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  THE INITIAL TEACHING OF LITERACY ACROSS EUROPE, the first FELA symposium

FELA (formerly IDEC) -project Initial Literacy Teaching 2015−

Abstract of first symposia in Klagenfurt, 19th European Conference on Literacy 2015

No comparative studies exist about the initial phases of reading and writing instruction in the first weeks and months of school when children are taught the alphabetic code. The most recent cross-national study of the teaching of initial literacy is Comparative Reading, edited by John Downing – published in 1973! Especially little is known about the initial phases of reading instruction in the first weeks and months of school. Do children start with letters, words, or texts? How are grapheme-phoneme correspondences taught (if at all)? Is the first vocabulary controlled for orthographic regularities (in languages with deep orthographies) so that they are decodable? Are there differences between countries whose languages have deep and shallow orthographies? How are the first pages of reading primers (reading scheme books/basal readers) organized? What is the relationship between the teaching of reading and writing?

which are primarily consonants, and the Arabic script which is written from right to left. This symposium is being organized by the International Development in Europe Committee (IDEC) of the International Literacy Association (ILA) and the Federation of European Literacy Associations (FELA). Researchers and practitioners from different countries and different orthographies will report and discuss the conceptual and pedagogical models underlying various instructional methods, and the questions which arise from them.

Ann-Sofie Selin will provide a general introduction about the two associations who have organized this symposium: IDEC and FELA in a nutshell

Henrietta Dombey will speak about research evidence and government policy on the teaching of reading in the years 4-7 in England

Marie Ernestová will report on the teaching of reading and writing in the very first class of compulsory school attendance in Czech Primary Schools. Examples will be given of reading and writing literacy materials being used, as well as the teaching approaches and methods currently being applied during this critical learning period. New, or ‘alternative’, methods will be described and emerging trends discussed. Ernestová’s full text.

Renate Valtin will report on didactic approaches in the initial reading and writing instruction in Germany. She will provide examples from the first pages of the literacy material used in the first weeks of school and explain the underlying concepts.

Laura Benitez will present the findings of a case study about good early literacy teaching practices in Spain focused to students with very high risk of educational disadvantage and social exclusion. These outcomes are contained in her doctoral thesis, undertaken by a constructivist approach.

Shlomo Alon will present HARP (Hebrew & Arabic Reading Projects) in Israel and speak about the challenge how to teach the Hebrew alphabet containing 22 letters, all of

• THE INITIAL TEACHING OF LITERACY ACROSS EUROPE, the second FELA symposium

14−16 August 2016 − Turku/Åbo, Finland, 3rd Baltic Sea – 17th Nordic Literacy Conference

 FELA, Initial literacy teaching: How children are taught the alphabetic code in different orthographies

Presenters:

Dr Renate Valtin, Professor Emerita, Humboldt Universität, IDEC International Development in Europe Committee of ILA, Chairperson Professor Emeritus, Sheffield University FELA ChairPerson renate.valtin@gmail.com Germany

Dr Greg Brooks, Professor Emeritus, Sheffield University FELA Federation of European Literacy Associations, Chairperson g.brooks@sheffield.ac.uk United Kingdom

Fredriksson&Persson; Marie K. Fredriksson, Special needs teacher, Stockholm marie.k.fredriksson@gmail.com, and Dr Ulla-Britt Persson, Linköpings universitet, ulla-britt.persson@liu.se Sweden Fredriksson & Persson’s full text

Dr Mare Müürsepp, Tallinna Ülikool, marem@tlu.ee Estonia

MEd Monika Sandberg, class teacher, Cygnaeus school, Åbo monika.sandberg@turku.fi Swedish in Finland

MEd Suvi Sankinen, class teacher, Hannunniittu school, Turku suvi.sankinen@turku.fi Finnish in Finland

ABSTRACT: No comparative studies exist about the initial phases of reading and writing instruction in the first weeks and months of school when children are taught the alphabetic code. Especially little is known about the initial phases of reading instruction in the first weeks and months of school. Do children start with letters, words, or texts? How are grapheme-phoneme correspondences taught (if at all)? Is the first vocabulary controlled for orthographic regularities (in languages with deep orthographies) so that they are decodable? Are there differences between countries whose languages have deep and shallow orthographies? How are the first pages of reading primers (reading scheme books/basal readers) organized? What is the relationship between the teaching of reading and writing? This symposium is being organised by the International Development in Europe Committee (IDEC) of the International Literacy Association (ILA) and the Federation of European Literacy Associations (FELA). Rresearchers and practitioners will present early literacy methods/materials in Sweden, in Estonia, and in Swedish and Finnish in Finland. After these presentations the conceptual and pedagogical models underlying various instructional methods and the questions which arise from them will be discussed.

