Book Review: 'Skeleton Tree' by Kim Ventrella

When a book with the word 'skeleton' in the title is published close to Halloween, if you're anything like me, you're more than likely to write it off as some Goosebumps-style horror story for children. But Kim Ventrella's 'Skeleton Tree' is not that kind of book. In fact, it is so not that kind of book that it really caught me off guard.

'A beautiful, bittersweet tale of family, love and loss' it says on the back. And the blurb isn't lying. Stanley's dad has left, his sister is seriously ill, his mother is struggling with medical bills (it is set in the US, so no NHS) and, at a guess, mental health issues (although this is not explicit) and his best friend has OCD (not a main factor as it is in Stewart Foster's 'All The Things That Could Go Wrong' and Lisa Thompson's 'The Goldfish Boy'). And then a skeleton grows out of the ground in Stanley's garden and comes to life.

The skeleton, to an adult reader, is a metaphor for death, but Ventrella cleverly explores the very real experience of how mixed emotions come into play during the loss of a loved one. The skeleton is funny (there are laugh-out-loud moments) and he brings some light relief to what is otherwise a very sad story. Because this book deals so explicitly with death I would recommend that adults read it first and then make a decision about whether or not it is suitable for their child, or for a child in their class. The book may help some children to explore the emotions felt during a bereavement, for others it may not reflect their experience and might be unhelpful.

Many books about death which are aimed at children attempt to provide some sort of explanation as to what happens to someone when they die - this book doesn't really do that, and is better for it. Beliefs differ widely on this matter so is best left to parents to explain.

'Skeleton Tree' is a clever and emotionally-charged children's novel which will be enjoyed by children and adults alike although I acknowledge that it may not be for everyone. It blurs the boundaries between what is real and what is a coping mechanism in a convincing way - the reader only has to suspend disbelief on a couple of matters, and for children that comes naturally. Not many books make me feel as emotional as this one - based on that alone I'd say this book deserves to be on a good number of home, library and classroom bookshelves!

Book Review: 'What Does This Look Like In The Classroom?' by Carl Hendrick and Robin Macpherson

With the full title of 'What Does This Look Like In The Classroom? Bridging The Gap Between Research And Practice', this book pretty much does what it says on the tin. Hendrick and Macpherson have harnessed the voices of some of education's leading lights in order to answer questions about classroom practice from real teachers. The book's chapters each focus on a particular aspect of teaching: two specialists are assigned per chapter to share their wisdom, according to their expertise.

With Assessment, Marking and Feedback, Behaviour, Reading and Literacy, SEN, Motivation, Memory and Recall, Classroom Talk and Questioning, Learning Myths, Technology and Independent Learning all covered, this is a fairly comprehensive overview of education. Of course, there are questions and answers not given in the book, but often the commentators give good starting points for teachers to seek out further reading. The added focus on the potential of research-informed practice to improve workload provides further reason for this book to be read.

The book's crowning strong point is that it is incredibly readable. The format makes for bite-size chunks and all the contributors are gifted communicators. There are one or two bits of jargon (particularly relating to cognitive science) that might have benefited from the provision of a glossary but this doesn't at all detract from the overall accessibility of the book. It is probably best read as a whole so that the contents are familiar in a time of need - it is the sort of book that should be constantly referred back to. Having said this, it is organised well enough to be dipped into as and when is needed.

My one criticism of the book is that much of what is presented as research isn't backed up with any references as to who did the research, when it was done, under what circumstances, and so on. This leaves the reader to trust that the authors either have conducted the research themselves, or have internalised the findings of other research. Having said this, the book is aimed at teachers so it necessarily leans towards classroom practice rather than the intricacies of the research.

I would go so far as to say that  'What Does This Look Like In The Classroom?' is an essential volume for a school's CPD library - it could be the gateway to developing research-based practice for some teachers, so accessible does it make the material. It will confirm some of your teaching practices and give you an understanding of why things that you do already work, and it will challenge other practices, but in the least confrontational way possible - this is because it never belittles or devalues teacher experience and expertise. Even if every teacher doesn't read this, if a school's research lead and other leaders do, there is a good chance that classrooms will begin to reflect more of what research outlines as best bets.

Whole Class Reading: Providing Challenge For Children Working At Greater Depth

This blog post can now be found at:https://www.aidansevers.com/post/whole-class-reading-providing-challenge-for-children-working-at-greater-depth

From @teachwire: 8 Ways To Use Your Class Novel to Teach SPaG

I wrote this for October's issue of Teach Primary and it has been since been published online for all to read.

Many teachers don't like the idea of teaching spelling, punctuation and grammar discretely, and although it is sometimes necessary, I do sympathise with that viewpoint. Of course, there are opportunities during every lesson to point out a spelling rule, highlight a sentence type or notice how a piece of punctuation has been used - those opportunities are not limited to English lessons.

However, reading and writing lessons are the obvious times to weave in teaching of SPaG and with that in mind, here are 8 ways to use your class novel to teach spelling, punctuation and grammar knowledge and skills:

https://www.teachwire.net/news/8-ways-to-use-your-class-novel-to-teach-spag

From The @BradResearchSch Blog: What The Research Says About Primary Literacy Priorities In Bradford

As some of you are aware I am part of the team at Bradford Research School. One of our methods of outreach is blogging. On the Bradford Research School blog I will be focusing in on how research, particularly that reported on by the EEF, can be used in schools in the Bradford area.

My first blog post looks at the EEF Literacy guidance reports for KS1 and KS2 and proposes that a priority for Bradford is for schools to have an embedded culture of oracy:

https://bradford.researchschool.org.uk/2017/10/31/what-the-research-says-about-primary-literacy-priorities-in-bradford/

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.