Christmas is always a busy time in school – it is also often the longest half term of the year. Teachers are tired, students are tired and it can feel like a slog just to make it to the holidays. However, it’s a really critical time of year for instilling that key Christmas spirit and what better way to do that then through the gift of reading.
My school is hosting its first ‘Winter Fair’ this year on the last day of term. Our students live in one of the most deprived areas in the county and we really want to make sure they feel like they’ve had a positive experience during such a pressurised time of year. Naturally I wanted to jump on the bandwagon to add a literacy element. The first thing that sprang to mind was to give them some festive reading material to enjoy over the 2 week break – and of course, what other novel could I choose than the most classic festive tale of all time – Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I’ve also designed a festive bookmark with one of my favourite Dr. Seuss quotes of all time: ” Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more” – How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Not only will they be receiving a gifted copy of the book, but I’m hoping it will encourage students to use the 2 week period to keep reading, and not lose the momentum that has been built up in school since September. 2 weeks is a long time and it’s important that students don’t lose key reading habits over the holiday. Of course, most things in schools needs to be ‘measured’ these days, and anything involved with reading is pretty hard to measure in terms of impact – from my experience anyway. What I intend to do in this case is to invite students to write a book review and perhaps do some sort of poll where I can gauge how many students actually read the book over the holidays. I’m concerned that this might just be disheartening though (I mean, what happens if no one reads it?!) This is where a reward system comes into play – offering students a reward for reading/reviewing the book. I think that’s my mind made up then. We’ll just have to wait and see what January brings!
And in the words of Dickens himself, ” “A Merry Christmas to us all; God bless us, every one!”
Leading Literacy 