1. Chatterbooks: harnessing student teacher perspectives Liz Chamberlain and Alastair Daniel

2. Context
During the 2014/15 academic year, PGCE students at the University of Winchester were invited to take part in the Reading Agency’s Chatterbooks project. Out of the cohort of 27 English specialists, four students took up the challenge to trial the Chatterbooks materials. Tutors, Alastair Daniel and Liz Chamberlain, decided to link the students’ experience with a classroom-based, investigation focussed on reading for pleasure, with the expectation that students write an assignment in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the specific classroom intervention.

3. OUResearch inspiration and rationale
Chatterbooks reading clubs focus on reading for pleasure and it was this starting point that encouraged student teachers to trail some of the freely available resources with classes whilst on their school placements. The sessions aim to inspire children to read different kinds of books, develop their confidence in talking in a group situation and to engage in creative follow-up activities. In recent years, the PGCE at University of Winchester has embraced the need for student teachers to increase their knowledge of children’s literature and other texts, highlighted through the original Teachers as Readers findings (Cremin et. al, 2009).

4. Next steps…
The next step was to encourage students to develop their reading for pleasure pedagogical in-class practices, and it was decided that the use of the Chatterbooks resources would give students the ideal opportunity to be engaged in (authorised) informal reading discussions. Supporting research was shared with students, especially that being involved in book talk would introduce both them and their to a range of texts, and encourage them to go beyond their usual repertoire of reading, highlighted in the TARs research as being crucial in encouraging children to read for pleasure (Cremin et al., 2014).

5. Aims The aims focussed on:
To increase students’ knowledge of children’s literature and other texts. In upskilling the students, the expectation was that the children’s repertoire for reading would increase.
A development of a meta-language of reading for pleasure and one based on on sound pedagogical principles.
To challenge students by asking them to plan, design and carry out a series of informal book sessions making use of the key strategies of informal book talk, inside-text talk and book recommendations.
To provide students with a forum for discussing their findings in a research principled assignment.

6. The Chatterbooks website

7. The model
Four of the students opted to engage with the Chatterbooks project and become co-researchers with the tutors. This meant that not only were there Chatterbooks questionnaires to draw upon, but there would also be the opportunity to reflect on the students’ written assignments where they had analysed the impact of their teaching and learning activities.
Students chose their own activities but based on the Chatterbooks approach but were asked to use the Chatterbooks questionnaires.
Two students were interviewed post hoc.

8. How much do you like to read?

9. Impact
At the start of the project, students found that the children’s perceptions of reading varied. For some, confidence in their reading abilities did not correlate with the pleasure that they drew from the act of reading. Other children said that although they enjoyed reading, they didn’t feel confident in their own abilities.
Following the Chatterbooks sessions, these two aspects of reading were much closer together when the children were questioned about their attitudes.
‘I now read sometimes in the bath for a couple of hours.’ (Student teacher)
Image:

10. What the children said
Always know that you are the storyteller so it’s nothing to be scared of.
I don’t usually tell people things, I keep them to myself. I have more confidence because we are all storytellers.
It half has and half hasn’t. The stories that we are reading may, well we may haven’t have done them. Because we haven’t done every single author have we? But I want to read more books by other people.
It affects me in my confidence and my imagination because I always thought telling stories was different from reading them.

11. Impact
The breadth of reading (authors and genres) that the students had chosen both encouraged the children to look beyond their normal choices of reading, but also challenged their perception of what counted as ‘reading’.
‘I thought magazines were boring and for girls.’
For the children who lacked confidence in their reading abilities, the low-stakes environment of the reading clubs appears to have provided a space in which they could discuss what they were reading and explore the stories that emerged from a range of literature, without the fear of judgement.

12. A reciprocal process: Students and pupils learning from each other
Enjoyed reading from an early age
On SE1 children not talking about reading
In the sessions the children enjoyed listening to and discussing the stories
Children were encouraged to read more books by the authors shared in the sessions
Student intends to read more to children because of the children’s enjoyment

13. Key implications Positive effect on student-teachers’ practice
Impact on the broader classroom (e.g. Guided reading)
The importance of the affective domain in developing positive responses to reading
Children generally displayed more positive attitudes and raised levels of confidence
Breadth of texts related activities that are recognised as reading (including enjoying magazines) for both students and children
Children engaged in story and storytelling

14. ‘The teacher who knows books well, who is aware of pupils’ interests and reading background and who discusses reading with them will have a significant impact on whether the pupils continue to read for pleasure.’ (The Bullock Report, 1975 cited in Chamberlain, 2016)

15. Chamberlain, L. (2016) Inspiring Writing in Primary Schools, London, Sage.
Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Collins, F., Powell, S. and Safford, K. (2009) 'Teachers as readers: building communities of readers', Literacy, Vol 43, No 1, pp
Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Collins, F., Powell, S. and Safford, K. (2014) Building communities of engaged readers: Reading for pleasure, London, Routledge.
Liz Chamberlain is a Senior Lecturer at the Open University & writes about children and their writing.
Alastair Daniel is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Roehampton & tells stories… really good ones.