http://tvnz.co.nz/the-good-word/good-word-s3-special-video-4045647
Some highlights :
Barbara Woods, Deputy Principal Viscount Primary School, talking about their Book Club
"We knew we had teachers in classrooms doing wonderful jobs at teaching reading but they weren't actually - a lot of them - readers themselves, and we knew that to be a superb teacher of reading you actually need to be a reader yourself...
We quickly found that we could discuss these books with our very good readers in the school and so we brought students on board into book club and now teachers and students discuss literature together..."
Some students spoke about their "first chapter test" to see if a book was going to be a starter.
Other aspects which caught my attention :
- An interview was with librarian Lois Huston at Hebron Christian College - "We don't force them to read, we want them to read for fun !"
- The power of series fiction - finding not only a great book but a great series to hook into...
- The fun and benefits, challenges and rewards of taking part in Wayne Mills' Kids' Lit Quiz
- "I like reading, and it makes me smarter so that's a positive!"
- The "home run book" effect - wonderfully described by a student who talked about the competition she had with her friends to be the first to read a chapter book, at age 6 - her book was Dahl's Matilda. Another student described a home run book as "the perfect book, their favourite book in the whole world, and they read that and after that they love reading..."
Finlay McDonald took one of his childhood favourites - Swallows and Amazons - the first "book that switched on the reading light" in his head, a book which "took you out of your world and into another"... It received mixed reviews from a contemporary audience !
Finlay went on to interview Brian Falkner (his key writing ingredients : adventure, suspense, humour) and Mandy Hager who emphasised the need to be truthful in her writing.
Bernard Beckett was interesting talking about 11 and 12 year olds "reading up" - entering teenage world, a world they aspire to, getting pleasure in discovering things for the first time.
Bernard Beckett, a high school teacher, spoke about the main threat to teen reading for pleasure being the pressures of assessment and homework - more of a threat than electronic distractions. So, in a nutshell - ban homework and make books fun again.
Finlay summed up with these guidelines for creating teen readers :
- make them laugh,
- make them the heroes
- be honest about their lives
- keep grownups out of the action
- don't force them to read
Kate de Goldi spoke about her memory of childhood "story records" - known by heart.
Fleur Beale spoke about writing, and the relationship between inspiration and more prosaically, "bum glue" - ie, just sit and write ! She also advised "Anybody wanting to be a writer has to read - you can't really be a writer unless you read.. and then you have to write... and people should keep everything they write, and date it, it will be a a resource for later..."
So, lots to check out with Emily Perkins on The Good Word, Junior.
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