Attitudes to reading: what can storiestell us?Pauline Davis

Abstract

Children's attitudes to reading clearly influence theirsuccess in it and, while teachers have known this forsome while, they have lacked easy ways of estab-lishing what these attitudes are. Here Pauline Davissuggests one approach to this through story-telling.

As teachers will be all to aware, what works withone child may be well off the mark when used withanother. Within the confines of a busy time-table,the extent to which a teacher can discover a child'sbeliefs and attitudes is limited. However, by listeningto children, and recognising that they experiencevery different lives and hold a variety of views,more informed choices may be made. This papersuggests that one way of finding out what childrenthink is to analyse their stories, particularly if thestories are focused on the area of research interest.Moreover, the paper especially recommends storytelling for use by teachers with children who arestruggling readers.

Recent research (Davis, 1998) eliciting children'sattitudes towards reading uses story telling with 90children from three schools' Year 3 classes. Year 3children were chosen because reading ability isknown to vary widely at this age (Lake, 1991). Oneof the classes contained a substantial number of Year2 children. The children were asked to make up andtell a story with the title `The child who did not likereading'. The children were not required to write andtheir responses were recorded by the researcher. Eachchild was told that the story was to be their own andthat he or she can make anything they like happen init. The children's response to story telling waspositive. They enjoyed being able to express a storythat usually would have been difficult or impossiblefor them to write, as well as the special attentionafforded to them. The fine-grain of the informationgleaned from the stories provided many insights intothe views of individual pupil's and in some cases theadditional information was used to help children gaina more positive attitude towards reading.

Children are often disinclined to say, for instance, thatthey don't like reading very much, because theyperceive that teachers and other adults want them tosay that they like reading. This tendency to please

is much stronger in children than in adults andconsequently traditional interview techniques can beless reliable. Story telling allows children to expressthemselves more honestly because they are not askedto talk about themselves ± stories are usuallyexpressed in the third person. The theory assumesthe child projects his or her experiences onto afictitious character. The story title plays the same roleas the pictures in psychological tests such as `ThePickford Pictures' and `Family Indicators'. These arealso based on the theory that the pictures willstimulate a response indicative of the ways in whichthe child construes the world.

Thus the story reflects the child's reality to the extentthat a person cannot write outside of either theirexperience or imagination. This is analogous withpersonal construct theory (Kelly, 1969). The core ofKelly's theory assumes that each individual viewssignificant events and people in his or her life througha repertoire of personal constructs ± `the axes ofreference man contrives to put his psychological space inorder and to plot his (or her ± my emphasis) varyingcourses of action' (Kelly, 1969, p. 36).

The usefulness of story telling, either as a formalresearch technique or as an ad hoc way of helping ateacher find out a little more about a particular child,depends on the extent to which the child uses thestory as a means of expressing their views on therequired topic (in this case reading), and on theaccuracy of the story's interpretation. Clearly a storywhich digresses into the intricacies of a game offootball, provides little information about reading.Sometimes, a child may draw upon the experiences ofothers, in which case the story does not altogetherrepresent the child's own attitudes. The interpretationof the stories gives rise to another concern; a personmay fail to register the significance of importantinformation. An assessment of the usefulness of thereading research stories is outlined below, along withexample stories and commentary. The names of thechildren have been changed to ensure anonymity.

Story 1 James Age 8 yrs 3mths Reading Age8yrs 10mths: Once upon a time George didn't likereading. But then one day his Mum said he had to sitdown and read to her. He was reading about dinosaursand then he closed his eyes and when he opened them he

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was back in the stone age. He made friends with thedinosaurs except for Tyrannosaurus Rex. He wanted tomeet some cave men, so he asked one of the dinosaurs totake him to see a cave man. When he went in the cave-men's library he was back in his house reading to hisMum. Then he liked reading.

This story is off task with respect to providing anydetailed information (except perhaps that James doesnot dislike reading) about the story teller's attitudes toreading and is therefore classified as a failure in thisrespect. Further discussions with James revealed thatthe idea for his story came from a schools' televisionprogramme which he thought `was ace'. 12 of thestories collected were off task.

Story 2 Nathan Age 8yrs 5mths Reading Age5yrs 5mths: There was a child who thought reading wasboring. Because he could only get past page one. Becausehe can't read all the pages. Miss said read them now ±and he said ± UMMmmmmmmmmmm. Because hecouldn't read it. Because he reckoned he was the bestestin the class but he weren't.

