Reading for pleasure 24 November 2015 - conference notes
Margaret Holborn, Head of the Guardian Education Centre, welcomed everyone to the
conference. Julia Eccleshare, the Guardian children’s books editor chaired the day.
Emily Drabble, editor of the Guardian Children’s Books site, explained that the website is for
under 18s and is a reading for pleasure site. There are many ways schools, teachers and
librarians can get involved and access resources:
How to draw: illustrators give step-by-step guides.
Top 10s: authors give their top 10 books on particular subjects, very inspirational.
Author interviews: by children, on both individuals and books.
Young readers may join the site as individuals or as a book group.
There are also at least three book reviews published a day written by children and teenagers.
Chibundu Onuzo, author: Engaging young people with reading
Claire Armitstead introduced Chibundu Onuzo who started writing her first book at 17, got an
agent at 18 and at 19 became the youngest female author with publishers Faber and Faber.
Aged 21 her first book, The Spider King’s Daughter, was published.
Chibundu explained that she disliked the word “should” when talking about children and
reading. She feels that children should read for pleasure and an increased vocabulary should
be a sideline of the joy of reading.
She enjoys the idea of “glee”, experienced when a child associates books with happiness.
Growing up in Lagos Chibundu had lots of books and her mother talked about the books she
had enjoyed. She was told about Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin and
because it had been built up she couldn’t wait to read it.
Chibundu felt that her very good school in Lagos was a cultural wasteland as sciences, not the
arts, were taken seriously. However, the areas with air conditioning; the computer lab and the
library, were popular places for cooling down. Many books were read inside the library, as
books were not allowed to leave the premises.
When Chibundu moved to the UK she described it as “Eden” to be able to borrow books from
the library. She found inspired librarians who would set up displays of books, for example
based around the Man Booker Prize. Weekly displays were set up in key locations round the
school, so that a buzz was created around books.
Claire asked Chibundu if it mattered if you read schlocky books and Chibundu felt that you
needed to read lots of books to decide what you actually liked to read. She had also read
books considered too advanced for her reading age.
Claire asked how her book The Spider King’s Daughter came about. Chibundu explained that
when she came to boarding school in the UK she had her own room with a desk for the first
time. She convinced her father that she needed a laptop. She had always been keen on writing
but having the tools definitely helped. Her sister bought her the Writers’ and Artists’
Yearbook, which also gave her a push to write. She had written a short collection at 14 but it
had been rejected. She started The Spider King’s Daughter with an idea about a rich girl. She
had a comfortable upbringing herself and was at school with people from affluent
backgrounds. For the first time she was writing about her own experience rather than basing
her writing on her reading of English literature. She also, with the support of her mother,
interviewed a street labourer for research purposes.
Claire asked if she felt a duty to write about real world politics. Chibundu said that she writes
a lot of news commentary and is pleased to have the platform to do so.
What I read growing up in Lagos, by Chibundu Onuzo
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Francine McMahon, Secondary English Lead for Teach First at Canterbury Christ
Church University: A whole school approach to reading for pleasure
Francine began by stressing the importance of knowing your research when aiming to
convince people of the impact of reading and justifying the strategies used.
Reading for pleasure has been highlighted as a priority for all secondary schools, with recent
research from the DfE, the Reading agency, IOE and NLT, showing a correlation between
enjoyment, attainment and wider social outcomes
“Young people who enjoy reading very much are nearly four times as likely to read above
the level expected for their age compared with young people who do not enjoy reading at
all. Similarly, young people who read outside class daily are five times as likely to read
above the expected level for their age compared with young people who never read outside
class.”
“Children who read for pleasure made more progress in maths, vocabulary and spelling
between the ages of 10 and 16 than those who rarely read.”
Children’s and Young People’s Reading Today: Findings from the 2013 National Literacy
Trust’s annual survey 2014
Francine described her experience of working in a school with a high percentage of pupils
speaking English as an additional language and a high proportion of pupils eligible for free
school meals. When she arrived at the school the pass rate of five A* - C including English
and Maths and was just above 30%. She knew that to make progress a whole school approach
was required.
