Reading at Middlemarch School

Teachers and children love reading at Middlemarch school. Our World Book Day activities, 'Take One Book Weeks', accelerated readers with their quizzes, texts shared in classrooms linked to our topics and library book ensure that reading is at the heart of all we do here at Middlemarch school. You'll even find book swaps in the staff room and classrooms.  

To engage the whole school in a shared enjoyment of a text, the first two weeks of each term are dedicated to exploring one picture book and producing artwork and writing surrounding the text. This is displayed throughout the school to give children a sense of shared achievement.  Why not click here to see what children have enjoyed reading this year. 

World Book Day 2024

This World Book Day was filled with incredible ways to celebrate reading. Not only did we dress up in pyjamas for our cosy reading towards the end of the day, but we also had to DROP EVERYTHING AND READ whenever the bell went off... even in the middle of a lesson! 

We watched a zoom lesson with Michael Morpurgo and had many extremely creative book character potatoes sent into school, making it very hard for staff to vote a winner! 

Congratulations to the winners and a big well done to everyone who brought in a potato, you outdone yourselves! 

Thank you to our Middlemarch community. We couldn't have these events without you and your enthusiasm! 

Our Author/Illustrator visit from Steve Smallman

Here at Middlemarch school, we had the amazing opportunity to meet Steve Smallman, an author and illustrator who has written over 100 books! 

During an assembly, Steve showed us how we could draw a dragon, just by starting off with a pear shape! He also read us one of his most popular stories and showed us his sketchbooks, full of ideas and designs. 

Our workshops focused on Steve as an illustrator. We all had chance, with Steve's guidance, to draw our own characters, focusing on facial features. 

Thank you Steve!

Middlemarch Librarians

Here are our new librarians for 2023-2024! 

They have learned how to use the libresoft system for scanning out books and returning books back to the library for their classes. They will be recommending books to other children and also to Miss Gandy, the English lead, so she can buy more books that the children want to read! 

Also, Aisha H, Zahraa K, Ayla and Bobbi B. 

Reading for Pleasure at Middlemarch School
 

At Middlemarch School, we know that children who love to read and Read for Pleasure will not only do well at school, but also beyond. Developing a love for reading has many benefits, including: positive reading attitudes; improved reading attainment and ability; a breadth of vocabulary; a better understanding of cultures and a greater insight into general knowledge and decision making. In addition, Reading for Pleasure also has social and emotional benefits, such as: increasing empathy, improving relationships with others, reducing the symptoms of depression and improving wellbeing throughout life (The Reading Agency 2015).

We want to instil a love for reading in our children, so they can choose, independently, with friends, family or even with pets, to pick up a book that interests them. This leads to well-rounded readers who can not only explore the world around them with confidence, but also delve into new worlds independently!

Middlemarch's Whole School Book Challenge 

Our Whole School Book Challenge consists of children reading a book, reviewing or answering questions from their teacher during afternoon reading time and then completing an Accelerated Reading quiz (if available). This then gets recorded by the teacher and when the child hits one of the reading rosette milestones, their photo is placed on the display next to either 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 books. This has created a reading buzz, with children asking each other how many books they have read and sharing books with their peers when they have finished with them. 

Middlemarch School's Librarians 

Now that Libresoft is fully established in our library, children from Year 4, 5 and 6 were chosen to be school librarians and received very helpful training from the Warwickshire Library Service. They can now label and order books according to our non-fiction Dewey decimal system, alphabetical order or Accelerated Reader levels and return and take books out for their peers using our scanning system.

Here are our librarians:

  and Mohammad and Isaac :) 

Macmillan Reading and Coffee Morning 

We invited parents into school to read with their children for our Macmillan coffee morning, which raised money for this important charity, whilst spending time reading and enjoying an array of cakes that were generously donated. 

Warwickshire Junior Book Awards Ceremony 

Some children in Year 5 and 6 took the opportunity to participate in the Warwickshire Junior Book Awards, whereby there were four shortlisted authors and we read their books over the summer term. We took part in competitions involving writing alternative endings and drawing characters and book covers; had a book talk visit; voted for our favourite book and asked questions to the authors!

On Tuesday 12^th July, we went to the Book Award Assembly where we got to meet author, Lesley Parr, who wrote one of the shortlisted books, ‘The Valley of Lost Secrets’. We got to listen to her summary of the story and she answered lots of our questions. We also had our questions answered virtually by the three other short listed authors: Ross Montgomery, M. G Leonard and Efua Traoré.

We had chance to buy books, get our books signed and have a photo with Lesley Parr! It was a very exciting day full of lots of book talk and reading for pleasure.

