Reading for pleasure 20 March 2014 conference notes
This full day conference for primary school teachers and librarians, in our popular
reading for pleasure series, explored strategies to engage pupils with reading, putting
books at the heart of learning. The focus was on strategies to get boys reading and
creative ways to encourage reading for pleasure.
Margaret Holborn, head of the Guardian Education Centre, welcomed delegates to the
conference and outlined the aims of the day:






Put books at the heart of learning.
Find out more about the writing process and meet authors.
Strategies to encourage wider reading.
Discuss being creative with books and getting boys to read.
Network and exchange ideas.
Get ideas, tips and resources that can be used in the classroom.
Margaret also explained how newspaper workshops could be booked at the Guardian
Education Centre.
The day was chaired by the Guardian’s Children’s Books editor Julia Eccleshare.
Julia explained that she was very proud that the newspaper covers children’s books so
seriously and that they regularly appear in the Review section on Saturdays.
Positioning children’s books as works of literature is very important. The Guardian is
passionate about children and reading.
Julia introduced Emily Drabble, acting editor of the Guardian’s children’s books site.
Emily enthusiastically described the site:






All reviews are written by children.
There are 2,000 mainly individual members with some group members
including schools and libraries.
Children can send in their own pieces of creative writing.
Quizzes feature regularly.
Many authors write for the site such as Laura Dockrill giving tips on writing,
Tanya Byrne on top 10 black characters.
Video for World Book Day where children dressed up as their favourite
characters and interviewed Jacqueline Wilson, SF Said and Jim Smith.
Writing for children
Philip Ardagh, author
Philip is the author of numerous children’s books including the award-winning Eddie
Dickens adventures, Grubtown Tales and The Grunts series. Philip brilliantly and
animatedly described writing for children. He explained that Eddie Dickens was
originally a character featured in letters from Philip to his nephew, Ben, who was at
boarding school when his family was based in Russia. He explained that the idea
came when recalling the bad letters he received from his own mother when he was at
boarding school. He wanted to turn the mundane facts she wrote about into amazing
adventures. The subsequent book developed from a series of letters written to one
child. The book ended up being translated into 34 languages.
Philip is very interested in word play and characters. He talked about writing about
the Grunts for the 75th anniversary of The Beano. Philip also read from The Fall of
Fergal which is the first book in a dark but funny trilogy called ‘Unlikely Exploits’. In
Grubtown Tales Philip appears as town resident, Beardy Ardagh. Philip explained:





He has a passion for writing and tweeting.
He loves going to schools and festivals.
He believes what makes a good book is passion.
He personally replies to 1,000s of letters from children.
Author’s websites can show readers that writers are human and approachable.
Creating a reading school
Jack Sloan - deputy headteacher, Hanover Primary School
Jack gave some background to his school:




Pupils eligible for pupil premium is significantly above average.
Children can read using phonics and guided reading.
Reading comprehension is good.
Results are good – lots of higher levels at KS1 and KS2
However, Jack and the headteacher of the school interview a child per week from
each class. They noticed that the children never mentioned reading in their interviews.
It was decided that a new vision was needed:





All children read for pleasure.
Children leave the school with a breadth and experience of reading.
Parents read effectively and regularly with their children.
More children achieving higher KS1 and KS2 levels.
Reading and high quality literature should be placed at the core of the
curriculum.
Jack read an extract from The Giant Jam Sandwich, by John Vernon Lord, a favourite
of his when he was a child. He highlighted how adults can often recall favourite
books and that it was important to give children the opportunity to immerse
themselves in reading and to read whole books not just extracts. Jack explained with
great enthusiasm how they made a conscious effort at Hanover to make reading
visible:





Put pictures up all over the school of children reading.
Set up a book swap in the foyer – now children are reading there every day.
Set up a library with a professional librarian working one day a week.
Work with authors and illustrators.
Started reading with parents – there are now two parent book groups.
The school supplies the parents with tea and cake and Jack runs sessions with parents
that include activities that he also does with children e.g. hot-seating, poetry and
painting. He runs a blog alongside the book groups which also includes resources.
You can read the blog here. Parents have reported that the book groups have renewed
their pleasure in reading and helped them understand how their children learn at
school. They felt that they could use similar methods at home to support and
encourage their children.
Feedback from teachers in the school on the focus on reading has also been very
positive:






Drama and other activities bring texts to life.
Experience – FSM6 children, experience of other worlds.
Cooperation and disagreement – opinions about texts and experiences –
emotional response to literature.
Vocabulary emerges from drama.
Holistic approach to learning English.
It’s fun to teach – teachers are more engaged.
After the first of the two networking and ideas exchange sessions there followed three
workshops.
Workshop 1
I love this book! Have you got more of the same?
Julia Eccleshare
Julia explained that she has worked all her life in children’s books including as an
editor and reviewer. The starting point for her is always the book. There are about
10,000 children’s books published every year. There is a book there for every reader.
Julia showed the group what authors had said about writing:





