Tuesday 7 April 2020

Social Listening

Social Listening

It started as a rumour, scaremongering some claimed,
China, Donald Trump, eating bats and snakes all blamed. 
But now it’s oh too real and we wish we could’ve known 
Wish we’d better understood and to loved ones perhaps shown 
The love and care and closeness that we feel now 
As we sit shut up at home questioning why, when and how?

We ended up in this sorry state of desperately watching news
Examining endless social media for tips and hints and clues
For when this whole state of affairs may be over with and done
When finally we can breath a sigh and life has again begun 
Yet it will not be the same again it’s just can not revert
To the life we had before all this with the ignoring of pain and hurt

And those that are perhaps most in need those forgotten souls
Those ‘unskilled’ but now so key that plug our lifeblood’s holes 
Those doctors working umpteen days wrapped up like astronauts
Those drivers and shop workers and teachers of all sorts
It’s not the isolation that many find so hard
It’s the fear and the worry - is my name written on death’s card 

It’s the lack of holding loved ones when perhaps they need us most
It’s the empty chair when this over and you raise a goodbye toast 
To those who’ve made it possible for all us to live on
And a solemn promise to not forget those that are loved and yet gone. 

Sunday 9 February 2020

Darkwhispers - A Brightstorm Masterpiece


Darkwhispers - A Brightstorm Masterpiece

We are living in a golden age of children’s literature, every week a new book hits the shelves and an explosion of worlds, languages, dilemmas and characters pour from pages heavy with personification, imagination and creativity. You could say that this sector is over saturated with the alternative world, steampunky, magical texts however in this crowded market one writer stands clear of the rest. With the release of the second book in the Brightstorm series Vashti Hardy has further cemented her position as the matriarch of the alternative worlds.

Darkwhispers – A Brightstorm Adventure is simply spectacular, a master piece and is a clear indication of the quality of books that Hardy is surely destined to deliver us. And we as readers should recognise this book for what it is. Yet more worlds are created with detail and depth that combines the vastness of Abi Elphinstone’s Rumblestar and Sky Song with a clarity and simplicity that means that despite the intricacies and seemingly boundless horizons, it is simple to follow and keep up as our heroes are separated and end up on their own personal journeys.
We re-join Lontown with the shocking news that famous explorer Ermitage Wrigglesworth has gone missing whilst searching for a mystical four continent. The existence of which has long been debated and subsequently consigned to rumour. However Arthur and Maudie Brightstorm are on the case and upon spotting a colleague of the evil Eudora Vane breaking into Wrigglesworth house and removing a book, they sense that all may not quite be as it seems.

A large armada of explorer ships set off to search for Wrigglesworth and to find out what really lays beyond the furthest reaches of current civilisation. What follows is a relentless romp through a heavily layered and at times unsettling 429 pages. Note this is nearly a hundred pages more than Brightstorm – A Sky Ship Adventure and it feels deliberate. This book is different. Yes, the heroes, the tone, the imagination and the little unique features are still there (no thought wolves though I am afraid) but this feels weightier.

The emotions that the characters experience have grown alongside the characters themselves. Arthur and Maudie are on the cusp of adulthood now and in a similar way to the Harry Potter series it feels almost like Hardy wants her readership to grow up with the characters. That’s not to say this should be placed in the Young Adult section of your favourite retailer but it feels more powerful – and that’s saying something considering the twins find their dad’s dead body in Book 1. Without giving too much away it is hard to put into words but upon finishing the book I had to take a moment to just sit and digest the punches that Hardy throws at you in this wonderful story.

Less time is spent with some of the characters in Hardy’s debut in this sequel yet somehow you feel you finish by knowing them so much better. There are laughs (as always) and stand out moments that make you close your eyes and wish to be living Hardy’s imagination. However there are also moments of utter sadness, loss and self-reflection where you truly question how you would behave in the same situation. One particular moment in the book didn’t sit well with me and that is perhaps I would’ve behaved differently, therefore showing that rather than it being a fault of the book it’s more a success of asking those truly difficult questions. For that reason I think this is more of a Year 5/6 book and I would be a little reluctant to pitch it further down the school like I would the first in the series.

With Brightstorm 1 we were given a world of intrigue, uniqueness but almost understated familiarity. With Wildspark – Hardy’s second book which gets nowhere near the attention it deserves – we were treated to a world of excitement and secrets. With Darkwhispers it feels like the board was swept clean and she started all over again, skills honed on the previous two books and a masterclass in children’s writing delivered. This really is, that good and should have driven Hardy to the top of your to be read pile!