Our poetry visit with Paul Cookson 

Here at Middlemarch School, we were extremely lucky to have been visited by a well-known poet, Paul Cookson.

We not only came up with our own poem together, we also joined in with some performance poetry and asked him questions about becoming a poet. We even found out the 'recipe' for creating a poem.

6W chose to use Paul Cookson’s recipe to success when writing poetry to create their very own poem about an imaginary creature.

Purple Pebble

Four purple, cubic eyes:

Glowing; staring; bulging; flickering,

Glowing eyes,

Staring eyes,

Bulging with fear as they flicker in the moonlight.

Three violet, snotty nostrils:

Smelling; flaring; dripping; snotting,

Flaring nostrils,

Snotty nostrils,

Nostrils smelling as they drip on their next victim.

Ten indigo, twisted toes:

Wriggling; feeling; curling; growing,

Wriggling around,

Feeling their way,

Curling as they grow longer and longer.

Eight pink, lanky arms:

Tickling; stretching; reaching; grabbing,

Tickling you,

Stretching and reaching,

For you they are grabbing!

Reading Aloud

Reading aloud is one of the most important things our teachers do and is a frequent and regular part of the school day. Reading aloud encourages children to experience and explore stories that they might never meet. Much of a child's vocabulary is acquired through daily conversations, however shared reading aloud can provide a valuable additional source of new words children can explore, discuss and use.

By reading well-chosen books aloud, that are, in some cases, more challenging that they can read independently, teachers help classes to become communities of readers who can share a wide repertoire of books they enjoy.

Social Reading Environments

The reading areas in our classrooms are designed to be inviting and well-resourced, so that children enthusiastically and regularly choose and change their books. Reading areas act as a reminder for children to pick up a book and start reading.

Classroom libraries have books that feature a variety of genres and are tailored to the children’s interests, so that children feel that their interests are listened to and encouraged.

Independent Reading
Everyone Reading in Class (ERIC) is implemented across school after lunchtime as a calming, focused time for independent reading. During this time, children can choose a book to read from the class library; complete Accelerated Reader (AR) quizzes; read an AR book, library book, or even share a book from home.

Book Talk

During reading and English lessons, book talk is an important element of delving into and truly understanding a book. It offers a chance for children to share their experiences, opinions and understanding of characters, settings and language. It also allows teachers to clarify meaning where needed and unlock new vocabulary for children to internalise and use.

In addition, all teachers are encouraged to trigger book talk conversations incidentally, for example when a child gets a book out of their bag, making recommendations, asking their preferences and ratings, so that book talk might be shared or overheard by others, and in turn, lead to more children reading books that may have been recommended by their peers or teacher.

Celebrating Reading

Developing a reading culture at Middlemarch school stems from having all adults as reading role models. Other excellent role models include authors, poets and librarians, who have engaged children with reading aloud, workshops and presentations.

Message to MMS from Bestselling Author, Sarah Oliver

On days such as World Book Day, we aim to really celebrate books. This year, we engaged in many exciting activities, including a whole school Book Swap, which is now an established project available all year round; golden tickets hidden in books and prizes awarded for children who found them and a Masked Reader show, filmed by teachers for children to guess who is reading behind their mask.

These events give children a real reason for understanding characters; the opportunity to express their preferences; talk about books they would recommend and hear their peers’ recommendations; and most importantly, enable them to see the power of a shared love of reading.

Library

Our school library is a relaxing area dedicated to Reading for Pleasure, with children able to take any book that interests them. Using Libresoft, we have replicated borrowing and returning books, just as you would in a public library, so when our children visit a public library, they feel confident to borrow a book. This is highly important to us, as research reports a link between library use and reading for pleasure, with young people who use their public library being nearly twice as likely to read outside of class every day (Clark and Hawkins, 2011). Nuneaton library is our local public library and there’s much more to offer beyond the books themselves, such as: reading clubs; Lego clubs; access to computers, printing and the internet; audio books and another magical place to explore and share books with others.  

Accelerated Reader is a computer-based reading comprehension programme which allows children to access comprehension quizzes on the books they are reading which helps to promote reading for pleasure across the school. Children are assessed termly to determine their reading range and then pupils are allowed to select their own choice of book within their range. This ensures that pupils are selecting books at the correct pitch and challenge. At regular intervals, children are quizzed to ensure that they are comprehending the books they are selecting to read for themselves. Progress is measured in terms of reading age and oral fluency.  

If you would like to experience a reading quiz for yourself, here is a sample quiz that will mimic what your child is completing at school. Each quiz measures a child's comprehension of the book they have read. 

https://www.renlearn.co.uk/accelerated-reader/sample-quizzes/