Online Course: Subject Matters – 3 sessions

Subject Matters: revisiting the demands for reading in the curriculum

• Are you reading enough appropriately challenging nonfiction with your class?
• Do you consider the reading demands of the subject discipline when planning to use nonfiction texts?
• Do your pupils have the skills for critical nonfiction reading, beyond the conventional information skills?
• Is your school library stocked with up-to-date nonfiction that meets the demand of the current curriculum?
• Nonfiction, perhaps more than any other form of writing, has been subject to the demands of education policy and the impact of new technologies on publishing.

This course focuses on the specific demands of reading and writing in subjects. Based on the findings of our action research project ‘Reading History’, we problematise some nonfiction practices before moving on to practical class approaches for teaching with nonfiction (and some fiction) in history, geography and science. We outline ways to build academic vocabulary for both content learning and processes, And, of course, we give some attention to the place of nonfiction in developing reading for pleasure. 

Audience

English leads, literacy leads, curriculum leads, class teachers

Key stage suitability

Primary

Outcome

Participants will gain an understanding of the demands of subject disciplinary reading. They will have practical strategies for reading nonfiction in curriculum areas and knowledge of the range of up-to-date texts that can be used to support this teaching.

• Areas of focus 
• A quick review of different approaches to using nonfiction and the range of purposes 
• Things to consider when choosing nonfiction for the classroom and for teaching 
• Reading and writing in subjects
• Building academic vocabulary 
• Nonfiction and fiction working in tandem to build subject knowledge 
• Nonfiction and reading for pleasure