Education consultant Rachel Clarke describes how to use BookTrust’s Great Books Guide to audit the book corners in your school.
Image: Sandhya Prabhat
Teachers have long recognised the importance of having a ready supply of reading material, a place to read, and a means of promoting reading as a fun and pleasurable activity.
The inclusion of book corners in the Department for Education’s Reading Framework (July 2023) has ensured that they are now under greater scrutiny. For English subject leaders, this means thinking about what a good reading corner looks like and how to ensure it promotes reading for pleasure.
Does it need to be a corner?
A dedicated shelf or box of books can do the same job. The main thing to remember is that the focus is the books. Ensuring that they are in good physical shape, easy to find, and enjoyable reads is essential.
How should the book corner be used?
Children should be able to find books to read during class-based independent reading and for reading at home. The books they select should be their own choice, although recommendations from teachers and other children may be used to guide their choices.
First, collate all the stock. Next, throw away any old or damaged books. Then reallocate the books to year groups so that the stock is age-appropriate and audit the range of available books for each class to fill any gaps.
At the beginning of the year, you may want to include some of the children’s favourite books from their previous book corner as a way of ensuring familiarity for children who seek the comfort of loved books.
You will need funds to stock your classroom book corners, and ideally this should be part of your annual budget. There are ways to cut the costs. If you have a school library, use its stock to create collections for each classroom. You can easily change these books each term or half term to keep the book corners fresh.
Subscribing to your local Schools Library Service is also worthwhile, as they will provide you with high-quality texts on long-term loans. And, whilst more expensive initially, buying books in protective jackets prolongs their lives and saves your budget in the long term.
Each book corner should include a range of books that promote reading for pleasure. The collection is likely to include fiction, non-fiction, poetry and illustrated books. This will vary slightly from year to year.
Finding which authors and series the children like, and knowing their broader interests such as sports and TV shows, can be useful in making your choices. Including copies of the books that teachers read aloud to their classes as well as other books by the same authors can encourage children’s reading.
However, having sufficient knowledge of children’s books to make informed selections can be tricky. This is where the BookTrust Great Books Guide is helpful as it suggests the latest high-quality titles encompassing different genres, and recommends many inclusive, diverse books, chosen with a focus on reading for pleasure.
The Great Books Guide has been designed by BookTrust as a free aid for teachers in finding the best new, high quality, and enjoyable books for reading for pleasure.
The selection of over 100 books, selected by BookTrust experts, is categorised by age and includes a short review along with the themes, genre and page count of each of the titles, to help make it as easy as possible for teachers to select and recommend the perfect book for their students.
Making links to books children already know
The Great Books Guide includes some books in series, with familiar characters and illustration styles. Children often choose to read and re-read series, or favourite books, and teachers can encourage reading for pleasure by supporting this comforting practice.
Introducing important authors
Reading relationships can be built by introducing children to authors they will return to over the course of the primary years. The Great Books Guide includes titles that will introduce children to well-loved and respected children’s authors.
Books for children who find reading a challenge
Ensuring your book corners meet the needs of all pupils by including books at the interest level of the age group but written to accommodate their growing reading skills or specific learning needs, such as dyslexia, is essential.
The Great Books Guide includes books that support these pupils. It’s worth remembering that these books don’t need to be stored separately or restricted to developing readers. They can be enjoyed by everyone.
Books that make them laugh
Funny books are a great way to hook children onto reading for pleasure. The Great Books Guide makes several humorous book recommendations for the different ages.
Extending advanced readers
Once established, reading habits need to be maintained, including those of children who are reading above age-related expectations. Traditionally, finding suitable books for advanced readers in the 10–11 age group has been challenging due to the content and themes included in books pitched at their reading ages.
The Great Books Guide’s ‘What’s Next?’ recommendations means you can rest assured that these readers will be challenged with age-appropriate material.
We are partnering with Browns Books to offer books in the Great Books Guide at exclusive discounts. For every book sold, Browns will make a donation to BookTrust.
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