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• 15Jun2010

  Kids distracted by the World Cup? Time to join them says Jim Sells

  Posted by Jim Sells

  You know you can’t avoid it, and it’s dividing the nation. And it’s not the division by gender that you’re probably imagining: let me start by debunking the myth that it’s boys who are distracted and girls who aren’t. Football is also the most popular sport for girls. Fact.

  So you’ve got a class full of children even more excited about football than usual, how on earth are you going to compete? Well you know what they say, so here’s a few ways that you can join them, and wring some productivity out of them at the same time. South Africa here we come!

  Some of you will be wondering what the point is in 22 grown men chasing a pigskin around a perfectly good bit of grass… Please stop just there or I’ll have to roll my eyes and sigh. Of course, we are all motivated by something, and the football thing – well perhaps you either get it or you don’t. But here’s the rub: the majority of the nation does get it and the majority of the young people who you can struggle to engage with (and, yes, I absolutely include lots of boys in this group) really, really get it. Football has everything. It’s like a great play: if Shakespeare were alive today he would be writing about the great derby games between West Ham and Chelsea (sorry, have to crowbar my Claret and Blue team in to this blog somehow). Highs, lows, victory, defeat, pain, disaster, injustice, moral victories and underdogs coming though. Not to mention the downright cheating villains (Argentina 1986).

  So what are we going to do with this untamed passion, equal to that felt by Heathcliff himself?

  We at Reading The Game, the National Literacy Trust’s sport and literacy initiative, have been directing this energy into generating a foundation for a love of reading for eight years now. And, oh yes, it does work. The basic truth is that the people who would benefit the most from improved literacy skills do not see the relevance of literacy to their lives. It has no purpose for them, especially for young people who are “going to be a footballer”. But simply introducing them to a range of reading materials (yes, websites, yes, comics, yes, magazines and stats) will provide a purpose for reading skills that they may not have felt before. Break the boundaries of “proper” reading or you’ll lose them to the sea of non-readers, because you will have told them that they are not readers by devaluing their chosen reading materials. By all means push them, but let them get on the coach to the match first. Football gives them “permission” to read, so you’d be missing a trick if you didn’t support this passion. And who says footballers don’t need to read? We do lots of work with academy players (the next big things): 13 hours per week studying ‘A’ levels and NVQs doesn’t sound like a life without reading to me. And then there’s reading up on other teams, players, contracts and loads more. Oh, and on the coach, where you can read to relax. Ask Rio what he does the night before a big game. He reads. Reading materials are an important part of many world-class players’ kitbags.

  And now you want something practical. So we’ve produced Love Reading: Love Football. Written by top children’s author Tom Palmer, funded by the Football Foundation and the Professional Footballers’ Association, and supported by the Football Association who have provided images of all the stars, it’s packed with games, tips, ideas and activities that use the World Cup to engage your team with reading. It’s being downloaded like it’s going out of fashion from the website right now, along with all the related ideas and materials, including a World Cup mystery, written daily at midnight by Tom (and uploaded by me at dawn, your thanks and chocolates are gratefully received), jackets of football books for you to download for displays, reviews of football books, wordsearches and crosswords, and a blog, featuring the best of literacy activities from schools and libraries around the country, so if you’re doing something brilliant, let us know, there’s plenty to keep you going.

  And what happens after? Luckily the football season is just round the corner, and the good ship Reading The Game keeps coming up with the goods – more free resources! The Football Association has promised to give us images of players reading, so expect free posters of our World Cup heroes to be available for the new academic year. We also have our Premier League Reading Stars project, and we have a free PLRS Challenge for you to take part in.

  And for those that don’t like football? Okay, there are a few who just hate it, but please don’t ring me: the NLT has plenty of other inspiring projects such as Reading Connects and Reading Champions for you to get stuck into. That being said, the World Cup is a great place to start liking this fantastic sport and find out what all the fuss is about. Join us! Go on.

  Still resisting? Okay then. You could adapt all the ideas using other culturally influential spheres. Britain’s Got Talent, X-Factor, Big Brother, to take a few for example, all use knock-out systems to engage and hook in their viewers. In this way they’re similar to the beautiful game, and you are welcome to adapt our ideas and activities to use these themes. I would love to see your work, and maybe pass them on to other literacy professionals, because our combined World Cup victory is, after all, more people enjoying reading. But for this next month, come on England!

Tags: Children, Libraries, Reading Champions, Reading Connects, Reading The Game, Schools & teaching

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