Book Review: 'The End of the Sky' by Sandi Toksvig

It's no secret that one of my favourite books for children is 'Hitler's Canary' by Sandi Toksvig, so when her agent offered to send me a copy for every one of my workshop delegates at Reading Rocks I could hardly say no. In fact, I also asked for an extra copy so I could read it myself.

'The End of the Sky' picks up on many of the themes that Hitler's Canary covered, albeit in a completely different historical setting. The story tells of a family fleeing Ireland in the 1800s, hoping to make a new life on the west coast of America. The story chronicles the terrible journey that many of the pioneers would have made on the Oregon trail and doesn't shy away from the loss and sadness that was experienced by them.

As I read I kept reaching for Google to find out more about the book's contents: Choctaw 'Indians' sent foreign aid to Ireland; the John Bull was a steam engine made in England and shipped in pieces to the US without any instructions as to how to put them together; the Allegheny Portage Railroad really did carry canal boats up and over the mountains. This book really is an education, especially for children living in the UK who will have very little idea about the journeys people made as they looked for a new life.

The book's main theme is family, and how others might become part of a family. It deals with loyalty, loss, resilience, racism and probably must crucially, feminism. The female characters really shine in this book, but never in a forced way - it just celebrates a variety of achievements and abilities from holding a family together to leading a whole wagon train safely across a desert, to preventing a buffalo stampede to cooking delicious food. Toksvig's gift lies in highlighting and exploring current issues in an accessible and non-threatening way, as well as providing plenty of opportunities for her readers to learn historical facts.

The book is a little on the long side and unevenly paced: at times the story seems to be a little too drawn out (perhaps deliberately as it does give a sense of the journey west taking a long time) and at other points, particularly towards the end, the book feels rushed. When compared to 'Hitler's Canary', 'The End of the Sky' is not as well written and has a more sombre mood overall - there are fewer light, hopeful moments which help the reader to keep going.

If you're looking for a book with a strong female lead for upper key stage 2 readers then this would be a worthy addition to a growing selection of books in that category - it has the potential to change the perceptions of both boys and girls when it comes to gender stereotypes. It also provides a fascinating insight into a significant part of UK and US history, times and events which are generally ignored by the UK primary curriculum. Overall, 'The End of the Sky' is worth a read, but prioritise 'Hitler's Canary' if you've never read any of Sandi Toksvig's books for children.

The Problem With Your Class Novel

OK, I'll admit right away that I'm not about to lambast the time-honoured tradition of choosing and reading aloud a book to your class. Actually, to me, doing that is almost sacred - it's an absolute must for so many reasons.

So, if you don't currently read a novel to your class, make sure this half term is the half term when you start. But I suspect I'm preaching to the choir here, and if that's the case, there are a couple of points to bear in mind.

When do you read your class novel? Is it given priority or is it on a if we've got time basis? A practice seems to have arisen that could be seen as cheapening the act of reading for pleasure: reading the class novel at home time. Potentially, children could begin to see reading as something only done to kill time and, whilst that can be true and valuable, it might be a damaging attitude to be inadvertently generating. Given that 3pm is the time when many teachers will read perhaps the only book that their children are truly invested in, I think it's worth challenging, even if it is controversial. 

Unless you are totally committed to safeguarding that time for reading, there are so many pressures on that end of day slot - giving out letters, sorting out things to take home, assemblies and just a general end of day feeling. What would happen if you brought your class novel time to the beginning of the day, or the start of the afternoon? From my own experience I've found that it is the best, most relaxed, most inspiring way to start a morning or afternoon of learning. It can calm, focus and provide a shared experience which can feed positively into the rest of the day.

Another way to ensure that reading, particularly reading of a shared text, is prioritised, is to link it to your curriculum. This will depend on your school's policy but there may be opportunities to link to your topics or your English work. Again, many of you will already be doing this, but I think the raising of another point in relation to this might be helpful.

Be careful not to over-rely on your class novel, particularly during your English lessons. Yes, class novels are a great way to support the teaching of SPAG (I wrote about some ways of doing that in October 2017's Teach Primary Magazine), writing composition and reading skills but if they are all that is ever used, children run the risk of not being exposed to a wide variety of reading materials. 