Francine talked about needing a broader definition of reading: it must be seen as more than
reading in silence.
To find out what pupils in her school thought about reading they took part in the NLT Annual
literacy survey. This helps the NLT build a picture of young people’s reading but also
provided a school specific report about what would influence her pupils’ reading habits. The
survey found that meeting authors, celebrities and designing websites were the top three
strategies that would contribute to their reading for pleasure. So a calendar of reading events
was created that would use all of these activities.
The main aspect of the calendar of events was the author visits. In preparation for the visit, a
lesson was designed to introduce them to the author and build them up as celebrities. They
also completed reading games and set up a competition.
For the first author visit, pupils won positions as reading champions. They had to apply and
sit an interview. The privileges of being a reading champion included meeting and greeting
the author, an automatic spot in the author workshops, receiving signed copies of all the
author’s books, being involved in interviewing (filming) the author and writing up the
article/blog for the school website and newsletter.
The prizes were the motivation. Each author visit had to have something special that
interested the pupils. Popular authors to visit the school included Darren Shan, Pete Johnson
and Derek Landy. They also added in visits to other schools – and an incentive for the boys to
read Twilight was a visit to the local girls school to discuss books. The cost of author visits
can be shared across schools through the Library Service.
For maximum impact of author visits Francine promoted the event four weeks ahead. A
competition was created around each visit and assemblies and lessons were also good ways of
generating anticipation for the visits.
By the end, every year group had an author visit throughout the year. Reading had become
cool. Most importantly, all pupils had been involved and included in the events.
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Claire Houslop and Jo White, Dorothy Stringer School: Successful strategies in
promoting reading for pleasure
Claire and Jo talked about the whole purpose of successful strategies being to engage pupils
who may not normally enjoy reading. They created a brand identity for reading when they
adopted DEAR (drop everything and read) with a poster which was plastered in every
conceivable and indeed inconceivable place in school. They made the strategy part of school
life by modelling what reading for pleasure looks like through displays as well as using
school staff as role models with photographs of them reading and displays of them sharing
their favourite book titles from childhood.
They introduced DEAR gradually and for the first year did it for one week which increased to
once a term and now it takes place every week. Space is provided for children to read and
there is a book break every Wednesday. Regular reading assemblies take place but they do try
to vary them to keep children interested, with for example dramatic readings from books.
The school has also made links with local bookshops and local libraries and there have been
visits by authors such as Charlie Higson and Darren Shan. The school has also created its own
community events for example The Stringer Big Summer Read where pupils and staff were
encouraged to read the same book over the summer break.
A few years ago the school got involved with UKLA book awards and through Claire’s
experience of being a judge they set up a shadow group in school. The teachers’ book group
would follow the long list and discuss teen fiction, giving them greater insight into what
might engage pupils. Teachers also sign off emails with the title of their current reading book.
Many successful reading strategies were suggested:
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Beginning lessons with a book connection challenge.
Make good use of windows for book displays.
Encourage a shared experience and don’t resist the fun of reading in unusual places.
Flashmob reading by setting a specific time and place to come and read.
Get caught reading – display photographs of people reading in different locations.
Celebrate reading by bringing it to life through dressing up as characters or acting
scenes from books.
Claire and Jo showed how these strategies of reading for pleasure can become a driving force
behind school improvement and have been very successful in their school in adapting staff
and pupil attitudes.
Best practice workshops
Poems in translation: inspiring young readers – Shazea Quraishi, poet, translator and
creative writing facilitator with English PEN
Shazea introduced herself to the group and explained that in her role with English PEN she
works with prisoners, refugees and schools to promote the freedom to write and the freedom
to read. PEN workshops aim to inspire and empower participants by celebrating
multilingualism and multiculturalism as assets.
