Bullock (1975)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Foreword, Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part 1 Attitudes and standards
Chapter 1 Attitudes to the teaching of English
Chapter 2 Standards of reading
Chapter 3 Monitoring

Part 2 Language in the early years
Chapter 4 Language and learning
Chapter 5 Language in the early years

Part 3 Reading
Chapter 6 The reading process
Chapter 7 Reading in the early years
Chapter 8 Reading: the later stages
Chapter 9 Literature

Part 4 Language in the middle and secondary years
Chapter 10 Oral language
Chapter 11 Written language
Chapter 12 Language across the curriculum

Part 5 Organisation
Chapter 13 The primary and middle years
Chapter 14 Continuity between schools
Chapter 15 The secondary school
Chapter 16 LEA advisory services

Part 6 Reading and language difficulties
Chapter 17 Screening, diagnosis and recording
Chapter 18 Children with reading difficulties
Chapter 19 Adult literacy
Chapter 20 Children from families of overseas origin

Part 7 Resources
Chapter 21 Books
Chapter 22 Technological aids and broadcasting

Part 8 Teacher education and training
Chapter 23 Initial training
Chapter 24 In-service education

Part 9 The survey
Chapter 25: I Introduction
Chapter 25: II Primary commentary
Chapter 25: III Secondary commentary
Chapter 25: IV The questionnaire forms (not online)
Chapter 25: V Technical notes (not online)

Part 10 Sumary of conclusions and recommendations
Chapter 26 Conclusions and recommendations

Appendix A Witnesses and sources of evidence
Appendix B Visits made
Glossary
Index

Report of the Committee of Enquiry appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science under the Chairmanship of Sir Alan Bullock FBA

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1975
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Chapter 8 Reading: the later stages
[pages 115 - 123]

8.1 In the previous two chapters we have been anxious to establish the principle that young children should acquire from the beginning the skills that are employed in mature reading. These skills will obviously be used for more elaborate and demanding purposes as the child grows older, but the pattern is one that can be established early. We propose in this chapter to approach the matter from the other end of the age range and consider the fulfilment of some of these purposes. The development of reading skills is a progressive one, and there are no staging points to which one can attach any particular ages. We cannot therefore speak of kinds of reading ability as being specific to the middle years and as something essentially different from those used in the upper forms of the secondary school. The primary skills of the early years mature into the understanding of word structure and spelling patterns. The intermediate skills, so essential in word attack in the early stages, are at work in skimming, scanning, and the extraction of meaning in the more complex reading tasks of the later stages. The comprehension skills themselves do not change; it is in the increasing complexity of the purposes to which they are put as the pupils grow older that the difference lies. In the middle years there should be three major emphases. The first is to consolidate the work of the early years, and to give particular help to those children who for one reason or another have failed to make progress. The second is to maintain and extend the idea of reading as an activity which brings great pleasure and is a personal resource of limitless value. The third is to develop the pupils' reading from the general to the more specialised. We believe that the primary school teacher needs an understanding of the reading demands of the later years so that the line of development is clearly recognised.

8.2 What are these demands? This question is best answered in terms of three basic objectives, simple enough on paper but far from simple in the execution:

(i) the pupil needs to be able to cope with the reading required in each area of the curriculum;

(ii) he should acquire a level of competence which will enable him to meet his needs as an adult in society when he leaves school;

(iii) he should regard reading as a source of pleasure and personal development which will continue to be a rewarding activity throughout life.

8.4 The first of the three objectives is rarely recognised in schools as something that calls for explicit instruction. Specialist teachers generally believe that pupils need only to be fluent readers to cope with the reading demands of their subjects. We shall argue, however, that there are specific reading techniques which pupils can acquire to improve the efficiency of their learning, and that the subject teacher should help to develop these. We also believe that he should know something about levels of reading difficulty in the material he uses and about the capacity of individual pupils to cope with a particular book. This is more than simply a matter of intuitive feel; it involves the application of techniques of the kind described in paragraph 6.37. A general impression will not always tell the teacher whether a pupil is likely to find a certain book easy and undemanding, or readable if slightly challenging, or largely beyond his grasp.

