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Suggested by a participant in our session. Another reading challenge- perhaps focused on adult reading rather than children's texts- could be used to talk about reader identity

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7113821 people participating - Motivate yourself to read more books: Enter the 2024 Reading Challenge!

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At a previous institution, we worked with student teachers and ECTs (or NQTs back then!) to do the Carnegie shadowing with local schools - was great for those students and teachers

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Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates about the 2024 awards and shadowing.

Order the 2024 longlist and shortlist book packs from our official book supplier, Scholastic.

About Shadowing

Engaging, inspiring and free to join!

Every spring, CILIP invites reading groups in libraries, schools, homes...in fact, anywhere there are children and young people and books, to get involved with shadowing.

The young people taking part are known as 'shadowers' as they 'shadow' the judging process for the Yoto Carnegie Medals; they read, discuss and review the books on each shortlist, engage in reading related activity which they can share online, and vote for their favourites to win the Shadowers' Choice Awards.

The scheme has thousands of registered reading groups across the UK and internationally − engaging tens of thousands of children and young people in reading.

Reading activity takes place from the moment that the shortlists are revealed in March each year. The shadowing process is supported by promotional and educational materials supplied online. Groups can download publicity materials that include posters, bookmarks, stickers and activities to promote shadowing across your school or library and access reading resources created for each shortlisted title.

CILIP works with children's book specialists from the Youth Libraries Group alongside education partners, CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) and EMC (English and Media Centre), to create high quality teaching notes and resources to accompany every book on the shortlist.

Take a look at our Shadowing Group Leader FAQs for answers to your questions about Shadowing.

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Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates about the 2024 awards and shadowing. Order the 2024 longlist and shortlist book packs from our official book supplier, Scholastic. Engaging, inspiring and free to join! Every spring, CILIP invites reading groups in libraries, schools, homes...in fact, anywhere there are children and young people and books, to get involved with shadowing.

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This document, or key questions from it can be used to find out where staff / students have gaps in their knowledge. How could you use this sensitively to support and encourage new teachers to reflect on their knowledge?

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The OU RfP website- research and practice

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The OU RfP website- research and practice

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The OU RfP website summarises research findings and practices for supporting children's RfP. It includes downloadable posters, video clips and staff meeting ppts- how could you use these with new teachers?

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In the Teachers as Readers (TaRs) study, undertaken in 27 schools with 43 teachers in five areas of England, the research team focused on RfP across a year (Cremin et al., 2014). They developed and tracked teachers' knowledge and practice, the impact on children's identities as readers and later observed the creation of RfP pedagogy, the development of Reading Teachers and in time, the emergence of communities of engaged readers

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Research & Practice Are you seeking to offer a better balance between teaching young people the skills of reading and nurturing the will - their desire to read - for myriad purposes and for pleasure? If so, you'll want to develop research-informed practice that has been tried and tested and builds a love of reading.

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Possible reading lives activities to stimulate discussion and reflection with student teachers and ECTs. How might you use? Which would you focus on?

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Teachers and student teachers can use a document like this, or a virtual space such as padlet to save and share their reading and reflections on what they've read. Do you have something like this in place already? Could it support your staff/ students? How could it be used in combination with the other resources in this section to build up a 'reading repertoire' of contemporary and diverse texts?

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Rooted in Reading Teacher's Reading Passport | My Site

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Rooted in Reading Teacher's passports. These beautifully designed reading diaries/journals are a great way to encourage teachers to read more for pleasure and to share ideas about what they have been reading with their pupils. Keep your copy on your teacher's desk for pupils to check out your recommendations.

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Is there a Teachers' Reading Group near you? Would you like to start one? Could you include ECTs?

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The OU and UKLA are supporting over 100 virtual teachers reading groups across the UK and beyond in 2021. If you would like to join us then watch this space as meeting dates are currently being updated and displayed once we receive them.

These groups provide free evidence-based CPD for teachers, teaching assistants, early years professionals, librarians, reading volunteers and others to enrich their understanding of reading for pleasure (RfP) and how to support it.