Thursday 5 December 2019

The Great Choice – The Class Text


With the end of the year approaching many teachers will be thinking long and hard over what book to choose for their next class read, next guided text or simply a recommendation for their children to enjoy. However how do we as teachers select our best books and what should our criteria be in the process? We cannot physically read everything that is released, especially when if you, like me, feel that we are currently living in the true golden age of children’s literature. It is also worth acknowledging that a good class text may offer different opportunities as a home read. Both may have value but may simply lend themselves more to an independent read. Here we shall examine selecting for your class. I will write about personal reads another day, otherwise this will shift from blog to essay!

Quality Texts for Reading Lessons

Now this does depend on how you deliver you reading curriculum, however with many – dare I say most – of us now delivering our reading session in a whole class format it is vital that we select our books carefully especially as they may well be with us for a whole term. I currently study a text and use it as a class read at the same time, so the pressure is high to pick the right one. I tend to look for 5 key areas when selecting;

1.       A more ambiguous cover and blurb that lends itself to inference and deduction.
2.       A broad range of different characters that have different values, opinions and behaviours.
3.       A story that offers a shared feeling or emotion that can be supported by the class as a whole and has many exciting and tense moments.
4.       Moderate/high level of new vocabulary that can be explored as a class.
5.       A context that offers wide opportunities to explore values and opinions of the time.

The ambiguous cover and blurb are obviously essential during those all-important opening discussions around a book when unpicking children’s prior knowledge of the imagery included can in fact change the entire direction of your planning. Here I am thinking of Journey to the River by Eva Ibbotson on the cover of which is often a South American skiff. None of my classes have known where this boat was likely to come from so therefore I have planned accordingly to fill in that general knowledge gap early on.

Differing characters with different values and opinions are a gold mind for comparative characterisation lessons. If one of the characters holds a bigoted or controversial view then all the better. This opens up a whole echelon of debates around context, previously held beliefs on a broader scale and the morality of the character in terms of right and wrong. In school we should be tackling such difficult topics and debating them in a safe and respectful environment.
 We all love a hero and a class love a cause or character to rally around and cheer for during the trials and tribulations of the text. If they happen to be ‘cool’ (think Hermes from Who Let the Gods Out) then they are hooked and job done.

New vocabulary is vital but you don’t want them drowning in unfamiliar words. You can only teach a certain amount of new vocab each week and they can only hold a certain amount of it in their heads, so check how much is new (obviously this may vary between children) and go with your gut.
Context is king and children need to be given the chance to explore new worlds, times and feelings. Comparing the forward thinking and understated fact that there are two male kings ruling together in Brightstorm can be brilliantly juxtaposed with the soft racism that Magpie bears the brunt of in Sky Chasers. Simply asking your children are these values acceptable opens up a myriad of learning opportunities and discussions. Don’t be scared of the controversial as long as it is still age appropriate.

So in no particular order my top 10 best classroom reads are –
  1.       Who Let the Gods Out by Maz Evans
  2.       Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy
  3.       Sky Chasers by Emma Carroll
  4.       The Peculiars by Kieran Larwood
  5.       Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf
  6.       The Last Wild by Piers Torday
  7.          The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart
  8.       Secrets of a Sun King by Emma Carroll
  9.       City of Ghosts by V. E. Schwab
  10.       The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson


So good luck in your quest to find that perfect text. If in doubt look up books by authors that you have experience of, you will better know the style and what to expect and it helps to root your starting point in familiarity. Furthermore, skipping to Chapter 10 and reading a few pages will also give you a good insight of content. Beware swallowing recommendations 100% from other teachers (I am aware I have just give some above) teachers tend to be lovely souls full of rainbows and sunbeams and say all books are wonderful. Many are, but some aren’t and may in fact not fit with your cohort or catchment so tread carefully.

But the number 1 rule through all of this is, does the book excite you? Does your passion and delivery and energy and enthusiasm seep from you? Do you live your book when you’re reading it and your children going to cling to every tense word that you utter? If the answer is yes, well, you’re half way there!

Friday 26 July 2019

The End of the Odyssey

With a final goodbye the Who Let the Gods Out saga comes to an end and what a journey it has been. One of loss and heartache as much as joy and laughter I feel. Hard to read in places - perhaps more for adults than children - but a romping good tale that will entertain readers for many years yet to come I have no doubt. 

Maz Evans deciding there would be four significant parts to her story was a masterstroke. Firstly, it meant people were almost signing up for the long haul by reading book 1. But secondly and perhaps more importantly, there aren’t really any other quadrilogies .... fourologies .... quadbooks? I dunno what the word is, perhaps there isn’t one. But you know what I mean, a series told over four separate books. And essentially I guess the question is, did it work. In short, yes, definitely. 

