school says read around the subject but what? anyone?

[bacere]

Several of ds teachers say he would do well to read around the subject but any books I get are too much ie too thick and admittedly I would find them difficult to get into. Anyone out there able to say what your dc reads. I'm struggling with ds who is at GCSE level and reluctant scholar! Do you buy those Letts study guides? DS is doing the usual, ie biology chemistry languages, maths etc.

Those guides are good because they often have a section of condensed 'other opinions/criticism'.
Is it that he needs to know more about the world in general?
The mostr valuable thing I did for my general education was to read the Guardian cover to cover every day from about 12yrs onwards-I know I was an unusual child! My niece is reading The Times online because she needs to know about the world for her university interviews.
I would email/ask his teachers directly for specific texts suggestions.

well my undergraduate students would struggle to read around the subject. Am lucky if they read one or two articles on the reading list!
so
history; historical novel or perhaps somthing like treasure island or modern reworking of robinson crusoe
science: any TV tie in, something lots of lovely pictures
maths; see some of the books here

York Notes for english are good, DS struggled to read through his english set texts but was fine with those. CGP are good for maths and science too, it's mostly just the course but condensed down into a couple of pages for each topic.

What about New Scientist magazine?
DS loves all the David Attenborough programmes.
Languages - for German he could try Spiegel magazine for kids. No doubt there are equivalents for other MFLs.

can i make a plea on behalf of university teachers everywhere? please don't encourage your dcs to use study guides. These encourage students to think there is just a finite amount of things to know and think and then sucess will depend on how many of these they manage to remember. Instead get them excited about the world around them and the things that they are reading, the ideas they come up with BY THEMSELVES will be wonderful. If they are studying jane austen. get them to watch clueless and bridget jones and compare the stories

I think reading a quality newspaper (not the Metro!) even online is a good idea daily. We get History Today and New Scientist and show the DD's various articles. Some TV documentaries are good but not generally information heavy.

DD does browse the internet quite a lot for subjects, she is interested in - You Tube do have some reasonable stuff, as well as the rubbish. We go to museums and exhibitions from time to time - it all helps.

Introduce him to TED talks:

here

Lots of inspiration and food for thought. All subjects covered.

Reading around a subject usually means reading things which provide some sort of background or context.

For example if the set text was Woman in Black 'reading around' would mean reading up on the traditions of Victorian gothic literature, some Charles Dickens, reading some of the other works of Susan Hill, reading reviews of the novel from newspapers and interviews with the author, seeing the stage play and the film.

I would interpret reading around the subject to mean breaking away from study guides (ie material squarely aimed at the exams), and looking for additional things which will enthuse and inspire.

You could try "Alex's Adventures in Numberland" for maths, and think the suggestion above about magazines like New Scientist is a brilliant one.

What period in history?

Another thought - when DS was revising for chemistry and had to learn the flame test colours he watched lots of videos on Youtube of 'Braniac' (if anyone remembers that!). They were actually really helpful for him.

Bang goes the Theory and Mythbusters are good for science as well (and not tainted with sexism like Brainiac). Would also recommend anything by Brian Cox (TV or books) and The Magic of Reality by Dawkins (warning - not suitable for religious families), and Horrible Science / Horrible Histories if he hasn't read them yet.

Historical novels are good - a lot of the obvious easy reading ones are aimed at women, but there's a fair few boy-friendly ones as well. And BBC4 has loads of good documentaries. Melvin Bragg's In Our Time podcast is good but perhaps a bit dry, maybe better to stick to TED.

You can copies of the Royal Institution Christmas lectures on DVD, and they are excellent - Marcus Du Sautnoy's on maths and codes and Hugh Montgomery on the Science of Survival are two recent ones which stuck in my memory as particularly good.

For science what about New Scientist magazine?

My daughter is reading Harry Potter in Spanish to improve her language skills (she's just done her GCSE). As she has read them cover to cover numerous times, the familiarity is helpful and she's coping with it ok... She read Jules Verne in French too, but this was part of her school work - the teacher instigated that one. She also read John Steinbeck's 'The grapes of wrath' as this linked in to her History work on the great depression in America in the 30s.
My youngest DS (13) has always had his nose in books about absolutely everything and anything. He loves documentaries too, and his general knowledge is amazing!
I think the teachers who are suggesting 'reading around' the subject should perhaps give a few more pointers or ideas of what exactly your child could read.

If he finds New Scientist hardgoing, Focus magazine is also worth buying. There's also a lot of information on the website too.

I agree that reading newspapers, especially the weekend ones are a great idea. They always have articles on such a range of topics - I teach in a v academic private school and the ones who do best are not the ones who just learn the syllabus but those that have a genuine intellectual curiosity about all sorts of things. They may not be able to use what they read directly but it feeds ideas and arguments and most importantly for higher levels of study, gets them reading things of a reasonable length.

we like Focus magazine as a starting point for discussions/further reading. Not too intimidating, but proper science.

Like the suggestion of Harry Potter in foreign language, will suggest that to DD2.

'Read around' can just mean more exposure. So maybe watch the news in the MFL he is studying or reading a foreign newspaper.

For maths, read some things about mathematicians, or concepts - why is it easier to do maths in greek rather than using Roman numerals.

Science - apply it to cooking - why do you cook things at cerrtain temperatures, why do we pasturise milk, why is it called that?

I've given HP books to people in different languages.

Radio 4 I know not reading but programes like From our Own Correspondent All In The Mind Saving The Plannet farming today for geographers and that programe where people trace their ancestors are all stimulating the Wreath Lectures coming up soon and all old ones available on line and the BBC website in general is very well regarded. The Spectator is easier to read than the economist although usually slightly to the right of Ghengis Khan sometimes has some interesting articles especially about the economy and The Week is highly readable and sumerizes lots of the daily papers again lots on economics. For geographers my subject The CIA world fact book can't be beaten and makes fascinating reading but then I'm a geography nerd!

Also the UN has an excellent website with lots of info again ideal for geographers those interested in environmental issues human right etc.
Radio 4 has of course some excellent plays lots can be listened too on iplayer and they have a website where you can download/buy CD's of their old drama productions. We've recently bought their famous and beautiful production of Len Deightons Bomber which was originally broadcast in real time (the timing of the planes leaving the UK to bomb towns like Dresden) it gives the views of both the British and Germans and interviews some of the people who were actually involved. Bomber was considered by my grand father to be the most important anti war book since all quiet on the Western Front. Nothing radio 4 broadcast before it or after received such praise as this it was a truly moving production. Absolutely fantastic for budding historians.

hg they are the Reith Lectures (as in Lord Reith).

I agree that reading around the subject means going outside the syllabus i.e. following your own interests. What about using wiki as a start point: it is very easy to click from link to link to link until something really catches his imagination (and then he can follow it up in proper sources).
Thay also have an 'article of the day' for a quick hit of general knowledge.

Sorry senua your right Reath. Vilayanur Ramachandran (2003) is fanstatic for all budding neurologists/psychologists we were absolutely glued, Daniel Barenboim (2008) was surprisingly good even if your not interested in music and of Ang Sen Su Kyi last year. The radio 4 program about the environment is actually called Costing the Earth and radio 4's attempt to prove that it is not dumbing down In Our Time can be intersting and would be better without Melvin Bragg!! Alistair Snooks ?BBC 2 or maybe BBC4 does fantastic programs about art good for budding artist and artist we all cried with him when watching the one about Matisse!

Wow so much helpful information. Thank you all.