INCLUSIVE
LITERACY
PENNY LACEY
AIM
To
enable participants to reflect on aspects of teaching and learning in relation
to pupils with profound (and multiple) learning disabilities.
INTENDED
OUTCOMES
By
the end of the session, you should be able to:
- reflect
on your literacy sessions and decide how they might be developed even more
- be
an even better story teller for pupils with PMLD
- enable
pupils with PMLD to participate even more in your lessons
CONTENT
- Reminder
of difficulties in learning faced by those with profound learning
disabilities
- University
of Birmingham Inclusive Literacy Research
- Story
telling ideas
- Evaluation
of the participation of pupils with PMLD in a Maths lesson
***************
Researchers
from the Universities of Birmingham, Manchester Metropolitan and Plymouth
studied the way schools approach teaching literacy to children with severe
learning difficulties. Although not the
main focus of the study, pupils with profound learning disabilities featured in
the information we collected. This
article is an attempt to share some of what we found.
The
study took about 18 months to complete and during that time, we carried out
five different activities:
- desk-based
research using books, journals, magazines and web-sites
- observations
in classrooms, in both literacy lessons and others lessons where literacy
skills might be being used
- interviews
of the teachers who taught those lessons
- focus
groups of teachers to discuss our results
- interviews
of ‘expert witnesses’ (people who are well-known for developing aspects of
literacy with children with SLD/PMLD).
Conventional
Literacy
Most
definitions of the word ‘literacy’ contain reference to reading and writing
text and the reality in schools (special or mainstream) is that Literacy on the
timetable is about learning to read and write or to engage in activities that
are eventually meant to lead to reading printed or written text as well as
generating written text and writing. The
original National Literacy Strategy material (DfEE, 1998) answers its own
question of ‘what is literacy?’ : with ‘Literacy unites the important skills of
reading and writing’. It does go on to
include speaking and listing as important, but the rest of the materials are
about reading and writing: speaking and listening are hardly mentioned again.
This
position has changed with the new Primary National Strategy (DfES, 2006), where
speaking and listening are much more prominent under the literacy heading, with
4 of the 12 strands relating to 1. speaking, 2. listening and responding, 3.
group discussion and interaction and 4. drama.
The other 8 all relate specifically to reading and writing, with the
emphasis at an early stage on learning through ‘synthetic phonics’, where
children need sophisticated knowledge about the segmental nature of spoken
language and to be able to match speech-sounds and letters.
I
have dwelt on conventional views of literacy because when we went to schools
for pupils with SLD/ PMLD, we found that most of them were taking a
conventional approach to teaching literacy,
at least to pupils with SLD.
Children were being taught words and phonics, how to get information
from books and other kinds of text, and lessons we observed looked very similar
to those that can be seen in mainstream classrooms all round the country. There was a greater variation for pupils with
profound learning disabilities, but even so, many lessons looked, in essence
similar to the prescription for the Literacy Hour.
Observations
Typically,
a class of children with severe and profound learning disabilities were seen
sitting in a semi-circle around a teacher holding a big book. The book was read or a story told using the
pictures and staff engaged the pupils in the story through pictures and objects. Following the story, again typically, the
class divided into smaller groups for work related in some way to the book but
pitched at a level that was right for the individuals in that group. Usually, the whole class met again for a
plenary session at the close of the lesson where pupils’ work was recalled and
celebrated.
The
work we observed that was specifically designed for pupils with profound
learning disabilities was often sensory in nature. It was usually centred around a story or a
book, but access to the activity was often through objects to touch and
activate or odours to smell, things to look at and listen to or even food to
taste. We saw stories being told through
a range of sensory experiences, such as the Bag book ‘Gran’s Visit’.
There
were also examples of what might be called ‘pure communication’, rather than
anything specifically related to conventional literacy or pre-literacy
skills. These were variations on
Intensive Interaction (Nind and Hewett, 2000) and usually began from the child
him or herself, rather than from a book or a story. The intention appeared to be to engage the
child and achieve even minimal social interaction using little games associated
with typically developing infants and caregivers. One game observed involved the adult having a
conversation of ‘ahs’, following the lead of the child’s vocalisations. It is not known whether the adult thought
that what was happening was part of literacy but it was happening in a Literacy lesson.