Nathan's story portrays an acceptance of not beingable to read. In addition, the manner in which thestory was told revealed Nathan's frustration over hisdifficulties. To this extent the story was successful inproviding detailed information about Nathan's atti-tudes to reading. Telling a story allowed Nathan tobegin to talk about his dislike of reading to a degreethat did not happen when he was asked to saywhether or not he liked reading and then to explainhis answer. Surprisingly, without exception, all thechildren who were the poorest readers in the samplereadily participated in what appeared to be anenjoyable activity for them.

Story 3 Kimberley Age 7yrs 6mths ReadingAge 9yrs 1mth: `Helen', called Mum, `are you stillup there watching TV?' `Yes', replied Helen. Will youcome down and have breakfast now. When Helen hadfinished her breakfast Mum said, `It's time to read yourreading book.' Helen grumbled and sat down. Shethought to herself, I get bored of reading books, I'd likesomething more interesting. Helen had a plan, shepretended to get stuck on lots of words. So she went toread her really hard reading book, and pretended to getstuck a lot. But, it wasn't a good plan after all becausewhen she went to school and the teacher looked in herbook, she said, `I think you will have to start that stageagain'. Helen grumbled really really loud. She grumbledall the rest of the day, and later when she was asleep, shehad a bad dream. But when she woke up somethingstrange happened. However hard she tried she couldn'tkeep away from the book shelf. She couldn't stop herselffrom trying to grab a book and started reading. Fromthat day on Helen would never stop reading books.

This is the story of a competent reader who latervolunteered that she `loves reading'. Typically, there is

little reference to the extensive reading difficultiesexperienced by some children; in Kimberley's story,the child did not like reading because the readingmaterial was boring, and at the end of the story shehad become an avid reader. Perhaps Kimberley findssome books boring, or perhaps one of her construc-tions of the world is that some children who do notlike reading very much often say that reading isboring. Interestingly, the child in the story `pretends tobe stuck on words'. Characteristically the story will notnecessarily provide an answer to this or other suchquestions, but it can provide an opportunity fordiscussion, in a relatively non-threatening environ-ment.

Story 4 Dominic Age 8years 3mths Readingage 6 yrs 4mths: There was a child in school whodidn't like reading his books. There was a child whodidn't know how to read until his Dad taught him. Thenhe was good at reading but he didn't like reading still.He went to his Mum after school. He didn't want to readbecause he didn't like reading. The boy who didn't likereading was reading his library books. Boys picked onhim and then he didn't like it. A boy who didn't likereading was so behind and then He didn't like readingforever, so he didn't take his reading book home so hedidn't read. He was behind with lower books. Mum said,`Where is your reading book?' `I left it at school becauseI don't like reading any more'. When he was a man hedidn't know how to read because he was a sportsman andhe was playing baseball, and he couldn't read if he was inor out and everyone burst out laughing. A boy went tothe zoo with his friend and there was a notice saying `Nofeeding the animals', and he fed the animals and he gotfound out. He asked a man and said, `I cannot read atall.' When he went to the park he took his dog for a walkand there was a notice saying `No running. This isprivate property'. And he got done and his Mum tookhim home.

This story illustrates the potential of story telling todiscover information which can be used to help achild. Dominic's story alerted the researcher to thepossibility that he was being bullied and that he wassuffering some distress because of it. In this case,Dominic reported that other children did tease himbecause he is on `low' books, and that this makes him`feel horrible'. Dominic is very sensitive to being on`low' books, and the competition existing between thechildren reinforces that he is a poor reader. This maygo some way to explain why Dominic says that hedoesn't like reading.

The following story provides another example whereintervention is possible. The story acts as a reminderthat struggling readers can find reading very frustrat-ing if they don't have support to hand.

Amy Age 8yrs 2mths Reading Age 7yrs 3mths:Her Mum told her to read and she didn't want to. Shegot stuck on a word and no one helped her. The radio

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was too loud, and was making her not get the words. Shesaid `turn the radio off'. She couldn't hear because it wastoo loud. The radio was turned off. She carried onreading and she got stuck on another word. Her Mumwent out of the room and she got angry because shewanted her Mum to listen to her read. And then herMum went out and she got really really angry.

Of the 88% of stories which were on task, two-thirdsprovided some information not known to the teacherbefore. Of these a few cases provided informationwhich was instrumental in helping with the child'sdevelopment.

Kimberley and the other competent readers in thesample tended to produce similar stories to eachother: characteristically the competent readers saw alack of suitable reading material as the primary reasonfor disliking reading. Usually they had little concep-tion of the difficulties and anxieties experienced bychildren who find reading difficult. Most of thesechildren liked to finish the story with `the child' likingreading. Nathan and some of the other poor readerstended to produce rather short austere stories, usuallydisplaying very negative attitudes to reading, forinstance reading leads to trouble or reading is boringand is best avoided.

