The Good Word Junior - tv programme

This was a great programme, and thanks to TV on demand, if you missed it you can watch it here...
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..."
  

The next segment followed a similar theme with Antonia Prebble talking about Jane Eyre - her ultimate, all-time, favourite book, as well as a childhood home run book, George speaks by Dick King-Smith - a title I read to my niece this last January, and we enjoyed it.

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.

Book trailers and teachers as readers

Lawrence High School Library, Lawrence Kansas website "Building a community of readers" has some good resources and ideas....
http://library.lhs.usd497.org/home.html

Here is a link to getting started with book trailers - "digital booktalks"
http://library.lhs.usd497.org/BookTrailers.html

And here is a link to Teachers' favourite books - photo, book list - highlighted in post on basketball... http://library.lhs.usd497.org/teacherpicks.htm#Jackhood

Publishers' websites : teacher's guides

If you are looking for inspiration and ideas for ways to incorporate children's literature into classroom programmes - with the proviso about not "doing" a book to death - there are often notes available on the publisher's website, eg

Harper Collins
http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/Teachers/TeachingResources.aspx

Walker
http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/Teachers/Classroom-Ideas

Allen & Unwin
http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=71

Random House
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/

Also check out either the author's own website or the "character's" website, as well as resources such as : Carol Hurst , Children's Literature Web Guide , Resources for School Librarians etc etc etc

Books for Keeps and "teachers as readers" research

I've mentioned this UK research in a previous post - here is the Books for Keeps article about it... http://www.booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/179/childrens-books/articles/other-articles/developing-teachers%E2%80%99-knowledge-of-children%E2%80%99s

It quotes the wonderful Aidan Chambers who was saying, 30 years ago, :
‘Unless a school is staffed by people who enjoy books and enjoy talking to children about what they read then it is unlikely that they will be very successful in helping children to become readers.’
Introducing books to children, 1973

Books for Keeps is a UK children's literature journal, available online, full of great information, reviews, articles and editorials - check it out.

Teachers as Readers (UK research)

The UKLA UK Literacy Association has undertaken research which I find interesting, about teachers as readers and about the relationship between reading instruction and reading for pleasure. There is such a role for the school library to play here...

The first phase of the Teachers as Readers research (2006-7) looked at patterns in primary teachers' reading, both personally and professionally - looking at their own personal reading habits and preferences, their knowledge of children's literature, their own childhood favourites and books significant to them, their use of texts in the classroom, and use of libraries... Download the full report

The goal of the second phase of the research is Building Communities of Readers (2007-8) to improve teachers’ knowledge and experience of literature in order to help them increase children’s motivation and enthusiasm for reading, especially those less successful in literacy, to build new relationships with parents and families and to explore the concept of a reading teacher: a teacher who reads and a reader who teaches (Commeyras et al., 2004).

The Executive Summary provides an overview of the research and the key findings as well as recommendations. It argues that teachers need support in order to develop children’s reading for pleasure, which can influence both attainment and achievement and increase young learners’ engagement as self- motivated and socially engaged readers.

Download Teachers as Readers :Building Communities of Readers: Phase II (2007-8) Executive Summary

Click on the picture to enlarge a summary of key findings :
Reading instruction - oriented towards learning to read, Reading for Pleasure oriented towards choosing to read...