CFE Leves Eary Senior phase (Ages 3-16) Running a shared reading project A scheme of activities to hep oder chidren share picture books with younger ones Resource created by Scottish Book Trust
Contents About this resource 2 What is shared reading? 2 A very handy resource the Bookbug Primary 1 Famiy Pack 3 Exporing picture books with oder pupis 3 Practising reading aoud 4 Deveoping questioning skis 5 After shared reading: re-teing activities 7 Further resources and case studies 7 Appendix Using Picture Books with Oder Readers 10 About this resource If you are ooking to promote reading for peasure and improve iteracy skis, a shared reading project is a wonderfu way to achieve these aims. This resource provides a step by step guide to setting up and carrying out a shared reading project in your schoo or ibrary, whether you are working in a primary, secondary or community setting. What is shared reading? Here s what you need to know: Shared reading invoves oder pupis reading picture books to younger pupis; The oder pupis wi spend some time preparing, deveoping their skis in reading aoud so they can bring picture books to ife for the younger pupis; The year groups invoved are up to you the oder pupis are normay P6 upwards, and younger groups P1 and beow. So why do it? Here s a ist of what we ve found works about shared reading projects: Improves confidence in oder pupis, who earn to act as roe modes; Oder pupis deveop their skis in reading aoud and questioning; Reuctant readers have changed their attitudes to reading, seeing it as a fun and meaningfu pastime; Younger pupis discover books in a fun way and have the chance to form reationships with oder pupis; Younger pupis and oder pupis have the chance to participate in earning activities together after shared reading has taken pace, again strengthening reationships and giving responsibiity to oder pupis. 2
A very handy resource the Bookbug Primary 1 Famiy Pack If you want to do a shared reading project, you might find it handy to use the three books in the Bookbug Primary 1 Famiy Pack. This pack is given out to every P1 chid in Scotand every year. The packs arrive in your schoo around November, but each schoo is sent an advance copy of the pack so you know which books are going to be in it. Here s the major perk. Each pack wi contain the three picture books shortisted for the Scottish Chidren s Book Awards. After your oder pupis have read the books to the younger ones, they can encourage them to vote for their favourite. This gives a rea sense of purpose to the discussions about the books, and participating in the awards is aways great fun. See this page for more information about the P1 pack: www.scottishbooktrust.com/bookbug/bookbug-packs/bookbug-primary- 1-famiy-pack And cick on this one for more information about the Scottish Chidren s Book Awards: www.scottishbooktrust.com/scba Exporing picture books with oder pupis Aims of these activities: 1. Oder pupis wi understand the importance of reading with younger chidren 2. Oder pupis wi be abe to identify ways in which picture books appea to their readers Discussing the importance of reading One of the ways in which we can deveop our reading skis whie having fun is to read books for peasure in our spare time, and one thing that reay heps us to become readers is if we enjoy books from a young age once your pupis see that the project gives them responsibiity for a P1 s enjoyment of a book, they re much more ikey to be invested fuy. Expain to pupis that we a have to do a ot of reading. Whether we are reading noves or ooking at bus timetabes, we a need to do some reading every day. Give some exampes from your own day if you want to, and ask the pupis for other exampes. After this, get the pupis to quicky jot down a the things they have read over the ast week websites, text messages, cerea packets, anything that quaifies as reading. Ask them to 3
share some of their exampes with the cass. Once the pupis see what a wide range of reading they do, this wi hopefuy show how important it is to be abe to read we! Exporing how picture books appea to their readers Provide pupis with a arge seection of picture books and ask them to browse through the books. After you have aowed them some time to do this, ask your group to feed back about the books they have read, focusing on the foowing questions: Which books did you particuary ike? Do you think P1 pupis woud ike them? Which aspects of the book do you think P1 pupis woud enjoy coours, iustration stye, jokes, storyine, characters, setting etc? How do you think a P1 woud fee after reading the book? Which books woud you fee most confident reading out oud to a P1? Practising reading aoud Aims of these activities: 1. Oder pupis wi understand that different picture books shoud be read aoud in different ways 2. Oder pupis wi deveop their abiity to perform an engaging reading of a book Exporing different picture books This activity invoves reading and discussing two picture books which are ceary different in terms of stye, content and tone. This shoud hep pupis to think activey about how different picture books shoud be read aoud in different ways, depending on the tone and content of the book. We ve suggested two books to use, but of course you re free to choose whichever books you think wi work best. Get your pupis to read Chae Strathie s Jumbebum and ask them for their thoughts. Did they ike it? What words woud they use to describe it? What kind of reaction do they think the author might have been going for? Do they think younger chidren woud ike it? Now, ask them to read Katie Ceminson s Otto the Book Bear and again ask them for their thoughts. 1 After this, ask the pupis if they think both books shoud be read aoud in the same way, or if they woud take a different approach to reading each book aoud. Put pupis into pairs and give them different sections of the books, then ask them to prepare a reading, thinking about the foowing: tone of voice, pace, pitch, voume and any character voices they might put on. 1 You can find a video of Chae reading Jumbebum at http://bit.y/jumb ebumvideo, and you can find a reading of Otto the Book Bear at http://bit.y/otto BookBearVideo 4
