Newham
Read & Enjoy Project in Key Stage 1
The 2004/5 Read and Enjoy initiative, which involved
22 KS1 teachers, from 15 Newham schools, was commissioned to
raise achievement in reading. The intention was to stimulate,
and in some cases re ignite, teachers’ enjoyment of teaching
literacy, by engaging them with creative ways of working with a
selection of carefully chosen texts. The hope was that the
teachers’ enthusiasm would impact on their children’s enjoyment
of books and competence in literacy.
Participants in the film Bob, the Man on the Moon
We met regularly over two terms to discuss and feedback on the
texts and the teaching approaches. Teachers visited each
others’ classrooms and had two advisory visits. The course
concluded with a final presentation where colleagues came
together to share a particular aspect of their work.
Elements covered in the course were: creating a stimulating
reading environment, the importance of talk, creative ways into
text, planning a unit of work around a particular text, drama
and role play, reading into writing, opportunities for informal
writing, poetry and ICT.
As
teachers reflected on significant features of their own reading
histories, themes emerged which they were able to relate to
their classrooms, such as the importance of book recommendations
by a trusted and respected adult or friend and the enjoyment of
being read to. They began to take much greater care in
selecting and introducing texts. They noted how children love
having the same book re read to them, over and over again:
the more familiar the children are with a text the more they
want to read it independently (Y2 teacher). Children also
shared their enthusiasm for particular titles with their
parents.
The initiative also impacted on children’s confidence as
writers. The books provided such an exciting stimulus that
children wanted to write’ (Y2 teacher) The children are
now far more motivated to write independently (Y1 teacher).
Pupils are using story language and more complex sentence
structures (Y2 teacher).
One teacher used the book Bob, the Man on the Moon, to
create a film with her class.
‘By creating a film, they had to think not only as characters
in the story, but as the script writer and film director,
reading the book for different purposes, then transferring this
knowledge into writing for different purposes, i.e. storyboards,
dialogues, scripts and instructions for making props and
scenery. The filmmaking gave them the experience of using
different ICT technologies to create their own version of a
loved story, using known fictitious facts and elaborating on
them. The final product (more Ed Woods than Steven Spielberg) is
watched attentively over and over again. The book is still the
most popular in class. But most of all it was a lot of fun and
captured their imagination and it was their enthusiasm that
moved the unit of work forward.’
The teachers valued having an opportunity to share ideas and
draw upon the wide ranging experience of their peers. There was
a genuine feeling of being part of a ‘community of learners.’
Colleagues were generous with their ideas and units of work
which they developed around particular texts. Many of them are
now starting with a book and planning their literacy around it,
rather than the other way round.
Jenny Vernon, CLPE
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