Book Chat launches
Posted on Thursday, October 15, 2020
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The Open University (OU) is launching Book Chat: Reading with your Child, comprising films and support materials to help parents, families and carers read books to children.
Working with Macmillan Children's Books, the films use a selection of their picture books and a poetry collection to support families with reading to different ages of children.
'Book Chat' is the informal interaction that accompanies quality reading to and with children, developing children's language and comprehension and nurturing a love of reading. The films model this relaxed interaction through the use of open questions, comments and prompts to initiate Book Chat and enable parents and children to share the pleasure of reading together.
The films are based around three titles published on the Macmillan Children's Books list and their Two Hoots illustrated imprint. Each is aimed at a different age of child: One Fox by Kate Read (5+), A House that Once Was by Julie Fogliano and illustrated by Lane Smith (7+) and The Same Inside: Poems about Empathy and Friendship, a collection of poems by Liz Brownlee, Matt Goodfellow and Roger Stevens (9+).
The new films and support materials can be found via the link, below.
The OU's Reading for Pleasure programme is led by Professor Teresa Cremin, who also reads on one of the films, along with Richard Charlesworth and Ben Harris, both experienced teachers and long-standing partners of The Open University's work. The aim is to reach over a million families across the UK.
Teresa Cremin, Professor of Education at The Open University, explained that Book Chat was essential to "invite children's deep engagement, prompt them to imagine, and help them make sense of what they are reading". Book Chat, she added, "fosters a love of reading".
Alyx Price, associate publisher at Macmillan Children's Books, said, "Book Chat offers great support to families and carers who don't know where to start, as well as giving new inspiration to those who already share stories regularly with their children. The selected titles are perfect for reading aloud and the films will introduce families to these great books and more, setting them up for a lifetime loving stories together�.
A free online course on reading for pleasure is being developed for parents with the charity Coram Beanstalk, due summer 2021 - the course will be available on the OU's free learning site, OpenLearn.
WEBINAR: Sharing the pleasure: the role of talk in reading
Tuesday 20 October, 20:00 - 21:00
This OU webinar is free and open to educators, librarians, parents and others interested in supporting young people develop the reading habit.
The Book Chat crew, Teresa Cremin, Ben Harris and Richard Charlesworth will be joined by the children's author Smriti Hall (TBC) and Rumenar Atkar, a mum and primary school librarian.
The session will include research and practice insights, strategies to enrich informal book talk at home and school, and book recommendations that get everyone talking.
