Shared reading with early years children in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families
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Developing resources to encourage shared reading with early years children in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families is one aspect of the wider ROMLIT research project
In a report just published by the Book Trust, the children’s author Frank-Cotterell Boyce describes shared reading as an “invisible privilege”. Yet this privilege is enjoyed by fewer and fewer children: 95% of parents and carers agree it’s important to read with their child, but only 40% say a bedtime story is part of their normal routine. The report highlighted research from the Institute for the Science of Early Years at the University of East London showing how sharing a book between a young child and adult has multiple benefits for early literacy learning. The physical closeness of the parent and child as they share a book actually produces more predictable and stable body rhythms in the child as they match their rhythms to their parents' more stable rhythms. This produces a situation of greater calm which in turn helps bring focus and concentration towards learning. When we share a book with a child we move into that child’s space at their pace, led by their curiosity.
Which brings us to the question of resources. We know we need parents and families as partners in early literacy learning but do we have resources with which minority ethnic groups such as Gypsy, Roma and Traveller can readily engage?
ROMLIT is all about looking at the whole picture of where and how early years children with
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage are developing skills and attitudes towards literacy
and learning. We knew we had to bring the parents and families into the project somehow.
Making contact
Working with a county primary school in Suffolk, we started to identify the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children in Early Years and made contact with the families through the English as an Additional Language (EAL) lead and meeting them in the playground as they collected their children from school. We explained about ROMLIT and how part of the project was to make resources reflecting Gypsy, Roma and Traveller culture and lifestyles for use in school. All the families we spoke to were Romanian Roma. One of our researchers speaks Romanian so we were able to communicate directly with families. Although, we later discovered that several families have Romani as their first language: all the families also spoke and understood Romanian.
Working together
Photo Books
Once we had interest from the parents we set up five sessions with a creche and set about making resources. Five parents came to the first session. We brought in examples of resources – a story sack, picture books, photos of our Romanian speaking researcher’s extended family in Romania, photobooks and talked through what we could make together. The idea of the photobook caught on and parents contributed photos of activities their children enjoyed at home. We hoped this would show different home environments and be a relaxed way to start conversations with the children as they shared the books. Three families provided photos. One family contributed enough photos for a whole book and wrote the text for us in Romanian and English. The second book with mixed photos from several families entitled “Things I love” we’ve kept as simple repetitive text in English and Romanian.
Principles behind the photobooks
Family led.
Featuring culturally relevant images.
Simple text reflecting everyday experiences.
Photos encourage questions and conversation.
Bilingual.
Story sack
We also produced a story sack with the families and parents, adapting a traditional Eastern European folktale “Stone Soup”. The hero becomes a hungry young Romani man looking for work. We produced our own bilingual version specially illustrated in traditional Romanian style. In the sack, along with the book, there are early literacy worksheets, colouring sheets, textile vegetables, a stone, wooden spoon and a little saucepan for acting out the story and modelling clay. The story sacks will be a classroom resource and each child on the project will have the story book and bag to take home. The families contributed ideas for the soup ingredients, acted out the story and helped us to retell it for the children.
Principles behind the story sack
Culturally relevant content.
Culturally appropriate illustrations.
Bilingual.
Activities promote early literacy skills, including oracy and retelling a story.
“How can I help my daughter, when I can’t read and write myself?” one mother asked us.
As academics and practitioners, we can talk about the importance of shared reading and produce culturally appropriate resources to support this. Yet for many families, particularly where parents have low levels of literacy themselves and perhaps little or no schooling, this is a huge ask. One mother told us firmly: “School is for education, the church for moral teaching and home is home”.
But a teacher in a school told us how the children’s eyes light up when they see children like themselves depicted in a book. So, step by step, with the parents and families, in the course of the family sessions we were able to start talking with them about:
What’s involved in reading and writing. It’s not all about phonics. Oracy comes first. Parents are the children’s first educators.
Everything you do at home with the children is all part of literacy learning.
Do you have access to books and digital resources.
All the families we met were ambitious for their children. They were very positive about what their children were learning at school. All the children we observed were keen to learn and to join in. What we saw, as families became more involved, was that the children were even more engaged and enthusiastic about learning. Seeing themselves reflected in resources and their culture celebrated appears to make a great difference.
Karen Fairfax-Cholmeley and Dr Clare Meade
ROMLIT research associates
Early Years and Intergenerational Family Learning Experts