Reading poetry in translation is a very feasible way for schools to expose children to different
world views.
Shazea presented the group with three poems and volunteers read them aloud:
My Voice by Partaw Naderi – translated from Arabic by Yama Yari and Sarah
Maguire
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Painting with Late Night in Păltiniș by Liliana Ursu – translated from Romanian by
Mihaela Moscaliuc
Light is a Prowling Cat by Kutti Revathi – translated from Tamil by Lakshmi
Holmström
The group discussed the first poem being very topical at the moment and the final poem with
its use of metaphor being the most challenging.
Shazea then read from her own poem Carandasi which begins and ends with a quote from a
poem by Mahmoud Darwish translated from Arabic. She talked about how using a translated
text as a starting point gives you a different way into your material.
Writing prompts were given out for the first three poems and the group was invited to try
some free-writing (writing non-stop). Some excellent results were produced and one teacher
said it had made her understand how daunting a task it can be to read out one’s work. Another
said she had surprised herself by writing something so personal. Another was dissatisfied with
much she had written but very pleased with one sentence.
Shazea said that the benefits of free writing with children is that it enables them to bypass
their inner critic and produce material in an unthreatening way that may surprise them. It
allows them to write something very personal or completely fictional.
Brainstorming: how can using a poem in translation be used as a model for creative writing?
Ideas:
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In refugee week use poems by refugee writers.
Can be used as part of Black History Month.
Universal issues can be covered in Citizenship classes – looking at what is familiar or
unfamiliar in the translated poem.
One of the poets had been imprisoned so freedom of speech can be a discussion point.
Look at structure by reading a poem in translation with one verse in the original so
can see how it looks.
Shazea said that sometimes in a translation workshop she provides a literal translation
so students can look at the original language and then look at choices when
translating.
Shazea recommended:
Modern Poetry in Translation
The Poetry Translation Centre
Poetry International Web
Reading for pleasure in the classroom: Francine McMahon, Secondary English Lead for
Teach First at Canterbury Christ Church University
Francine focused on creating excitement and enthusiasm for books and reading through the
use of author visits. She described the practicalities of making sure that these visits are
successful and achieve the aim of getting more students reading.
She also shared a selection of DARTs (directed activities related to texts) to use in the
classroom in the build-up to the visits, including: a card-moving activity for text
marking/matching which can be done pre-reading, during or post-reading; a sequencing
activity which means students know what is coming next in the narrative, so reading becomes
less scary; a cloze activity; a restructuring activity in which students retell a story using a
dartboard – choices of words to use are placed around the board, with the most complex
towards the bullseye – the more words they use, the better their score.
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Francine outlined a timeline for organising a programme of author visits across the year:
Prepare – at the start of the year
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Discuss with students which authors they want to meet. Ask the Reading Champions or
student librarians (if you have them) to find out the students’ views.
Ask the some of the children to write to their chosen authors via their website or publisher.
Send it on with a letter from you. Making them aware that they can’t always get the author
they want is good as it makes them appreciate the ones who do come.
Prepare and then promote a “calendar of author visits” and other reading events. Leave dates
free for new authors who captivate the students’ imagination throughout the year.
Promote – four weeks before the event
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Create a competition around each author visit. This could include questions on their book(s)
and the author. Choose incentives and rewards to motivate and encourage the students to
become involved. Rewards should be getting the book or activities related to the books.
Ask students/Reading Champions to prepare a PowerPoint presentation about the author for
display in the foyer, in the library and in English rooms. It should include the book jackets,
blurbs, information on the author, information about the event and how they can win books
through competitions and other activities. Francine even had it as the screen saver on all the
school computers. Saturation is key.
Decide which/how many books to give students as rewards – it could be whole sets of a series
or just the very latest title.
If you allow the students to choose their reward book... make sure you have enough of each.
Write to the publisher and ask them to send any display materials.
