Any secondary a English teachers around? Or people with an interest?

[Hakluyt]

My ds is in year 9 of a school with a very challenging catchment and a very low % of high attainers. It's doing a fantastic job, and everyone works hard for the children- I can't fault that. A particular issue is boys and literacy- and there are initiatives in place to help encourage them to read.

DS brought home a reading list yesterday. He's in the top set- but by definition there will be plenty of level 5s in that set with him. The reading list is an A4 sheet with 67 titles on it. Just that- no notes or suggestions or anything. Ds is a reader, and he found it incredibly daunting. Hell, I found it incredibly daunting.

My question. I was thinking of suggesting to the teacher that I took the list, picked out maybe 10 or 12 books and made a booklet, with a plot summary and a review or two- just to make it more appealing.

I don,t know the teacher at all. Would I be overstepping the mark? I do already volunteer in the school with a year 7 reading scheme. I've attached a picture of the list- but I'm sure you won't be able to read it!

Is there a book club? Or would there be time or resources to set one up? Then the children could do this themselves - each taking one or two books and writing a small review (which wouldn't have to be positive.)

It works better as part of the school website - so reviews can be continuously added and it becomes something dynamic and fun.

There is a book club, and that's a fantastic long term idea. But I was wondering whether I could get something done quickly- it seems to me that this list is so off putting that it's going be counter productive. I've read enough of them already to produce something in a couple of days. I suppose I'm worried that a teacher who doesn't see an issue with handing out this list probably isn't going to take kindly to me butting in.....

Whzt would be better is if your DS googles them all and copies a paragraph of blurb into a doc and hands to teacher. She might then, of her own accord, suggest it gets distributed.

I don't think she will like your involvement, though I think it's noble.

Can't read list . Think a good starting point would be to get any of the kids who have read any of the books to write a brief review. Maybe do a poll to see which are most commonly read .

Are they supposed to read all those books?

Agree that it needs some sort of hook to get them to want to read them. If you already volunteer in the school and can see the teacher face-to-face I think it would be a great idea to suggest that you knock up a more appealing booklet. Might be worth checking what their plans are for the list first.

Can't read the list, but it looks most offputting. I would not give that to my pupils and expect it to spark any interest. I think a previous poster had the right approach - get your DS to create a more exciting list of maybe a 10-12 of the books and give it to the teacher as an extra homework task - I would be massively impressed by any of my pupils doing that whereas as parent doing it might be seen - unfairly I know - as interfering or critical. (You can help your DS all you like.)

What a terrible idea (the teacher's, to send out such a list, not yours to offer help.)

That teacher cannot think this list is going to help, can he / she?

A dedicated undergrad would get brownie points from me for tackling a list that long and that dry.

I agree you must do something but not sure creating the booklet is the right thing.

Speak to Ht?

I agree that the list presented like that is terribly off putting. I've worked in a grammar and a very high achieving comprehensive and we wouldn't hand out a list looking like that. Maybe for A level lit students who shouldn't need coercing into reading (in theory).

I do think you might be overstepping the mark to suggest something that specific to the teacher, though. But as you do have a relationship with the school as a volunteer already, I don't see any reason why you couldn't speak to or email the literacy coordinator, Head of English or similar to ask what you can do to help (lay it on that you lots of spare time, etc). Does the school not have a librarian though? Because in all honesty, this should be their job.

This is a list generated by this particular teacher for her top set English group. According to ds she just gave them the list and said something like "here's a list of books you might like".

Many of them come from homes with no books, many have parents with very little education- they are just going to bin it. Grrrrrr. It make me cross!

Has the school got a library? Do they have a library lesson to browse? Could you donate some books which they might enjoy so that they could have them placed on a small stand /table for each year group?
Obviously would require tact but would benefit more than just your DS's group.

The school dd almost went to send home a suggested holiday reading list for each year group. I stil have a copy if its any help. There was a sentence or two about each book.

I'm an English teacher. I think your idea is great. The only problem I can see is if you are sniffy about it when you present it. If the school runs a virtual learning space like Firefly it's very easy to create an online forum where kids share the books they read (this is what I do). I often talk to my kids about how to read a classic too. They have to be ready for long descriptions etc or they will just give up

This is it.

The school's got a brilliant library and they have library lessons. And most of the books on the list are really good choices. It's just the presentation that frustrates me!

Hakulyt. As you know DD1 ended up at a modern school in our County. I think you are being a bit dramatic , saying 'many parents with little education are going to bin it'. You know as well as I do that there are 'Few' bright kids in modern schools and that most parents in general will encourage their children to follow the reading list. I also think you are being dramatic to say many children come from families that don't have any books.

What types of books . Are you talking about Mills and Boon, Non fiction books or are you talking about great classical works of literature . I have never read a non fiction book or one of the classics in my life. I cant think of anything more boring and less relevant than fiction from olden times, Then again I am a Philistine. I do not see how reading classical fiction is going to help children coming from those backgrounds in to meaningful employment and prosperous futures anyway.

Another Mistake. I meant to say i have never read a book of fiction.

First of all, I would contact the teacher and ask her for more information about this reading list. Are all of those books on the syllabus (I can assure you they're not) and will the class be actually studying them (obviously they won't)? I assume that the teacher is using this list to recommend good reading material that the students might like to inspire and broaden their literary knowledge.

