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The National Literacy Trust runs several practical initiatives which develop ways of working in partnership to promote and help support literacy skills for all ages. Details of the initiatives and how speaking and listening features within each one is outlined below.All sports, and in particular football, generate huge interest across all age groups, and RTG captures this enthusiasm to promote an interest in literacy. All RTG projects contain an element of speaking and listening (S&L). Kick into Reading encourages storytelling and Playing With Words promotes discussion around the books participants have read. Premier League Reading Stars contains a variety of S&L activities including quizzes, reading out loud and creating football match reports.
Not only do these projects encourage a love of reading, they can help in a child’s development of key communication skills. For more information on Reading the Game visit www.readingthegame.org.uk
Reading Connects supports schools in developing their own whole-school reading culture. Reading Champions specifically focuses on engaging boys and men in developing a reading culture in school and other settings.
A whole-school reading community provides an excellent opportunity for children to develop a love of reading. Speaking and listening to others about reading and our reading choices is a good way to encourage children to read more. The following are good examples of how this can be achieved: encouraging stories to be shared; peer-to-peer recommendation; reading buddies; reading groups; talks from authors and members of the local community. For more practical ideas visit www.readingconnects.org.uk and www.readingchampions.org.uk. Reading Is Fundamental, UK (RIF) helps motivate disadvantaged children and young people to read for pleasure, by giving them the chance to choose free new books to keep for themselves at special events promoting the fun of reading.
Children are excited about their free books, empowered by the fact that it is their own choice which book they take home. A typical RIF project acts as a stimulus for discussion about favorite books amongst children and teachers, and is a foundation on which to create reading groups and promote active peer to peer recommendation whilst also providing opportunities for dialogue between parents and children about past, present and future reading choices.
Listening to others is a key skill by which the world around us can be understood and RIF promotes this by supporting events that have storytelling at its core. Children participating in a RIF event are able to listen to well written and popular stories often told by professional storytellers, enthusiastic librarians and willing volunteers.
The benefits for children involved in a RIF project results in a significant improvement in children’s attitudes to reading but also contributes to enhanced listening ability and better speaking skills. For more information on RIF visit www.rif.org.uk
Talk To Your Baby is a campaign run by the National Literacy Trust to encourage parents and carers to talk more to children from birth to three.
Talking to young children helps them become good communicators, which is essential if they are to do well at school and lead happy, fulfilled and successful lives.
The campaign provides a one-stop shop for information on early communication to encourage, inform and disseminate good ideas among early years professionals, parents, future parents and the media. In addition a wide range of downloadable resources are available from the Talk To Your Baby website. The campaign aims to facilitate a positive cultural shift so that more children receive from their parents and carers a stimulating language-rich start to life. For more information and downloadable resources, visit www.talktoyourbaby.org.uk
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