Pearson Schools Blog

Classroom cliff hangers and library legends

Once upon a time, when chickens still had teeth, and horses still had feathers...

Have I got your attention? Stories do that, too, and this post is about storytelling and reading aloud. Stories grab and enthral, they stimulate thinking, they play with language, they celebrate listening – and they’re a high-octane way to motivate children, and model reading for pleasure.

All your pupils need the experience of stories (whether told from memory, read aloud, or on audio books), especially if they’re struggling with reading. They need to be reminded of the delights to come when they become more fluent.

By itself, reading is potentially a quiet and isolating activity. Reading groups, author events and online book chats are challenging this, but speaking aloud challenges the stereotype even more, bringing a buzz to books in class, and making it ‘loud in the library!’
 

Imagine a warm, colourful space where children can sit, or lounge, on the carpet – and just read: read what they’ve chosen themselves; read without follow-up tests; browse, skip and skim; become glued to books or magazines, or discard them at will; gaze at pictures as well as soaking up words.  Imagine them talking to each other excitedly about what they’ve just read, or the amazing facts they’ve discovered from books or IT devices. Imagine a space that they feel is theirs; one that says ‘Be yourself’ rather than ‘Be careful’. And, in whatever size the space may be, imagine that (in Ted Hughes’s phrase) they’ll ‘turn the key to the whole world.’ (1)

"Boys do read - sometimes more than girls. They just don't talk about it as much, or pretend they're reading, as some girls do, to keep you happy!" The authentic voice of real-life experience from leading school librarian Eileen Armstrong, with whom I collaborated to produce the government-backed ‘Boys into Books’ initiative back in 2007. Is the issue of boys’ reading still ‘a thing’, 14 years on? 

Your October Primary Update

In June this year, we kicked off our Share a Read campaign to encourage more people to pick up a book and feel the benefits of reading for pleasure. We wanted you to discover new books and share the joy of reading them with everyone. 

‘If I visited your school’, I often ask teachers and school librarians, ‘would I know that it’s a school that values reading… before I got to the library?’ (This assumes the library’s lively, well-stocked, welcoming, and used). ‘Would I see photographs of a recent author visit on your entrance area’s computer screen? Would I see, at child’s-eye level in the corridors, jumbled book titles, ‘children’s picks’, and author bios? Are there poems in unusual places, like the back of toilet cubicle doors?   

Do you remember reading and writing for pleasure during your school days? Perhaps your class had a cosy nook for devouring books during breaks – or maybe a teacher enthused you with the joy of making up your own stories just because. If so, you may not realise what a great springboard that was for later life.

When a child makes the leap from reading because their teacher tells them they must, to reading for pleasure, they have picked up a good habit for a lifetime. True, not everybody is a great reader, and we all have our own unique skills to offer the world, but anybody’s reading can improve with time and patience. This is especially true for children who have the advantage of minds that are keen to learn and absorb information. That’s why helping children to keep gaining confidence in their reading, whatever their natural ability, is so fundamental and it is best achieved when the duty is shared by homes and schools.

As dates for the autumn term diary go, few hold more creative potential than National Poetry Day. This year, the theme for the UK-wide celebration is ‘Choice’ – so we’re encouraging teachers and pupils alike to choose to take part in the action! To help you along, here are Five Top Tips to encourage your pupils' engagement on Thursday 7 October and beyond.