Lesson video

Hello, my name Ms. Madden, and I'm really looking forward to talking about reading with you today.

Let's get started.

In this lesson, we will start off by thinking about why recommend books? Why recommend books at all? Then we're going to look at what genre means.

After that I will introduce you to some poets.

You write poetry.

Then we will look at some non-fiction texts, which I will recommend.

And then you'll have a chance to write your own sticky note recommendations.

Don't worry if you don't know what this is, you'll find out later.

In this lesson, you'll need some paper, a pencil or a pen to write with, and it would be great if you could get a sticky note.

Post-it, a little piece of sticky paper.

Now don't worry if you don't have a sticky note because a piece of paper will work fine as well.

So not to worry paper or a sticky note will work.

Can you press pause and get those things now? Fantastic.

Let's get going.

So first of all, let's remind ourselves what is reading for pleasure? Have a little think.

Okay.

Remember that when we're thinking about reading for pleasure, and this is a reading for pleasure lesson, we're thinking about reading that we do for the joy of reading.

Not because someone else tells us we have to.

And in these reading for pleasure lessons, we're trying to show and share as many different kinds of books and texts as possible to make you feel excited about reading.

And then, why recommend books? Now who recommends books to you? Has anyone ever recommended a book to you? Perhaps a parent or carer, a teacher or a friend? Have a think and write it down.

Who last recommended a book to you? Okay.

Who do you recommend books to? Have you ever recommended a book to someone else? Have you ever read something and thought, "Oh, this is so brilliant, I must tell my friends about it.

See if they want to read it." Do you remember what you recommended? Have a think and write it down.

So why is this important? People recommending books to you and you recommending books to other people? This is really important because it helps to develop a culture of talking about books.

It helps us feel excited and enthusiastic about reading.

Because often if a friend really enjoy something in it, it might mean that you will probably like it too.

So it's really, really great if you can share your reading recommendations with others because if there's something that you really liked, it's highly likely that someone else will like it too.

Have you ever heard of this word, trending? What's trending? So when we talk about what's trending, we mean what's really popular at the time.

Perhaps you've seen this term used on television on something like Netflix, when it tells you what's trending.

And it shows you all the television programmes that are popular at the time.

So what is trending in reading at the moment? Are there any books that you know that lots of people are reading and everyone's talking about, and everyone wants to get a copy of from the library or the book corner? Are there any books that you think should be trending because they're so great? Could you write them down? Fantastic.

Okay.

Another question.

What is genre? You might have heard people or teachers or adults talking about genre before.

You might have read a book and the teacher said to you, "What genre is that book?" Can you explain what the word genre means? If you can, press pause and say it aloud now.

Okay.

Now, when we talk about genre, we mean a style or category of something.

Here we have a definition, a style or category of art, music or literature.

So when we talk about the genre of a piece of writing, we mean what kind of style it is.

Now there are lots and lots of different genres of writing.

These could include biography, which is the story of someone's life.

Historical fiction is a genre.

So that's something that's made up, it's a narrative, but it's set in a historical period.

There's science fiction, which is fiction, sometimes set in the future with technology that doesn't exist now.

There's mystery stories.

That's often where something has happened and our key character has to work out or solve this mystery.

There's poetry.

There's all sorts of different kinds of poetry.

And sometimes we generalise by saying that poetry makes a reader feel something, feel a strong emotion.

There's traditional literature, that's a kind of genre.

Traditional stories like fairy tales.

There's fantasy and there's non-fiction.

Non-fiction means not fiction, not made up.

So non-fiction is writing that's about something real.

Now these are just some of the genres of writing and literature.

There are so many more.

Can you think of any other genres in literature? Press pause and say them aloud.

Okay, fantastic.

So the reason I wanted to talk to you about genre is because today we're thinking about recommending writing, a reading and books to others.

So it can be useful to think about all the different kinds of genre of literature 'cause perhaps someone only likes to read graphic novels.

But you think that they really might like this book which is historical fiction, or they might actually love this piece of non-fiction writing.

Sometimes it's good to try a piece of literature from a different genre to that we are used to.

Speaking of which, let's think about poetry and see if you know some poets.

Do you know any poets? Have you read any poetry before? Could you name any poets? A lot of children and a lot of adults, including teachers, find this quite difficult.

It might be fun to ask another adult or a teacher if you see them.

How many poets can you name? Press pause, and say any that you know.

okay.

I wonder how many you came up with.

Lots of adults can only name one or two.

Don't worry if you didn't know any poets.

I'm going to introduce some to you.

So here are some photos of six very famous poets who are quite successful.

I wonder if you recognise any of these poets.

If you do, perhaps you could say their names aloud now.

But don't worry if you haven't seen them before.

Now, these are these are these poets' names.

So here's another clue.

Now that you're seeing their names, perhaps you might recognise some of them.

We have Jackie Kay, Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephaniah, Kae Tempest, Maya Angelou and Carol Ann Duffy.

I wonder if you know which poet is which.

Have a go and see if you can match any that you know.

Don't worry if you don't, I'm going to show you now.

The first poet here is Carol Ann Duffy.

Now I chose Carol Ann Duffy because she was the first female poet laureate in Scotland.

The next poet here you might recognise.

This is Michael Rosen.

He writes a really funny poetry which is very popular in primary schools.

Next, we have Maya Angelou who was one of my favourite writers and poets.

