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Investigating the Relationship Between Children's Reading and Their Writing

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Investigating the Relationship Between Children's Reading and Their Writing We read, we write: Investigating the relationship between children’s reading and their writing in upper primary school Lucy Emma Taylor Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy The University of Leeds, School of Education September 2018 i The candidate confirms that the work is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Lucy Emma Taylor to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2018 The University of Leeds and Lucy Emma Taylor ii Acknowledgements This project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through a White Rose Doctoral Scholarship. Thanks go to the staff and children in the two Leeds primary schools who took part in the project and welcomed me into their schools and classrooms. My three supervisors Dr. Paula Clarke and Dr. Yvonne Griffiths at the University of Leeds and Professor Joanna Gavins at the University of Sheffield provided an invaluable amount of expertise, advice and encouragement, without which this thesis could not have been completed. Many thanks are due to all the friends who have listened to me talk through my ideas endlessly, in particular Dr. Becky Parry, and to my family, Tony, Adam and Sammy. iii Abstract In this thesis I present the findings of an investigative research project which explored the relationship between children’s leisure reading and their volitional writing in the upper years of primary school. The data was collected in two primary schools in the north of England, using mixed methods. Quantitative data was collected in an online reading survey taken by 170 children, and qualitative data was provided by independent writing journals maintained by 38 participants. Through analysis of the data I demonstrate that the writing children choose to do is influenced by the texts they encounter as readers in terms of content, text type and linguistic style. By using Text World Theory as an analytical framework I examine the ways that children use language to create texts, and interrogate the ways that the contexts surrounding text production influence the texts children create. In a detailed examination of a variety of children’s written texts, including narrative, comic strip, informative writing and poetry, I show that children’s interactions and transactions with texts as readers and writers are complex and multiple. The narrative strategies that children use in different types of text and the ways in which they work multimodally to communicate meaning are illuminated by the analysis and provide insights into children’s learning and development in literacy. The importance of children’s enjoyment and agency in reading and writing is also a notable theme arising from the analysis. In addition I draw together socio-cultural, linguistic and psychological orientations towards literacy by making innovative use of Text World Theory and demonstrate the need for an holistic understanding of children as readers and writers. The findings of the study have implications for theoretical research into children’s literacy and for pedagogies of reading and writing in primary classrooms. iv Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 Literature Review ................................................................................. 5 1.1 Relationships and contexts ....................................................................... 5 1.2 Pedagogies and discourses ................................................................... 12 1.2.1 Curriculum and policy ................................................................... 12 1.2.2 Literacy in the community ............................................................. 20 1.3 Readers, responses, cognition ............................................................... 23 1.4 Children, writing, creating ....................................................................... 29 1.4.1 Language, learning and creativity ................................................. 29 1.4.2 Multimodality ................................................................................ 32 1.5 ‘The braid of literature’ ............................................................................ 39 Chapter 2 Methodology ...................................................................................... 41 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 41 2.2 Philosophy .............................................................................................. 41 2.3 Design .................................................................................................... 46 2.4 Ethical considerations............................................................................. 47 2.5 Survey .................................................................................................... 48 2.5.1 Considerations in the design of the reading survey ...................... 48 2.5.2 Summary of the survey ................................................................. 53 2.6 Writing journals....................................................................................... 55 2.7 Interviews ............................................................................................... 56 2.8 Pilot study ............................................................................................... 57 2.8.1 Survey .......................................................................................... 57 2.8.2 Writing .......................................................................................... 58 2.9 Administration of main study................................................................... 58 2.9.1 Survey .......................................................................................... 59 2.9.2 Writing journals............................................................................. 59 2.10 Organisation of writing journal data ........................................................ 62 2.11 Interviews ............................................................................................... 63 2.12 Limitations of the methodology ............................................................... 64 v 2.13 Analytical approach to writing journals .................................................... 66 2.13.1 Reflexivity and adaptation ............................................................. 66 2.14 Text World Theory ................................................................................... 70 Chapter 3 Results and analysis Part 1: Survey and interviews ........................ 76 3.1 Survey ..................................................................................................... 76 3.1.1 Access to the survey ..................................................................... 76 3.1.2 Consent......................................................................................... 76 3.1.3 Attitudes and habits ....................................................................... 77 3.1.4 Leisure habits ................................................................................ 81 3.1.5 Reading preferences by genre (1) ................................................. 84 3.1.6 Reading preferences by genre (2). Images of texts ...................... 85 3.1.7 Books read by participants ............................................................ 88 3.1.8 Number and averages of books read by participants ..................... 91 3.1.9 Free text questions 20, 21, 22 ....................................................... 92 3.2 Survey results- Discussion .................................................................... 109 3.2.1 Multiple choice questions ............................................................ 109 3.2.2 Free text questions ...................................................................... 115 3.2.3 Gender ........................................................................................ 118 3.3 Interviews .............................................................................................. 120 3.3.1 Reading....................................................................................... 120 3.3.2 Writing ......................................................................................... 121 3.3.3 Reporting the data ....................................................................... 123 3.4 Summary ............................................................................................... 124 Chapter 4 Results and Analysis 2: Writing journals Part 1 ............................. 125 4.1 Key terms .............................................................................................. 126 4.2 Section A: The Storytellers ................................................................... 128 4.2.1 Narration ..................................................................................... 128 4.2.2 World-building and function-advancing propositions .................... 147 4.2.3 The encountered text and the created text .................................. 156 4.3 Section B: The Reporters
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