An easy way to get around this is to use your class novel as an anchor point to which you link other texts, fiction and non-fiction. Find other books, stories, excerpts, leaflets, articles and so on that have links to your class novel and then use them throughout your curriculum. If you've selected your class novel well, then children will most likely be invested enough to want to read linked texts as well, which in turn might help them to better understand the class novel.

Conversely you might want to consider reading a novel which is not at all linked or used to teach anything else. This will be much more likely to develop that reading for pleasure.

For those children who are preparing for statutory tests, for a chance of success it is probably crucial that they are not taught reading skills solely through the use of a class novel. In the tests they come up against unknown texts and, regardless of difficulty, they are less likely to want to read them in a meaningful way - in comparison to their class novel they won't be as interested or invested in those texts. If all they've ever had to do is practise reading comprehension skills based on a book that they love and care about then they may not have the resilience to be able to access unfamiliar texts such as the ones they will encounter in the tests. Whether or not be click bait title works remains to be seen!

For those unswayed by arguments involving testing its worth pointing out that in real life we access a wide variety of text types and, if someone isn't a 'reader' (for want of a better phrase) then the thing they're least likely to need to read is a novel. In fact, what they need to be able to read to survive in life is non-fiction. Whilst using a class novel to teach literacy skills can be really engaging and worthwhile, using them as the only text type might not prepare children for life.

I urge you, I implore you, to read your class a book, a little each day, preferably at a prioritised time. But I also warn against the potential dangers of becoming too reliant on the class novel

as a basis for other learning.

Poster: What To Say Instead of I Don't Know

This poster was born out of a discussion between staff members at my school during a CPD session I gave on questioning. It had a huge response on Twitter - it seems that English-speaking pupils the world over favour this phrase, and teachers would rather they answered in a more productive way. Here are a few prompts:

The poster and a Word document containing the text can be downloaded here.

Poster: Maths Written Feedback Comments

Many teachers will still be operating in schools where feedback policies require a certain amount of written feedback. Some schools have begun to adopt no-marking policies but these are in the minority; most teachers, in order to follow policy, have to provide written feedback: marking.

For primary teachers, this is fairly simple in English but is a little trickier in maths. My team and I sat down and analysed a selection of marking comments which we found in maths books and reduced them to question/statement stems. We tried hard to make them as succinct as possible in order to make the task of perhaps having to mark 30 books a little less onerous.

When I put these maths marking comment stems on Twitter some people pointed out that these comments were things that we should be planning into our daily lessons, and they are right. Many of the ideas are to do with reasoning and problem solving - something we should be giving all children the opportunities to engage with on a very regular basis. So, these comment stems come with a multiple purpose: plan maths activities using them, and if required, use them to provoke thought in children who have finished the work you planned for them.

Of course, I would always advocate that much of this kind of 'feedback' is provided in lesson, so these comment stems aren't just for writing - they're for giving verbal feedback too. I have found that sometimes verbal feedback is forgotten - making a quick note (just a few words) in a book might just be enough to jog a child's memory, meaning they won't have to wait for the teacher to come round again for another explanation of what they need to do. Written feedback during lesson time can be useful for this purpose - the fact that these comments are only a few words long makes this more manageable.

Another point some have made is that it isn't necessary to write one of these in every book - it isn't (although some policies may require it). If all children need the same comment (unlikely), then these comments can be provided whole-class, perhaps by way of writing it on the board.

A final note on the comments themselves: there are quite a variety - some pertain to mistakes made, others are intended to challenge further; all are supposed to make children think and to help them to improve their understanding in maths.

For the record: my own school's feedback policy does not require teachers to provide written comments (although they are allowed) but we recognise instances where they are useful and productive. Our maths policy also states that problem solving and reasoning activities should be part of daily lessons.

Click here to download the poster and the editable Word document of the 30 statements

How To Write Good Comprehension Questions

This blog post is now available at my new blog:

 
https://www.aidansevers.com/post/how-to-write-good-comprehension-questions

Reading Roles Testimonials

What Is Reading Roles?