8.5 The second of the two objectives is clearly a complex one. We have already referred to evidence (para. 2.2) which suggests that very many adults are unable to understand fully much of the reading material that directly relates to their lives and actions. To those we have given we might add a further illustration. This is again an American investigation (1), but it is reasonable to assume that the problems it reveals would also be found in some measure in this country. It took the form of a study of the reading proficiency of 7,500 adults. The material used to assess it was chosen according to such criteria as the extent to which it was in everyday use, its importance, and the time spent upon it. The most important reading matter of the average day was held to include news, material associated with work, signs of various kinds, and print on consumer goods. The items used in the assessment reflected as closely as possible the level of difficulty involved for a proper understanding. 20 per cent of the adults in the sample were unable to achieve more than 47 per cent correct responses, and over half of them made more than 10 per cent incorrect responses. Evidence of this kind suggests that there is a good deal of inefficient reading among adults who are generally regarded as being 'able to read'. We are in no doubt that schools need to give serious consideration to the implication of conclusions such as these.

8.6 Broadly speaking there are two main approaches to extending the reading ability of older children. One is to timetable special periods for specific tuition and practice; the other is to extend skills in and through normal learning activities. On the face of it the case for separate lessons with specially designed reading programmes may seem quite strong. An obvious argument in its favour is that the teaching can be planned by a reading specialist whose understanding of the skills goes far beyond that possessed by the subject teacher or, for that matter, by most teachers of English. In our visit to America we studied this specialist approach in the High School grades. In some schools there was a 'Reading Consultant', in others a 'Reading Department' with its own head. Student schedules would sometimes include periods devoted to the activity as a subject in its own right, and we came across examples of teaching rooms specially fitted for the purpose. In one of these was an array of equipment ranging from speed-reading machines to devices for flashing letters on to a screen. Another consisted of a suite of rooms clustered about a central book area. The syllabuses of these departments listed such skills as inductive, inferential, and evaluative reading, and prescribed exercises for 'locating the main idea' of a paragraph. (Indeed, we found this particular skill being practised through exercises early in the elementary school). The syllabuses assumed different reading requirements for different subjects, e.g. Science and Social studies, and counselled appropriate approaches.

8.7 Some aspects of this concentrated attention were impressive. In the first place it meant that there was in the school a highly trained member of staff who would offer specialised advice at every level. Secondly, it encouraged the idea that there could be no cut-off point beyond which it was taken for granted a pupil had all the reading skills he needed. We found well motivated 16 year olds opting for reading lessons for guidance in the techniques of tackling a substantial history text or improving their reading ability in science. However, in our view the disadvantages outweighed the benefits. Although there was no 'horizontal split' in the teaching of reading, there was a very sharp 'vertical split' between reading and English. Indeed, the teachers belonged to separate professional associations which scarcely communicated. The English teacher was able to feel he was teaching 'pure' literature and that he could presume the pupils' ability to read a text closely. He was thus tempted into abstract teaching about literature, rather than developing their reading abilities along with and by means of the exploration of meaning. Equally, the teachers of other subjects felt no concern to develop reading within their own subject, since reading was regarded as the preserve of the teacher responsible for it. Many of the specialist 'reading' lessons contained a good deal of decontextualised vocabulary work, into which much of the supposed activity of 'reading within subjects' resolved itself.

8.8 Associated with the notion of the specialised teaching of reading, both in the USA and here, is the commercially produced programme, sometimes called the 'reading workshop' or 'reading laboratory'. Again on the face of it such programmes appear to offer a ready made route to the development of reading skills. However, the fact that a pupil can become adept at completing the reading tasks in this rather narrow context does not mean that this ability will automatically transfer, and that he will be able to apply it at will in his other reading. Moreover, we have seen little evidence to support the view that there is any long term value in 'booster' courses using these programmes. Scores on reading tests are certainly raised in the short term, but gains do not appear to be sustained over a longer period. This does not necessarily mean that the kinds of experience provided by 'reading workshops' or 'laboratories' are of no value. Though the skills in which they offer practice will not automatically transfer, the teacher could take steps to ensure that they were applied to other reading tasks, notably within the subject areas. However, any real gain in reading development must come through the generation of a strong motivation, and this means reading to satisfy a purpose. This is more likely to arise from the wide-ranging opportunities of the curriculum than from the arbitrary stimulus of 'laboratory' materials. We therefore believe the real possibilities are to be found in the second of the two approaches we identified earlier, namely the extension of skills in and through normal learning activities.

