At the University of Chichester a partnership between Subject Librarian Ruth Clark and Primary English lecturers has been supporting pre-service teachers in developing their knowledge of children’s literature.
As part of their wider work they decided to set up an OU/UKLA Teachers Readers’ Group at the University to draw in students, alumni and local teachers. In a recent newsletter Ruth writes:
‘We stated the intention to support and develop professional practice and share outcomes from our group on the Research Rich Pedagogies website research/reading-for-pleasure. Students and teachers used laptops to register on the Research Rich Pedagogies website and we agreed that developing our knowledge of poetry would be the aim of the group.
OU/UKLA sent a Book Box full of brand new, recently-published books which we distributed to the students and teachers.
Ultimately, we want students and teachers to invite colleagues who are not reading for pleasure themselves to attend and discover the enjoyment and benefits of reading in order to inspire the children in their responsibility. Who knows what might happen if these groups around the country inspire the next generation of children to be a nation of readers for pleasure!’
You can find out more about their initial ‘trial meetings’ and their plans for a launch on 9th October by accessing the newsletter here.