You cannot write for children. They are much too complicated. You can only
write books that are of interest to them – Maurice Sendak.
I think of children’s books as not so much for children, but as the filling that
goes between the child and the adult world. One way or another, all children’s
books have to negotiate that space – Michael Rosen.
Novels, even short stories, eat ideas like forest fires eat trees. If you’re setting
out on an epic novel with just one idea, you’re probably going to peter out.
What I do is take an idea that interests me, that I can feel an emotional
response to, and then chuck it into my head to stew for a day or a week or a
year, and then see if another idea sticks to it – Patrick Ness.
Stories make you think and dream; books make you want to ask questions. For
me, the greater part of writing is day dreaming, dreaming the dream of my
story until it hatches out. I love finishing it, then holding the book in my hand
and sharing the dream with my readers – Michael Morpugo.
We think in stories. Before you can build a rocket to go to the moon, you have
to dream of being able to do so. Think of what an important part of your
mental equipment the story of The Ugly Duckling is, or Frankenstein,
Cinderella or The Prodigal Son. These stories are like scientific discoveries –


they name something that exists in the world but which we couldn’t see
clearly – or feel clearly – until we were told the story – Frank Cotrell Boyce.
I believe people like us taking children’s books seriously, because we take
writing seriously, in the same way that those of us who draw take drawing
seriously. These books, at their best, are primers in the development of the
emotional, the moral and the imaginative life. And they can be a celebration of
what it is to be a human being – Quentin Blake.
Thou shalt not is soon forgotten but Once upon a time lasts forever. After
nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are things we need most in
the world. There are themes and subjects too large for adult fiction; they can
only be dealt with adequately in a children’s book. We don’t need a list of
do’s and don’ts: we need books, time and silence. As a passionate believer in
the democracy of reading, I don’t think it’s the task of the author of a book to
tell the reader what it means. The meaning of a story emerges in the meeting
between the words on the page and the thoughts in the reader’s mind. So when
people ask me what I meant by this story, or what was the message I was
trying to convey in that one, I have to explain that I’m not going to explain.
Anyway, I’m not in the message business; I’m in the “Once upon a time”
business – Philip Pullman.
Members of the group named their favourite books as children and then discussed
what children’s books needed:





Hope.
Sense of place.
Creation of a visual place.
Children learning about the world.
Fast moving world can mean that children need to be engaged throughout.
There was a discussion about the fact that children today are very protected and their
lives can be limited. Swallows and Amazons would probably not be written today. It
was agreed that fiction gives children the chance to have adventures they could not
have in real life. Books are very powerful because of the images and messages they
are giving children. Book suggestions for young children were shared and Julia gave
out a list of book ideas for children aged 4-10.
Fabulous Phonics
Ruth Moyler - deputy headteacher, John Donne Primary School
In this session Ruth discussed her innovative method of using immersive learning
through play to help early years children learn phonics, even when they have very low
verbal ability.
The creative learning uses a small world play context, themed each week for a
different set of phonics, and connected to a text read with the class, within which
children engage with one letter or sound each day.
Children focus entirely on one letter in a wide range of activities, to make memorable
associations with these letters and sounds: daily letter - main word association - Jolly
phonics actions - real objects (toys & edible items) - songs & rhymes - book linked to
letter - something to make.
A small world context of a jungle would have a related book as the main text used
with the class that week, and each day that week would focus on a different
letter/sound. For example, a focus on ‘s’ using snake as the main word association,
and a variety of toys beginning with s with which to play.
The small world context allows the children to verbalise their new learning in play.
This connected approach will remind children of the songs and stories they have
heard, and as a result, they often use this new language in their play.
Using real objects - toys and food - is important as something real is far more
motivational than a picture or a word on its own.
Children produce a weekly big write, which is displayed immediately, with the
previous week's big write filed in a large A3 project folder for each pupil - this then
shows progress across the year.
Parents are invited to view the big write displays, with progress and improvements
highlighted.
Partnerships with parents are vital. They are supported with a family phonics sheet
explaining exactly what the children are learning and how, and what parents can be
doing at home to reinforce this, also a grid of dates showing what will be learnt when
- so parents can support at home. Ruth gave a lovely example of a parent saying she
would make sure her child had fish fingers for tea on the day they had been learning
'f'.
Summary of key points and useful resources:
Immersive learning through play - small world play context
High quality products for children - reading and other classroom materials
Weekly big write
Partnerships with parents
Jolly phonics http://jollylearning.co.uk/overview-about-jolly-phonics/
CLPE Power of reading http://por.clpe.org.uk
Ken Robinson Ted talks https://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson
You can read more about Ruth and her Fabulous phonics strategy and download some
of her resources in this article on the Guardian Teacher Network:
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/jul/05/teachingphonics-reading-writing
Planning creatively around a text
Charlotte Hacking, teaching and learning manager CLPE
Using The Great Explorer by Chris Judge (Andersen Press)

Unfold the story for the children – examine illustrations and consider
who this character is and what they are doing. What are they doing?




