Reading for wellbeing: free CPD training module for primary teaching assistants

Hi I’m Michael Rosen and I write books and I come around to schools and book festivals doing shows based on my books. Sometimes they’re poems, sometimes they’re stories. When you read a book to start off with, you might be reading it because it’s fun or because it’s exciting, but actually when you’re reading it might also make you feel better and it can make you feel better because it cheers you up.

Or it can make you feel better because there are all sorts of emotions and feelings in a story and you start thinking about them and then if you’re in a state of mind where maybe you’re a bit upset, bit angry, bit lonely you might discover when you read that you’re not on your own you’re a bit like one of the characters in the book.

And once you start thinking I’m a bit like somebody in a book then sometimes that can make you feel better and that’s great.

So always remember that books are like a wonderful place you can go to. You can go into the book and if you’ve got feelings like you’re a bit worried or you’re sad or you’re lonely or you feel angry and you don’t know why you’re angry – maybe you’ve got feelings of just not feeling good – you know we call that we got a word for that depression that when you go into a book it can relieve you. 

Remember that word I said, relieve, so as you’re in the book you’re away from the things that are bothering you but at the same time it can take you to those places and help you think help you think about those feelings those emotions, so books are a fantastic place to go.

Now I wonder, did you ever see any of those TV programs about somebody called Professor Branestawm? Well they started out as books and when I was a boy I read those books but something else about when I was a boy when I was 10 and just becoming 11 there was a great big exam and it was like a great big demon in my mind this great big exam that was called the 11 plus.

And if you passed that exam you went to a school that most people wanted to go to and if you failed people were quite worried certainly if when I was 11 they were worried you’d go to a school that wouldn’t be nice. In fact they were okay but that’s what we thought so I’d worry about it. Will I pass that exam? Terribly terribly worried, I’d lie awake at night and I’d go mom mom she’d come up and I’d say I think I’m going to fail the 11 plus cuz I’m no good at arithmetic no good at s she’d say I think you’ll be all right I think you’ll be all right I said can I have a drink she bring me up a milk drink but at the same time when I was having all those worries and believe me they were really big worries my brother was reading to me Professor Branestawm books.

And Professor Branestawm books I thought were the funniest books that I’d ever ever read or ever ever heard someone read to me because Professor Branestawm is very very clever but very very absent minded so he’s kind of clever and not clever. Course I wanted to be clever so I could pass the exam but some or other reading about this clever man who can’t even find his glasses sometimes he’s wearing seven pairs of glasses on his head and he still can’t find his glasses it was what we call a relief it relieved me I could laugh and felt good and then I could think about how just because you’re clever it doesn’t mean that you’ve got common sense.

One great thing about books is that when you’re reading them you’re looking at other people’s feelings, how they’re thinking. So in a way it’s almost as if you put their clothes on or you put their shoes on. We’ve got an expression, ​“in other people’s shoes,” but really you’re in other people’s minds.

There’s a moment in Where the Wild Things Are where what happens in the writing, it says: Max wanted to be where somebody loved him best of all. You know, I read that to my son, he was only three at the time, many many times, and he never said anything. He didn’t say anything at all, we just read the book, we read it over and over again. And then one day after we had read it 30 times, we got to that bit and I said ​“Max wanted to be where somebody loved him best of all,” and he just went, ​“Mommy.” I thought, what, where’s that come from?

You know what he was thinking, don’t you. He was thinking, if I was Max and I wanted to be where somebody loved me best of all, I would think I would like to be with my mommy. That’s a great big thought for a three year old, but actually it’s a thought that we all have when we’re watching a film or watching TV, but best of all when reading.

When you’re reading, you’re thinking: if I was that person I would be afraid, or if I was that person I would be angry, or if I was that person I would be lonely, or if I was that person I’d be scared. Any of these feelings — what we do in our mind is say, if I was that person. Now the moment you do that, I’ve got a big word for that: that’s called empathy. Empathy means thinking like another person.

And you know, really, the whole of our lives, if we don’t think how other people think, then we really end up being very selfish and not very nice at all, actually quite nasty. So what we have to do in life is work out how other people think, so that we can all get on. And books help you do that.

Well, thanks very much for watching and enjoy your reading. That’s it from me.

So, as TAs, I think we’re uniquely placed to help children with their um accessing the accessing the resources and extending their learning because teachers have a huge responsibility to be able to get data and record and do more one, you know, group work and one-on-one. I’m as a TA, we’re a bit more free to move around the class and the playground and really engage with those children, ask those open-ended questions, try and really get that knowledge out of them, extend them, really help them to access the resources.

Sometimes I just sit in the book corner for half an hour with the kids and just read and that’s my morning. Sometimes I’ll be on the on the um the art table just painting doing we’re doing butterflies at the moment. And as TAs, I feel like we have that freedom to create those bonds with children, especially if there’s you have a shared interest with the child. Um books, funny stories. At the minute, we’re doing all creatures great and small. And um the children are very engaged with the creatures, the mini beasts and the big beasts.

And so just being able to sit there as a TA and really delve into the book or delve into your non-fiction books on your topic table. Um get real conversations, real sort of meaningful content out of these kids because they want to talk to you. They want to tell you stuff and as a TA I feel that we can really give them the time to sit there and explore these themes.

So in reception there are plenty of opportunities to do storytelling and share stories with children. Um often you’ll have some shy children who aren’t engaging with the resources and the activities. So, I might sit in a book corner with a child and just quietly read a story and sort of elbow them and go, ​“Have you seen this? Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.” Um, reading stories out loud just on my own and it sort of piques their interest. They come over and I’ll point out things in the book. Um, have you ever experienced this? Do you know what this is? Have you ever felt this way?

On the small well table, we always have um word banks and word cards that are linked to the book like key vocabulary to help extend their learning and expand their vocabulary in their language. So I’ll often go to the small well table and we’ll have props or puppets or masks or toys and act out scenes from the book or just any scene from the book really. Um and just you know talk to the children and say have you ever felt this way? What is this character feeling? Why are they feeling this way?

As TAs, we are um able to spot when those children are finding maybe the morning or the afternoon or those key points in the day that are a bit tricky. And so, as a TA, we can take them out and just sit with them in a nice calm quiet space, take either the cortex or any story because, you know, all reading is is fantastic, is important, and just sit in a calm area out of the classroom. Sometimes maybe in the book corner. Sometimes I’ll go outside if it’s a nice sunny day and just really give them that one-on-one time that those children will need to help get them back to being ready and to regulate them.

Sometimes um the the the craziness of the classroom can be so much and just taking those children who might need a bit of a a little bit of a stroke, a little bit of a lean and just taking that story and creating that bond with them to let know that they’re safe. Because once children realize they are safe, they engage. And that’s what we want from them is to be able to engage with the stories and to be able to vocalize how they’re feeling.