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.

We are going to start off by thinking about, what is genre? Then we're going to discuss reading for pleasure.

After that, we're going to have some opportunity for self reflection, thinking about your own reading experiences.

Then I'll introduce you to a new task, perhaps you've done it before called a Reading River.

And finally, you will have the opportunity to create your own Reading River.

Don't worry if you've not heard of that before, I'm going to show you what to do in the lesson.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil and even some colouring pencils might be useful for today's lesson if you have them.

Don't worry if you don't and your brain, of course, for thinking, but particularly for remembering today, because we're thinking about your experiences.

So I'd like you to get those things ready to make sure you're free from distraction, press pause and off you go.

Fantastic, I hope you have everything that you need for the lesson now.

So let's start off by thinking about, what is genre? Have you had someone say that word before? If you think you have, can you press pause and try and explain it out loud? I really want to hear, off you go.

Interesting, don't worry if you weren't sure.

So genre means a style or category of art, music or literature.

It's a word of French origin and it just means a style or category of something.

So when we say, I like reading, someone might say, what genre do you like? And we're going to have a little think more about the genre.

So we're thinking about books.

We're thinking about literature.

What genres are there? What different categories of books of fiction or nonfiction exist? I'd like you to write this down on your piece of paper.

It's just notes, so you could use bullet points, but can you think of as many different genres as you can? Press pause, off you go.

Well done, I wonder what you wrote.

So there are lots of different genres.

I've written a few here, but that's not all of them.

And different people might categorise literature in different ways.

So first here, we've got biography.

A biography is an account of someone's life written by another person.

Often they're really inspiring.

I really like biographies.

And different to an autobiography, which is an account of someone's life written by themselves.

And next, we've got historical fiction.

So this is a story, it's fiction, so it's made up, it's a story that didn't actually happen, but often they're based on events in history that did happen.

So people who are really interested in history often enjoy reading historical fiction.

Next, we've got some science fiction.

Science fiction is a genre that's not very likely to happen in real life.

Often they're set in the future and have a lot of technology in them.

I wonder if you read any science fiction.

At the bottom of that list, we have got mystery.

Mystery books often involve some kind of secret or crime that has to be solved.

And generally it is solved and resolved by the end of the story.

You might've read a mystery book.

You might've watched a television programme or a film of this mystery.

And then the genres can be in literature, but it can be in other forms of art, like television and film.

Then there's poetry.

There's lots of different kinds of poetry, it's quite hard to generalise about poetry, but often it's where we have verses.

They don't have to rhyme, but are written to evoke a feeling.

I like it, I like reading poetry and in particular, there are some books that are written in poems that I really have enjoyed reading.

Next, we've got traditional literature.

Traditional literature means a genre in which stories are passed down from one generation to the next, sometimes in written form and sometimes orally, through telling the stories aloud.

I'm sure you know some traditional literature.

Then there's fantasy.

Fantasy is a genre that's made up and includes ideas that again, couldn't happen in real life.

Often involving magical or supernatural elements.

Have you read any fantasy books? Then there is non-fiction.

So, evident most of what I've described there is fiction, it's made up and then non-fiction means not made up.

So these might be information books, so perhaps you've enjoyed reading books about something you're particularly interested in.

There are many, many genres, it's just useful to think about different ways to categorise.

I wonder, which is your favourite genre that I've just shown you? Can you tell me now? That's really interesting.

Okay, so we're going to have a little think about reading for pleasure now.

So what is reading the pleasure? It's kind of strange braise reading for pleasure.

Have you ever heard about it? Maybe you have, maybe you've had a teacher or a parent or a carer talking about reading for pleasure.

It's something that we think is really important, because sometimes we read for information.

We read to find things out, don't we? We've got a task to do, we need to know about things, so we read for information.

Sometimes perhaps you read because you are told to, because you have to, because it's part of the learning you're doing in school.

But sometimes we read just because it's what we really want to do.

And that is so important.

It's so important to read for pleasure, to read the books, the text that you enjoy reading and get gratification from.

It helps to develop our vocabulary, it feeds our imagination, it can make us excited, sad, feel all these different feelings.

And it helps us to understand how other people live and their experiences.

I mean, those are some of the reasons that I think reading is so important.

Why do you think reading is important? Tell me now.

That's a great reason, I really agree.

So what can you read? We've had a little think about different genres of literature and those were just some, but there's so many different things that you can read.

You don't have to read a particular kind of fiction.

There's lots of different things.

I wonder how many different things can you think of that you could actually read, that you could decode and make meaning from? Press pause and write down as many as you can in bullet points, in notes on your paper.

Off you go.

Okay, I wonder how many you got? These were some of my ideas.

These are not all the ideas, these are just some.

You could read comics, you could read picture books, you could read instruction manuals if you've got a new appliance, like an oven or you've got a complicated toy, you would need to read the instruction manual on how to use it.

You could read reviews.

I love reading book previews.

My son loves reading reviews of games.

You could read chapter books or novels.

If you love cooking, you might really enjoy meeting recipes.

You could read emails from family and friends.

You can read websites.

There is so many different things that you can read.

