Jon Biddle’s reading for pleasure

Jon Biddle, English lead and NEU rep at Moorlands Primary, Norfolk, is passionate about fostering a love of reading for pleasure. Here he shares ideas for keeping children engaged with books while at home.

Staying connected through a love of books

I’VE always been proud to be an NEU member but am even more so now after its sensible, balanced and evidence-led stance on the reopening of schools.

For those children who remain out of school, it’s crucial for teachers to continue with efforts to keep them reading at home.

Who’s reading what at home?

We’ve introduced several straightforward ideas at Moorlands over the past few weeks. These include an online reading wall (created using Padlet, an online collaborative bulletin board) where the pupils can share what they’re reading at home.

It’s interactive, so they can comment on each other’s book choices and keep some level of “book blether” going. Several staff also regularly share their own reading choices on it, which provides an insight into their personal reading lives and helps emphasise the genuine value of reading for pleasure.

We’ve also set some reading-related challenges that our children can participate in at home, such as spend time reading in every room of your house, find the most unusual place to read at home, and reorganise your bookshelf according to colour, size or genre. We’ve had photos of children reading in cupboards, on trampolines, squatting on washing machines and curled up in a dog kennel.

Poetry performances

Videos of staff reading poetry have been recorded and shared, with the focus being solely on the children’s enjoyment of the poems, rather than their comprehension of them. Two poets whose work has been very popular are Dom Conlon, whose latest book, This Rock That Rock,

Reading in rather unusual places, as part of a challenge set for pupils. (Below) “Book blether” on the online reading wall

is about the Moon, and Josh Seigal, whose recently published Welcome To My Crazy Life is a wonderful collection featuring a range of poetic forms. The videos led to several of the children recording their own poetry performances and uploading them to our school’s closed online platform.

From TV subtitles to road signs

They were also encouraged to keep a 24- hour reading record, noting down everything they read over a day. I modelled it first, and included my current book, a magazine (Educate, obviously), subtitles on TV, road signs seen on a walk, a set of instructions for a game and so on.

The children then did the same, recording their reading diet in whatever format they chose. Some went for a reading ‘river’, showing the flow of reading across a day, while others produced a presentation on a computer. It also provided an opportunity for children to discuss reading with family members, an essential element of Read more ideas from building a reading community. Food parcels & book parcels Jon next issue Like all schools, we were aware that some children only had access to a few books at home and, after many weeks of isolation, would be craving new reading material.

We purchased new books for all our disadvantaged children and ensured that they were sent home, either with weekly food parcels or via members of staff. However limited funding is in schools, supporting a passion for reading is one area that has to be seen as an investment and not an expense.

Thousands of teachers across the country are continuing to come up with innovative and exciting ideas to support their pupils’ love of reading, and I’m honoured to work alongside such committed and dedicated professionals.

@jonnybid