Where are they going? What do they have in their backpack? Justify
the 3 things you would take.
Writing opportunities should enable the children to move from oracy
to writing – use Dictaphones to create a radio news report. Consider
features of a newspaper report and the differences. What questions
does the newspaper report need to answer?
Build vocabulary, sharing video and music to inspire words related to
the topics and then use this vocabulary to create richer pieces of
writing.
Ask members of each group to write a word/s, phrase or sentence to
describe a piece of video footage linked to the story themes and then
create a piece of free verse by agreeing the order for these strips.
Rehearse and perform.
Build SPAG into your lessons by using the models found in the quality
texts used in a rich, reading curriculum.
For more information about ‘Planning creatively around a text’ or any other CLPE
course visit www.clpe.org.uk
Creating books for young readers
Alexis Deacon, author and illustrator
Alexis talked about the process of making picture books for young children. He
explained that all children enjoy drawing from an early age but then at a certain stage
some just stop. He has never stopped.
When he was still at college he was asked to write a book for children. Being inspired
by animals and monsters he spent hours in a zoo, sketching a slow loris and created
the story of the creature’s secret life after the visitors had gone home in Slow Loris.
Alexis said that story making doesn’t happen in a vacuum – it’s a reaction to things.
He worked hard to find what would be suitable subject matter for children. When he
started with the idea of an alien crashing a spaceship he imagined the alien sleeping
with puppies, going to a school then growing up, visiting a night club and looking for
a job. With advice from the publisher he omitted the adult experiences of the alien
and wrote the extremely successful Beegu.
Alexis draws his images first and then colours them in. His books are often in muted
colours and he only uses bright colours for a purpose, such as Slow Loris’ satsuma.
He usually draws his figures smaller than he needs them to be for a book, then
enlarges them on a photocopier. He explained that as an author and illustrator you
control all the elements of the book as every choice you make has an impact on the
story. Every page including the space used means that the writer is curating the story
to engage the reader. Any use of depth in the pictures, density in the image is the
author being in control of the creation of the story and illustration. He uses scale and
colour to tell the story of The Selfish Giant. With each page the giant gets smaller
until he is in the position of the child.
Alexis talked about being stuck at times when faced with a blank page and has
observed that children feel the same. He noticed that if you start with something as
simple as a dot then things start to happen. This technique can be used very
successfully with children. From a dot eyes can be created and planes etc. Getting rid
of a blank page can be very important in helping to create ideas.
What do boys read?
Prue Goodwin, lecturer in literacy and children’s books
Prue began by explaining that reading for pleasure is personal and many boys enjoy
reading comic strips, graphic texts, information books, screen texts, magazines and
newspapers, film and TV spin-offs, catalogues and manuals etc.
She also believed that fundamentally if as a teacher you share a book with enthusiasm
children will probably enjoy it.
She highlighted the recommendations to the government from the Boys’ Reading
Commission of 2012. Some key points were:





Every child should be supported by their school in developing as a reader.
Crucially, schools must promote reading for enjoyment and involve parents
(overtly fathers) in their reading strategies.
Every teacher should have an up-to-date knowledge of reading materials that
will appeal to disengaged boys.
Libraries should target children (particularly boys) who are least likely to be
supported in their reading at home.
Every boy should have weekly support from a male reading role model.
Parenting initiatives must specifically support literacy and fathers.
Prue asked delegates about the pleasure they found in reading:





Getting totally lost in a book.
Being emotionally engaged with the text.
Becoming absorbed in an unfolding narrative.
Having a close relationship with certain texts for life.
Seeing literature as the means by which we can understand and accept
ourselves and the rest of humanity.
Prue asked about what happens at school:



Is learning to read a competition about which book you are reading?
What are ‘reading’ books for in primary school?
What is the teacher’s role in the classroom?
- teaching to read and be readers
- creating independence (reading for pleasure)
Suggestions were made about teaching reading for pleasure:



Read aloud to pupils as much as possible.
Model lively ‘book talk’ sessions from the start.
All primary teachers need regular up-dates on books from children’s librarians
or independent booksellers.
The question Prue also raised was what else happens at school?



