Teachers' Concern over Reading for Pleasure...

• Guest 700

  • Registered: 11 Jun 2010
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  20 June 2012     18:21179160
  #1       report
  see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18506533
  
  'Worrying'
  Children's author Frank Cottrell Boyce said: "It's worrying to think that so many young children are not being inspired to pick up a good book and get lost in a story.
  
  "According to Unesco (the United Nations agency which promotes knowledge), the biggest single indicator of whether a child is going to thrive at school and in work is whether or not they read for pleasure.
  
  "Clearly we need to make sure we are providing our children with the right types of books which stimulate their interest, capture their imagination and make them turn the next page."
  
  Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the findings of the survey were "no surprise" and that the government was working to encourage children to develop a love of reading. It would launch a national reading competition for schools for the next academic year, he said.
  
  "In a world of so many distractions for young minds, the place of literature is more important than ever," he said.
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  Lincolnshire Born and Bred
• Guest 656

  • Registered: 13 Mar 2008
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  20 June 2012     18:33179162
  #2       report
  Agree Kath, a lot of children seem to spend most of their time on mobile phones and all the other gadgetry that they have access to today. Of course some of this is good for them too but we really do need to find the right balance and get them lost in books to fuel their imagination. A national reading competition for schools is a great idea to kickstart this off in the right direction.
• Guest 716

  • Registered: 9 Jun 2011
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  20 June 2012     18:43179167
  #3       report
  When we finally learn to read the whole world opens up to us everything else follows.
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  20 June 2012     19:21179178
  #4       report
  got to catch them early by starting to read to them while they follow the pictures.
  
  if you make the story sound dramatic then they will enjoy it more and get the urge to read for themselves.
  
  charity shops are stacked high with childrens books at give away prices.
• Guest 756

  • Registered: 6 Jun 2012
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  20 June 2012     20:10179195
  #5       report
  My 3yr old grandaughter loves books, she visits the library weekly, selects her books and has already read them ( looked at the pictures) before we get home! She has firm favorites which we read over and over again, many she can now read by memory. I am sure that her language development has been influenced by this and she has recently started to understand, by letter building, when we try and spell to each other, which means we have to find alternative "swear words"!!!!!
• Guest 700

  • Registered: 11 Jun 2010
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  20 June 2012     21:22179205
  #6       report
  Our old Spaniel dog 'learned to spell' after we used to spell W-A-L-K out to each other before deciding who was to take him - he soon realised what it meant !
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  Lincolnshire Born and Bred
• Guest 700

  • Registered: 11 Jun 2010
  • Posts: 2,868
  20 June 2012     21:24179207
  #7       report
  Reg is right, the whole world can open up when you read your first books. My mother used to say she read all of Dickens by the time she was 12 'under the bedclothes' with a torch !
  I could never achieve what she did with her reading.
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  Lincolnshire Born and Bred
• Guest 710

  • Registered: 28 Feb 2011
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  20 June 2012     22:53179216
  #8       report
  "a national reading competition "
  
  What more can one say?
  Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.