8.9 Since reading is a major strategy for learning in virtually every aspect of education we believe it is the responsibility of every teacher to develop it. Unfortunately, it is difficult for most teachers, to whom reading and study skills may be second nature, to be fully aware of the complexity of these skills. If they are identified and described for them they may be inclined to dismiss them as being no more than common sense - as indeed they are. Nevertheless, this explicit awareness is necessary, for left to their own devices many of their pupils develop poor reading habits and others do not achieve the efficiency of which they are capable. In our view there should be certain commonly agreed approaches to reading as part of the school's policy for the development of language across the curriculum. We are not proposing any kind of prescription which would interfere with the teacher's ability to decide his own way of working. We are suggesting that by consultation all teachers should accept the responsibility for developing reading in their field, and that certain shared principles would help them to fulfil it.

8.10 The first is that reading for learning can be made more efficient. In all study situations, whether he is listening to a lecture, watching an instructional film, or reading a book, the learner calls upon his ability to reason, his existing knowledge, and his imagination. Thus, many of the abilities used in reading for learning are founded in the general approaches of the classroom. There are, however, certain conditions unique to reading. Because the print on a page is fixed and unchanging a reader can control his use of it by:

choosing the time, place and extent of his reading;

going back to earlier statements in the text, or looking ahead to future conclusions;

breaking the reading process to make notes, pause and think, or refer to other sources for comparison or illustration.

8.11 The shaping of the policy is a matter for the individual school, but we believe that in guiding the studies of their pupils teachers in the middle and secondary years would find the following analysis useful:

(i) the formulation of the purposes of the reading;

(ii) organisation for reading;

(iii) reading behaviour;

(iv) assessment of reading activities.

It will often be helpful for teachers to encourage their pupils to identify their purposes before they undertake a particular piece of reading. The major purpose behind any deliberate reading task can be expressed as a question, which gives rise to further questions and in turn to yet more specific ones. Predetermined questions provide a framework within which the learning can be anchored. They make the reading more efficient by directing attention to those aspects of the text which are most relevant, and they help the pupil to retain what he reads. The pupil then brings into play scanning and skimming skills (see paragraph 8.18) instead of reading everything at the same pace. Properly applied, this approach can encourage habits of disciplined enquiry.

8.13 (ii) Organisation for reading

Pupils should learn how to organise their reading, firstly by being able to locate, evaluate and select the material they need, and secondly by applying organised study methods to the material itself. The practice of working from a single text book, or at most two, is nowadays much less prevalent than it used to be, and most subjects make use of a wider range of printed matter. Nevertheless, the pupils are often very dependent upon the teacher for what they shall read and lack the ability to make their own assessments and choose accordingly. Most of the individual bibliographical skills can be taught in a very short time and do not need a protracted series of practical exercises. After a basic introduction these skills can be developed through study activities in each subject area. The former practice is common enough, but rarely did we find the kind of staff cooperation which ensured the follow-up. All too often the pupils were taught how to locate and handle books but not given the immediate opportunity to put them to a useful purpose, as opposed to an artificially contrived one. We believe that in the course of the middle and secondary years pupils should acquire the following and become accustomed to applying them in the various areas of learning:

(i) knowledge of available resources (e.g. books, magazines, files, pictures, tapes, cassettes, film) their location, and the way they are organised;

(ii) ability to define an area of search by using reference books of various kinds and more specialised publications where necessary;

(iii) ability to use subject index, classified catalogues, abstracts, and bibliographies, and to record sources systematically;

(iv) ability to survey source material, making an assessment of author, publisher, and content.