After this, turn pupis attention to the book(s) they wi be reading to the P1s. Ask them to prepare a reading of a short section of the book, again focusing on using their voice to best effect. Deveoping questioning skis Aims of these activities: 1. Oder pupis wi deveop their abiity to fuy engage younger pupis with books 2. Oder pupis wi deveop their questioning skis Once your oder pupis have become more confident in their abiity to read aoud, the next step is to deveop their abiity to ask a younger chid questions and hep them respond to a book. The best way to do this is to put themseves in a younger chid s shoes the foowing activities shoud hep them to do this. Prediction 1 This activity wi hep the oder pupis see the amount of questions which can be raised by a book s cover, and wi hep them decide on some questions they might ike to ask the younger pupis before they read the book to them. Make a photocopy of a picture book cover and ask oder pupis to annotate it with their observations (I can see), their thoughts (I think, I want to know) and their questions (I wonder why?). Try a few random picture book covers if you ike to give them more practice. If everyone is working on the same book, come back together and share the questions and observations everyone has made. If working on different books, pupis can swap and add anything extra to their peers observations and questions. Now, ask them to come up with two or three questions they might ask the younger pupis before they read the book with them. For instance, they might ask them what they can see on the cover, why they think the characters on the cover are doing certain things or dressed in a certain way and what they think might happen in the story. Prediction 2 This is a nice activity if you want to show pupis the extent of possibiities raised by a book s cover and opening pages. Seect a picture book that reies on visua storyteing more than text. 2 Put your cass into pairs ask each pair to sit facing each other with their knees amost touching. You shoud now have two rows of pupis facing each other. 2 Wordess picture books are particuary good for this. Our top recommendation s are Journey by Aaron Becker and The Arriva by Shaun Tan. 5
Stand behind one row so that a of the facing row can see you and show them the cover of the book for a few seconds. Ask the pupi in each pair who can see to describe the cover to their partner. Swap sides and stand behind the other row and show the first doube page spread again ask those who can see to describe to those who can t. Once you have competed the book in this way ask the pairs to go away and storyboard the book, incuding detais of what they think it was about. Compare a the storyboards to see the different directions everyone s narrative has gone in. From http://www.carohurst.com/subjects/criticapicture.htm Pausing during reading Ask oder pupis to ook through the book they have chosen to read and identify a point where it woud be good to stop and ask the younger pupi what they think wi happen next, or how they think a character is going to sove a probem or perhaps how they think a character fees at that point of the story. After reading Ask oder pupis to come up with some questions they woud ike to ask the younger pupis after they have read the book. The aim for most teachers wi be to get the oder pupis asking some higher order questions, but it can aso be a nice experience for oder pupis simpy to ask some basic understanding questions too, asking younger pupis what they remember about the story, what a character was doing at a certain point, what was happening at the start etc. This can be especiay hepfu if oder pupis want to do some reteing activities with younger ones (see the next section of this resource). Oder pupis can come up with some higher order questions by encouraging younger chidren to connect with the book in some way. Questions of this nature might incude: Connect with a character: Woud you have done the same thing? Which character are you most ike? Connect with an emotion: How do you think (character) fet? Have you ever fet ike that? Connect with a pace: What do you think it s ike to ive there? Woud you want to visit this pace? Connect with another story: This reminds me of another story we have read 6
After shared reading: re-teing activities After the oder pupis have read to the P1s, why not take things a step further and get them doing some earning activities together? One of the most effective and simpe activities to do is to work on re-teing the story without the book. After the younger pupi hears a good story, it can be a great confidence boost for them to be abe to te it to someone ese! Oder pupis can hep them with this in a number of ways: Make a story map together oder pupis can hep younger pupis draw a map of the key things they need to remember to re-te the story without the book. Make a story stick together oder pupis hep younger pupis decorate a stick with objects which represent key moments in the story. The stick then acts as a prompt to hep the younger pupi re-te the story. Mode the use of connectives for reteing: you coud use David Maytham s suggested words for modeing in this esson pan (perhaps substituting more difficut words ike unfortunatey with easier ones ike however ): http://bit.y/storyteingwithconnectives. Oder pupis coud perhaps mode re-teing one book, and then get the younger pupi to try re-teing another one. For more activities to hep with re-teing, see the Leve 1 section of our Reading Activities resource: www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading-activities Further resources and case studies You can find a range of resources designed to hep with shared reading here: www.scottishbooktrust.com/earning/teachers-ibrarians/scottishchidrens-book-awards/shared-reading Beow is one of the case studies featured on this page. We hope you find it to be a hepfu introduction to the practicaities of running a shared reading project Case study from Craigdhu Primary Schoo Craigdhu Primary took part in the Scottish Chidren s Book Awards 2013 through a shared reading project. Their main aim behind the project was to increase pupis' enjoyment in reading. Teacher Eiidh MacLean tes us how they got on... The set-up: Our 28 Primary 7 chidren paired up with their Primary 1 buddies. They enjoy anything that invoves working together as they are a very fond of 7
