Case studies of strategies for promoting independent reading
An online session in which two of the authors of the ‘Opening Doors’ series of books, Bob Cox and Leah Crawford, will explore a range of ideas for promoting independent reading arising from a large UK network of primary schools that has developed over the last ten years. They will be joined by star guest, Jennifer Webb (Director of English and Literacy for Carlton Academy Trust) who has much to add to the debate particularly with KS3 and 4 in mind.
This event is relevant to any primary teacher and secondary English teacher interested in getting more of those vital moments when pupils’ investment and enjoyment in reading may be kickstarted. We will be including the influence of day to day teaching English teaching on the motivation needed to choose books and poetry as well as strategies for reluctant readers.
Please read the National Literacy Trust report on Reading for Pleasure in advance.
Bob Cox, a teacher for 23 years, has presented ideas about high pitch learning and English at regional, national and international conferences for some time. He is the award-winning author of the ‘Opening Doors’ series of books, used in thousands of schools. The books and Bob’s associated training have acted as a key stimulus to the growth of exciting English across the UK and in many areas centres of excellence have been developed by teachers, building long term capacity for creative English for all. Bob has now supported about 600 schools, cross-phase and cross-curricular, encouraging approaches using quality texts to quality writing routes. He has a top-class team of writers and consultants working with him on principles and strategies which can be applied whatever curriculum you use.
Leah Crawford was a secondary English teacher and leader with 15 years’ experience as a local authority English inspector and adviser, working across both the primary and secondary phases. She now leads Thinktalk education consultancy, providing bespoke support to school and Trusts, leading CPD courses in high pitch, low access English, centred on quality texts and quality classroom dialogue. She is a tutor for King’s College London’s ‘Let’s Think in English’ cognitive acceleration programme and is proud to be an Opening Doors author and consultant. Her Masters in Education degree focused on professional development for the teaching of thinking through dialogue.
Jennifer Webb has been an English teacher for sixteen years, and is Director of English and Literacy for the Carlton Academy Trust in West Yorkshire, where she supports a number of secondary schools. She hosts www.FunkyPedagogy.com – a site where she has built an extensive CPD library for English teachers and school leaders, whilst also freely sharing resources and articles rooted in her own classroom practice. She also curates ‘The Reading List Project’ as a vehicle for diversifying school libraries and English curriculum choices, and is the founder of The Literacy Community, a national grassroots collaborative project with over 900 literacy leaders in schools. She is the best-selling author of: How to Teach English Literature: Overcoming Cultural Poverty (2019), Teach Like a Writer (2020) and The Metacognition Handbook (2021) and Essential Grammar (2023), co-authored with Marcello Giovanelli.
