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!

Inspiring Writing Through Reading

 

 

 

According to the International Reading Association:
 

Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives. They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn.

(Clark and Rumbold, 2006)

Although the project focuses on developing the writing attitudes and capabilities within a Year 6 class, as stressed by many experts in the field, reading and writing are intrinsically linked and reliant on each other (Rose 2006, Ofsted, 2011, DfE 2012). It is because of this strong connection we felt it important to engage the children with reading and after the class teacher noted a lack of passion for reading amongst his students, we agreed to incorporate reading within the venture.
 

Clark and Rumbold (2006) discuss that when children get ‘hooked on books’, they involuntarily acquire a wide ranging set of skills that can be transferred into writing. Therefore, we knew that getting children excited by texts was to benefit their writing skills and outlook on literacy. Clark and Rumbold (2006) further note that, defining reading for pleasure as reading that is done of our own free-will involves selecting material of our own choices and interests. It is important that children understand they are able to select what they would like to read. The DfE (2012) reflect this simply by stressing ‘an important factor in developing reading for pleasure is providing choice’(p. 9).
 

We decided early on that the class would benefit from interactions and experiences with a variety of texts, after numerous hours (and squabbles) we selected around 50 texts we anticipated would be of interest to the class and encourage reading. After our first influx of texts and acquisition of reviews of particular favourites from the children, it became apparent that graphic novels specifically were in high demand. Butcher and Manning (2010) champion graphic novels as a textual form that has the ability to interest and excite even the most reluctant of readers. For students who no longer deal with pure word texts in their daily lives, multiple literacies are a necessity, schools must prepare young people to think critically with and about all kinds of texts (Schwartz, 2006) and graphic novels encouraged this. We therefore continued to provide a selection of texts from wide-ranging genres including graphic novels. The children very quickly responded to this by the acquisition of their own graphic novels- some of whom even began writing their own graphic novels in their Magpie Books. This was something which caused great excitement for us as a group, to see the effect of reading upon writing; hopefully this effect grows and continues to create change in the children. 

 

Meet the Team!

For today's food for thought we have been reflecting on our group, in particular the characteristics of each individual and what strengths they bring to our dynamic team.
The most creative way to illustrate this was to literally illustrate each other. Here are our works of art and a brief description of why we chose each profession.

Hayley, 'The Thinker'. It was hard to narrow down
the many positive qualities Hayley possessed. However
her clam nature, 'stress-free' attitude and logical thinking lead us to
envisage her as the member of the group who keeps perspective,
listens to everyone's ideas and sees reason and strength in each one.
Her wisdom ensures she is always patient and one step ahead!

Paul 'The Psychiatrist', is a deep-thinker to, but he also remains neutral
and listens as an observer and key member of the group. His sensible
solutions and practical advice and ideas keep the group ticking over.
One to mull things overnight he often has strategic plans to ensure the groups'
success. Nothing is too big a problem for Paul!

Emi, 'The CEO'. Emi's organisational methods keep the group
on task and ahead of schedule. Quick to devise a plan and
ensure everyone has a role she ensures the group are working
to the maximum. Lists, brain-storms and communication
keep the groups professional appearance in check. 

                                 

                                                    Rosie, 'The Activist'. Always thinking on a local, national and global
                                          level Rosie is passionate about real issues and ensuring we
                                          remain current and real. Her fiery enthusiasm drives her ideas
                                           forward and we can't help but be motivated.

The Journey Begins...

 

Today marked the beginning of our creativity 3 journey (although ideas have been simmering for a week now). We met with the Assisting head of a local primary school to discuss the school's wishes to improve attainment in Year 6 children's writing.

The focus of our project is to increase the children's engagement in writing and thus impact upon their attitudes to writing.

A clear picture was painted of a group of Year 6 children who were 'switched-off' writing, with many children being highlighted as under-achieving.

We presented our questions and our initial ideas which were responded to in a very positive manner and has increased our motivation for 'making change happen'.

Our only problem now is keeping focused on the task in hand and not spinning out of control with the numerous ideas we have posed in excitement.

Our next step is to plan a schedule of when we can reasonably attend the school and class itself and when we see key points in the journey occurring. We feel slightly overwhelmed that this might become another school placement and can see the impact of that affecting current projects, but we also want to make a difference and be actively involved in overseeing our ideas take place.

Drawing on knowledge of the 'Talk for Writing' work in Year 2/3 English we have plenty of theoretical knowledge to start with and our main aims are to ensure that through reading, writing for a purpose, implementing ICT and the local community we can improve the way this class view writing and hopefully change the way writing is taught across the school, as this was identified as a key problem area.

To the drawing board!!