Promoting
Reading in your School Library
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Promoting
Reading in your School Library |
Displays
Genre/Topic
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Displays of a particular genre/theme/topic
(use your Alice System
to find titles) – e.g.
adventure, horror at Hallowe’en, Christmas stories, funny
stories, sport stories. |
|
Displays like
this can be non-fiction based and you can “slip in” some fiction titles – an
easy way to get boys and reluctant
readers interested.
We have started to devise a list
of fiction titles to support topics within the school as
A Curriculum for
Excellence will demand more cross-curricular work.
You can create an interesting display by putting empty cardboard boxes on the table and covering them with appropriate material/tablecloth - this gives you different heights to work with.
Remember to leave room on the wall behind for children’s work – pictures, book reviews, other books to read.
Author
tie-ins
 |
Create
a display of book by a particular author – e.g. Anne Fine or
Dick King-Smith. A general web search will bring up
dedicated websites for most authors – these can be valuable sources of
information. Or try our selection on our
Author Chat page. Some author specific posters are commercially available (www.pcet.co.uk) and there are some available for loan from the Education Resource Service. An Alice inquiry search in your school library will let you know which books you have for each author in the school. |
Favourites
Allow a particular class to display their favourite books. Can also be used with staff favourites and parents’ favourites. (Use our “Rate a Read.pdf” form on Parents’ Night).
Tabletop selection using the above displays
Gather together books of a particular genre, or by a particular author and read a chosen piece from each. Children must choose one of these books and return (2 weeks later?) with something to share with the rest of the class. Their information need not necessarily be a resume of the book – it could be their thoughts about a particular character, the impressions of the setting, a drawing of a scene from the book, or a related tie-in – e.g. 10 facts about chocolate if they’ve been reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. A time consuming but worthwhile exercise!
Carnegie/Kate Greenaway 70th Year
Celebrations 2007
|
Last year celebrated 70 years of the best of children's
books. Have a look at the list below and make a display of these books in
your library. |
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Royal Mail Awards
This is the only award for Scottish children's books where
Scottish children are the judges. In April a short-list was announced for the
following categories: - 0-7, 8-11 and 12-16. The votes have to be cast by
November 2008 and the winners announced at the awards ceremony in Aberdeen later
that month. Register your school on the
Scottish Book Trust site.
 |
The North Ayrshire
Information
Literacy Toolkit (ILT) has worksheets that can be used in conjunction with
any of the above displays. Please ask your Literacy Co-ordinator in your school or your Perc for advice. |
Reading to Children
Community Readers
Broomlands and Fencedyke Primary Schools invite local community members in to read their favourite stories and talk about them – lollipop ladies, community policemen, community wardens, school cook, local Doctor etc. Some people are willing to read at Assembly, others prefer to read in front of a class or small groups.
Grandparents may welcome the opportunity to come in and read to small groups of children – they often have more time to spend that the rest of us can’t spare! Responsible teenagers are well accepted and can provide a useful role model as well as showing that it can be cool to read.
Storytelling
There are professional
storytellers which the Percs can advise on, but Children's Library staff in the
public libraries can also visit the school to do storytelling and craft sessions
with younger classes.
Dykesmains PS have regular
storytelling sessions where one of the classroom assistants will read to a small
group of children.
Take a look at the TES Five habits of highly successful storytellers.
ERS Guide to Storytelling Collection
ERS Guide to Traditional Tales
Author Visits and National Book Events
Many schools have had an author visit their school or have
been invited to the local library as part of the 'Roar About Books' initiative.
To find out about these visits and about how your school can be involved have a
look at our authors page.
Other events:
Roald Dahl Day 13th September
2008,
National
Children's Book Week - 6-12th October 2008 and
look out for the North Ayrshire Storytelling Festival Oct-Nov 2008.
Getting the Children
Involved
ERIC
St John Ogilvie Primary School operates an excellent system called “ERIC” – everyone reading in class. A bell rings at an appointed time and everyone in the whole school (adults and children) stops what they are doing to read.
Literature circles/Book groups
Consider setting up one (or both!) of these up in your school. They are excellent ways to get children interested and reading, although the downside is the time commitment for preparation. Find out about Book Groups in North Ayrshire Libraries and view their junior reading list and young adult reading list. which can be borrowed by schools through your Perc. There is also a Book Bytes section on Book Sp@ce which can help organise the book groups. Class teachers may be interested to find out more about Literature Circles:Sponsored Research: Literature Circles, Gender and Reading for Enjoyment.
Library Committee
Consider setting up a Library Committee in the school. A group of older children can be responsible for keeping the library tidy, liaising with classes re the selection of stock, setting up displays and organising book based competitions.
Book Reviews
Encourage children to send in Book Reviews to
our website and we will publish the
best!
More hints on writing book reviews and writing in general can be found on our
guide to writing.
Sharing Good Practice
Dumfries and Galloway Project
- A novel approach to contextualised learning (P6/S1)
Dundee Project - Book Detectives
Please email your own good practice to amcallister@north-ayrshire.gov.uk and we will include it on the website.
Free Downloads from Publishers
| Oxford | Education | Children's Page - including Winnie the Witch. | Welcome to Little TigerPress - Kids' Corner |
| Harper Collins Bookmarks | Egmont Books Website - Resources |
| Fantasy Bookmarks | Andersen Press - Elmer colour-in. |
| Scholastic Children's Books Reading Zone | Puffin - Fun Stuff - puzzles to download and interactive puzzles. |
| The-Rights-of-the-Reader-poster - from Walker Books with Quentin Blake illustrations. | Cathy Cassidy | Groovy | |
| Ragged Bears Publishing - Colouring Sheets, Activity Sheets | Judy Moody.com |
| Paddington's Activity Area | My Secret Unicorn |
| Usborne colouring pages | Jenny Oldfield - Downloads |
Look for regular updates on promoting reading and other developments on our newsletter.
since 10th March 2008
