Lesson video

Good morning everyone, my name is Ms. Madden.

I'm so excited to do today's lesson with you because it's all about reading, and I love reading, I really, really do.

In fact, one of my favourite things to do in life is talk with people, and young people, about their reading, about the books that they enjoy, so that's what today's lesson is all about, so let's get started.

So in today's lesson, we are going to start off by discussing what is reading for pleasure.

Then we're going to have a time to do some self-reflection, this is where we're going to be thinking back about our own reading experiences.

Next, I will introduce you to a Reading River, and finally, you will create your own Reading River.

Don't worry, I'm going to explain what that is in the lesson.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some paper, a pencil or a pen, or some colouring pencils if you have them and would like to use them, and of course, you will need your brain.

And in today's lesson in particular we're going to be using our memory, your memory to think back about your own reading experiences.

So press pause and go and get the things that you need now.

Well done, off we go.

So we're going to start off by thinking about reading for pleasure.

So what is reading for pleasure? You might have heard that phrase before, you might have heard your teachers talk about it or you might've seen it written down sometimes.

So often we talk about reading for information.

If you are studying a topic in history or in geography, you might read a book to find out information about that.

So we talk about reading for information, but we also talk about reading for pleasure, and reading for pleasure is the act of reading just for the joy of it, it's not because your teacher told you to, or someone said, "Sit down and read this book", it's reading a book or a kind of text because you want to, because it makes you happy and you enjoy it, that is reading for pleasure.

And we want everyone to be able to read for pleasure.

So why is this important? Do you know why reading for pleasure is important? Hmm, reading for pleasure is really important, reading is so important but reading for pleasure specifically is so important because it helps us in lots and lots of ways.

It helps us read more, it helps us to develop our vocabulary, it helps us to see the world from other people's perspectives, it helps us use our imagination, there are so many ways and reasons that reading for pleasure is really important.

And so this whole lesson is an opportunity for us to think about reading and the kind of reading that you really enjoy, that will hopefully inspire you to do more of it.

So it's not reading because someone told you you had to, it's not reading to research something, unless you really want to, it's reading because reading is such a fun and brilliant thing to do.

So what can you read? Hmm, when we talk about reading, what is there to read? Please can you write down any things that you think that it's possible to read? Press pause, and off you go.

Okay, I wonder what you wrote that you could read, let's have a look at some of my ideas.

All these different things that you could read, you could read comics, a comic, you could read picture books, you can read instruction manuals, if you get a new toy or you get a new appliance you would definitely need to read an instruction manual of how to use it.

You can read reviews, I like to read book reviews personally, but I know my son loves to read reviews of games.

You can read chapter books, or novels.

If you like cooking, you might want to read recipes, think about all the delicious things that you can make.

You can read emails, you can read the information held on a website, these are just some of the things that you can read, there is so much more.

Did you have any of these ideas? Perhaps now you might think of some others, press pause and write down any other things that you think you could read.

Well done.

Okay, so now that we're remembering there's all the different kinds of things we could read, now is an opportunity to do some self-reflection, some thinking about our own reading experiences.

This is really nice because there's no right or wrong for the whole of this lesson, this is an opportunity for you to think about what you enjoy, and only you know what that answer is.

So what do you enjoy reading? What do you enjoy reading, or what do you enjoy being read to you? Perhaps you enjoy reading chapter books, or novels.

Chapter books like "Planet Omar" by Zanib Mian, or "Katy" by Jacqueline Wilson, these are chapter books that I know many of the children that I teach really, really enjoy, these are chapter books about real-life experiences, about people that have challenges and overcome those challenges, and I know lots of people like reading these kinds of stories, so perhaps you have a particular chapter book or an author that you really like to read.

Perhaps you enjoy reading comics, comics like "The Phoenix", that's a fantastic comic, I highly recommend it, or comics like "The Beano", I know that my son loves reading comics, that's one of his favourite things to read.

Hmm, I wonder if you have heard of the "Beast Quest" books, these are really adventurous books about tackling beasts and dragons and different fierce creatures, perhaps you've heard of these books, perhaps you like reading those? Hmm, perhaps you like reading graphic novels, so graphic novels are somewhere between a comic and a chapter book, so it's a longer story that's told with pictures and often text, but not always.

I know that lots of children I know love reading "Dog Man", and I only found out recently that a lot of the "Dog Man" titles are actually puns, that's a joke, on famous literary works, so they come from famous names, I wonder if you've read any "Dog Man" books? This is another very popular series, perhaps you've read one of these, and perhaps you like it, it's called the "13-Storey Treehouse".

These books are very imaginative, it's a series of books, very imaginative, very crazy, perhaps you love reading these.

So these are all works of fiction, which means they're stories, they've been made up, but perhaps you like reading non-fiction.

This is another text that I know is very popular, this is an encyclopaedia all about Pokemon.