Now that you've seen my ideas, perhaps you had some of those, are there any other ideas that you have other things that you can read? Press pause and write down a few more.

Well done, this is so important, because when we're thinking about reading for pleasure, you need to know that reading anything is okay.

It's all about what you enjoy, okay? This is your choice, your opinion.

And so some people love to read picture books and fiction, some people love to read information books.

Some people love to read comics and there's so many different things that we can enjoy and love.

So now, is the best bit of the lesson, is an opportunity for self reflection.

So reflecting on yourself, okay.

But there's no right answer here.

This is just about you thinking about your own experiences.

So first of all, I want you to think about what you enjoy reading.

I'm going to show you some ideas of what I know some children enjoy reading and then you're going to think about what you really enjoy reading.

So perhaps, you might enjoy reading fiction setting, kind of the real world, similar to experiences that you might have.

These are two very popular books that I know children love and I loved reading them myself, there's "Wonder" by R.

J.

Palacio and "Ghost" by Jason Reynolds.

These are two really inspiring books.

Perhaps you enjoy reading fiction set in the real world.

Maybe you enjoy reading comics.

This is a comic that's incredibly popular, "The Phoenix" comic.

There are lots of other comics, like "The Beano" and "The Dandy", perhaps you love reading comics, Perhaps you like reading picture books.

Sometimes people think picture books are just for young children and that is not true.

Picture books are for everyone.

And there's lots of picture books that are really, really sophisticated, for example, this picture book, "The Lost Thing" by Shaun tan.

Many of the children I know love to pour over the illustrations, to look at them over and over again and really try and make sense of them and meaning from them.

We talk about reading pictures just like reading words.

Are there any picture books that you love to read? Ah, then we've got graphic novels.

So graphic novels are a bit like comics, but is it a longer story, a complete story told over many pictures.

"Asterix The Gaul" is a series of graphic novels that I know lots of people enjoy and "The Baby-Sitter's Club" by Gale Galligan.

That's a fantastic new series of graphic novels.

I think it's recently also being turned into a television show that was actually based originally on another story, "The Baby-Sitter's Club", which was a chapter book.

Often when there's a really popular story, it gets told again and again and again in different formats.

So I wonder, have you read a graphic novel before? Are there any that you've really enjoyed? Say aloud, good to know.

And of course there's non-fiction.

So often, people like to read the non-fiction about a subject that they're really interested in.

So here's an example of a boot written by Stampy, who's a famous YouTuber.

Or here is a book about bacteria, "The Big Bacteria" book.

There is so many different, great non-fiction books out there.

I wonder if you've got one that you love to read.

So first of all, I want you to think about these books that I've just shown you.

Did any of these sound good to you? Might you like to read one of them? If you have to choose one, which would it be? Point now, I think that's a great choice.

And now I want you to think about what do you love to read? These were some of ideas of things I know children enjoy reading, but this is about you.

What do you love to read? Take a few minutes and note down all the books that you can think of or the texts that you love to read.

Off you go.

Wow, I would love to see your list.

Okay, so we're going to do some more reflection now, more thinking about your own reading experiences.

Is there somewhere special that you like to read? We can see here's a picture of someone reading in bed, perhaps after the lights are meant to be out, reading with a torch.

Perhaps you'd like to snuggle on the sofa.

Perhaps you like to read quietly in school if you go to school.

Where do you like to read? Write it down with your notes about your favourite books, because this is going to help us later.

Okay, is there someone special that you like to read with? Perhaps you like to be read books by a parent or a carer.

Perhaps you enjoy reading books with a friend who has the same interests with you.

Can you write down if there is anyone that you like to read with and what you like to read together? Remember, there's no right or wrong answer.

If you prefer to read alone, that's absolutely fine.

Write it down.

Great, what is the first book you can remember being read? It's quite hard to remember back to when you were quite young.

What's the first book that you remember having read to you? Do you remember what it was called or what it was about? If you do or if you can, please write it down.

I don't think I can remember it, but before I was about seven years old.

But sometimes there's books that we first read, have really special memories with them.

Have you ever read a book that changed your perspective? So when I say your perspective, I mean your outlook on life, the way you see things.

So perhaps, it's a book that made you see something from someone else's point of view or changed your view of the world.

Is there a book that's done that for you, that taught you something you didn't know or changed the way you see things? If there is, write it down now.

Gosh, that sounds fascinating.

So books can make us feel a lot of emotions, sometimes happy and sometimes sad, sometimes excited, sometimes scared.

Is there a book that you've read or had read to you that made you feel strong emotions? Happy or sad? Could you write it down now? Well done, so much thinking about ourselves.

Like I said, there's no right or wrong in this lesson.

We're just thinking about you as a reader and your reading experiences, as an opportunity to reflect on yourself.

So now I'm going to introduce you to this idea of a Reading River.

A Reading River, that sounds a bit strange.

It doesn't really make sense.

It's because when I talk about a river, I'm talking about river as a metaphor.

The metaphor of a journey, okay.

A journey of reading over time.

And for me, I'm thinking about reading over my life.

