What does RTRP involve?
Five books are chosen from a longlist of recently published and classic children’s/YA literature by a panel of experts.
During the year, groups of teachers and school librarians across the UK meet to talk about each book. Discussion focuses on personal responses, followed by ideas for sharing the book with pupils. Shared resources are distributed throughout the year along with a free copy of each of the 5 titles.
Our meetings
A core text for RTRP is Aidan Chambers book Tell Me. In it he outlines an evidence-based approach to encouraging reading for pleasure which exploits the social aspects of reading and develops children and young people’s critical reading skills. I would highly recommend it if you are looking at ways of promoting reading for pleasure in your school. In our meetings we use Chambers’ ideas to structure our discussion about the book we’re sharing:
Likes
- Thinking about the setting, characters, relationships, story beats, language and themes.
- Was there anything you liked about this book?
- What especially caught your attention?
- What would you have liked more of?
Dislikes
- Thinking about the setting, characters, relationships, story beats, language and themes.
- Were there parts that bored or irritated you?
- Did you skip parts? Which ones?
- If you gave up, where did you stop and what stopped you?
Puzzles
- Was there anything that puzzled you?
- Was there anything that you’d never found in a book before?
- Was there anything that took you completely by surprise?
- Did you notice any apparent inconsistencies?
- Were there any puzzles that resolved by the end of the book?
Patterns
- Were there any patterns/connections that you noticed? For example:
- Links within the novel e.g., motifs/repetition/cyclical structure
- Links to real life e.g., themes of friendship, bullying, resilience
- Links to other books/media, for example, this reminded me of XXX because…
We then discuss what kind of reader we think the book might be good for and how we would get them interested in the book. We also talk about possible outcomes if we were to use the book, or part of it, with a whole class. We try to be creative and move away from the PEE paragraph model of responding to a text.
Our first book this academic year was The Blackthorn Branch by Elen Caldecott. The book draws on Welsh mythology, something we really enjoyed about it. We also liked the two main female characters who support and back each other up, and the realistic depiction of a close knit family with their ups and downs, tensions and love. We felt it would be a great read for Year 7. Although there are plenty of male characters and no reason why boys wouldn’t enjoy it, the cover indicates that it has been marketed more strongly towards girls. To avoid spoilers I won’t say more, but the detailed notes from our discussion are attached here.
If you would like to read along with us, our next book is The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander and the notes from our discussion about it will go up soon after our meeting on 18th January.
Books recommended by teachers in the EMC RTRP group:
You Better Watch Out by Sarah Norton
Refugee by Alan Grate
The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch (KS4)
Sawbones by Catherine Johnson
The Den by Keith Gray
Little Barry by Kelly McKain (out soon)
