Good morning!

Today is the start of a brand-new, weekly series on my blog all about reclaiming reading.

Reading is BRILLIANT. We all know that. I’d assume if you’re popping along here it’s either because you’re a teacher, a reader or one of my friends, so you know that getting kids reading and seeing the joy in it is one of my real passions… so here I am, giving out tips. I may not be the most qualified person, but I’ve got the passion and it’s not a soap box I’ll ever step down from, ha.

Tip 1: Model reading yourself

One of the things that I find the easiest to do is to model reading yourself. You expect kids to read, but you’re busy doing the housework/marking books/making tea? Kids aren’t seeing you do it, so why should they do it? Sit down, whether it’s for 5-10 minutes when you can, and read along with them. Choose a book (bonus points if it’s a kids’ book) and read in silence along with them. I do it in the classroom and the kids are always absolutely blown away that I am sitting down and doing it too!

Tip 2: Talk about books

Kids will talk about things in their lives with a bit of modelling and a bit of encouragement. Make space in your day/your week to talk about books. What have they been reading? What are they liking about it? What are they not? What kinds of books do they enjoy reading? Model that conversation with them and you’ll soon find that they’ll do it with each other. This could be 1:1 or as a whole group!

Tip 3: Consistency is key

Every day, 1-1:15, we all read in my classroom. It’s ‘silent reading’ time. My kids have free reign over my library and they can choose books as they like. But they know that every day, that is the routine. Children thrive on routine, so use this to your advantage. I know that timetables are squished and that there isn’t time for everything… but make time. If you’re a parent, make reading time part of your child’s night time routine (books before bed for example).

Tip 4: Read TO them

This is one of my favourite parts of the day. The end of the day, we pack up and then we sit and listen to our class novel. Kids love it; I love it. Being read to is an absolute delight and being able to read to children every day is so amazing. The shock, delight, laughter, tears – I’ve seen it all reading aloud to children. Once you’ve read that book, pop it in your library and you’ll find lots of them will want to pick it up (I’ve got a blog post coming about different ways to get recommending books!).

Tip 5: Let them give up on books

LET THEM GIVE UP? STEPHANIE? ARE YOU MAD? Well, no, actually, I’m not. As adults, we can stop watching TV shows we aren’t enjoying; we turn off films we aren’t enjoying; we scroll past videos we aren’t enjoying, so let them have that same autonomy. My general rule of thumb is that they have to have given a book a good go (a couple of chapters/50 pages depending on the book) and if they’re still not enjoying it, then we have a chat about it (see: Talk about books) and I try and recommend something that they will enjoy. They’ll soon learn what they do and don’t like about books!

Tip 6: Get them reading a range of books

If my class will tell you anything about my attitude to reading, it’s that we need a “diet” of books. I always say “you wouldn’t only eat carrots for the rest of their life”. So if they want to read a graphic novel, let them (graphic novels are incredible and I will talk about that for the rest of my life), but that can’t be the only thing they read. If they love a non-fiction book, yes, go for it, but you also need to read other things too. If illustrated novels (which I am loving the insurgence of in the past few years) are their jam, then go for it; read them… but read other things too!

Tip 7: They’ve got a passion? Get them to read about it!

Lots of kids will initially need something that is in their lived experience or something they love to read about to get them reading. If they love football, there’s loads of books out there about football. If they love books about dragons, there’s loads of books out there about dragons. Do the talking (see tip number 2) and then guide them to reading about things they like. Once they’re more assured, confident readers, they’ll branch out into other things and get that “diet” of books.

Tip 8: Read kids’ books

Now. This one. I could go on and on about this forever, but this is kind of the culmination of all of the other tips. I think it’s so important that we, as adults, read the books we want kids to read so that we can recommend them, so that we can talk about, so that we can model reading. There are SO MANY amazing kids’ books out there, and there really is something for everyone. Why should you expect kids to read books that you know nothing about? We are supposed to be the “experts” about this. Why not challenge yourself to read a kids’ book a month? That’s 12 in the year. 12 books you can talk about and recommend with your class/children/families. Not sure where to start? There are MANY guides out there or let me know and I’m HAPPY to recommend some!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I’ll be honest… narrowing this down to just 8 tips was HARD and I have so many more. I have ideas coming out of my ears, which is why I’m starting this weekly blog series.

If there’s anything you think you’d LOVE to know about from my Reading reclaimed series, please drop it in the comments or let me know on Instagram (@thisgeordieteaches). I’d LOVE to guide this series with you guys!

S x