Inclusive
Literacy
One
of the central concepts that developed through the study was the idea of
‘inclusive literacy’. Conventional
literacy is clearly not open to children (or adults) with profound learning
disabilities as they are not going to learn to read and write. However, if we conceive of literacy as
‘inclusive’, there may be ways in which even the most profoundly disabled can
take part. So what did we mean by
‘inclusive literacy’? We identified a
range of activities for learners with SLD that we want to argue could
legitimately be identified as ‘inclusive literacy’ even if there was no use of
text at all, and many of these can include those with profound learning
disabilities. We identified:
•
Objects of
reference
•
Life quilts
and life history boxes
•
Personal
storytelling
•
Sensory
stories & multimedia stories
•
Cause and
effect software
•
Photo albums
and scrap books
•
Picture books
& stories
•
Graphic
facilitation
•
Reading icons
and symbols
•
Talking books
•
Early
conventional reading skills
•
Simple
conventional books
•
Drama and role
play
•
Simple
software for computer
•
Television and
films
•
Navigating
websites (eg: Eastenders)
•
Creating
websites
•
Still
photography to create books
•
Film-making
The
list includes some activities that definitely do not fit into conventional
literacy relating to letters, words and text.
Some can be seen as ‘new literacies’ belonging to the media age of
television, ipods and computers (Lankshear and Knobel, 2003) and others are
seen as, perhaps simplifications of, or substitutions for, the whole business
of traditional text-based literacy, such as objects of reference, life quilts
and sensory stories.
Objects of
Reference
The
first few in the list seem to have the greatest potential for learners with
profound learning disabilities. Objects
of reference (Ockelford, 2002), for example could be seen as the first real
step into learning about symbols, which in conventional literacy might lead to
more and more abstract symbols and eventually into letters, words and
text. In the absence of this kind of
progression, learning to use objects of reference can be seen as an early and
important form of literacy in its own right for those learners who are unable
to progress further down the conventional literacy or even the new literacies
route.
Life Quilts
and Life Boxes
Life
quilts (Grove, 1996) or life history boxes can be seen as akin to books about a
person. A life quilt is literally a
quilt made from sewing together pieces of material from the clothes, curtains,
cushions, duvet covers that have meaning for that person from early childhood
through to adulthood. There can also be
objects sewn into the quilt: anything that might spark familiarity. If this started at an early age and
continually added to and enjoyed, it can become an important ‘book’. Alternatively or in addition, a box can be
used to collect important objects such as slippers, a personal cup, a toy or
birthday candles. These can be used
regularly to ‘tell the story’ of the person’s life.
Sensory
Stories and Multimedia Activities
There
are many examples of sensory stories in schools and colleges: published and
home-made, although perhaps fewer multimedia stories. If you haven’t already found Pete Well’s
disgusting stories, you might try them especially with teenagers or young
adults. Go to http://www.portland-school.co.uk/Petes-stuff/PetesStuff.htm. Two other special school websites that offers
interesting activities for learners with profound learning disabilities are
Priory Woods School www.priorywoods.middlesbrough.sch.uk/
and Meldreth Manor School http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/meldreth/textandinfo/Powerp/Media2.html.
Pictures and
Moving Pictures
The
activities on our list that are related to pictures (still or moving) may or
may not be meaningful to an individual with profound learning
disabilities. Learning to understand and
‘read’ pictures is an important skills for learners with SLD and the first
rungs of that ladder may be relevant to someone with profound disabilities,
especially recognising themselves, their family and friends on video. For some people, attaching the camera to the
television and watching themselves in real time can be motivating and
interesting.
Film-making
and Drama
There
are some other activities on our list above within which learners with profound
disabilities could be included, for example film making or drama. Nicola
Grove and Keith Park have many suggestions for how this can be achieved and if
you haven’t come across their work, you might start with their book ‘Odyssey
Now’ (Grove and Park, 1996) or ‘Macbeth in Mind’ (Grove and Park, 2001) or find
Keith’s many articles published in SLD Experience. Keith’s work can also be seen on Teacher’s TV
online in a programme called ‘Special Schools: Access the Curriculum http://www.teachers.tv/video/1403.