The groups are led by our excellent volunteer OU/UKLA Teachers' Reading Group Leaders. The aims of the groups are:

1. To foster children's reading for pleasure through supporting teachers' /members' own RfP and research-informed practice;

2. To support the profession by building a professional community around RfP locally and online;

3. To share teachers' resultant development work on the OU RfP website.

Are you interested? Then contact us to find out more, email WELS-Reading-For-Pleasure@open.ac.uk

Through the OU/UKLA Teachers Reading Groups we are building communities of readers! Do join us!

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OU/UKLA Teachers' Reading Groups - Reading for Pleasure

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The OU and UKLA are supporting over 80 Teachers' Reading Groups across the UK and beyond in 2018-9. These groups provide free CPD for teachers, teaching assistants, early years professionals, librarians and others to enrich their understanding of reading for pleasure (RfP) and how to support it.

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How might you help ECTs become familiar with contemporary author such as this regularly updated collection on the OURfP site?

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Laura Mucha is an award-winning poet and author whose work has been featured on TV, radio and public transport, as well as in
hospitals, hospices, prisons, magazines and books around the world.

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Authors in the Spotlight Authors stop by to share their thoughts and free classroom posters convey these. Top Texts Every month a guest recommends three books

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How might you share and support ECTs to read some recent award winning texts?

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Book Award Winners 2021-2022 - Reading for Pleasure

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Download our list of Book Award Winners from 2021 to 2022 in order to stay up-to-date with award-winning children's literature. This printable list contains the winning titles, author, publisher and ISBN for each award and category, so you can find and order the books quickly and easily!

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Sign up to explore the free OU and Reading Agency Teachers' Reading Challenge website. How could you use this challenge (June-October 2024) to support staff knowledge of texts?

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Welcome to the 2023 Teachers' Reading Challenge!

The Teachers' Reading Challenge is an opportunity for school and library staff to expand their knowledge of contemporary children's books and develop their understanding of reading for pleasure pedagogy. Run by The Reading Agency in partnership with the Open University, the challenge invites participants to:

Join a supportive and inspired community of educators and readers

Set their own reading goal

Upload book reviews

Access thousands of reviews from teachers and librarians

Share best practice

Download engaging and beautifully designed publisher resources

Record and apply their knowledge

The Challenge is for all teachers, librarians and education staff, including trainees. Find out more about how different roles can use the Challenge to grow a love of reading for pleasure with the children and young people they work with here.

Scroll down to read more about how the Challenge works and create a free account or log back in if you took part last year.

The 2023 Teachers' Reading Challenge runs from 26 June to 31 October.

Join the challenge

Unlock rewards, access resources and be inspired by recommendations from a community of educators and readers, as you discover brilliant children's books this summer.

Already a member?

Already a member? Fantastic! Click 'login' to start your challenge. Remember, by logging in you can add and review books, join a supportive and inspired community of educators and readers and access useful resources.

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The Teachers' Reading Challenge is an opportunity for school and library staff to expand their knowledge of contemporary children's books and develop their understanding of reading for pleasure pedagogy.

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Review these student and ECT examples of developing RfP in their classrooms and with other student teachers. Which would you share and how could you support ECTs to put any similar ideas into practice?

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Student Teacher Examples of Practice - Reading for Pleasure

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Read our most recent award-winning examples of practice from our student teachers and ECTs, and learn more about their experiences of embedding a culture of RfP in their settings.

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Sharing 'Me as a Reader' : Example of Practice (OURfP. org)

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Sharing 'Me as a Reader' : Example of Practice (OURfP. org)

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Example of a teacher sharing their reading practices with class to create RfP community. Could you adapt to support ECTs?

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Reflecting on children's perceptions of me as a reader: Example of Practice (OURfP.org)

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Reflecting on children's perceptions of me as a reader: Example of Practice (OURfP.org)

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Example of a teacher reflecting on her own reader identity through children's perceptions. What approach might you take with ECTs?

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Free online short course 'Developing reading for pleasure'

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Free online short course 'Developing reading for pleasure'

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Free online course including all aspects of RfP pedagogy- How might you use with ECTs?

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developing reading for pleasure: engaging young readers | openlearn

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Developing Reading for Pleasure: engaging young readers

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It is widely recognised that supporting children to become capable and engaged readers plays an important role in their future success. Reading empowers; it facilitates education and employment, ...