their buddy so this ensured the project started off on the right note. Time frame: Preparation began in September but the actua project asted for the month of November to coincide with Book Week Scotand 3. At the end of the month the P1s took home the shortisted books to share at home with their famiies after an intense month working on picture books. Getting started: It a began when East Dunbartonshire hosted a training session which was deivered by Scottish Book Trust. Teachers were shown a variety of picture books incuding the ones to be voted on. Our teachers who attended the training session were so enthusiastic about the potentia of working with picture books that the head teacher decided to buy in some new tites for the schoo. Drama an added extra: In October a drama speciaist from Love Drama visited the schoo to encourage the P7s to think carefuy about how to read a picture book aoud when reading to younger chidren and to hep them bring the stories to ife. The P7s enjoyed working with the speciaist and trying out different voices and expressions as we as reacting in different ways to scripts of the three story books that woud be voted on ater on. Preparing the P7s for their shared reading responsibiities: In November, the different tites that were bought in were shared with P7 with the focus being on how to read aoud. The schoo was keen to take some time to expore picture books with the oder chidren before introducing the specific shortisted books. Questioning skis were taught aong with predicting and summarising. They aso worked on trying to reate the books to rea ife experience which woud enabe them to draw the younger chidren into a discussion and hep spark their interest even more. The P7s and their teacher worked hard on this. The chidren then read the picture books to themseves and then to each other and then to their primary one buddy before the process was repeated with the shortisted books. The seection of books bought was varied and incuded tites ike I Want My Hat Back and This is Not My Hat both by Jon Kassen and There s a Bird on my Head by Mo Wiems. The pupis perspective: Ross in P7 was enthusiastic about the shared reading project because he doesn t normay read aoud to an audience. He hasn t read a picture book in a ong time so enjoyed the experience. He was paired with Andy and Harris in P1. He asked them questions about the story and enjoyed the responses he got which ed on to a deeper discussion. They were abe to reate the books to their own ife experiences. Ross s favourite was 3 Find out more about Book Week Scotand here: www.scottishbo oktrust.com/boo k-week-scotand 8
Jumbebum by Chae Strathie and Ben Cort because, It was one of those books I didn t get bored of. I coud read it again and again. Max in P7 says, I enjoyed spending time with my P1 buddy Noah and sharing stories with him. Caum in P7 fees the project has changed his view of books I think it has made me more confident reading picture books and Tom from P7 says, I didn t reaise picture books coud be so funny. When P1 chidren were asked about reading the picture books with their buddies, they said they had great fun. Kara from P1 said, I iked it because my buddy read carefuy to me, and Mark from P1 said, My favourite book was Jumbebum because Jumbebum goes into the washing machine and comes out as cean cothes. That was funny and my buddy used a funny voice. The staff perspective & project egacy: This project has changed the view of staff regarding picture books. They are no onger seen as a resource ony for the younger casses but are aso usefu toos for teaching punctuation and grammar as we as deveopment of pot and character. P7 have continued to expore picture books since the project ended. We have invested a ot into buiding up our picture books and wi continue to deveop this resource in the future. 9
Appendix Using Picture Books with Oder Readers A shared reading project invoves oder pupis investigating picture books with the goa of bringing them aive for younger pupis. However, doing a project where oder pupis engage criticay with picture books can be a hugey worthwhie thing in itsef, because: A vast range of picture books for oder readers exists, comprising visuay striking and thought provoking stories intended for an oder age group; These books provide great opportunities to anayse the writer s craft, due to the compexity of the interpay between pictures and words; The themes in these books can engage pupis in higher order thinking; For reuctant or ess abe readers, these books provide access to fantastic stories and weighty themes without the obstace of too much text. Resources If you want to find some great picture books for oder readers, the foowing resources wi be hepfu: Our book ist: www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-ists/10- picture-books-for-oder-chidren-8-11 A bog on our website about using picture books with oder chidren: www.scottishbooktrust.com/bog/teachers-ibrarians/2013/04/picturebooks-in-the-secondary-cassroom 10