The Reader in the Writer

Today we selected over 40 texts from the University Library to take into school tomorrow for our first meeting with the class.

Our aim is to encourage the class, especially the reluctant readers to select a new and exciting text from a variety of genres, all of a high quality.

We spent a long time debating which books made 'the cut' and can only apologise to the Library staff who had an exceptionally high pile of discarded books!

We are going to read a couple of blurbs to the class tomorrow to try and encourage them to read a different text than they might normally select, and avoid stereotyping a book because of its cover (although it is hard not to!).

We've created a book rating system for the class to use whilst we're not in school so we can tailor the next range of books to what they've enjoyed reading. We want to create a climate of reading in the classroom and instil a passion for reading. Hopefully they will begin to recommend books to a friend and their ideas will come across in their writing.

As Pie Corbett (2011, p. 2) states "Unsurprisingly, the best writers in any class are always readers. Reading influences writing - indeed, the richness, depth and breadth of reading determines he writer that we become".

So, as our aim is to improve writing across the class and hopefully the school, our first mission is to inspire the reluctant readers to want to read some of our books and hopefully challenge the children who already read for pleasure to choose something a little different.

Tomorrow will be exciting!