman, Misskaella Prout who struggles to find her place in the stormy and isolated island of Rollrock. She discovers she has natural magic gifts and can use them to coax selkies (mythological creatures found in Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish folklore) out of their sealskins. Her world is changed and is the community in which she lives. One by one the local men are captivated by the allure of the beautiful sea-wife. Will all the men fall captive to her as all the 'real' women leave the community. This is a powerful story of desire and revenge, human weakness, as well as all-consuming love and even a dash of loyalty.

Honour Books

'The Ink Bridge' by Neil Grant (Allen & Unwin)

'Friday Brown' by Vikki Wakefield (Text Publishing)

2. 'Younger Readers' category (Independent Younger Readers)

Winner

'Children of the King' by Sonya Hartnett (Penguin)

This is a stunning book from a great Australian writer. Three children have been sent to live in the countryside away from war-ravaged London in WWII. Nothing unusual about this. Two children (Cecily and Jeremy) end up in a home of privilege, and an evacuee (May) from a poorer background is taken in with them. May who boldly explores the local area discovers two boys, who have strange dress and are mysterious. May and Cecily eventually confirm that there are two boys. When they find the boys the past and the present merge and transform what has been a regular tale of girls having an adventure, into one that deals with many themes, including loss of innocence, the brutality of war and its consequences.

In the midst of this Hartnett introduces and overlays the story of the Princes in the Tower drawing parallels between the story of the children with the unresolved story of the Princes. This is a superbly written and nuanced tale by a master storyteller, which is a deserving winner.

Honour books

'Pennies for Hitler' by Jackie French (Lamont Books)

'The Tender Moments of Saffron Silk' by Glenda Millard (ABC Books)

3. 'Early Childhood' category (Preschool and beginning readers)

Winner

'The Terrible Suitcase' by Emma Allen and illustrated by Freya Blackwood (Omnibus, Scholastic Press)

This delightful picture book has a story line that all children and parents will identify as true to life. Your mother buys you something, which isn’t what you wanted or expected. In this story it’s a red suitcase to take to school instead of a bright red backpack with rockets and silver zip that you just had to have! The typical child response is to be mad. There is much sulking and tantrums. But when she finally goes to school she discovers that sometimes different things can occur when you’re different. New friends, experiences and creative and imaginative fun that were as unexpected as the terrible red suitcase.

If you write a first book as Emma Allen has and have it accepted for publication, then you could only dream of being assigned an illustrator like Freya Blackwood to turn her creative genius to helping you communicate this common real life scenario with authenticity and interest. Freya has used delightful watercolour, gouache and pencil line work. Emma Allen's text is beautifully written with minimal well-chosen words that in combination with Blackwood's illustrations create a book worthy of this acknowledgement.

Honour Books

'With Nan' by Tania Cox and illustrated by Karen Blair (Windy Hollow Books)

'Too Many Elephants in This House' by Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrated by Andrew Joyner (Penguin)

4. 'Picture Books' category (Varied ages, Birth to 18 years)
Winner

'The Coat' illustrated by Ron Brooks and written by Julie Hunt (Allen & Unwin)

The Coat stood in a paddock at the end of a row of strawberries. It was buttoned up tight and stuffed full of straw and it was angry. 'What a waste of me!' it yelled. Then along came a man. 'I could do with a coat like that,' the man said. Together, swooping and swinging, they travelled to the Cafe Delitzia, and had the night of their lives.

What self-respecting coat would want to end up rotting away on an old scarecrow? When the coat beckons a passing stranger he sees that this might well be a great coat for him. They begin a great adventure together as they travel to a city where the man soon discovers that this coat can do more than keep him warm. Together they form a great team that makes people sit up and listen.

Sounds quirky of course, and it is. But it is also a wonderful mysterious metaphysical tale that pushes the boundaries of what is possible and what might be. There are many themes that play out in the story, not the least of which is the power of friendship, discovering things within yourself, and the development of self-belief. The combination of Julie Hunt’s well-crafted story and Ron Brooks’ genius as an illustrator helps to make this story work. Brooks has many devices including subtle use of colour that tracks the mood of the key characters, from simple black and white to rich colour as the exciting partnership between the man and the coat unfolds. By the end his use of colour is rich and flamboyant. This is a wonderful book.

The reviewer in Reading Time described the work this way:

'It is simply impossible to categorize this unique and harmonious work of art... This is book that exemplifies James Joyce’s criteria of unity, harmony and radiance. It defies the prophets of doom. Books are alive and flourishing – particularly picture books from Australia.'