8.14 (iii) Reading behaviour

Comprehension work is standard practice in schools, and for most pupils it occupies a place in English lessons for the greater part of their school life. Much of this work is from textbook exercises designed for the purpose, and in recent years there has been an increase in the use of reading 'workshops' or 'laboratories', to which we have already referred in general terms. In our view, exercises in English textbooks or in kits of one kind or another are inadequate for developing comprehension. They provide too restricting a context and do not take account of the fact that reading should satisfy some purpose on the part of the reader. This may be to derive pleasure, experience, or information; it may be serious, or it may be relatively trivial. But whichever it is the individual will read most rewardingly when he has a personal reason for reading, for he will then carry his own attitudes and values into the text and not simply respond passively to it. The declared 'purpose' of so many of these exercises is to improve particular skills of comprehension. But even if there is any such result the improvement is so specific to the situation that it is unlikely to transfer to other reading tasks. This seemed to us conspicuously true of some exercises we saw in use in the USA. These presented quite young children with such tasks as 'locating the main ideas' in short passages. Even where the children succeeded in doing this in specific cases they had not grasped a concept which they could then generalise and apply to other situations. For this to happen the teacher must develop comprehension skills within the broader concept of purposeful reading. Another shortcoming of exercises in many English workbooks and kits is that they tend to give undue emphasis to literal comprehension, doubtless because it is much easier to frame multiple choice items at the literal level. The use of multiple choice items does not, however, represent a realistic approach to the development of comprehension even at this level. For it is one thing to match multiple choice items against the text but quite another to identify the relevant section of text without the aid of such preselected alternatives.

8.15 The development of literal comprehension is too important to be entrusted to exercises, even the best designed of them. The principal object is to sharpen the reader's perception of the main theme and the idea sequences from which it is formed. He must be able to determine what is essential supporting detail and what is peripheral. Even when skimming at speed he must be able to pick out certain features and identify general structures and relationships. It may help pupils to acquire this ability if on occasion they make a close analysis of a passage to identify the significant words in sentences and the significant sentences in paragraphs, working out in group discussion the relationship between position and function. They would discover, for instance, that at the beginning of a paragraph a 'significant sentence' may do little more than introduce a theme; at the end it will often provide an informative summary or conclusion; in the middle it may be a major turning point in the argument. Its function is often indicated by a signpost phrase: 'Nevertheless ...', 'In spite of this ...', 'On the other hand ...', etc. By recognising the function of various sentences in the structure of the paragraph the pupils are helped to a grasp of the theme. From here they can go on to summarising or paraphrasing the material or representing it in diagrammatic form. Our point is that the literal level cannot be taken for granted as an elementary aspect of comprehension and one that can be acquired by weekly exercises in answering set questions on a passage. It must be developed in a range of contexts where it is put to a practical purpose, and that means in the various subjects of the curriculum. The techniques themselves might be learnt in an English lesson, but the kind of cooperation we envisage would ensure that the subject teacher followed this up with practical application.

8.16 The same applies to the other levels of comprehension, of which the next is the inferential. This takes the pupil beyond the explicit statement to what the writer intended by implication or by assuming common ground with the reader. A large class, and the pressures of a particular syllabus, leave little time for the teacher to help individual pupils to explore the implications in much of what they read. Yet this he must certainly do if they are to get beyond the obvious meaning, or to question what might otherwise develop attitudes not readily accessible to reason. It is not only in the subject textbooks that the pupil must learn to examine implications. He needs to gain experience in giving this kind of attention to a variety of printed media. These will include advertising brochures, newspaper editorials, employment particulars, and that whole range of material in which what is left unsaid is often no less important than the facts presented.

8.17 We gave earlier the example of the science teacher who led his pupils to question the reliability of certain books. This evaluative aspect of comprehension is common enough in English lessons, for example in the study of literature and in the critical examination of advertisements and newspapers, but it is much less evident in other subjects. There it is all too often taken for granted that the information in the textbook is accurate and its opinion not seriously to be questioned - at least by the pupils. It is a striking feature of language in its printed form that words seem to take on an authority they much less commonly achieve in a spoken encounter, and it is one of the responsibilities of all teachers to ensure that this apparent authority receives critical attention. Comparative reading is a useful method, and one that can be employed with varying degrees of subtlety, for it is not simply a matter of deciding upon the respective merits of alternative versions. Pupils need also to recognise that they may bring prejudices of their own to their judgement of a set of opinions or of the emphasis given to certain facts.

