Reading parents

Reading parents

 group of parents and teachers were engrossed in books and activities, learning from each other and enjoying themselves in the library at Western Heights School in Rotorua. The parents were finding ways to help their children read and, in the process, having a positive experience of what school offered their families. 

The workshop was part of Reading Together, a high-impact programme that equips parents with strategies to support children’s reading. It was first developed in the 1980s and is now being piloted in several Rotorua schools by the Ministry of Education to gather evidence of how schools and Māori whānau can work together. In parallel, Rotorua kura are working with parents in the use of Māori language tools, developed by the ministry, that effectively help children with their reading and were.

Previous evaluations have shown that both projects could make a significantly greater impact on children’s progress than a typical year of learning.

At Western Heights, deputy principal Sue Francis and her colleague Chris Te Paea took the first parents through the set of four Reading Together workshops last year. They have helped other teachers to run more courses this year.

During the workshops, Sue and Chris talked with parents about how children learn to read and helped them learn constructive ways to support their child. Sue says a wealth of strategies were modelled and parents got support from facilitating teachers as they read with their children.

Sue says the group soon warmed up to the sessions, as trust was built and parents saw their own experiences were valued by the teachers.

To develop the trust, teachers had to really listen and move beyond pre-conceived ideas about what goes on in each home, she says.

“You learn to connect with parents on a different level. You’ve got to listen to where they are at, and it’s also helpful to share with parents your personal experiences with your own children as they learnt to read.”

Sue says the school is still in the process of seeing if student achievement has improved as a result, but parents are reporting changes to family life – they are turning off the TV and taking their children to the town library. Aunties and grandparents are helping the children with reading too. And children are even reminding mum and dad how to help.

Involving families as active participants in their child’s learning is just what is called for by the Māori education strategy (Ka Hikitia – Managing for Success), says Ministry of Education lead adviser Lynette Bradnam.

She says Reading Together and the te reo Māori tools have been shown to be highly effective and are also affordable in terms of time and money.

The Reading Together Rotorua pilot project may yield a self-sustaining model, with schools able to continue implementing the programmes themselves and gradually involving other teachers as workshop leaders.

“It creates a partnership between teachers, whānau and libraries to help their children read better,” says Lynette.

“When we think of a Māori child, we think of them in the centre and around them is their whānau, their hapū and their iwi, whether they know that or not. It is recognising that they are part of a wider collective, so it is important for them that these parts are allowed into their education.”

She says the Rotorua pilots will collect evidence of what works for Māori and that will inform both the ministry and whānau directly – Ka Hikitia also calls for families to have the right information to make the right decisions for their children. Some whānau in Rotorua are already benefiting from such approaches.

Project background

Reading Together was developed in 1982 by Jeanne Biddulph. She first evaluated the programme in Christchurch with a group of nine- and 10-year-old children who made significant and long term gains in reading as a result. 

Since then, many teachers around the country have attended seminars which enable them to implement the workshops for parents/whānau. A workshop leader’s handbook was written in 1983 and updated in 2004. A Ministry of Education evaluation of Reading Together at St Joseph’s School, Otahuhu in 2007 found improved reading comprehension and reports of constructive changes in parent-child and teacher-parent relationships.

The te reo Māori tools used by kura in the Rotorua pilot were developed by the Poutama Pounamu Research and Development Centre, part of Group Special Education. Teacher and teacher aides are working with whānau using tools such as Tatari, Tautoko, Tauawhi, which supports oral reading and is adapted from the Pause, Prompt, Praise system.