Honour books

'Herman and Rosie' by Gus Gordon (Viking)

'Sophie Scott Goes South' by Alison Lester (Viking)

5. 'Eve Pownall Award for Information Books' category (Varied ages, Birth to 18 years)

Winner

'Tom the Outback Mailman' by Kristin Weidenbach and illustrated by Timothy Ide (Lothian)

'Tom the Outback Mailman' by Kristin Weidenbach and illustrated by Timothy Ide won the Eve Pownall prize for information books. This delightful true story of a great Australian character is based on Weidenbach's story of Tom Kruse who was the driver of the Marree-to-Birdsville mail. Once a fortnight for twenty years Tom loaded his Leyland Badger truck and drove 1,000 km across perilous territory on little more than a dusty dangerous rutted track. His job was to deliver mail and provisions to arguably the most isolated residents in the world. Tom was a great Australian character who lived in the middle decades of last century

The book is a version for younger children that Weidenbach has adapted into a delightful picture book for young readers. It offers just a small slice of the events of Tom's life. When floods cut the Birdsville Track, the station residents run out of supplies and worse still, the Birdsville Hotel runs out of beer! It takes Tom’s ingenuity to beat the floodwaters and get the mail and the beer through. Timothy Ide provides wonderfully detailed watercolour illustrations that add to what is already a compelling narrative account.

Honour books

'Lyrebird! A True Story' by Jackie Kerin and illustrated by Peter Gouldthorpe (Museum of Victoria)

'Topsy-turvey World: How Australian Animals Puzzled Early Explorers' by Kirsty Murray (National Library of Australia)

Stories in a Box: A great strategy for all ages

Have you ever tried to clear out your shed or attic and found that a job that was to be a 2-3 hour exercise in shedding your life of junk, becomes a nostalgic walk through long forgotten objects and artefacts that were once part of your life. I find my mother's Box Brownie camera (the source of all my baby photos). The first camera given to me as a child. A tool to catch my Mum in awkward poses, my first two dogs in the back yard. Out of focus shots to be hidden away in other boxes. Out comes the first serious camera I bought. I remember its untimely 'death' in Amsterdam; the victim of just one drop of syrup from a wonderful Dutch Waffle. Objects that 'spoke' of my past, whispering and prodding forgotten memories.

Mem Fox tapped this sentiment in her wonderful book 'Wildfred, Gordon McDonald Partridge'. When Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge visits an old people's home next to his house he makes lots of friends. One of them is Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper. "He called her Miss Nancy and told her all his secrets."  When his parents tell him that Miss Nancy has "...lost her memory" he sets out to discover what a memory is. His friends at the home all give different definitions - "something that makes you cry", "..something that makes you laugh", "something as precious as gold". He goes looking for Miss Nancy's memory, and along the way he collects objects that he thinks match the definition of a memory and takes them to her in a box.  When he hands them to her she begins to remember things from her past. "She put a shell to her ear and remembered going to the beach by tram long ago..", "She touched the medal and talked sadly of the brother she had loved who had gone to war and never returned". "And the two of them smiled and smiled because Miss Nancy's memory had been found again by a small boy, who wasn't very old either".

Above: Hear Mem Fox read 'Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge'

Stories in a box

Using an object or group of objects to stimulate language is not new, but some enterprising teachers from Ainslie School have used the idea to good effect. They describe the practice in 'Practically Primary' (Vol. 15, No.1, February 2010). The concept is simple and was adapted from a strategy Daniel Meadows uses to stimulate digital storytelling. As part of an annual writing festival the teachers developed 21 different boxes with carefully chosen objects. They placed 5-6 objects in a box that had some relationship to one another. The only exception was the inclusion sometimes of a single object that was unrelated, to allow additional creativity to be used.

The objects in one box consisted of:

A set of WWII medals
Photo of an Australian soldier
Photo of a family standing around an old man
A WWII photo of a soldier in Egypt
Epaulets showing the rank of lieutenant
A small decorated hand fan from the 1940s

The boxes were used in varied ways by different groups of children but many poems, stories, books and digital stories were produced that had their 'seeds' in the items from the class story box. 


How might the Story in a Box strategy be used?

Obviously the idea has many applications at all ages. The teacher or parent would need to model the process of story creation before asking children to do it.  They might also jointly construct a story or two with children before letting them do it independently. With that proviso, here are just some of the ways I'd suggest you might use the strategy:

1. A group of 5 year-olds might explore the objects in a box and try to tell a joint story or simply take turns creating individual stories. You could allow them to supplement the box with a dress-up box if there is a need for children to become specific characters or take on roles.

2. A group of 6-12 year old children might discuss the objects and then prepare a joint monologue to be presented to others (with the objects used as artefacts or aids). Alternatively, a group story or picture book could be produced based on the objects.

3. The box of objects might simply be used to create a digital story (individually or in groups). Have a look at Daniel Meadows' 'Scissors' video to see what might be produced, as wells as my previous post on digital storytelling (here). This approach could also be used with high school children.

What is the value of this simple strategy?

There are many potential benefits of the strategy:

• It encourages creative storytelling.
• It offers a way for a group of children to create something together, allowing collaboration skills to develop, leading to joint learning, stretching each other, firing their collective imaginations.
• It offers an authentic and powerful way to generate stories in digital, print or oral form.
• This is a strategy that can encourage divergent thinking as the learner is required to generate ideas, connections and storytelling solutions.
• It works well with children of varied abilities including learners who lack fluency in language and others who are gifted speakers and writers. You can even mix children of varied abilities. 

Related Posts

All my posts on creativity (HERE)
'Digital Storytelling' (HERE)
Posts on writing (HERE)

# This is a revised version of a post I wrote in January 2011