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In an age of Playstations and iPods, our job of encouraging reading amongst children has become mission impossible. So, should we give in? Should we allow the electronic bombardment of their senses to replace the joy of reading a good book? We absolutely should not. We can’t let them down, but we are going to have to work so much harder at it, if we intend to compete with the instant gratification of digital media.
“The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has concluded that reading for pleasure is even more important than social class in determining academic success.” If this is true, then we need to work harder than ever to ensure our children read, in order that they face no barriers to their social mobility.
Any teacher knows that Literacy is high on the educational agenda, and this is rightly so. What better way is there to allow our children to internalise the patterns and the rhythms of our language? What better way is there to absorb the highly complex rules of spelling, punctuation and grammar, than encouraging them to read – read often, read with enthusiasm, read for pleasure? When we read, we learn many lessons: to express ourselves in both written and verbal form; to analyse, interpret and allow our imaginations to fly.
“A reading child is, quite simply, a successful child.” (Alan Gibbons.)
The pressures of league tables and SATs have meant that the reading of a whole text has become almost taboo. ‘We just don’t have the time!’ cry English teachers across the land. Reading an entire book has almost become something we feel terribly guilty about. ‘I let my children read today’ we admit to colleagues with furtive glances to check nobody is listening. The use of extracts from a text has now become the norm, and so our children are denied the precious experience of completing a whole text, as well the personal pride that comes from that.
It is my mission to get children to read for pleasure, to become voracious consumers of literature, and independent learners for life. So, I’m asking you to join me. You’re a teacher like me – you’re the perfect person to encourage them on this journey, and I can’t do it without you.
I set up The Big Book Quiz three years ago, driven by a desire to get children reading. There were many issues I wished to address:
So, my solution to all these great problems was to create a competitive reading quiz (boys enjoy competition). I decided on a reading list of four books (quality award winning literature), and put the children into teams of 5. They each had to read the book at home (for pleasure!). I then held a launch night for parents at our local library, to introduce the ideas I had to promote reading, and encouraged them to join us in reading these books. After a set reading period, we held the big event. “It’s like a pub quiz without the pub” I told them all. The parents understood.
The quiz night was hosted by one school. All the students turned up in full uniform, but with decorations for their table: mascots, banners, balloons. The quizmaster read the questions, and the child who had read that particular book wrote down the answers on the sheet… and so it went on…
A team of year 11 prefects marked each round as it went along, and by the end we had a winner!
Simple!
Learn to talk; talk to learn.
Let’s get children talking about reading.
Setting up a reading group, using the books from the reading list, is a ‘quick win’. It instantly creates a reading community, and it generates talk about reading around school. I put my readers into groups to discuss the book that they have all read, on a weekly basis. Sometimes, I guide their talk with given questions. On other occasions, I allow their talk to develop more naturally along any path which they choose to take it.
Speaking and listening skills play an enormous role in learning, and not just in English. There is a massive weight of research which suggests that talk underpins cognitive development, and that learning is developed through the social process of talk. Ideas can be expressed, challenged, defended, and developed in a group situation. The skills required for reasoning and interacting with others are vital to our pupils’ success beyond the classroom.
Within the classroom, however; we still have to ensure that our pupils are equipped to pass the exam that inevitably comes at the end. The independence required in order to do that is something we need to develop through the encouragement of exploratory talk. By giving opportunities to talk about the books they have read, we can create dynamic readers who will be able to confidently express a personal response to a text.
So, let’s get them together. It’s good to talk!
… and when Ofsted asks what you are doing to encourage wider reading for pleasure, you have the perfect answer – The Big Book Quiz!
Reading for Purpose and Pleasure 2004
There has been considerable recent concern about an apparent decline in reading for pleasure. In recent years, the view has developed, especially in secondary schools, that there is not enough curriculum time to focus on wider reading, or to focus on reading for pleasure.
The survey found that too few schools gave enough thought about ways to encourage the love of reading, and a sizeable minority of pupils failed to reach national expectations in reading.
All schools should: