Lesson video

Hi there.

My name is Mr. Charlesworth and in today's lesson we are exploring our reader identity in more depth.

We'll be reflecting on our personal reading experiences, and today's lesson has an interactive element, which I know you'll enjoy, and hopefully it'll get you to think of all the places that you read.

The lesson outcome is I can understand my reader identity by reflecting on my reading experiences.

The key words are, my turn, your turn, reading preference, form, treasure hunt.

A reading preference can include what we read and where we read.

Form is the way a text can be presented.

A treasure hunt is an activity where you search for hidden items or clues.

If you're not sure if any of the keywords, don't worry, we'll be exploring them throughout the lesson.

I hope especially the last one has peaked your interest.

Today's lesson is all about developing reading preferences through personal reflection.

In the first part of the lesson, we'll be reflecting on our reading experiences before we conduct a reading treasure hunt in the second part.

Let's have a look at reflecting on our reading experiences.

Reading for pleasure is reading that we do of our own free will.

We want to read, we are engaged by it and we enjoy reading.

Reading for purpose is reading to gain information or to verify knowledge.

Sometimes we can do both at the same time.

We can read for pleasure and we can read for purpose.

Reading can occur at any time and anywhere in the world.

It's a skill that we use every single day.

Here are two questions I'd like you to reflect on.

When do you enjoy reading? Perhaps it's in the morning before school, maybe during lunchtime or in the afternoon? Perhaps like me, you like to read in the evening before you go to bed.

I find it's a really good activity to make sure my mind is relaxed and ready for sleep.

The second question is, where do you enjoy reading? Do you like reading in a chair, sitting up? Or do you prefer stretched out, relaxed on a sofa? Or maybe laying on a bed with a book in your hands and your head In the book? When and where we read can tell us a lot about our reading preferences.

Well done for spotting one of our keywords.

Here's our first check for understanding.

True or false, reading has to happen at the same time and same place every day.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now whilst you decide.

Well done.

It's false.

Now I'd like you to justify your answer.

The two justifications are A, reading can happen at any time and any place.

Or B, you should only read while at school.

Pause the video now whilst you choose your justification.

Fantastic work.

It has to be A, reading can happen at any time and at any place.

Widening our knowledge of authors, illustrators, and poets is a great way to develop and expand our reading preferences.

Can you name five authors? How about five illustrators and five poets? Pause the video now whilst you make a quick list.

Great work.

How many were you able to name? Have a look at your lists, what you notice? Were some categories easier to do than others? We'll be exploring a few examples of each of these: authors, illustrators, and poets, in the next part of the lesson.

Here are five authors that I enjoy reading.

Whilst you're listening to my suggestions, have a think about some of your favourite authors.

Perhaps there'll be some that overlap.

An author I always go to for humour and adventure is Nadia Shireen.

She's the author of the Grimwood series.

They can't help but make you laugh out loud.

Another author I enjoy is Jeffrey Boakye.

His book, Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer, blends music, friendship, family, all within the setting of the nineties.

For some of your parents, this will be a great read to share with them as it really captures the time period incredibly well and brings a smile to my face whenever I read it.

Another author that inspires me is Maisie Chan.

Maisie is able to capture both family and traditions and culture incredibly well.

In her book, Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu, she's also able to offer us inspirational characters and role models to learn from too.

An author I return to regularly is M.

G.

Leonard.

She's a fantastic writer who puts in so much research for her texts.

Recently I've enjoyed her ones that focus on nature.

This one called Twitch is all about birdwatching, which is sometimes called twitching.

You don't have to be interested in birds to enjoy this text.

I really enjoy reading all of M.

G.

Leonard's work.

They usually have a theme of nature and the environment.

Finally, an author that I really enjoy reading is Lee Newbery Lee Newbery has written The Last Firefox and it's part of a series.

This deals with both magic and also lots of empathy.

The Last Firefox has a positive representation of different family structures and I think that's really important to find books that mirror some of our own experiences.

I've told you about five of the authors that I really enjoy reading.

Now it's over to you.

Can you name five authors that you enjoy reading? Perhaps have a look at your most recent reads if you are unsure.

Or ask a friend, teacher or family member at home.

Pause a video now and write down five authors that you enjoy.

Great work.

I hope you're able to name five of them and maybe even share them with a person from home or a member of the class.

Just like last time, I'll share five illustrators that I enjoy reading and then ask you to do the same afterwards.

I wonder if we'll have any similarities.

An illustrator I enjoy reading is Dapo Adeola.

He's the creator of this text, Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices.

This is something that Dapo does incredibly well and it inspires me and others to read more of his work.

An illustrator that I find inspirational is Jackie Morris.

Her work is usually based on nature and folklore and includes these beautiful watercolour paints, which you can see from the funk cover of The Snow Leopard.

The animals she conjures practically leap off the page.

This illustrator, David Litchfield, I think is the master of light.

His work is full of wonder and is awe inspiring.

The text, Lights on Cotton Rock, has plenty of influences too.

Perhaps your parents or carers can spot some of the influences too, when you read to them.

Up next is Jeannie Baker.

She's an Australian artist who uses collage to create her beautiful artworks.

This text, The Hidden Forest, looks at the environmental impact that humans are having on our water systems, including the reefs.

The stories that she illustrates can't help but make you think about your own world and your connection to it.

Finally, we have Sydney Smith who's illustrated Small in the City.

Sydney illustrates texts that you can't help but empathise with.

His illustrations are tender and heartfelt.

They can't help but make you feel.

Here are five illustrators that I enjoy reading.

Which are yours? Can you name five illustrators that you enjoy reading? Perhaps have a look through your book area or bookshelf at home for some inspiration.

Pause the video now whilst you note them down.

Great work.

I wonder how they compare to your talk partner or even your teacher.

Finally, I'm going to share five poets that I enjoy reading.

You have guessed it.

You'll be writing five of your poets afterwards.

A poet that I think deserves to be in every book area and bookshelf is Nicola Davis.

Her collection, Choose Love, is a really powerful poetic text which contains themes and issues which are affecting the wider world of this current moment in time.

It's a really important and vital read.

Lost Magic, the very best of Brian Moses, contains poems that are really joyful and full of fun.

Brian writes about lots of familiar experiences which can't help but make the reader smile and draw them in further.

Stars with Flaming Tails has poems written by Valerie Bloom.

They're about animals, about family and also, fictional creatures.

The thing I love most about this collection is that there are lots of different poems that explore a range of poetic forms, that's how a poem is presented, and Valerie encourages the reader to write their own.

Up next is the collection Dear Ugly Sisters and other poems written by Laura Mucha, Laura's poems are surprising.

They're fairy tales with a twist.

The collection includes poems that are really witty but also offer lots of warmth too.

I really like hearing Laura perform these live.

They're all full of energy and excitement.

Finally, there's a Welsh poet that I really enjoy reading.

His name is Alex Wharton and he's written poems in this collection called Daydreams and Jelly Beans.

These poems range from being funny and thoughtful, to inclusive and dreamlike.

They're perfect to perform out loud.

I've told you about five poets that I enjoy reading.

Now it's over to you.

Can you name five poets that you enjoy reading? Perhaps have a look at a poetry anthology, which usually contains poems by more than one poet, you might like to search through to find some of your favourites.

Pause the video now whilst you go and note them down.

Great work.

I hope you're able to widen your knowledge of poets, illustrators, and authors by taking part in this check for understanding.

The task for this part of the lesson is to draw an illustration of how you like to read.

It might be like Luna on the beanbag surrounded by lots of books.

Or perhaps, you prefer to be stretched out on a sofa or lying down in bed.

How you like to read is a really important part of your reading preferences.

After you've done your illustration, I'd like you to write a sentence or two about when you like to read.

You could use the sentence stems, I like to read at, because.

Or I like to read in the, because.

These ideas are based on the reading surveys which you can explore more of at the Oak University's website below.

Pause the video now whilst you illustrate and write up your sentences.

Fantastic work.

I hope you enjoyed both illustrating and writing about your reading preferences.

Let's have a look at some examples.

Sam says, "I like to read in the evening just before bed because it helps calm my mind after a busy day." Did you draw an illustration of you lying in bed reading a book? Perhaps you have similarities to Sam.

Jacob says, "I like to read at lunchtime before I play with my friends because I enjoy some time to myself." Perhaps in your illustration you focus on who you're reading with as well as where you are reading.

We're now going to explore the different types of reading that we can do in the second part of our lesson, which is conducting a reading treasure hunt.

On an average day, we can read many different forms of texts.

Some examples might include cereal boxes or food packaging, recipes or menus, physical or electronic mail.

That's where we get the term email from.

Destinations of public transport you might see on the way to a school, advertisements, so that includes posters, logos, and slogans.

You might also read maps or directions, road names or signs.

You might read the news.

You might read numbers, that includes money and telephone numbers.

You might read games tips or manuals or instructions to help you perform or do something better.

You might read song lyrics to work out the words in a song.

You might read some information for lessons that you're participating in.

You might also have subtitles, which are sometimes shown on television programmes or streaming services.

I'd like you to reflect on how many of these different forms of reading you read.

How many of these are also in book form? Pause the video whilst you read and respond.

Great work.

I hope you're surprised at the many different forms of reading that you do every single day.

It's important to recognise reading that we do both inside and outside of a classroom.

Reading is a skill that is practised daily.

Besides text, that's words on a page, you can also read dates and times, symbols and icons, codes, so that's linked to computing, or numbers, which is linked to graphs, charts, formula and coordinates.

Here's a check for understanding of what we've just learned.

What type of reading is required to read the image below? Is it A, reading code.

B, reading dates and times.

Or C, reading symbols and icons? Pause the video now whilst you decide.

Great work, it was reading dates and times.

You can see on the calendar that it's in the month of April.

It's not a sequence of code that we would use within computing.

And there are unlikely to be any symbols or icons that we need to read in a calendar.

We are now going to move on to a really engaging and interactive activity.

A reading treasure hunt is a great activity to notice the reading that you do in a range of different places and situations.

You can complete this reading treasure hunt with family members at home or with your teacher and friends at school.

It might even show you some forms of reading that you did not notice before.

This idea is based on the Reading Together Treasure Hunt, which is made by the Oak University.

There's a link below.

Here are the steps for starting a reading treasure hunt.

Number one, you need to nominate a person to be the leader.

This will be who will call out each category of reading.

The others will hunt.

Number two, the leader calls out one of the categories and the hunters go in search for text that represents it.

These are the reading treasures.

For each reading treasure hunters find, leaders can hand out a point with an additional point for the first person back.

You should take turns to show what's been found and talk about the choices afterwards.

Hunters can share the form of the text and perhaps read and extract in smaller groups.

Finally, leaders then move on to another category and continue.

You decide on how many treasures you want to find.

Let's have a look at this check for understanding all about the reading treasure hunt.

The purpose of a reading treasure hunt is to A, notice the reading that you do in a range of places and situations.

B, find lots of reading treasures.

C, talk to friends and family about texts.

Think carefully about the purpose of the reading treasure hunt.

What is the aim and the outcome of conducting it? Pause the video now whilst you decide.

Well done.

It's A, to notice the reading that you do in a range of places and situations.

Although the treasure hunt is designed to be fun and to help you find lots of reading treasures, it's to get you to notice the different places and situations and forms that you find these treasures in.

Whilst it's important to talk to friends and family about texts, the reading treasure hunt is designed to get you to recognise your own personal preferences when it comes to reading.

Your final task is to conduct the reading treasure hunt.

Use the board below to try and find an example of each of the following.

If you need to, you can rewind the video and pause on the instructions or you can pause here to conduct the reading treasure hunt.

Fantastic work.

I hope you enjoyed conducting your reading treasure hunt.

Here are two questions that I'd like you to discuss with your talk partner.

Were any of the categories easier or harder to find? And what reading surprised you? You might like to use these sentence stems to help.

I found, easiest or hardest to find because, or I was most surprised by.

Before you finish the lesson, talk with your partner or person from home about these questions.

Today's lesson has all been about developing reading preferences through personal reflection.

We've learned that reading can occur at any time and anywhere in the world.

We've thought about when and where we read and how this can tell us lots about our reading preferences.

Widening our knowledge of authors, illustrators, and poets is a great way to begin to develop and expand our reading preferences.

Finally, a reading treasure hunt can help identify the many different ways that we can read and the form that the text takes.

I hope you've enjoyed the lesson, picked up a few recommendations, and also enjoy the reading treasure hunt.

Perhaps you'd like to run it at home with friends or family.