Book the venue (such as the assembly hall) and ensure the caretaker knows how you would
like the hall to be set up. Also book the ICT technician to ensure that they are available to
help set up on the day. You should also book the school camera/photographer and invite the
local paper to cover the event as well.
Lastly, are there any other local schools that you would like to invite?
Promote - two weeks before the event
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In assemblies and lessons, show the PowerPoint presentation, wave and rave about the
author’s book(s) read extracts (especially cliff hangers), promote the competitions and the
event itself. It is even better if students do it for you.
Allocate time for students to research the author and their book(s) – this could be in English
class, registration or for homework. Get them to prepare question(s) to ask the author.
Invite all staff to the event. Invite parents too.
On the day
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Ensure all equipment/ICT is in place. Remind the caretaker about the layout of the hall.
Remind teachers about the logistics of the visit.
Decide with teachers which students should be rewarded with a prize book. Students could be
chosen for: producing outstanding work in class; the students who came up with the best
questions; Reading Champions for all their help in organising the event. She has occasionally
given every student in the year group a book, but now feel it is more motivating to win them.
Get the books signed by the author before presenting them to students.
Invite competition winners to a special smaller “meet and greet” author session in the library.
Write up a review of the visit for the school website/newsletter.
Your reward will be:
Higher profile for reading + greater interest in that author’s books + greater interest in similar
books = more students reading.
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Diane Leedham – Mirrors, windows and sliding doors
Diane has been an English teacher since 1984. Now she specialises in EAL and equality
issues. She’s been thinking about addressing gaps, both in terms of teachers as readers, and in
the schools she goes into.
“Mirrors, windows and sliding doors” is a quote from Dr Rudine Sims Bishop, Emeritus
Professor of Education at Ohio State University. In 1990 she wrote that reading could act as a
window into others’ worlds, as well as a mirror to the reader, but that her African American
students weren’t seeing themselves in this mirror. She’s also written on her views of the
progress that’s been made since 1990.
Diane showed an extract of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, The Danger of a Single
Story
Here, Adichie talks about how impressionable we are as children, and the influence of foreign
books on her as a child.
Diane talked about a Zadie Smith quote from Their Eyes Were Watching God. Smith’s
mother tried to make sure that she had experience of reading books by Black authors. Smith
thought “why?” but then talks about the feeling of self-recognition that she hadn’t
experienced in books previously.
Diane noted the repeated importance placed (by earlier speakers in the morning as well as
Adichie and Smith) on mothers and family. She asked the group to consider the children who
don’t have these forces behind them, and what as a teacher they could be doing to support
those students.
Group conversation and feedback: consider your own windows and mirrors – what do you
bring to your classroom?
Teacher feedback included – the voice of a book can be part of the experience of “meeting
yourself” in a book. When the voice and language are comforting, it’s like recognising your
own family.
Diane talked about anxiety around reading books in translation – nervous about
mispronouncing names for example. Problem was “English classrooms often tell a single
story”. Teachers were asked to discuss and think of reasons, symptoms and possible strategies
and solutions.
Reasons:
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Difficulties challenging established order.
Time.
Lack of breadth of own experience.
Lack of range of necessary languages.
Symptoms:
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Potential lack of engagement for students.
Pressure to assimilate.
Lack of recognition – students not having that “coming home” feeling and if
engagement takes longer, self-motivation takes longer.
Strategies and solutions:
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Canonical texts – what can you read around them?
Raise the status of global literature including poetry.
Multi-cultural reading groups.
Match languages and culture, exploring students’ own experiences.
Encourage school to think about KS3 more broadly, not just as preparation for
GCSEs.
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Stephen Kelman, author: The writing process
Julia introduced Stephen Kelman, author of Pigeon English, which was shortlisted for the
Man Booker Prize in 2011. As of this year Pigeon English is a GCSE set text.