The final instalment Against All Gods very much has the fee of tying everything together right from the off and it wastes no time in reminding you with crunching realisation of our young hero’s loss. 

Elliot is a broken shell much like his long absent father and the question that rolls the start of the book along for the opening 5 chapters or so is, will he get his mum back. Interestingly and perhaps deliberately on the part of Evans, I cared more about that than bad boy Thanatos’ attempt to take over the world. 

That for me is the beauty of this series and ironically is an aspect I actually think would be partially lost on the children reading these books. The heartbreaking relationships in the Hooper household, the well meaning but largely vacuous Call Me Graham, the tyrannical Mr Boil. All this tied up in a brown paper bag with a stamp reading good intentions. Because for me that’s largely what this series has been about, good intentions in the face of well, life. 

Elliot faces challenges and questions that no young mind should have to tackle and although ‘helped’ along the way by Virgo - who is actually not in this book as much as the others interestingly - he has to make many decisions himself. This decisions and quandaries very strongly echo elements of Harry Potter and the idea of the greater good but there are parts as in Beyond the Odyssey that I found hard to read. 

This instalment is chocker with character, with as many different accents and manners of speaking as there are regulations in the zodiac council.  This I must admit I found a tad full on (sorry) i kept trying to read it in the way the accent said and found I was losing my train of thought but that’s probably my own failure at accents more than anything. 

The book steams along picking up pace, heroes and some fist pumping moments. It is a tale of loss but a tale of friendship, family and finding purpose. One that keeps you thinking after you put it down and one that much like Kate Saunders’ Land of Neverendingsmakes you feel like the author must have first hand experience of the heart ache described in the text. 

I will always maintain that for me these books are best used in Years 5,6 and even 7. The vocab, the incredible depth of Greek history and religion that is examined and even the subject matter I think very much leans itself more to Upper KS2. 

This final instalment is no different. You follow Elliot, Zeus and the clan through trials and tribulations and this wonderfully crafted world is told with such ease and certainty that you can tell Evans has been working on it for a very long time now. She knows her characters, she knows her reader and she has produced a rare gem in this four part saga that I know will be a cornerstone of classroom book corners for many years to come. 

Monday 27 August 2018

Understanding Vocabulary? What does that mean?


Vocabulary. It needs to be taught, it needs to be explained and it needs to be used, but how do we do it? How do we avoid simply stating what a word means like a fully animated Google simply spouting out the derivation of each word and the related antonyms and synonyms? How can we give the children the tools to work out meanings for themselves? Like most areas of learning, creating a natural and inherent interest is the start for me. If children love words and love using them it will trickle through each aspect of their work and developing this skill is how I attempt to begin each school year. Hopefully some of these activities may be useful for you too.

1.    Give me a word. Now believe it or not I started doing this after watching the 1990s movie The Krays (bear with me). In one particular scene the twins are asked by their imposing school master for a good word, a wonderful word. The word chosen is ‘crocodile’ the teacher rolls it around his mouth and finally declares it acceptable. Now in my own classroom this is not done in such a menacing way, however it really works. Each day the children select a wonderful word from their reading, a word that sounds interesting or funny even just a word they haven’t come across before. We have had ramshackle, bulbous, kerfuffle, mystic and my personal favourite reverberate. When each one is shared we savour the word, we say it long, we say it slow, we say it high pitched and low and the children love it. We discuss what it means, how it is used and why it’s effective. They leave each day having discussed 5 or 6 words in detail and most remember them. Note this is done outside of any English or Reading lesson.

2.     Knock it off. As the name suggests this focuses on the removal of prefixes and suffixes. I provide a list of words the class are unfamiliar with and ask them to eliminate the prefix or the suffix to come up with a host of root words. They have to be unfamiliar otherwise they will do it instantly and making it a timed exercise increases the competitiveness, words like ungoverned work well as there is a prefix and suffix. This can be extended by asking the children to challenge their partner with words they have found in their own reading.





3.       Say it how it is. During reading lessons we will take a sentence with unfamiliar vocabulary and I will change the unknown word for an option of 3. Generally they will be similar. For example the sentence ‘slowly the broken figure rose from his slumber’ the word slumber will be unfamiliar for some ‘slowly the broken figure rose from his bed/sleep/coffin. I will then teach the skills of replacement, rereading the sentence with each of the words being used. Children then explain to each other which sounds the most likely. We will discuss what has happened earlier in the book and what happens next and will also look at what we already know about the character. Once this has been practised enough you can start removing the options and start asking the children to come up with their own replacement. This stage will only work if you are embedding quality vocabulary into your day to day life in school otherwise your class may simply not have the range of words to choose from.