The concept of 'Reading Roles' (resources available on TES resources) is to assign a well-known job, role or profession to each element of the reading content domain. Most children will already understand what the jobs entail in real life and therefore will fairly immediately be able to gain an understanding of each cognitive domain.

Each domain has a symbol and is colour-coded so that there are further ways for the children to remember the domains and what they mean.

These could be used to colour-code questions used in class - the symbols could also be assigned to written comprehension questions so children begin to identify question types.

Click here to read more in my original blog post about Reading Roles.

What are the benefits of using Reading Roles?

Unlike other similar systems that are available, teachers and children already have a good idea of what each role entails because they are familiar with what people with those jobs do in real life. Therefore, they only have to attach the new understanding of the different domains to previously-held understanding, rather than learning two new sets of information - usually an abstract name for each domain, and its meaning.

Reading Roles help teachers to be more deliberate in their teaching of reading skills. Rather than just ask a question inspired by the text, teachers can be more deliberate about asking particular kinds of questions, making their lessons more focused. For example, a teacher might spend a day or a week, asking only 'Editor' questions (summarising) ensuring that they model and children practise that particular skill. Other similar systems advocate a less focused approach where lessons are not focused on particular skills.

Teachers and children are able to use different cues to remember the different elements of the content domain: some remember them by colour, some by the symbol and others by the name. Each Reading Role has a child-friendly explanation of what the domain entails.

Can I See Some Examples of How They Are Used?

Yes, here:

Click here for examples of reading comprehensions (based on RJ Palacio's 'Wonder') which use the Reading Roles.

Click here for examples of reading comprehension (based on Sandi Toksvig's 'Hitler's Canary') which use the Reading Roles.

All the questions in the above examples were generated using question stems from the Key Stage 2 tests. Alison Philipson, a Literacy consultant in Bradford, has put together some very useful documents containing question stems taken from the KS1 and KS2 SATs which are all organised by the domains. These documents have been invaluable in our implementation of the Reading Roles.

What Do Others Think of The Reading Roles?

@son1bun (an English specialist at the Egmont Reading for Pleasure School of the Year 2018) discovered the Reading Roles via Twitter and had this to say:

"With the 2014 Curriculum, came the realisation that the Assessment focuses (AFs) for reading, which we had become so used to, were on longer 'in'. With a sharp intake of breath, we all began to tentatively use the words, Cognitive Domains (CDs). After the Frameworks for the KS2 tests were released and it finally dawned on us, that our beloved AFs had been buried. 

As the English lead for my school, I set about supporting my staff to get to grips with the CDs. We had always placed a great emphasis on teaching comprehension strategies, from Reception to Year 6, so it was just about finding an interesting way to do it. That's where Twitter came in. 

That Boy Can Teach (TBCT) is a prevalent voice on Edutwitter (which is where I first came across him). With his, 'golden nuggets' about writing, reading and all things education, he quickly became a favourite of mine. 

He did a series of blogs about reading and when I came across the Reading Roles, it was a eureka moment. TBCT stated, 'the concept of 'Reading Roles' is to assign a well-known job, role or profession to each of the domains'. It literally was a simple as that!

I introduced this to staff in the spring term and the response from teachers was 100 % positive. Most importantly though, the children love them. It is amazing how quickly they remembered the role and the domain it linked to...even in Reception. The roles are so easy to say and the children really relate to all the roles, as they are familiar to them.

I would strongly recommend this resource. It does what it says on the tin. If you want to get your children engaged in taking ownership of their reading comprehension, in a fun way, reading roles work... simple! Thanks TBCT!"

@rachstebbs (a teacher at my own school) had this to say:

"The introduction of Reading Roles to my class has helped me as a teacher to develop whole class reading sessions and think much more about the questions I am asking. Each one aligns to a domain and so I can be sure that I teach all necessary skills in a structured way. 

