Books, Books, Books…

Here we are!! It’s January and less than a month after my last blog… by a day, but a blog in January nonetheless.

I want to show you something….

Books

“I love books because when you read you can get whisked away like into a world of adventure and into a world of learning. There are so many different types of books, like adventure for example, ‘Harry Potter’, Scary, for example ‘His Dark Materials’, Love, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and Sad ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and more. My favourite is adventure.

My favourite thing about reading is the suspense, if you’re reading and then suddenly you can’t put the book down, that’s my favourite. In my opinion the best authors are: JK Rowling, Roald Dahl, William Shakespeare, and David Walliams and Anne Fine. Reading is good because it helps you expand your vocabulary. My favourite is adventure because I like the danger. Also I like it when an underdog character ends up saving the day. Also twists. I like it when a sudden twist happens. It keeps the story interesting.

I also like detective/mysteries because the person responsible might be the person you least expect. I like books without pictures because then I can imagine it in my head. I LOVE books!”

This is not my own writing. This was in fact written by a 10-year-old girl in my class. Amazing!

After the holidays I wanted to get my class back into writing by playing the popular game: ‘Just a Minute’. The only instruction I gave was that they must write/talk about something, for a minute, that they are really passionate about. No examples/prompts were given except for my own version: ‘Why Trampolining is just the best’.

Off they went and a while later voila, 29 completely different scripts/pieces of writing (of sorts) were done and ready to go, all of them thought about, hard, by the respective child.

However, this one to me stood out, because instead of talking about sport, their favourite TV programme, their favourite YouTuber… this girl chose to talk about books. The joy she so clearly gets from reading, and books altogether is so evident and the feeling behind it so genuine.

Those who work in Education, will understand when I say, reading, and books are a challenge in any school. We are forever being told that children aren’t reading enough, children need to be tested on how fast they read, how fluent they are, and how much they can infer/comprehend what has been read to them, and what they are reading themselves.

I think along the way, we have forgotten what books are really there for- to enjoy!

Now, I am not saying that the other things mentioned above aren’t important, because as a teacher I know they really are. But I know enjoyment of reading and books are key. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, there is literally no chance you will carry it on. There are so many things growing up I didn’t enjoy but really tried to, but eventually that motivation left, and I stopped.

Recently, in our school we have started to ERIC (Everybody Reads In Class) properly throughout every class. Each day straight after lunch, for 10 minutes literally everyone grabs a book, sits anywhere, and reads (pretty self-explanatory right?). I sit and read a book too. One that is appropriate for the class I am teaching- currently Cosmic: One Giant Leap for Boy Kind, and the children do exactly the same. I am not exaggerating when I say, it is the best feeling, watching, and reading with a class who are so lost in their own books that they really don’t notice anything else.

Before Christmas, I would have numerous children choosing not to read unless they had to and now, every single child is reading a book they want to read with no pressure at all to answer questions, retell or even explain what they have read to anyone else; unless of course they really want to tell us how much they are loving the book they have been reading. The beauty of ERIC is that the only point of it is to simply enjoy the process of reading and NOT get tied up in where the adjectives are, or why the comma has been placed there, rather than somewhere else.

Something else we have been doing at the end of each day is reading a whole class book- again with no expectation or explanation. Children lay their heads down, chill out and listen to the book we have chosen to read- Wonder (Such a great book!).

I think what I am trying to get across in this very roundabout way, for my first blog of 2020, is that reading and books are brilliant!

If everyone could feel the way this lovely girl felt about books when writing her ‘Just a Minute’ piece, then the world would be far happier, in my opinion.

Since writing this piece just after Christmas, she has come up to me almost every day to tell me the next exciting, sad or scary part of the book she is reading at the moment, and how she is feeling about it. The look on her face, and the excitement she shows is infectious. Every child now comes into class talking about the books they are reading and recommending them to others.

In my wander around the classroom throughout the day, or when I am helping groups with their work, I will pick up the books the children are reading, not only to check the books are appropriate (I know!) but also because I am genuinely interested in what is being read, and seeing if I can find a new book for me to read during ERIC!

Now, obviously getting everyone to love reading ,and get involved is virtually impossible. I know so many children (my sister included- an adult) who would rather not read books, but by taking steps away from obsessively assessing, questioning and breaking down the books we are reading at school, and giving children the opportunity to just read for pleasure, and for no data driven outcome, is a definite step in the right direction.

As the above writing states: “I like books because you can get whisked away in a world of adventure and a world of learning.”  Enjoyment of Reading leads to a whole world of learning.

Well that’s it… January’s blog done and whole lot of tired rambling.

See you next month!

Sinead x