Primary Reading List

I have been sitting here for sometime trying to consolidate the amazing experience from the on and up (check out twitter #onandup for a taste) conference at the University of Plymouth in my own mind and write a meaningful reflection of some of the amazing ideas that I came away with. Unfortunately I my mind keeps wandering back to an article I read on the BBC's news website, about the government considering creating a reading list for Primary Schools. Having spent a day listening to some people do amazing things to drive teaching forward it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to be brought back to reality with this article. Firstly my response was anger. Why do the government feel the need to try and control the books that primary school children are reading? I was even more shocked to find that I agreed, be it only in part, with Gove when "He has raised concerns that many GCSE students are only reading one or two novels a year,"


In my opinion a large part of the problem with children not reading for pleasure is that they are forced to read books, which are on the reading list for secondary schools, that are not enjoyable. I was certainly an avid reader before I started my GCSE's and lost all interest in it after having to wade through books that I didn't enjoy, and could feel no connection to either the characters or the plot. Surely a reading list for primary schools is only going to compound this problem and limit the scope for teachers to create personalised and creative learning opportunities?

I was mulling this over whilst watching Fast and Furious (plenty of head space left :) ) when it struck me, what would a reading list for primary schools look like if it was designed by some of the people at the conference?

So Mr Gove this is my pitch for your reading list.

By all means create a reading list, recommend texts that you think would be beneficial to primary school children, then host it on a website and utilise web 2.0 technology.  With each book allow a comments section so that teachers who have used it can tell others about their experiences of teaching with it.  Also allow other teachers to share their own books, reviews and ideas.  So rather than just saying Goodnight Mr Tom is a recommended text for year 6 and links to World War 2 and evacuation, I can write a short review telling people that I think it is an excellent book and that I used it as a core text so that instead of writing evacuee diaries we created a on-line RPG were children collaboratively wrote stories about leaving their city and living in a small village in Devon.  Or how about using the Mousehole Cat as a basis for an investigation into the properties of materials with year 2's.

I know that a large number of Teachers wouldn't bother to contribute but I am sure that their would be enough who would to make a scheme like this a huge success and best of all it would require minimal input from the government, possibly saving money, which we all know is a a major concern of this government.

Check out #govemustgo on twitter for more opinions.