Unlock the Power of Reading around the World!

Wednesday 7th October

Unlock the Power of Reading around the World! 

Encouraging students to read has always been at the top of my list of priorities. I abandoned the 'class novel' shortly after beginning to teach Language & Literature. I had realised that a conceptual approach to unit planning offers many possibilities for differentiating the content of the curriculum and including the exciting possibility of providing a range of texts for my students to read. I bought large plastic boxes for my classroom and prior to beginning to teach each unit, I filled a box with several texts relating to the theme of the unit of differing levels of complexity. 

Throughout each unit, I encourage students to dip into the box and as soon as they've finished reading a text, begin a new one. Each lesson begins with everyone, including me, sitting in silence reading, and whenever students finish a task in class, I teach them from our very first lesson at the beginning of the school year to get out their current book and read.

Occasionally, we just keep on reading throughout the lesson! On two very memorable occasions, my students loved the texts so much we read for a whole week of lessons! You're wondering which texts they were? OK, I'll let you into a secret... 'The Glass Castle' by Jeannette Walls and 'The Breadwinner' trilogy by Deborah Ellis. 

I have also had a lot of success with providing audiobooks to students. A few years ago, the school librarian worked with me to develop a collection of audiobooks for as many Language & Literature texts as possible. I encouraged students to listen to books as an acceptable alternative to reading. Some found listening whilst reading enhanced their experience.
Finally, I'm not a great fan of 'formal' homework for the Language & Literature class. My students always have quite enough Math and Science written homework to keep them busy. You got it... my students read for homework!

Here is a curated collection of reading lists available on the website. There are over 20 lists that provide wonderful suggestions for you and your students.