(Written by Alison Arnold, Jean Newcombe and Margaret Pike)

Reading Together approaches teaching braille reading through shared reading activities. The series is a set of simple stories for young children to enjoy while they are in the early stages of learning braille. The purpose of these books is not to use them in isolation as a reading scheme to teach the braille code, but rather to enable developing reading skills to be practised in the context of meaningful reading experiences. The main aim of the stories is to encourage motivation to read through lively texts, and so develop fluency and understanding.

The series is arranged in five levels with the books at each level designed to be parallel texts. At Levels 1-3, each story is written with an extended text, which tells a story in full on the left-hand page, and there is a corresponding simple text on the right-hand page. The print version of the text is placed immediately above the braille text. The simplified texts increase in complexity from Level 1, which contains a few words, to short phrases at Level 2 and simple sentences at Level 3. The intention is that initially the complete story is shared with the children and they can then read the basic text as each page of full text is reread, leading to confident independent reading. The stories at Levels 4 and 5 have been written to enable the children to read each story in its entirety.

The extended texts can also be used to develop a number of essential braille reading skills. Fluent tracking skills and efficient hand coordination will be acquired through simply following the braille text whilst the story is being read. By promoting reading for meaning and telling the story without the need for every sign or word to be accurately decoded, confidence and emergent braille reading skills gradually evolve. Since the basic text and other accessible vocabulary is included within the complete version of the story (and highlighted in bold in the print text), early search and scan techniques can be introduced if children are encouraged to locate specific ‘known’ words or particular braille signs within the extended text. Cross-referencing between the corresponding texts can also help develop the skill of reading with both left and right hands independently (a useful skill for interpreting graphs or charts/tables, and for reading coordinates and grid references at a later stage).

The signs of the braille code included for the children to read at each level closely follow the progression systematically introduced through Braille for Infants. Only k and the wordsign FOR (at Level 1), and d and o (at Level 2) are introduced out of sequence, and therefore specific teaching of these particular signs may have to take place prior to using the books. The five levels cover the whole range of the signs introduced by the Braille for Infants scheme by grouping several together at each stage (e.g. Level 1 a, g, b, l, i, k). Therefore, the stories can either be used to supplement and extend the teaching of the code through Braille for Infants or alternatively they can consolidate and reinforce braille learning that has been introduced through games or other Literacy sessions.

Whilst the stories at each level are written with an emphasis upon words that children will be able to read using relevant signs, an attempt has been made to widen the accessible

Many words often used by young children and a number of the high frequency words from the National Literacy Strategy for Key Stage 1 are included. Attempts have also been made to consider objectives outlined in the strands of work from the Literacy Strategy Framework for teaching. Some stories specifically focus upon a particular rhyme pattern (e.g. –all, –ill) and others include examples of alliteration. The formal element of story language is introduced through the Traditional Tale structure (for which upon, dots 45 u, will have to be specifically highlighted at Level 5).