This is an idea and a task that was developed by someone called Permanent Bernard and then further developed by Gabrielle Cliff Hodges and often, children and adults create their own Reading River to reflect their reading experiences, books and texts that are important to them.

And this is important because to reach your pleasure, we want to show you that reading in all its forms is so important.

There's not a right or wrong.

Whatever's important to you is fantastic.

So, on our Reading River, on our journey, we might record our first books that we read or had read to us, places that we love to read, favourite books or books linked to hobbies, any of the ideas in the texts that you just wrote down, we can include those on our Reading River.

I'm going to show you my Reading River to give you an idea of what it might look like or the choices that you might make.

So here you can see I've got my squiggly blue line, that's representing my meandering river, my river, my journey of reading.

I'm going to talk you through each book I chose and tell you why I chose it.

So I've started off with a picture book written by Oscar Wilde, and this story is "The Selfish Giant." You might have heard of it.

I chose this book because it's a book I remember my dad reading to me when I was little and I really enjoyed it when he read it to me.

And there was a bit of the story where he'd be pretending to be the giant, he said in a big, angry voice and we used to do it over and over again.

That's why I put this book in.

Next, I've chosen to put Roald Dahl's "Matilda".

Perhaps you've heard about it.

I chose to put this book on my Reading River, because it was the first chapter book that I read all by myself.

Now, when I read it, "Matilda" had just come out, it had only just being written.

And it was a hard back book and it was very beautiful and I borrowed it from my school library.

And I was so enthralled by the story and Matilda if you remember or have read the story, you'll know that she also loves reading.

And I felt really proud of myself when I finished that book.

That's why I have included that on this list.

The next book I've put on my Reading River is an autobiography called "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings".

And this is by someone called Maya Angelou.

I read this when I was in secondary school.

This is a book for older people.

Now, this is a really important book to me, because Maya Angelou was an incredible person.

So strong, she is a writer and poet.

And in the book about her early life, it shows how she overcame awful trauma and racism.

And I found this book incredibly inspiring.

That's why I chose this book.

Next I'm including the first in the Alex Rider series called "Stormbreaker".

Have you read it? Have you heard of it? And I've chosen this book, because this was the first book that I read in a new genre.

Remember earlier we spoke about genre.

Now prior to this, I didn't really enjoy or think that I would enjoy reading books about action and adventure and adrenaline, but I read this book and I couldn't believe how much I loved it.

I found it so exciting.

And that's something that I want you to think about and remember that sometimes we will like something, but we don't know that we'll like it until we try it.

And so trying to broaden the genres of texts that we read can be really important.

And this is an example of where I did that.

Next, I've got "El Deafo", a graphic novel that I absolutely adored.

Again, before this, I hadn't actually read any graphic novels.

And this story was semi-autobiographical.

So it's loosely based around the author Cece Bell's life.

And it's about her experiences when she went to school and how she found that being deaf.

Now I found this a really moving book, because it really helped me understand what that must have been like for her and the illustrations in the pictures were so clever in the way that they portrayed that experience.

It really helped me to imagine and to empathise for what that must have been like for Cece.

Now, finally, I have another book and this is the book "Railhead".

I chose this because it's another example of where I read a book that was in a different genre that I normally read.

This book is a science fiction book.

It's set in the future of people travelling across universes.

I wasn't sure that I would enjoy a science fiction book, but I decided to read it and I loved it.

I find it really sparked my imagination and it was great to read a type of book that I hadn't read before.

So this is my Reading River.

Are there any of the books that I've mentioned that you think you might like to read? Could you point to it now? Yeah, I loved that one.

Now it's time for you to create your Reading River.

Remember, there's no right or wrong with this, so you can just enjoy the experience.

First of all, you're going to need to draw your river, a wavy line on a new page with space for you to write or draw the covers of books around it.

Can you get ready and do this now? Fantastic, then you can start to plot your own books next to the river just like I did.

You could write the title of the book or you could draw the cover of it, whatever you choose to do is absolutely fine.

Remember, there's all sorts of different books that you could choose and you all have reasons why you choose them your first books, places to read, favourite books, books linked to hobbies.

You will know why you have chosen.

If you want, you can write down on your Reading River, why you've chosen them, otherwise, when you show your Reading River to someone, a parent or a carer or a teacher, you can explain to them why you've chosen them.

And this is why this task is really important, because it values what you like to read and what's important to you.

And that's important when we're trying to develop reading for pleasure.

So, now's your chance to get going, press pause and off you go.

Well done, perhaps you've made a start on your Reading River, perhaps you've completed it.

I wish I could see it.

I hope you have a chance to show someone.

So what have we done in today's lesson? We've thought about genre, we've talked about what it means.

We've discussed reading for pleasure.

We've had lots of opportunities for you to think about your own reading experiences.

I've shown you what a Reading River is and you've had a chance to create your Reading River.

I hope you enjoyed it.

You have completed your lesson.

Congratulations and happy reading.

If you would like, you could share your work with Oak National.

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

I hope you can show your work to someone at home, but remember, reading for pleasure is all about you and your enjoyment.

It's not really for anyone else.

It can just be fun to talk about books without others and that's why it might be nice to share.

I can't wait to see you again, bye.