Reading for Pleasure directed task – Phase 2
Supporting reading for pleasure by learning more about children’s literature and their reading preferences
This task during your Phase 2 placement will help to boost your knowledge of children’s literature and enable you to feel more confident about choosing books to read with children and to make recommendations about what they might like to read. Begin by reading this short article which highlights both the importance of developing readers for life and provides some useful guidance on strategies for the classroom: Cremin, Teresa (2019) Reading Communities: why, what and how? Primary Matters NATE: Sheffield https://oro.open.ac.uk/66255/
Your aim is to consciously raise your awareness of what the children you are working with are reading, or would like to read, when they have the opportunity to make their own choices. It will also give you the chance to find out more about children’s interests and how you can start to tap into these in and use them to motivate children to read more and to make more diverse choices. The document you create will then become part of a shared resource for all of your PGCE colleagues, in order to disseminate your knowledge amongst our community and support everyone’s practice going forward.
Step 1 – create a document in which to gather and organise your findings. The way that you do this is up to you – an Excel database, a mindmap or SmartArt in Word, a notebook for handwritten notes. Just remember that whatever you decide to do, it should be in a format that can be easily shared via Blackboard with the rest of Primary PGCE cohort.
Step 2 – chat to children about what interests them, what they read at school and home (if they do) whenever you get the opportunity. If they are not choosing to read, what kinds of texts or topics might motivate them to do so. This is informal, there is no need to schedule or plan anything. Just find out:
- What children are choosing to read – topics, genres, authors
- What they would like to read more of or have access to – different types of texts, other areas of interest
Step 3 – record it in your chosen format. This should not be arduous or involve lots of writing. Use thumbnail images of books and add a few notes. A mind-map might help to reveal if there any patterns, connections or gaps emerging.