If that's the case, I would ask her to provide more information about each book. I really don't think you or any other parent should be doing it. If she's unable or unwilling then you could suggest that she sets it as a class project to "flesh out" the list so that each child provides a paragraph plot overview or a blurb together with a picture of the cover when they've read the book. The overall class project will therefore be to produce a recommended reading guide for next year's Y9. If multiple children read the same books and some end up unread, then the teacher will get a much better idea of what her class enjoys and can find out what they don't like about the unread books.

I am a TA in an Outstanding secondary school (not that I rate Ofsted scores much, but purely for comparison) and TBH I wouldn't expect our Y9s, or even Y11s, to find literary joy in that lacklustre effort. I would see that book list and deduce that the teacher was making a half-arsed attempt at raising attainment that was doomed to fail because of the dullness of its presentation.

"I assume that the teacher is using this list to recommend good reading material that the students might like to inspire and broaden their literary knowledge."

Yes, that's what I think is happening.

"If that's the case, I would ask her to provide more information about each book. I really don't think you or any other parent should be doing it."

Could you say why not?

The teacher is paid to teach her class and help them to progress and obtain results. You are not. If you want to do this for your own child, fair enough, but the teacher would have to spend time checking the authenticity of your information before issuing to the class. Judging by the shoddy presentation of that list it sounds like she already does not have that time.

At KS3 a teacher should not rely on parents to supplement his or her teaching.

Hakluyt I agree with Harriet that this list is the work of a teacher who either is not connecting with the needs of her pupils (does she have the excuse of being new?) or realises the needs but can't be bothered/ too busy to make this attractive. The best reading lists I have seen have a picture of the book cover as well as a few sentences about plot and who it would appeal to.
I think that you are basically frustrated by inappropriate or poor teaching.
Furthermore you say that the school has an excellent library with library lessons, again appealing reading lists for the diifferent needs should be an obvious part of that library service if it is adequately resourced.
If you want to address that deficit in the school a conversation with the head of English or librarian would be a start to ascertain whether book lists are on their agenda.

I'm a secondary English teacher.

My reaction to your suggestion might be a bit defensive (because I should be producing a booklet like that myself, if anyone's going to...). It's a good idea though!

To be fair, I wouldn't be handing that list out 'cold' in the first place - but the classroom teacher may be up to her ears in other jobs & the active promotion of off-piste reading may be officially someone else's responsibility - our librarian does loads, as does our Literacy Co-ordinator.

what I'd probably do with that list, as a class teacher, is hyperlink a dozen or so titles to existing online reviews, distribute it to the kids by posting it on the school website, so the links work, & then set an extended learning task to read one of the 'unlinked' texts & write a review - then I'd upload the reviews to the school website & hyperlink them to the list too.

I'd cut it down to about 20 titles & add another 20 each term to keep it manageable & less daunting, building to 60 by the end of the year. Probably some sort of collector's card (like a coffee loyalty card - collect stamps) with rewards for reading a given number of the texts each term.

I think you should definitely suggest doing the booklet. It's not overstepping, & if it makes the teacher slightly twitchy that might do no harm - I don't know anyone who teaches English who'd think just shoving that list at year 9 was going to do much good!

Hakluyt:

I wouldn't rush to comment (especially as you are a volunteer at the school).

Most people are perfectly capable of typing a title into a search engine like google and finding more out about a book. With the exception of myself - most people can do this on their mobiles.

Asking someone to summarize in their own words every book on that long list (?40 titles) is a lot of work - however you could encourage the teacher to provide some web links with more information

Maybe at parent/ teacher meeting: I like the list of suggested reading you gave DS - are you aware that the Book Trust has little summaries about most of the books on that list: www.booktrust.org.uk/ - just type the title in and you can get a link to a summary & reading and/or interest age information.

Common Sense Media also has book reviews: www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews - which also rate issues like: educational value/positive messages/ violence/sex and language (This site is often better with newer titles).

Love reading has featured books for 11+ readers as well: www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/genre/12/11-plus-readers.html - and again you can type in titles for summaries/ age appropriateness.

Personally - as a parent I'd be glad of 40+ suggested titles particularly for my child at this stage (age/ ability) in the game. I'd be encouraging them to look over the titles and consider which sound interesting or recognise author's they like or have heard of. But then I'm one of those parents who's perfectly happy for my kid to try a fiction book (often because they judge by the snazzy cover illustration) and admit it's not their cup a tea and go and find another.

I'm also one of those parents who likes my children to be reading regularly - especially at night, to unwind.

Thank you everyone- picturesinthefirlight, that's much more the sort of think I think they should send out.

Thank you for the links, Past- they make my nooks let idea even easier. Yes, I will use the list the way you say you will- but I know for a fact that many of our kids and their parents won't. They need to be coaxed towards reading, not chucked in at the deep end.

What I might do is knock up the sort of list I have in mind anyway for ds to use and show it to the literacy co ordinator when I see her next week (there's a meeting of volunteers) and see what she thinks. Raven has made me feel a little braver!

Does anyone know if I could reproduce the list on here in a readable way without copying it out? I know people are always asking for suggestions for this age group and people might find it useful.

What is it for? It looks like there are two empty columns, are they to tick if read or....

Hakluyt, I have a small website called thewide wide world which I made to provide booklists for other English teachers and interested parents. I haven't done much with it over the past year or so but I am planning to update it soon as I have quite a lot of new books I want to add - if you wanted to email me your list I could incorporate it in the website in some way if you like - and you might interested in some of the other stuff on there anyway.