8.18 An important aspect of reading behaviour is the ability to use different kinds of reading strategies according to the purpose and material. Consider, for example, the way one approaches the reading of different parts of a newspaper, a collection of advertising brochures, an income tax form, or a railway timetable. According to his purpose, interest, and time available, the efficient reader will glance through selectively or scrutinise in detail. Most of the reading done in school takes little account of this, and the pupil is generally expected to read all material fairly intensively. Yet there are many occasions when quite different kinds of approach are appropriate, in school just as in adult life. In both, the reader is exposed to more printed material than he can possibly find time to assimilate in detail. Much of it simply does not call for close examination. Very often the reader is concerned only to find a particular fact, or to locate a section of the text which he does want to examine carefully. This may demand of him the ability to scan the text to look for certain kinds of detail, or for some cue which will tell him whether what he is looking for is to be found in that section of it. On other occasions he may require to do no more than obtain a general impression of what a passage is about. This will call for the ability to skim through it, locating significant words and sentences, or sequences of particular kinds, all of which convey to him the general sense. It is thus possible to read at various levels of intensity to match a particular purpose. Unless pupils acquire these skills while still at school there is a likelihood that the only approach they will ever use is inflexible, one pace, line by line reading. Judging by the number of 'crash' courses being taken up it is obvious that many adults find this limited reading technique a singular handicap in their work.

8.19 (iv) Assessment of reading activities

We have suggested that pupils should learn how to read for specific purposes, how to organise the material, and how to apply appropriate techniques. The fourth stage is their assessment of what they have achieved. This is a process by which the reader reviews his original questions and the material he has read, and examines the information he has gained from it. He can then assess whether the organisation of his reading might have been more efficient, and in what ways it could be improved on a future occasion. In short, he should be able to evaluate the product of his reading and the development of his own reading skills. We regard this capacity for self-evaluation as an important instrument for learning, and one which is by no means an automatic outcome of activities in which children learn by discovering. They need systematic help if they are to develop the habit of judging the effectiveness of their various reading activities in terms of their purpose. Another aspect of this process is the storage and indexing of the information gained from the reading. A great deal of what the pupil, or adult, derives from reading is lost because it is not preserved in a form in which it can be easily retrieved. We believe that older pupils can and should be taught how to index and cross-reference what they have recorded from their reading.

8.20 In recommending the development of a number of reading skills we have emphasised their value for learning throughout the curriculum. It will be obvious, however, that many of them apply equally to the kind of reading required of most adults. To this extent the work we have recommended will provide a good preparation for the reading demands of adult life. However, there remains the need to provide older pupils with a variety of reading which will give more specific experience of what they will encounter. In everyday life the consequences of misreading or a tendency to read carelessly can be quite serious. Pupils need experience in reading with an eye to consequences, for these will be waiting for them in insurance policies, guarantees, contracts, income tax forms, conditions of employment, works notices, trade union leaflets and operating instructions, to name but a few. We do not suggest that these should be imported into the classroom en masse and studied one by one. Pupils do not pay income tax or take out insurance policies, and any training in reading and filling in forms would be quite unrelated to their present experience and concerns. Nevertheless, we believe that reading demands of this kind should certainly be discussed with the pupil before he leaves school. It is not a question of training in the handling of specific reading tasks but of learning to apply general principles to 'official' reading of one kind or another. There are many parallel forms of such reading that bear on the life and activities of the school, and these can be related to examples from the world of work and everyday life. Pupils could undertake a survey of the major areas of information for which most adults have a common need, e.g. home and family affairs, employment, leisure, community matters. They might then investigate the sources of information, and examine examples of it, particularly material which already concerns them or will do so as soon as they leave school. In some schools this kind of study is already to be found in courses for pupils in their final year, but we have not met any examples of specific attention to reading as an aspect of it. We regard this as an important part of preparation for adult life, and one that should not be confined to any one part of the ability range. We certainly do not believe that the reading needs of abler pupils are taken care of by their examination syllabuses. Explicit attention to skills of the kind recommended in this chapter is necessary if they are to become more efficient readers. Finally, we would again emphasise the part to be played by discussion and dialogue. They are an essential support to the pupil in the process of developing his skills as an independent reader.

References

1. Murphy RT Adults' Functional Reading Study, Project 1 United States Office of Education: 1973.