She writes poetry.

She wrote poetry about some really important themes such as racism, identity and family.

Next we have Benjamin Zephaniah.

Another really successful poet.

Benjamin Zephaniah's poetry he has said is influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica.

Here we have Kae Tempest.

Kae Tempest is a very successful performer and poet.

Often you find that poets perhaps are writers or performers, as well as writing poetry.

And last but not least, we have Jackie Kay who has also been a poet laureate of Scotland.

So I wonder if you had heard of any of these poets before.

And if you haven't, next time you're in a library or in a book corner, you might see if you can find some poetry written by one of these people.

I have two reading recommendations for you that's our poetry collections.

The ones I think you might like.

Now the first is called "The Language of CAT" by Rachel Rooney.

Now surprisingly enough, "The Language of Cat" is not poems all about cats, but there's a word play and riddles.

Poems that will make you laugh and poems that will make you think.

And my second poetry collection recommendation is the "Werewolf Club Rules", poems by Joseph Coelho.

Now this is one that's very, very popular.

I know lots of young people who really enjoy these poems. And in it you might find out mysterious rules of the werewolf club.

So I wonder do either of these books, these poetry collections, look exciting to you? Which one might you like to read? Point to it now.

Okay.

Now we're going to have a think about a different genre of literature.

This time non-fiction books.

I'm going to recommend some non-fiction books to you.

And then you'll have a chance to think about if you have any nonfiction books that you would recommend to others.

Now this is a great read.

"Martin Brown's Lesser Spotted Animals".

This is from the illustrator of the "Horrible Histories".

And which is a very popular series of books.

This is all about animals and it's written in a really funny and interesting way.

Next is a book by Molly Potter called "What's Worrying You?".

Now, this non-fiction book is a book that you can read, you can dip in and out of it.

So you can choose to go to a particular page and read about the section that it's about.

So it's called, "What's Worrying You?" and inside it's got lots of options of different things that could be worrying you.

For example issues with friends, or perhaps you've been told off.

And that's what's making you feel worried.

There are lots of different examples of things that could worry you and then great suggestions of things that you could do to make yourself feel better.

I really, really love all of Molly Potter's books.

They're really great to read and help you think and talk about your feelings.

And they can be good to read with a parent or carer too.

My final non-fiction reading recommendation is "A Street Through Time".

I love this book because you can come back and look again and again.

It has amazing illustrations that are done by Steve Noon.

And there are so many different details to spot.

And it shows you different time periods in the book.

So if you like history, you're interested in history, then you'll probably really like this book.

Or if you love looking at really detailed illustrations, you'll probably love reading this book.

I wonder, do any of these books sound good to you? Point to the one that you might like to read.

Fantastic! So what are your recommended reads? I've suggested some poetry to you and some non-fiction, perhaps you've got some poetry or non-fiction you'd like to recommend.

Perhaps you have some fiction you'd like to recommend.

Can you write down any literature, any books or poetry or non-fiction books or graphic novels that you think are just brilliant and that you know that someone else would enjoy? Write down as many as you can think of? Well done.

Okay.

So now's our time to do recommendations.

I'm going to suggest sticky note recommendations.

So like Post-its.

Here is some examples.

You can see that these recommendations have been written on a sticky note and then stuck onto a book.

So it's a very short recommendation.

Is just a quick way of showing, here's this book, and this is why I liked it, and this is why you might like it.

If you go to school and you have a book corner where you can see books, it can be really great to stick a sticky note on a book to show someone else why they might like it.

Or if you have a book at home, you could put a sticky note on it to show someone else why you think they might like it.

Like I said, it doesn't have to be a sticky note.

You could use a piece of paper and slip it inside the front cover and write why you like it there.

So what makes a good recommendation? What should we write on our sticky note? What do you think? You could say what genre the text is or what style it's written in.

So you might say this is a non-fiction book, or this is poetry.

This is funny, or this is serious.

It's probably really important to say, why did you like it? Did you like the book because it made you laugh? Did you love the illustrations? Was it really exciting? Because the reason why you liked it might be the same as someone else.

And it can be really helpful to say how the book or text made you feel.

These are some of the ideas that you could include in your recommendation on your sticky note or your piece of paper.

So, it's going to be time for you to write your recommendation.

Remember, write your ideas in full sentences.

For example I love this book because mhm, mhm, mhm, mhm, mhm, full stop.

Or I think you would love it if mhm, mhm, mhm, mhm, mhm, full stop.

Could you write your first sentence down now? Off you go.

Brilliant! Well done.

So now it's time for you to make your book recommendations.

Your recommendations could be to a friend.

Your recommendations could be to a family member, a parent or a carer.

Your recommendation could be to a teacher.

You can write as many recommendations as you want but you should recommend at least one, and you can write it on your Post-it or you can write it on your paper.

And then we will all be helping to build up a great culture of reading and talking about books, because the more we talk about books, the more everyone will want to read books and realise that reading books is really fun.

And then we can find out what's trending.

So in today's lesson, we've thought about why it's important to recommend books.

Why you should get book recommendations and why you should recommend books to others.

We've thought about what genre is.

Can you remember? A style or category of art or literature.

We've looked at some poets, some famous poets, and I recommended two collections of poetry to you.

We've looked at some non-fiction texts.

And finally, you've made your own book recommendations.

Well done.

You have completed your lesson.

Happy reading!.