When I got this book in my school everybody wanted to read it, so perhaps you have a non-fiction book about a hobby that you have or something you're really interested in that you love to read, perhaps you read it over and over again.

Here's another example, perhaps you have a hobby, something that you're learning to do, and so there's a book that teaches you about doing that, for example, like this book, "Minecraft for Beginners", and you went to read it because you want the information so that you can do your hobby better or learn that skill better.

So these are just some examples of books that I know that children love to read, but what do you enjoy reading? Now, I would like you to have a think about the text, the books, the comics, the recipes, anything that you love to read, and I want you to note down as many of them as you can remember.

If you can remember the titles or the authors, that's fantastic, if you can just remember a book about this, that's also fine, so I want you to jot down as many as you can, off you go.

Well done, I wish that I could see your list.

So let's do a little bit more reflection, remember, there's no right or wrong in this lesson.

Is there somewhere special that you like to read? Do you like to read in bed? Do you like to read snuggled on the sofa? If and when you're in school, do you like to read quietly in your classroom? Press pause, and write down on your piece of paper, where do you like to read? I wonder what you wrote.

So the next question is, is there someone special you like to read with? Do you enjoy being read to by someone, perhaps a parent or carer might read to you sometimes.

Perhaps you like to read one of your favourite books with a friend, perhaps if you're both really interested in the same topic or hobby, you like to read a book together.

Is there anyone special that you like to read with? Perhaps you can remember a time you really enjoyed a teacher reading to you.

Have a think, see if you can remember, and then I'd like you to write it down.

Press pause.

Fantastic, I wonder who you wrote, if there was anyone you like to read with.

Perhaps you really like reading by yourself most of all, that's absolutely fine, there's no right or wrong.

Hmm, this is a tricky question.

What is the first book you can remember being read? I wonder how young you were when you can remember having a book read to you? Perhaps a parent or carer read to you, perhaps it was a teacher.

Can you remember? I think I was probably seven, that's the youngest I can remember having a book read to me, but maybe you can remember something else.

Have a think, press pause and write down if you can remember that book, or where and when it was.

Fabulous, all this thinking about reading.

Oh, I like this question.

Have you ever read a book that changed your perspective? So when you say changed your perspective, I mean, changed how you think about things, about how you look at the world, about how you understand the world, so have you ever read a book that made you see the world in a different way, or perhaps it might have helped you understand what life is like for a different person that you hadn't imagined before? Is there a book or a story or a non-fiction book that's done that for you? Have a think, can you write it down? Press pause, off you go.

Wow, I wonder what you wrote.

Hmm, books can make us feel really strong emotions, they can make us feel happy and sad, has a book ever made you feel happy or sad, perhaps really excited or scared? Can you think of a book that made you feel a strong emotion? I wonder.

Have a think, write it down, off you go.

Fantastic, so we just had an opportunity to think back over all your reading experiences, about your memories of books.

Don't worry if you found it a bit tricky to remember, it can be hard, perhaps in your home you might have some books that you can go and have a look at and flick through and remember what you've read before.

So now I'm going to introduce you to something called a Reading River.

Now, a Reading River is an activity and a task that is based on a task that was created by someone called Pamela Burnard and then further developed by Gabrielle Cliff-Hodges, and it's all about the idea of a river and a journey, a journey of reading and that we all have different reading experiences.

We're using the river as a metaphor, and so in that journey that the river takes, we are going to chart some of our important reading experiences, some books that we remember and really enjoyed for different reasons, and in that way, we can reflect on important books to us and who we are as a reader, what kinds of books we enjoy, because reading is very personal, and as I said, there's no right or wrong.

Some of the things we might think about are the first books that you read, places that you like to read, favourite books, or books that are linked to hobbies.

Some of those books that you've written down from our notes already, those are the kinds of books that you might reference in your Reading River.

So, I'm going to show you my Reading River, I'm going to show you what a section of my Reading River would look like so that you can have an idea of how to do your Reading River and I want you to remember, there's no right or wrong, this is about your personal reading experiences, this is such a fun lesson to do because it's all about you.

Okay, so here you can see I've drawn my Reading River.

I used a blue pen, you can use a pencil and you can make a little line across your page.

You don't need to do it yet, I'm just showing you what I've done.

So, here's my first book on my Reading River.

I've got a picture of the book, but I could have just written the title of the book, or, if I had time, I could have drawn a picture of the front of the book, whatever you enjoy.

Now I chose this book, "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde, because it's one of the first books that I remember being read to by my dad, and I remember him coming up to my bedroom and reading this to me at night, and we would read it over and over again, and I remember there was one line that he would pretend to be a really scary giant and say, and I really loved having this book read to me, so that's why I've got this book on my Reading River.

Shall we see what my next choice was? So the next book text that I've got on my Reading River is one that you might have heard of, it's called "Matilda" by Roald Dahl, this is a very popular book.