• THE INITIAL TEACHING OF LITERACY ACROSS EUROPE, the third FELA symposium

The 20th European Conference on Literacy, Madrid 2017

FELA SYMPOSIUM

Initial literacy teaching: How children are taught the alphabetic code in different orthographies; Presentation of early literacy methods and materials in Bulgarian-, French-, English- and Hebrew and Arabic- speaking contexts

Presenters:

Lydia Dachkova, Bulgarian Reading Association;  lydia.dachkova@gmail.com
Daniela Staneva, Friedrich Schiller School, Russe;  dstaneva@abv.bg 

Eithne Kennedy, School of Language, Literacy Education, Dublin City University, St Patrick’s Campus, Dublin 9 <eithne.kennedy@dcu.ie> Gerry Shiel, Educational Research Centre, St Patrick’s Campus, Dublin 9 <gerry.shiel@erc.ie>

Patricia Schillings, University of Liège, Belgium <patricia.schillings@ulg.ac.be>

Dennis Kurzon, University of Haifa, Israel <kurzon@research.haifa.ac.il​> Kurzon’s Diacritics

Renate Valtin (chairperson), emerita, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany <renate.valtin@gmail.com>

Greg Brooks (Discussant), emeritus, University of Sheffield, UK <g.brooks@sheffield.ac.uk>

ABSTRACT: No comparative studies exist about the initial phases of reading and writing instruction in the first weeks and months of school when children are taught the alphabetic code. Especially little is known about the initial phases of reading instruction in the first weeks and months of school. Do children start with letters, words, or texts? How are grapheme-phoneme correspondences taught (if at all)? Is the first vocabulary controlled for orthographic regularities (in languages with deep orthographies) so that they are decodable? Are there differences between countries whose languages have deep and shallow orthographies? How are the first pages of reading primers (reading scheme books/basal readers) organized? What is the relationship between the teaching of reading and writing?

This symposium is being organized by the International Development in Europe Committee (IDEC) of the International Literacy Association (ILA) and the Federation of European Literacy Associations (FELA). Researchers and practitioners will present early literacy methods/materials in the teaching of various languages and countries. These are likely to include at least: Bulgarian in Bulgaria, English in Ireland, French in Belgium, and Hebrew and Arabic in Israel. After these presentations the conceptual and pedagogical models underlying various instructional methods and the questions which arise from them will be discussed.

• THE INITIAL TEACHING OF LITERACY ACROSS EUROPE, the fourth FELA symposium

The 21st European Conference on Literacy, Copenhagen 2019

Chairperson Chairperson: Renate Valtin, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany: introduction, renate.valtin@gmail.com

FELA, The initial teaching of literacy across Europe SYMPOSIUM

Rapporteur: Greg Brooks, University of Sheffield, GB: Analysis and feedback, g.brooks@sheffield.ac.uk

The symposium will consist of the following presentations, with ample scope for discussion:

Iris Pereira and Maria de Lourdes Dionísio, University of Minho, iris@ie.uminho.pt, mldionisio@ie.uminho.pt Beginning literacy in Portuguese

Olga Zapotočna and Zuzana Petrová, University, zapotocna@savba.sk, zuzana.petrova@truni.sk The new early literacy curriculum in Slovakia

Jesper Bremholm, University College Copenhagen, JBRE@kp.dk Beginning literacy in Danish

Bente Hagtvet and Jørgen Frost, University of Oslo, b.e.hagtvet@isp.uio.no, jorgen.frost@uv.uio.no Beginning literacy in Norwegian

ABSTRACT: No comparative studies exist about the initial phases of reading and writing instruction in the first weeks and months of school when children are taught the alphabetic code. Especially little is known about the initial phases of reading instruction in the first weeks and months of school:

Do children start with letters, words, or texts? How are grapheme-phoneme and phoneme-grapheme correspondences taught (if at all)? Is the first vocabulary controlled for orthographic regularities (in languages with deep orthographies) so that the words are decodable? Are there differences in the teaching of languages with deep and shallow orthographies? How are the first pages of reading primers (reading scheme books/basal readers) organised? What is the relationship between the teaching of reading and writing? This symposium will be part of FELA’s ongoing continent-wide investigation into the similarities and differences in teaching children the first steps into reading, spelling and writing.

The following languages have already been covered: Estonian, Finnish, Swedish in Sweden and Finland, English in England and Ireland, Czech, German in Germany, French in Belgium, and Hebrew and Arabic in Israel.

• THE INITIAL TEACHING OF LITERACY ACROSS EUROPE, the fifth FELA symposium

The fourth Baltic Sea Conference on Literacy in Tallinn January 2020.

Renate Valtin, Co-authors: Greg Brooks (em.), University of Sheffield; Tiziana Mascia, University of Bozen; Ilva Skulte, Riga Stradins University, Latvia; Irina Tomaševič, VšĮ Šiuolaikinių didaktikų centras, Lithuania

FELA, The initial teaching of literacy across Europe

ABSTRACT: No comparative studies exist about the initial phases of reading and writing instruction in the first weeks and months of school when children are taught the alphabetic code. Especially little is known about the initial phases of reading instruction in the first weeks and months of school: – Do children start with letters, words, or texts? – How are grapheme-phoneme and phoneme-grapheme correspondences taught (if at all)? – Is the first vocabulary controlled for orthographic regularities (in languages with deep orthographies) so that the words are decodable? – Are there differences in the teaching of languages with deep and shallow orthographies? – How are the first pages of reading primers (reading scheme books/basal readers) organized? – What is the relationship between the teaching of reading and of writing? This symposium will be part of FELA’s ongoing continent-wide investigation into the similarities and differences in teaching children the first steps into reading, spelling and writing. The following languages have already been covered: Estonian, Finnish, Swedish in Sweden and Finland, English in England and Ireland, Czech, German in Germany, French in Belgium, Hebrew and Arabic in Israel, Norwegian, Portuguese and Slovak.