Two other prominent groups of children wereidentified, the `tries hard' and the `competitive' child(see Davis, 1998). These children do not attempt toexclude themselves from reading. The `competitive'child is usually happy with his or her readingprogress and aims to be better than his or herfriends, whereas the `tries hard' child is unhappywith his or her reading progress and finds readingdifficult, so disliking the competition between peers(e.g. Dominic). In many ways these two groupsare very similar, the main difference being that theformer contains children who perceive themselves asmaking good progress, whereas the later containschildren who perceive that they are behind. Thefollowing is an example of a typical competitivechild's story.

Tom Age 8yrs 5mths Reading Age 7yrs 9mths:One fine morning Thomas was going to school. Theteacher called him to read but he didn't want to. But hegot his reading book out and went up to Miss and hestarted reading his book. Then he said `I don't want toread the rest of my book.' The teacher said, `if you don'tread this book you can go on baby books.' Thomas said,`so what if I have to go back onto baby books.' Then hewent to get the baby books from the reading book areaand he started to read to Miss. It was so easy. When theteacher came back the little boy had run home to findhis Mum. He said, `Mum, do I have to go to schooltomorrow? I'm on baby books.' Tom's Mum told him toask his sister to help him to get off the baby books. SoTom asked his sister and she read with him and then andhe was on the highest book in the class.

There are many ways in which children's attitudes toreading may be categorised (see Goodwin, 1995).However, that the stories in this research project canbe categorised suggests that, at least in part, thestories do reflect the ways in which children construereading. However, it cannot be assumed that the storyteller is always speaking directly about themselves.Also, it cannot be assumed that the attitudes revealedare the most important.

`Story telling' proved an effective tool to elicitchildren's attitudes about reading, however, it is notthe intention to claim that the elicited constructsexclusively represent the story tellers' own attitudes.Eiser, C. et al (1990) used story telling with children,and found that younger children's stories representthe story teller's own attitudes and life experiences,whereas older children can incorporate their percep-tions of other people's attitudes. Eiser tentativelyexplains this difference in terms of the variations inthe developmental stages of children. Such anexplanation supports the finding in this research,namely that children who are poor readers, and aretherefore in this respect developmentally less ad-vanced, reflect their own attitudes, whereas childrenwho are competent readers often incorporate theirperceptions of other people's attitudes. The cut offpoint (if there is one) between which children onlyreflect their direct experiences as opposed to theirinterpretation of others' experiences is as yet un-known. However, preliminary analysis of the storiescollected in this research suggests that for Year 3children such a cut off may be a reading age of lessthan eight years old.

The significance of whether or not a child is relatingtheir direct or indirect experiences has importantimplications for formal and informal research activ-ities. If story content can be taken as a valid indicationof a child's attitudes, the approach can be used to findinformation about a particular child. If this is not thecase, story telling can only be used to find out aboutchildren's attitudes in general and not their personalattitudes.

Story telling can provide valuable insights into theway a child construes the world and has theadvantage of enabling children to become lessdefensive and reticent. Furthermore, it may be mostuseful when used with children who are poor readers,because they tend to convey their direct experiencesand because these are often the children who are themost reticent. Further research examining children'sattitudes to reading, and the chronological and read-ing ages for which story telling is most suitable is inprogress at the University of Manchester, and has todate confirmed the usefulness of this technique. Storytelling can also be used by teachers or otherprofessionals with children who find reading difficult,with the proviso that interesting leads are followed upwith a non-threatening discussion.

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Correspondence relating to this article is welcomed,especially the reflections of teachers or researchers whouse the story telling technique to find out about children'sattitudes. Please address any correspondence to PaulineDavis, Faculty of Education, Graduate and ResearchSchool, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Man-chester. Alternatively, E-mail: pauline.s.davis@man.ac.uk.

Special thanks are due to the schools, teachers and childrenparticipating in the research, without whom this wouldnot be possible; to Suzie Clipson Boyles who first thoughtof the title, `The child who did not like reading'; and toProfessor Mel Ainscow and Dr. Peter Farrell, University ofManchester, for all their support.

References

DAVIS, P. (1988). Children's attitudes to reading, unpublishedmonograph, University of Manchester.

EISER, C. et al. (1990) What children's stories tell us about theirunderstanding of illness, Early Child Development and Care, Vol. 57,1±7.

GOODWIN, P. (1995). Reluctant to read?, Reading and LanguageInformation Centre, University of Reading.

KELLY, G. (1969). Clinical Psychology and Personality: the selectedpapers of George Kelly, edited by B.A. Maher, John Wiley & Sons,New York.

LAKE, M. (1991). Surveying all the factors in Language and Learning,June.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:Pauline Davis, Faculty of Education, ManchesterUniversity, Oxford Road, Manchester.

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