 
4.       The Language of Today. Very simply this focusses on modernising language. I have found the best way to do this is through speeches rather than stories. Churchill works well but if possible go back even further. Lots of the Native American chiefs made some wonderful speeches and challenging your children to rewrite them using contemporary language is a great way to test their understanding of what they have read.
 



5.       Collection race. Display a root word the class are familiar with, phone for example. Then challenge them to come up with as many different words that use the root word phone as they can in one minute. Some may only come up with telephone but others may know gramophone and lots will kick themselves when you mention homophone. This leads to a great discussion about what the prefixes themselves may mean. We then write out our new words and split them, explaining in writing what the prefix or suffix means and that the root word remains the same.


 
6.       Can you help? During reading time if my children come across an unfamiliar word they will post it note the page, unless it drastically throws them off understanding the story they won’t spent much time trying to deduce it’s meaning. Instead they will come back to it later, examine the word and try to work out what it is saying, if they can’t this post it note is then moved to the edge of their table at the start of the next reading session and I know that they need some help, we solve it together, often with little prompting from myself.



With the new curriculum, if we can still call it that, the promotion of high quality language and the understanding of what it means has arguably never been more important. As much as children using creative language is important, we also need to teach them not to be scared of language that they don’t actually know. We need to provide them with the tools to dissect this language, to manipulate it to suit them and to put themselves in a position that they will be able to at least attempt to deduce its meaning.  I attended CPD last year that said we must give children confidence in maths to make the numbers work for them, to remember they are in charge and the numbers are within their control. Vocabulary is no different.

Monday 30 July 2018

Judge a book by it's cover - well kind of


Never judge a book by its cover. That’s what we were all told growing up. But we do. We all do, at least to some degree. The internet is awash with different book shops or bloggers painstakingly wrapping books up in brown paper (some even then tying it up with string) and writing some teasing adjectives on the front. The idea being that readers should pick a book purely based on its content rather than its colours or design. I can see why they do it, the mystery and excitement about not knowing what you’re getting for example. However I don’t think that we should be so quick to disregard the wonderful covers, well thought out and crafted blurbs and the often beautiful designs of the books that we see on our shelves today. They are integral to our understanding of a text and are a first taste of what's to come and they should be treated with such reverence.  

Let’s take a look at some.


Wonder by R.J.Palacio

Now I would argue that this cover dramatically increased my interest and intrigue and made me want to read the book. The wonderful design is quirky, different and genuinely did make me wonder. Now that is not to say that I wouldn’t have picked up a book about a young boy with a facial disfigurement entering school for the first time but the bright colour blue standing in contrast against the child like drawing made me pick it up. The clever missive at the top ‘you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.’ Gives a perfect hint at the tone of the book and certainly pushed it higher up my to be read pile.


Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy


As a child I would’ve picked this book up in a heartbeat and spent just as long perusing the glorious cover and map enclosed on the half dust jacket as I would’ve done flicking through the pages. Perhaps more if I am being brutally honest. This is a glorious cover; it feels sturdy, has gold lining that reflects and glints in the light and has an air ship! An actual air ship! Set against a city of houses similar to our own I genuinely think this is one of my favourite covers and it would be a travesty to cover it up. The images whet the appetite, they draw the reader into the world they long to enter and for me, and they made me feel like I belonged there.


Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling

I have to include a Potter and for me this is one of the best. More importantly with a series like this however is that children hunt for these books, they want this particular book, the next in the series, another step along the path. Hiding these covers does them a disservice. Yes you could add some teasing words, magic, mystery, friends. However that could be a whole host of books and yes I do know that’s almost the point. I am old enough to remember the Harry Potter buzz, in fact I was a child during peak Potter-mania and the cover reveal was one of the key components of this. It was part of the excitement of each year just like the Coca Cola advert being shown in the build up to Christmas. The image of the burning phoenix rising from the flames is iconic, matched perfectly with the deep yellow and Griffindor red, the cover screams read me. And of course tens of millions did. 


When I teach reading we spend at least one lesson simply discussing the cover of a book. The value in it is immeasurable. The need for that discussion and the total reliance on inference skills has led to some of the best book talk I have experienced as a teacher. Valuing this talk and valuing the covers that we are so often treated to is a facet of reading that I worry is merely given a passing nod at the moment. Picture books artwork is heralded and rightly so, so can we please show some love to the humble book cover. 