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Knowledge of children's texts (OURfP.org)

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Knowledge of children's texts (OURfP.org)

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Main page for resources to support teachers' knowledge of texts. Scroll down for audit, research summary and classroom strategies

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Further Research

Teachers' knowledge of children's literature and other texts is not commonly regarded as part of the subject knowledge required of teachers, yet the Teachers as Readers (TaRs) research has shown it is highly significant in developing children as readers who can and DO choose to read.

The Phase I survey (Cremin et al., 2008) revealed that, whilst teachers do read for pleasure themselves, (73.2% of the 1200 respondents had read for pleasure in the last month), they have limited and limiting repertoires of children's authors, poets and picture fiction creators and rely upon childhood favourites and 'celebrity' authors.

Only 46% of the teachers named 6 children's authors. Roald Dahl dominated the list (744), with Michael Morpurgo (343) Jaqueline Wilson (323) and JK Rowling (300) receiving 300 or more mentions.

Only 10% of the teachers named 6 poets (22% named none at all). Michael Rosen (452) led the list, with Alan Ahlberg, (207) Roger McGough (197), Roald Dahl (165) and Spike Milligan (159) receiving over 150 mentions.

Only 10% of the teachers named 6 picture fiction creators (24% named none at all, regardless of Key Stage). Quentin Blake (who illustrated for Roald Dahl, himself and others) led the list (423), with Anthony Browne (175), Alan Ahlberg (146), Shirley Hughes (123), and Mick Inkpen (121) receiving over 100 mentions.

This scant knowledge represents cause for concern. Road Dahl , who was cited by many teachers as their favourite childhood author, was also the most cited 'good' author and was the most popular author to read aloud in class (Cremin et al, 2008a,b). His dominance further reduces the range and breadth of writers being introduced to children and suggests that the profession is over-dependent upon a narrow range of authors and texts. The project's Phase I data suggest that teachers may not possess sufficient knowledge to foster reading for pleasure and reader development and indicate they may find it difficult to prioritise children's engagement and response as readers in school.

In the Phase II project the teachers, whose own questionnaires indicated not dissimilar results and reliance on 'celebrity' authors, sought to develop their repertoire of children's literature and other texts. They set themselves targets, individually and in groups and read and discussed their reading. Book swapping between them became common practice as they recommended books they had read and enjoyed to each other. Through these and other practices, communities of readers developed and teachers learnt from each other.

Teachers gradually started to respond to texts in a more aesthetic manner and came to consider how reader responses relate to their life experiences, knowledge, culture and context (Rosenblatt, 1978). Significantly they began to read children's literature as engaged readers, not just as teachers, and their discussions with one another as teachers shifted from being about how a book could be used to teach specific literacy objectives to focusing upon how it affected them as readers. Their widened repertoires increased their assurance as teachers.

Knowing more authors has made the world of difference to my confidence as a teacher, my ability to talk children about what they are reading (even if I don't know the actual book, I often know other books by that author, and it's given me a platform to talk about what I've read, to recommend and encouraged me to read more. (TaRs teacher, Suffolk)

The Phase II project demonstrated that, when teachers recognise their professional responsibility to expand their repertoires of children's literature and other texts, they are enabled to talk about such texts, make tailored reader to reader recommendations and foster reading for pleasure. Without secure subject knowledge and thoughtful appreciation of reading and being a reader, teachers are not effectively able to employ a reading for pleasure pedagogy.

This summary draws upon the following papers which are available at http://oro.open.ac.uk/

Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Bearne, E. and Goodwin, P. (2008) Exploring teachers' knowledge of children's literature Cambridge Journal of Education 38 (4): 449-464.

Cremin, T. (2010) Motivating children to read through literature in G. Gillon, J. Fletcher, and F. Parkhill, (Eds) Motivating literacy learners in today's world Auckland: New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER)

To read more about the research: see the Executive Summaries, related papers on http://oro.open.ac.uk/ or the core book, or the UKLA/Primary National Strategy UKLA Teachers as Readers: Buillding Communities of Readers Executive Summary (based upon TaRs, Cremin et al., 2008).

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Teachers' knowledge of children's literature and other texts - Reading for Pleasure

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In order to successfully foster RfP, the Teachers as Readers (TaRs) research project found that teachers need a wide and up to date knowledge of children's literature and other texts.