I'm ridiculously excited to be chosen to give books for World Book Night. I've picked Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now and I'm going to give it to some school children who may not have any books of their own.
I've grown up with books. The bookshelves are groaning under the weight of all the books. We just had to get a new bookshelf to try and contain them all! (It hasn't worked, they are still over flowing) I also went to the library every week as a child and almost as often as an adult. I can't imagine a house without books, yet I know there are many.
So being able to give children a book of their own makes me incredibly happy....until I wondered if a book was going to make a technology savvy child as happy as it would make me. That thought made me so sad. What if books were no longer enough; that they had to be a kindle or a computer game? I love the technology but there is simply nothing that can beat curling up with a good book. What if the technology has taken away that pleasure from the next generation?
Giving books for World Book Night will make me very happy, but will it make the recipients as happy as I am?
Saturday 18 February 2012
Monday 6 February 2012
Great books or just phonics?
I have to admit to struggling with the conflicting demands of the phonics decoding check and wanting to get children to read great books. Of course there should be no conflict at all, but the problem is, testing such young children is going to create that conflict.
I've had the opportunity to observe quite a few guided reading lessons in my time and in schools where phonics is being taught well it is quite often at the expense of the language comprehension. Children are great at decoding but are not reading for meaning or enjoying the rich texts.
Some of the problem is what they are being asked to read. Most reading scheme books do not have extraordinary illustrations and a wide range of language. Take 'Pumpkin Soup' by Helen Cooper- look at the language she uses and the way the illustrations are part of the language. You just don't get that with reading schemes, particularly the latest ones which are all about phonics. Yes, children need to be taught phonics, but not at the expense of everything else.
My fear about the phonics check is that it will do exactly that; phonics will become the end goal instead of the means by which we teach children to read. In twenty years time none of the children will count Book 4 level 2 as their favourite childhood read (at least I hope not) and I would so much rather they had memories of reading wonderful stories.
I've had the opportunity to observe quite a few guided reading lessons in my time and in schools where phonics is being taught well it is quite often at the expense of the language comprehension. Children are great at decoding but are not reading for meaning or enjoying the rich texts.
Some of the problem is what they are being asked to read. Most reading scheme books do not have extraordinary illustrations and a wide range of language. Take 'Pumpkin Soup' by Helen Cooper- look at the language she uses and the way the illustrations are part of the language. You just don't get that with reading schemes, particularly the latest ones which are all about phonics. Yes, children need to be taught phonics, but not at the expense of everything else.
My fear about the phonics check is that it will do exactly that; phonics will become the end goal instead of the means by which we teach children to read. In twenty years time none of the children will count Book 4 level 2 as their favourite childhood read (at least I hope not) and I would so much rather they had memories of reading wonderful stories.
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