Reading

The Benefits of Uninterrupted Reading

Recently, I have been reading up on the benefits of whole class reading. Doug Lemov’s ideas in Reading Reconsidered seem to be (rightly) influencing many primary teachers to eschew small group reading for whole class texts. These ideas seem to align with a trend in my own secondary teaching in… Read More

World Book Day 2016: What’s Your Favourite Book?

What we read can say a lot about us. Books instil a sense of identity and purpose, exposing us to unique situations and offering insight into areas we would never otherwise encounter. What we read during our time in school – be it for an assignment or pleasure – often determines… Read More

How to… celebrate World Book Day

World Book Day is almost here! This much-loved day in the school year is one to have lots of fun on, from dressing up as book characters to revisiting our favourite books. It’s a day to focus on books and reading and hopefully build up enough of a head of… Read More

English – Democracy

We all think that the last time Britain was invaded and ruled by a foreign power was after the Battle of Hastings but there have been a number of occasions when a foreign candidate took over or was invited to take the throne. One of the least know is that… Read More

English – Recounts

Before books, all knowledge and storytelling was passed on verbally with those that heard the story or learned how to hunt, retelling or recounting it to others, days, weeks, months or even years later. Recounting accurately relies on two main skills – listening and remembering and a supplementary one in… Read More

English – Asking the Right Question

It’s twenty years since we were first introduced to the rather wacky sounding Yahoo! internet search engine. Over the years we have come to realise that unless we phrase our questions accurately or succinctly, search engines will throw up millions of results leading to a frustrating time of reading through… Read More
row of books

Creating enthusiasm for reading: mini book clubs

How do you solve the problem of reading for pleasure? Drop everything and read? Books in bags? Form-time reading?  Reading lesson? Reading ambassadors? Get caught reading?  There is, of course, no one magic answer and it will be the combined impact of a number of these strategies (and many more)… Read More

10 ways to increase enthusiasm for reading in your classroom

Enthusiasm: Make sure everyone understands that reading enthusiasm – regularly choosing to read even when there’s no adult around – correlates strongly with academic success, even in maths (PISA; IoE et al). Enjoyment of reading improves children’s life-chances! Self-identification: Focus all colleagues on the job of generating enthusiasm for reading:… Read More