For children who had yet to reach the expected level, I initially focused on the Translator and Reporter skills. This meant that I could ensure they had understood the vocabulary in the text and were able to apply that vocabulary when retrieving answers. Initially this took them a significant proportion of the lesson, but I found that their speed increased as they became more adept at investigating the vocabulary (reading for context, using a dictionary etc). Gradually the vocabulary became less of a question focus because they were able to quickly analyse unfamiliar words using the same strategies, without needing the scaffold of an actual question.  

This meant they could begin to use other reading roles to answer a wider range of questions. Each role was taught explicitly, and the class quickly became familiar with the roles, as well as their associated colours and images. Initially, I stuck with a few limited question stems, but as the skills became more embedded, I could use a wider variety. This variety meant that children could practice one skill without it boring them! 

For those who were working at or above ARE, the reading roles developed their independence and confidence in answering questions. All answers were edited before marking, so after a discussion children could expand or change their responses if they wished."

Ben Trevail (@BenTrevail), Assistant Head at Edward Feild Primary School, has used Reading Roles too:

"Reading Roles have played a crucial part in the success of our move towards whole class reading across the school from Year 2 to Year 6. They provide a common language for abstract skills used by teachers and pupils and have been shared with parents too.

Each lesson focuses on one specific skill and using the roles has helped pupils understand the elements of the content domain to be taught and later assessed. There's advice in the EEF Improving Literacy in KS2 document about the gradual release of responsibility model and the explicit teaching of each skill so that's what we're trying to do. After Christmas the plan is for children to practise multiple roles in one lesson based on a stimulus. 

We also use them as our reading targets, building up a picture of pupils as readers by assessing their competence in each role."

Book Review: '100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Mindfulness in the Classroom' by Tammie Prince

Previously, when I thought of mindfulness, I didn't really know what it was. I thought it was hippy mumbo jumbo mixed in with some kind of eastern mysticism. But then I began to notice that a good few folk in my online network were sold on the idea of mindfulness - some of them even assured me that I probably practised some sort of mindfulness unknowingly. I deduced that I must subconsciously be quite mindful, but I still didn't know what it was.

Tammie Prince defines mindfulness simply as 'the mental state achieved by focusing on the present moment while also accepting our feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations.' The book's premise is that 'the development of mindfulness in the classroom arms our children with lifelong skills that support their support their current and future mental health and well-being'  and it mentions that studies show there are positive benefits to children learning and using mindfulness techniques. As I understand it there isn't a lot of research into the impact of using mindfulness techniques in the classroom but many of the ideas in the book just seem like common sense - many of them I recognise as things that have helped me to feel less worried and stressed in my own life. However, one recent study on mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) showed that 16 juvenile delinquents who underwent an 8-week programme of MBSR showed increased grey matter in the left hippocampi, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory processes as well as emotion regulation and perspective-taking.

The book is spilt into ten parts, and sceptics, before you read the list, take note of this: 'not all strategies will work for all people'. The ten sections are Breathing; Guided Meditation; Active Meditations; Gratitude; Yoga; Emotional Intelligence; Mindful Colouring and Doodling; Calm Down and Relax; Mindful Walking; Teacher's Mindfulness.

As the title promises, the book contains 100 different mindfulness techniques or ideas to try in the primary classroom. Reading through there were definitely things that I couldn't imagine myself doing with a class but then there were plenty of ideas that seemed only to be tweaks of things I already do. The book contains methods suitable for a range of ages, although some techniques appear to be more suited to particular ages or levels of maturity.

The ideas that impressed me most were the ones that I could see having multiple benefits - there are plenty of techniques with links to the curriculum - reading, writing, drama, PE, music and art, for example. The fact that many of the ideas can be adapted to fit into curriculum time means that the book is more likely to achieve one of its aims: '...that the children will start to use what they have been taught independently...' - in my own experience whenever something is part of the daily routine, children are more likely to internalise it than if it were taught in isolation.

This is a book which is full of practical activities; there is something for everyone here – even the sceptic. With clear links to different curriculum areas, mindful practice can easily be embedded using the ideas in this book. A great starters’ guide to mindfulness.

The book, released 19th October 2017, is available to pre-order/buy here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/100-ideas-for-primary-teachers-mindfulness-in-the-classroom-9781472944955/