Silver practical ideas

This list has been compiled from activities that other schools have found to work, but it is by no means comprehensive and we are always keen to add new ideas. The tips below are broadly arranged by theme:

Sport

Involve staff members
If yours is a secondary school, get the boys to involve the PE staff. Reading Champions could create a special PE department ‘recommended reads’ set of posters, or make a ‘get caught reading’ display featuring PE staff. It is also a good idea to place reading posters of sports stars in changing rooms or gyms.

School library

“Boy-friendly” books for the library
Get the boys to carry out a school-wide survey to find out the books people are most interested in. When the school library is replenishing its stock, try and purchase a stock of "boy-friendly" books. Make sure that the boys arrange the displays of new books that have been bought with boys in mind prominently.

Library monitors
Reading Champions could become library monitors (one term’s involvement could qualify as a bronze achievement, whereas longer may equate to silver).

The votes are in
Get the boys to organise a school-wide vote on which magazines they would like to see in the library. Take out a subscription with the top-voted-for publication.

Welcome new pupils
Reading Champions could run the induction sessions with new Year 7 students to show them around the library and introduce them to the Reading Champions group.

Reading promotion

Real men read calendar
Get the boys to make a calendar featuring all the male members of staff and their favourite reads. Ask the male members of staff to bring in photos of themselves as children. Get the boys to make posters featuring the staff member as a child, along with an image of their favourite childhood read. Feature these around the school and challenge pupils to identify the members of staff.

Army masterclass
Encourage the boys to create an army masterclass to give boys the opportunity to bring in and share WWI and WWII memorabilia. This would be an ideal activity to ask a local serviceman or war veteran in to speak to the group. Activities could include reading about particular battles or pieces of equipment, followed by model building.

Graphic novels

Graphic novels
Create storyboards. Get the boys to create comic storyboards, illustrating what it means to them to be a Reading Champion, or what reading means to them in general. These could then be displayed around the school as a way to recruit other Reading Champions, or to encourage boys to read more.

Recommending reads through storyboards
Get the boys to create a comic storyboard or comic-style frames to promote their favourite reads.

Author or illustrator visit
Help Reading Champions to arrange for a comic illustrator or graphic novel author to visit the school and talk about their work and characters. The visitor could run a workshop around storyboarding or creating a comic book character.

Buddying
Reading Champions could include graphic novels and comics in their work with their buddy partners.

School newsletter/ website
Reading Champions could have their own comic strip in the school newsletter or on the school website. This could be regularly updated to create an ongoing story across the year.

Storytelling session
Hold a storytelling session and invite Reading Champions and their buddies along. After the session, hold a workshop to draw comic frames based on the session. You could then put all the frames together to create a complete story and a wall display.

Graphic novel club
Encourage the boys to set up a graphic novel/ comic club, where they discuss comics they have read and even produce their own comic for distribution in school.

Using technology and multi-media

School website: Reading Champion zone
If your school has a website, make sure you include a reading zone for your Reading Champions to maintain. It could include news about recommended reads, reading activities and events that the school is running. This is a good opportunity to involve pupils who have strong ICT skills.

Link with other reading schools via videoconferencing
Set up a link with another school in this country (or overseas). If both your school and your partner school have access to videoconferencing facilities, use this equipment to perform poems and stories to the partner school, or to discuss books as part of an extended reading club. If the boys made more activities around this, writing it up and publicising it more widely could constitute a major part of a gold award.

More detailed information and ideas can be found in our comprehensive 26-page toolkit, which can be purchased as part of the Reading Champions resource pack. Find out more.