Developing a Set of Readers for Aboriginal Children

Extract

Most teachers of Aboriginal children are well aware of the difficulties they have in identifying with the characters of most classroom readers. Obviously, publishing companies have to consider their market when preparing series of readers on a viable commercial basis, and hence the characters and their situations reflect the life-styles of the bulk of Australian citizens who live in large urban sprawls, and enjoy a reasonable standard of living which is reflected in their material possessions.

A different language background also makes the task of using the conventional classroom reader difficult. Children with an Aboriginal language, or even Aboriginal English as their first language, need greater emphasis placed on certain patterns found in standard English. I feel this is especially important, as the bulk of material any person can read will inevitably be in standard English form.

At Oodnadatta School we are overcoming these problems by the development of our own sets of readers. Some are purely experiential and have a limited life equal to the need to relate to that experience, while others are based on certain language patterns we feel need specific development in our program. To work out these patterns, we have used ideas formulated by the Van Leer Foundation Experimental Reading Project in Queensland.