The Big Read event is a celebration of the amazing work pupils and staff do to ensure that reading remains a key priority for all our students across all year groups but particularly in Years 7-9. The event is also a chance to raise the profile and importance of reading for pleasure throughout school as well as developing pupils’ understanding of the reading skills and strategies used in different subjects.
This year the Big Read takes place during the week Monday 30th November to Friday 4th December 2020. Throughout the week lessons in all subjects have been planned to immerse pupils in opportunities to read subject specific texts as well.
Examples of how reading will be incorporated into lessons throughout The Big Read
- Year 7 Computing: Students will closely read an extract from the book, ‘The Circle’ by Dave Eggers which is a timely novel about our obsession with the internet.
- Year 7 English: Throughout the week pupils will be exploring a range of fiction texts chosen by their teacher- “Teacher’s fave reads” that link to the topic they are reading about in their class reader. They will explore the construction of the text, language uses and consider why it may be a great read. Pupils then will have a range of creative outcomes- ranging from describing a setting, writing a diary entry or even creating their own story.
- Art: As part of their study of insects, students will investigate the important work of bees and will be creating and decorating ceramic materials in the shape of a hexagon to resemble the hive.
- Year 8 French: Pupils will work on an English text about an aspect of French culture (the Balon d’Or). This will build into translation and building of opinion sentences in French or the understanding of a similar/linked French text.
- Year 7 Science: Pupils will be reading an extract from ‘Blood, Bones and Body Bits’ by Nick Arnold. Students will annotate the extract, complete a comprehension task and compare the techniques used in this text type.
- Year 7 and 8 Maths: Pupils will spend at least one lesson unpacking how reading techniques and understanding of vocabulary will help them to tackle a word rich exam question from the problem solving part of the paper.
- History: Pupils will be immersed in the lives of ordinary soldiers on the Western Front reading diary extracts which illustrate at first hand the experiences of young men in the First World War.
Other events taking place through the week:
- Enquire 1 and Explore 8 will be used as a quiet reading room at lunch in the JLV. Student surveys in the last 2 years have shown how much our pupils value a quiet place to read at school.
- Rewards – there will be rewards for the Home Groups who made strong progress in their reading throughout the week.
- Drop Everything and Read – the first 20 minutes of lesson after lunch will be given over to pupils to read.
How can Parents/ Carers help at home?
- We know that all children benefit when they have the opportunity to speak with adults about their positive reading habits or simply to discuss what they are reading.
- Make sure that your child has their reading book with them every day
- Encourage your child to continue to read for 20 minutes every day (that’s the equivalent of 1.8 million words a year!)
- Sign your child’s reading log and make a comment about how they are doing.
Finally, you could also discover some more and varied reading material by consulting the Subject Reading Lists available for all year groups using your Frog Parent Portal: https://bit.ly/2s6K32T