Yesterday was transition morning at my school. My current Year 2 class returned, and one of the children mentioned that their new teacher had asked who their favourite author is. It reminded me of asking them the same question a year ago and the only answer I received was Julia Donaldson. I have no qualms with Julia Donaldson, we used Monkey Puzzle in English this year and got some fab writing outcomes. It just made me sad that she was the only author they knew of, and this would probably have come from English lessons. So, I asked them all that same question and the responses I got a year on were Pip Jones, Pamela Butchart, Kes Gray, Roald Dahl, Rachel Bright, Oliver Jeffers, Francesca Simon and the list goes on and on. I was beaming!
They are a class of varying reading abilities, but I feel 100% confident in saying that this year they have all developed a complete love of reading. You could ask any child in my class about a book they love or didn't like at all, and they could give valid reasons for their opinions, something which we have really worked on this year. With that in mind, I thought I would write down what I've implemented in our class incase it helps any other KS1 teachers out there :-).
1. Share your own love of reading
At the beginning of the year, I got the impression that many of the children in my class thought reading was just a job you had to do for school. I remember spending a good 45 minutes showing them books I read when I was child that I loved, books that I'm reading now and I would constantly recommend books to them that we had in our reading corner. I spoke about books with real interest and enthusiasm and I soon saw them going to our reading corner and picking up books I'd mentioned in class.
2. Free time to read / Plenty of reading options
This links to the idea above, but I give my class plenty of opportunities to explore different texts from our reading corner that aren't book banded. Our book corner has fiction, non-fiction, magazines and comics and the children are free to choose whatever they wish to read. It's lovely to see them constantly exploring a range of texts and making links to their English learning. I also started the year off by reading a book myself at the same time as them to show my own love of reading too, and also to show them how to quietly enjoy a book.
3. Twitter
Twitter has been an absolute gem this year. My class are very aware of Twitter and absolutely love the interaction they can have with an author. They know they are able to come to me if they want to tweet an author a question about a book they are reading or if they want to share their opinion on a book they have just read. Their faces when they find out they have received a reply is priceless!
4. Good quality texts in English
The texts we have used in English this year have also helped to develop a real love of reading in my class. We used Izzy Gizmo by Pip Jones earlier on in the year and they absolutely loved the story. The writing outcomes were brilliant and it resulted in the children politely requesting all of Pip Jones' books.. which are now huge favourites in our reading corner! Pip Jones, by the way, is the kindest person on the planet. She sent the children a lovely letter and signed illustration which sits pride of place in our reading corner.
5. Book bingo
At one point in the year, some children in my class were Pamela Butchart obsessed. Getting them to try a book by any other author was near on impossible! Then, one day, I was perusing pinterest and came across a book bingo sheet. That was the inspiration to create our own book bingo sheet as a class, which included ideas like read a book with a number in the title, read a book with a one-word title, read a book recommended by a friend, read a picture book, read a book with an animal as the main character and the list goes on. It has been brilliant in making the children think about their books choices and to experiment with other authors.
6. End of day reads
Sometimes it's a shorter picture book, sometimes it's a picture book, but we always read at the end of the day. Sometimes I'll read the book, sometimes one of the children will read and sometimes we'll listen to an audiobook. We then make sure that we always complete a likes, dislikes, puzzles and patterns grid. The grid, and general conversation we have during and after reading, has helped the children to realise that we won't always like a book and that's ok but also to verbalise their opinions on books. It has also helped the children to make links between different books we have read at school and they have read at home. Fab!
7. Book day vouchers
Make the most of book day vouchers! This year I showed the children the books they could spend their voucher on, we made a list and off I went to Waterstones to collect them. They loved owning their own book and many children in my class still treasure them now.
I hope these little tips help. Happy reading!