Here are some of my other favourites. What are yours?


























Thursday 26 July 2018

Where have all the parents gone?

Creative and imaginative plot - check.
Absent or ill parent or parents - check.
Guardian with almost omnipotent power - check.
Child or children with little regard for rules, safety or society - check.

From Treasure Island to Harry Potter this basic structure has driven a huge proportion of our most loved children’s books. It has melted into every genre and has become the stand out literary device, especially in books that are targeted at Key Stage 2 and above. It’s easy to see why, Blyton’s Famous Five masterpieces for example were essentially the same story over and over. By changing the setting, the villain and the mystery, Blyton could retain the same independence of her central characters. Parents have sent them out the house, parents are away working etc. Fast forward half a century and as the world has got smaller and children are more aware of threats or at least perceived threats, this has shifted to deceased parents, jailed parents or even parents with terminal or critical illnesses.



Let me be clear, this is not a criticism of such writing. I have championed many of the books that do this and will continue to. Rather this is a recognition of how hard it is to create an original idea in a much saturated structure. So why the appeal? Magical Thinking is a psychological theory in which a person believes that their own thoughts, feelings, wishes or desires can influence the external world. This is partly why I believe this absent parent, knowledgable guardian structure works so well. Magical Thinking is particularly prevalent in children, the idea that there small decisions can have a huge impact on a myriad of events. Their superstitions can impact their world, think not letting your foot dangle over the bed in case the monster grabs it. However in much of the literature they read this is the case (not the monster, the mind set).

 

Now it is true that Harry Potter (apologies for the HP example but 99% of people know it) doesn’t just rely on his ‘Magical Mind’ - no pun intended. Rather he actively goes out and engages with indeed alters his environment. He creates the changes, he makes the waves. However this is not the case for our children. Many of our children engage in pretend play. This allows them to take on the roles of the characters they read about and attribute their own actions to perceived results. Admittedly this fades as children get older and indeed there is a sphere of psychology that aligns the Magical Thinking in adults with mental illness.

However, there is still the internalising of what you would do, how you would react in a characters position. Undoubtedly the draw of books structured in this way - which when you think about it, is many of them - is the freedom the child is granted. Worth noting that applications to boarding schools rocketed after the release of Potter. Freedom that provides the reader with escapism from their own perhaps perceived tyrannical parents. Yet they don’t need to be fully free they still want security, step in the all knowing guardian. Whether that is Zeus in Who Let the Gods Out? Harriet Culpepper in Brightstorm, the stag in The Last Wild or indeed the treadmill of characters in Harry Potter that seek to protect him until they each shuffle off and he is left alone; it is worth noting however he is 17 and essentially an adult at this point. Indeed a character like Magpie from Sky Chasers whilst not appearing to have a guardian clearly does, when push comes to shove she needs the Montgolfier brothers to get her out of a tight spot she simply wouldn’t have been able to without them, they feed her, dress her and protect her. But also give her the freedom to essentially do what she wants. A child’s dream no?


Furthermore it is naturally to be expected that children want to read about children. Adults tend to read about adults. However if there was a clear and coherent trend in adult literature focussed on, abandoned, deceased, ill or dead children, we would perhaps find it a little unnerving. So what does that mean for us educators?

Well firstly it can be a challenge. I looked at my bookshelf searching for something to give a child with severe attachment disorder that struggles to separate emotions, it was hard. I know this is an extreme case but I’m regularly contacted by tweeters who need books that don’t have a dead, absent or ill parent. These are a much harder find than you would think. We must know our books well, better than ever, I would argue. We must be conscious of the fact that there is every chance a 9 year old has never come into contact with death. The book you hand them may be the first time the pain and raw absence is portrayed in a way they can imagine. That is a responsibility if we think about that for amount, we as educators may be the person to introduce a child to the idea of death. If we want our children to be comfortable to discuss their emotions, if we are going to drive mental health to the forefront then we must acknowledge that many of our books may make for hard reading for our children. We must be prepared to have those discussions and teach our children that it’s ok to feel for characters in a book, to be immersed but to also recognise that if reading something makes them uncomfortable it’s ok to walk away from it, come back to it later or indeed to not.



A child is still in the throws of Magical Thinking and it is much harder for them to see the lines between reality and fiction than it is for adults. I salute authors and their wonderful books. I am not criticising here or negating the talent that it takes to write such material. I just wonder if there’s another or an additional way and what the current trends mean for the teachers in our classrooms and parents in our homes.