Stephen explained that he had intended to write for adults and had been inspired by writers
such as John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut and Roddie Doyle. As a child Stephen had been a
voracious reader. He grew up on a council estate in Luton and at the time of writing Pigeon
English he was conscious that not many books reflected the lives of the people around him.
Pigeon English was inspired by the murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor on a Peckham
estate in 2000, but also by people Stephen had known when growing up and had taken
difficult paths in life.
Julia suggested to Stephen that having a child protagonist gives you a perspective which may
be naïve. Stephen agreed with this and said he had been drawn to the idea of a child brought
over to this country from a place which was different and how he rose to the challenges he
was confronted by. With the main character Harri being 11 years old there was lots of
potential and possibility of danger. There were many ways that he could develop by taking a
wrong turn, making a mistake or a making decision which could take away his unfulfilled
potential.
Julia said that when the book was published it was described as being very dark. Stephen
agreed and said that growing up on his estate there were dangers that children were not
always aware of. He said that the humour in the book shows that children just live their lives
and want to explore so it was important to include light and dark.
Julia asked Stephen if he had to remove commentary from the book so that the children could
live in the moment. Stephen said he wanted the children to speak and live their lives and as
they don’t tend to discuss their lives he tried to eliminate commentary even though at times
the pigeon acts as commentator. Stephen was inspired by a one legged pigeon seen out of his
window and he became the voice able to express things that Harri and his friends could not.
Julia asked about the work that Stephen does in schools and prisons. He explained that many
prisoners have not seen books as part of their lives but being exposed to books in a library had
enabled them to escape into other worlds and also to reflect on their own lives. Some have
formed reading groups which provide them with the opportunity to exchange ideas freely and
they can be supportive environments which many have not experienced before.
In some inner city schools children say that Pigeon English is the first time they have seen
their lives reflected in a book. In different school settings children have been able to
empathise with the character of Harri. It can help children to notice what they have in
common with one another.
Julia asked if Stephen thought it was a good thing his book was now a GCSE set text. He
thought that it was and that it could also be a gateway into a wider literature. When asked if
he enjoyed his book being dissected in school Stephen said he enjoyed the analysis as
sometimes it gave him greater insight into the book he had written.
Finally Julia asked how he felt about the possibility of Pigeon English being made into a film.
He said he was happy to see what they did with it just as he was when it was turned into a
stage play.
When asked if he thought about the audience when writing, Stephen said that he didn’t as he
gets drawn to a story, as with the death of Damilola Taylor for Pigeon English and an incident
on television for his latest book Man on Fire. He always begins with a character and then
enjoys the company of that character as the story unfolds.
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British Library afternoon session
Dr Marion Wallace, Lead curator African Collections and co-curator of West Africa:
Word, Symbol, Song
Doctor Wallace explained that the British Library has a large West Africa collection with
books, manuscripts and sound recordings of music and literature providing the core of the
exhibition. The exhibition looks at remarkable stories from the 17 countries of West Africa.
It was important when curating the exhibition to dispel misconceptions about West Africa, for
instance that there was no writing before the Europeans arrived when in fact there is evidence
of writing from at least 1,500 years ago. Written, spoken and sung words and symbols have
played an important role in the history, politics and religion of the region.
West Africans have used many kinds of writing and symbolic communication and created
many different genres of sophisticated oral literature. These art forms are rooted in history
and constantly reshaped in the present.
Today, writing by West Africans is flourishing. Well known authors Wole Soyinka and
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are among the best known of many producing a huge variety of
fiction and non-fiction writing.
The main themes of the exhibition are:
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Building states – a millennium of history.
Spirit – religion across the region and its words and symbols.
Crossings – the transatlantic slave trade and the writing, music and cultures created
by enslaved people.
Speaking out – writers and musicians on political, social and moral themes.
The story now – literary creativity in West Africa from independence to the present.
Patsy Isles and Jenneba Sie-Jalloh, creative educators at British Library Learning:
Write Here! – workshop activities
Patsy and Jenneba talked about the creative writing workshop available to schools related to
the West Africa exhibition.