Conclusions
From
our research we were able to see examples of activities that we called
‘inclusive literacy’. We recognise, as
did the teachers in the study, that literacy for learners who don’t learn to
read and write is not conventional. It
includes a wider view of communication than might typically be seen as
literacy, as well as some of the new literacies that are more often associated
with creative, performance or media studies or information and communications
technology. For the most profoundly
disabled learners, to be inclusive, literacy must also embrace the use of
objects as a kind of text and perhaps even see someone learning to anticipate a
favourite activity as learning to ‘read’ what is happening. I don’t want to stretch literacy to a
ridiculous degree but there is definitely more to it than the conventional
reading and writing of text.
Hopefully,
the inclusive literacy activities that have been briefly discussed in this
article will inspire you to be as creative as you can in providing experiences
for learners with profound learning disabilities. Although joining in a conventional literacy
hour with more able peers is one activity, there are lots more that appear to
us as legitimate responses to teaching literacy to learners who are not going to
learn to read and write. Have fun in
Literacy!
The
research was carried out by Lyn Layton, Penny Lacey, Carol Miller, Juliet
Goldbart and Hazel Lawson. The article
was written by Penny Lacey, Senior Lecturer in Education, The University of
Birmingham, School of Education, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT.
REFERENCES
Bag
Books website http://www.bagbooks.org/index.html
Caldwell,
P. (2007) From Isolation to Intimacy:
Making Friends Without Words London: Jessica Kingsley
Corke,
M. (2002) Approaches to Communication
Through Music London; David Fulton
Coupe
O’Kane, J. and Goldbart, J. (1998) Communication
Before Speech London; David Fulton
DfES
(1998) The National Literacy Strategy
London: DfES
DfES
(2006) The Primary National Strategy http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframeworks/
(accessed 25.10.06)
Fyfe,
C. (2001) Gulliver’s Travels: A
Multisensory Approach London: Bag Books
Grove,
N. (1996) Life quilts, Talking Sense 42,
2 (http://www.sense.org.uk/publications/allpubs/magazine/tsarticles/1996/lifequilts.htm)
(accessed 26.10.06)
Grove,
N. and Park, K. (1996) Odyssey Now
London: Jessica Kingsley
Grove,
N. etc (2000) See What I Mean? Guidelines to Aid Understanding of
Communication by People with Severe and Profound Learning Disabilities Kidderminster:
BILD
Grove,
N. and Park, K. (2001) Social Cognition
through Drama and Literature for People with Learning Disabilities: Macbeth in
Mind London: Jessica Kingsley
Grove,
N. (2005) Ways into Literature London:
David Fulton
Lacey,
P. and Ouvry, C. (1998) People with
Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities London: David Fulton
Lacey, P. (2006) Inclusive Literacy PMLD-Link 18, 3, 11-13
Lankshear,
C. and Knobel, M. (2003) New Literacies:
Changing Knowledge and Classroom Learning Maidenhead: Open University Press
Nind,
M. and Hewett, D. (2000) A Practical
Guide to Intensive Interaction Kidderminster: BILD
Ockleford,
A. (2002) Objects of Reference
London: RNIB
Useful
Websites
|
Bag
Books
|
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|
Call
Centre story packs
|
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Catalyst
(Flo
Longhorn) (Information Exchange)
|
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CBeebies
(switch accessible)
|
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Check
the Map (list of fun sites)
|
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Communication
aids
|
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Dave
Hewett
|
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Dub
City Rockers (music games)
|
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Hirstwood
Training (multisensory)
|
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Inclusive
Technology (hardware & software)
|
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Intensive
Interaction
|
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Knee
Bouncers (fun games)
|
||
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Mencap
PMLD section
|
||
|
Moorcroft
School sensory stories
|
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MOVE
(movement)
|
||
|
Oily
Cart
(theatre)
|
||
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Pete
Wells sensory stories
|
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|
Poisson
Rouge (cause and effect games)
|
||
|
PMLD
Link (magazine)
|
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PMLD
Network (email forum)
|
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Priory
Woods School (cause and effect games)
|
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|
Routes
for Learning
|
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|
Sherbourne
Developmental Movement
|
||
|
SLD
Forum (email forum)
|
||
|
Soundabout
(music)
|
||
|
Sound
Beam
|
||
|
Story
Sacks
|
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|
Tac
Pac
|
||
|
Tactile
books for visually impaired people
|
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|
University
of Birmingham (courses in SLD/ PMLD)
|
then
click on Learning Difficulties and Disabilities
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