Now the reason I've got this book on my Reading River is because it's the first chapter book that I remember reading by myself, and I found it so exciting, and I was so proud of myself when I read this.

I've read this whole book from the beginning to the end and I felt really, really proud of being a reader, and if you've read "Matilda" you might know that Matilda also loves reading books.

When I read this book "Matilda", it had actually only just been published, it was in a hardback so it was a new book that had been written by Roald Dahl, that shows you how old I am.

So that's a book that I've chosen to put in my Reading River because it was really important to me, my first big reading achievement.

Okay, what's my next book? My next book is a book that I read when I was a teenager, when I was at secondary school, and this book is called "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou.

Now this book is an autobiography, so it's a book that Maya Angelou wrote about her own life, and this is the first one that she wrote about when she was young.

Now this was a really important book for me because it really changed my perspective, and it helped me learn more about the experiences of another person, because Maya Angelou is an incredibly strong and inspiring person, and this book showed how her strength helped her overcome some real challenges, some trauma and racism that she experienced.

So this book that I read was a really important book to me when I was a teenager.

Right, the next book that I've chosen is a book called "You Choose".

Now "You Choose" is a picture book, perhaps you've seen it, and it's nearly all pictures, there's very, very little writing in this book.

Now I've chosen this book because I loved reading this book with my children, with my son and my daughter, and we read it over and over and over again.

And when we read it, we'd look at the pictures and we'd make up our own stories because the book is all about you choosing, so this is a really, really fun and special book to me.

Perhaps you've got a picture book that you love reading and you love looking at the illustrations over and over again.

Now the final book I'm showing you on my Reading River is a graphic novel.

Now I hadn't read any graphic novels until about three years ago, and this is one of the first graphic novels that I read, and it's called "El Deafo" by Cece Bell.

And it's semi-autobiographical, so when I say semi, it means kind of half autobiographical, it's loosely based around the author, Cece Bell's life.

And you might be able to see in the front cover that she's actually drawn herself as a rabbit, she's anthropomorphized, that means she's turned an animal to have human characteristics into a rabbit.

Now this is a really incredible book, and I recommend this book for you to read, I think you would probably really, really enjoy it, and it was really special to me because it helped change my perspective, again, about the world, because it really helped me to understand what it must have been like for Cece when she went to her school, because she was deaf.

And because it's a graphic novel there are lots of pictures, and in the pictures and illustrations, it really helped me to understand what that must have been like, and I found this a very moving book, and everyone I recommend this to, they love to read it.

So this is my Reading River.

You can see I've chosen five texts on my Reading River, I could have chosen 10, you can put as many books as you want on your Reading River.

Before we start the Reading River, do you think there's any books on my list that you might like to read? Which are they? I'm so happy to hear that.

So, now's the exciting point, this is the point where you get to create your Reading River.

There's no right or wrong, just having fun.

So, first of all, you need perhaps a new sheet of paper, turn over the page in your book or start a new sheet of paper, ready to draw your river, and again, there's no right or wrong.

Rivers tend to meander, that means they curve, so that's why I drew my line in a curve.

You don't have to, you draw it however you want, you can use pencil, if you have a blue pen you can do that.

So press pause and draw your river shape.

Well done.

Then, remember, next to your river, you're going to now make notes.

You can write the name of the book, you can draw the cover of the book, you choose, there's no right or wrong.

And you can write down any books or stories or texts that are really important to you.

Like I said, it could be first books, it could be books that you love to read in a special place, it could be your favourite books, it could be books linked to hobbies.

And the idea of this activity is to help celebrate what's important to you about reading.

And then after, this is a really nice thing, that you can show to a parent or a carer or a teacher to tell them about your reading experiences, because I'm telling you, there's nothing as fun as talking about reading.

So now's your opportunity to do this.

You could spend a small amount of time on this, but you might want to spend a really long amount of time on this because you might really get into this task and spend time drawing and think about the different texts and you might want to write down the reasons why you've chosen it, or you might want to just tell someone that, there's no right or wrong.

Now is your time to complete your Reading River, press pause and off you go.

Wow, I wish I could see your Reading River.

Perhaps you've made a start and you're going to add more to it later, perhaps you're really happy with what you've created, I wish I could see it, I really hope you get a chance to show it to someone.

So we've done lots of fun things today.

We've talked about reading for pleasure, and I hope that you've remembered and realised how important it is to do the reading that you enjoy.

We've had an opportunity to think about your reading experiences, you've heard a lot about mine, and hopefully you've thought about your own reading experiences.

I've shown you this new thing called a Reading River, we had a look at my own, and you've created your own Reading River.

So congratulations, you have completed your lesson.

Happy reading! If you want to share your work, you can share your work with Oak National.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

But remember, this lesson was for you, you are the most important person, and this is all about your reading reflections for you.

See you soon.