Pupils use a bank of exercises linked to the exhibition when visiting and these are then used
to inspire them for the creative writing session at the end of the exhibition viewing. Using
manuscripts, sound recordings, maps, images and printed material as stimuli, pupils will be
encouraged to be inventive with their writing as they explore the exhibition themes. In
Crossings for example pupils are encouraged to think about what people would take with
them if they were leaving one country to go to another. The second part of the session takes
place in the learning centre, where students draw together their work into a final piece, in a
process designed to develop their confidence as creative writers.
My fight to stop publishers air brushing my young adult fiction to make it suitable for
print: Ellen Banda-Aaku, author of Patchwork, winner of the Penguin Prize for African
Writing
Ellen talked about the work she does in Africa with young people. Many students she works
with do not appear to read books outside of the school curriculum. There is a lack of public
libraries and in Zambia publishers do not seem to use books outside of what is bought by the
education service. Trying to write for an African audience is difficult as publishers are mainly
interested in textbooks.
When Patchwork came out Ellen was told that her book was a bestseller in Africa, even
though she knew the publisher had only bought 150 copies.
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She observed that publishers are very mindful of what their clients think of as a suitable book.
She was advised to delete a line from her book that was deemed unsuitable, to tone down the
use of alcohol and to get rid of abbreviations and stick to the normal rules of grammar. She
has told publishers that she wants to show different realities in her fiction. She did not think
that her role as a writer included trying to second-guess the reader. She found it
uncomfortable having to justify herself as a writer. She refused to change her script.
When she recently asked a group of girls in Ghana to write a story from the point of view of a
character in a book they were afraid of getting it wrong. She saw her role as trying to
encourage their creativity as well as trying to pass exams. Ellen believes that young adult
fiction in Africa needs ugly Cinderellas and with access to the internet young people are
becoming more sophisticated. Ellen is a patron of Pelican Post, a charity dedicated to
distributing appropriate children’s fiction to schools.
Please don’t airbrush African teen fiction, by Ellen Banda-Aaku
Nick Johnson, founder and director of Pelican Post: Pelican Post and how you can get
involved
Nick explained that the charity was set up to facilitate greater access to appropriate children’s
fiction in schools and partnering charities working in Africa. The charity works with
publishers including Macmillan and Random House. They aim to get sets of books into
schools.
Pelican Post has set up Project Kala (keeping African languages alive), as though local
languages and dialects are still taught throughout Africa, there is a lack of reading material so
children often leave school unable to read and write in their own language. The project aims
to print and distribute 3,000 copies of appropriate early reader stories in local languages. A
crowdfunder has recently been launched in partnership with Walker Books to raise funds for
their first translation project. The aim is to distribute 3,000 copies of the book Handa’s
Surprise in the Elmina region of Ghana.
English PEN and young people in education: Louise Swan, Head of Programmes,
English PEN
Louise explained that English PEN is a human rights organisation founded in 1921. It defends
freedom of expression and champions global exchange of literature and ideas. As well as
campaigning for changes in the law and supporting writers at risk around the world, English
PEN offers grants to publishers to support the best writing from around the world being
translated into English. PEN-supported writers have gone on to win some major literature
prizes such as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (Juan Gabriel Vasquez) and
the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (Evilio Rosero and jenny Erpenbeck). Over 130 books
have been supported so far and you can find out more at English PEN’s World Bookshelf
Outreach is a key area for English PEN, offering creative writing and reading workshops for
often marginalised and vulnerable communities including refugees and asylum seekers and
prisoners and young offenders. It also works with young people in education in areas of high
poverty and where there are diverse communities. English PEN provides creative writing and
free speech learning opportunities for young people in schools all over the UK. They
celebrate multilingual skills and also welcome monolingual readers. English PEN also
publishes writing by young people who have taken part in workshops, launched at celebration
events where these new young writers have the opportunity to perform their writing in public.
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