How much is school committed to creating readers – both boys and girls?
What is the literacy budget?
What is currently spent on books?
A committed and serious approach to teaching reading for pleasure could be
supported by:




Links with libraries and librarians (especially local Schools Library Services).
School Library Association (SLA) membership – for librarians working in
school.
Patron of Reading – initiative by the society of Authors.
Awareness of the world of children’s books (e.g. UK Literacy Association
Book Awards which are judged by teachers).
Acknowledging a room full of people enthusiastic about teaching reading for pleasure
Prue ended with a quote from Dr Who, which made everyone smile: ‘You want
weapons? We’re in a library. Books – the best weapons in the world!’
Blowing up Literacy workshop
Ross Bolwell-Williams - creative education manager, MakeBelieve Arts, a theatre
and education company
In this workshop Ross was keen to break down barriers and inhibitions so that
everyone felt comfortable and relaxed – just as he would work with children. The
workshop looked at ways of allowing children a comfortable way of working with a
text and arming them with ideas for creating their own stories. Activities were
introduced gently and made more demanding throughout the session:




Warm-up involved throwing a ball from person to person and describing a
super power of choice with a reason. Everyone in the same position – doing
the same task – but one that was achievable by all.
Story map created using a wriggly line. A volunteer drew pictures and another
told a story using the pictures. Ross explained how our brains crave to make
connections through disassociated ideas.
Fortunately and unfortunately – working in pairs one started a sentence with
‘fortunately I had an umbrella’ and another with ‘unfortunately …’ This
involved the pairs listening to each other to create a storyline.
Five part story which was created dramatically between the group and
involved an introduction, development ideas, conflict, climax and conclusion.
The five part story was built around the familiar tale of Little Red Riding Hood.
Children would be able to have lots of fun contributing ideas to the story, gaining
confidence from their own knowledge and the fact that everyone’s contribution is
equally valid. The story culminated in the trial of the wolf and the group had to
submit arguments for the defence of the wolf’s actions. This could lead on to
newspaper writing.
Ross reinforced that children who struggle with reading and writing can be greatly
helped by starting with a book and a visual idea to give them the tools to know where
to begin.
You can find out more about MakebelieveArts at:
Website: www.makebelievearts.co.uk
Blogsite: www.makebelievearts.net
Make a book!
Shelagh McCarthy - artist/educator, the Learning team, British Library
The British Library Learning Centre offers the practical Make a book! workshop to
primary schools for years 3-6.
During this session, teachers had the opportunity to try out the workshop. They
developed teaching ideas to use back in the classroom and also discovered what their
students would do if they came for a visit.
The session helped show how teachers can promote excitement about books by
exploring them as physical objects.
Shelagh led a general discussion based upon the following questions:
- What do books look like?
- What is a book for?
- Which senses do we use when encountering books?
- What's inside a book?
Teachers were introduced to the history of the book. They looked at a variety of
images and discussed different types of books including a codex, scroll, e-book and a
fan-fold book. Shelagh underlined the physicality of books when explaining the terms
for different parts of a codex book - the head, the foot, the body. Teachers handled
different types of books including an old codex book that they were encouraged to
smell and a braille book.
Teachers then went on to create their own book using basic bookbinding techniques
and decorating the cover, taking inspiration from the British Library's collections.
Families as partners
Examples of best practice were shared by CLPE’s Charlotte Hacking and Jack Sloan,
deputy headteacher at Hanover Primary School, Islington. These included:


Story props to help bring a range of stories to life, allowing children to
‘play within the story’ and building a strong understanding of it
through talk. Examples were explored and delegates considered how
they might create these in their current settings for parents/children.
Creative and fun ways of engaging with parents to develop a rich Early
Years environment in school were explored, considering EAL and


bilingual learners and their parents. Using home languages to support
learning in English.
Considering the role of rhyme and song in language development.
Establishing book groups for parents, using CLPE’s Power of Reading
– bringing parents of EAL children into school and working with them
so that they, in turn, can work more effectively and confidently with
their children. Jack shared his experiences and how this has worked in
practice in his school’s setting.
For more information about ‘Achieving Excellence in the Early Years’, ‘Parent’s as
Partners in Early Learning’ and ‘Family Learning’ or other CLPE courses visit
www.clpe.org.uk
Networking ideas and reading surgery
Julia Eccleshare, Prue Goodwin, Charlotte Hacking and Jack Sloan
In this final session thanks were given to Prue for saying that no book is too easy.
Prue emphasised that children need to be able to wallow in a book and understand the
emotions behind the words.
Jack commented that his experience of working with parents was that they talk about
their emotional response to a text and being immersed in it.
Delegates commented that they were going back to school:


To make reading more visible and think how to work more with parents.
To go through and analyse some of the terminology used in school.
One teacher asked for book ideas for a topic on the good life. The following
suggestions were made by delegates and representatives from the Children’s
Bookshop, Muswell Hill:






How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant by Elen Caldecott
Lob by Linda Newbery
The Promise by Nicola Davies
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mini Grey books
House Held up by Trees by Ted Kooser and Jon Klassen