General literacy information and resources (see also the ‘Research’ page of my website)

The Educational Endowment Fund has produced an incredibly useful report with recommendations on how to improve literacy in secondary schools (2018). Also see the 2021 Improving Literacy at KS2 guide, the 2020 Improving Literacy at KS1 guide.

The Department for Education has several useful guidance documents: The Reading Framework: Teaching the Foundations of Reading (2022); Reading: The Next Steps — Supporting Higher Standards in Schools (2015); and Research Evidence on Reading for Pleasure (2012)

The National Institute for Literacy in the United States has an excellent, accessible guide for the components of learning to read, and how to teach these components.

The National Literacy Trust (@Literacy_Trust) and the UKLA (@The_UKLA) have free resources for literacy development. With a membership, you will get access to many more resources – and the membership cost is reasonable.

Phonics, Fluency & Assessment

Open Source Phonics has free quality synthetic phonics lessons (with instructions for teachers/tutors) as well as printable decodable readers.

Jason Wade (@jasonwade71) founded Sounds and Syllables (@SoundSyllable), and he has created an approach to spelling that helps immensely with decoding. His blog has a wealth of ideas useful to anyone working with struggling readers. His ‘Morpheme Monday’ resources (released on Twitter every Monday) are invaluable.

Herts for Learning (@HertsEnglish) runs a well-structured, evidence-based Key Stage 2&3 training on reading fluency described here. Their ‘field guide’ to reading fluency is very helpful, as is the text selection page should you choose to undertake this intervention. Listen to this podcast for more information.

The EEF (@EducEndowFoundn) has a blog by the guru of reading fluency, Dr Timothy Rasinsky. If you want more details and resources, visit his website.

Christopher Such wrote a clear and helpful introduction to the teaching of reading called The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading. His blog has useful articles, and this Youtube video with an introduction to phonics is a must-watch.

Catch up Your Code by Joy Allcock (@Code_EdAllcock) is my favourite phonics book for Key Stage 3 students struggling with reading; you can see a sample lesson here. She explains how to use this approach in this video. Don’t miss this fascinating article on the systems in the English language.

@Parkerphonics has written several books about how to teach synthetic phonics which are available for FREE on his website.

The University of Oregon offers free materials to test and monitor oral fluency and comprehension; these are divided into US grade levels (one year difference to the UK system: Grade 6 = Year 7). The materials will help you to track student progress and identify reading difficulties; there are a wealth of materials on their resources page, including instructional videos.

Free websites and resources with fiction or non-fiction texts

ReadWorks offers a wide variety of free content from across the curriculum with linked vocabulary activities (including pre-reading vocabulary work) and question sets. You can assign students texts (they receive a code to login) or you can use pdfs. They have a wonderful 10 minute topic- based Article-a-Day feature, proven to increase vocabulary and background knowledge.

Commonlit.org (@CommonLit) is a free site with multiple texts to develop reading ability. There are fiction and non-fiction texts in different genres/topics; texts linked to a number of novels (wider reading); texts to help students engage with themes; texts to show literary devices in action; and texts for different grade levels (American grades are one year lower than British years – so Grade 6 is Year 7). Teachers create classes and give them assignments from specific texts, which students can then quiz on. There is a guided reading function, which breaks the text down into smaller chunks; and a ‘read aloud’ function for struggling readers.

Readtheory.org (@ReadTheory) is another free and dynamic site to help students develop their reading. After a simple registration process, students take a placement test then are assigned short texts suited to their reading ability from a variety of genres. They then take quizzes on these texts: scores below 70% mean that their next text will be easier; scores from 70%-89% mean their level stays the same; and scores of 90% or higher will lead to harder text.

TweenTribune (@TweenTribune) is produced by the Smithsonian Museum and it has a wide range of non-fiction articles on a variety of topics. The most interesting feature is that you have different versions of the same article at different Lexile levels, making differentiation easy (the lower the Lexile level, the easier it is to read). You can also sort by grade (US grades are one level lower, so Grade 6 = Year 7) and by topic. The TweenTribune is especially strong on science, sports, animals, arts and culture (though focus is often American).

Science News for Students has news stories and features on a variety of topics, and each article has ‘power words’ (definitions for key scientific words). This how-to-use the site guide is essential reading as there is so much available. There are ‘analyse this‘ articles which explore science through data, graphs & visualisations, and There is an ‘experiments’ section with step-by-step explanations of how scientific experiments are done. They are also developing a science told through comics feature called ‘Wild Things‘. My favourite part of the site is ‘technically fiction‘ section with the science behind famous characters or actions in movies and books. The ‘Scientists say‘ feature with key words pronounced, explained & applied to ‘real’ contexts is also excellent.

National Geographic and National Geographic for Kids have wonderful science and nature-themed articles, most of which are free.

Reteach offers broader perspectives on a wide range of history topics, including on controversial or difficult topics. The subject knowledge guides are produced by experts, and include links to relevant books, videos and some free online resources.

Kelly Gallagher (@KellyGToGo) wrote an insightful book called Readicide (building on his earlier book Deeper Reading). In this book he argues for authentic reading experiences using ‘real world’ texts. To develop this, he has been doing ‘Article of the Week’ for many years, and the purpose of reading is to develop reading and to broaden students’ knowledge of the world. He has made this year’s articles and also the article of the week archives (with instructions for students) available on his website.

Dogo News (@dogonews) aims to develop youth literacy, reading fluency and global awareness through short articles on current events, science and social studies (geography/history). Its sister site Dogo Books is a forum for children to publish book reviews (moderated).

One Stop English has monthly news articles (@onestopenglish) on topical issues with comprehension and vocabulary exercises. The articles are from the Guardian, and are meant for English language learners, but would also be suitable for developing or struggling readers.

Organisations promoting reading for pleasure

The Carnegie Prize (@CILIPCKG) is a book award given for outstanding writing and illustration. The Carnegie shortlist for 2022 is here. They have a very active shadowing component with excellent resources; many schools, including mine, are taking part by asking interested students to read as many of the books from the shortlist as possible.

The Jhalak Prize (@jhalakprize) celebrates writers of colour living in the UK, and for the first time in 2021, they have a prize for the best book for young people. The 2022 longlist for the YA/Children’s prize is excellent. My school will be shadowing the shortlist (released on 19th April).

The UKLA (@The_UKLA) has a prize for the book of the year for children ages 3-6+, 7-10+, 11-14+, & information books ages 3-14+. Teachers are the judges for this prize. The shortlist for 2022 is here and I was lucky enough to be a book group leader for this prize, helping to select the wonderful shortlist. We will be shadowing this prize too.

The Open University and the UKLA have a joint project, spearheaded by @TeresaCremin and @OpenUni_RfP, to encourage reading for pleasure. There are numerous resources available here, and there is also information about reading communities and the ‘teachers as readers’ project.

The Reading Agency (@readingagency) is best known for their highly successful summer reading challenges and World Book Night, and they regularly introduce new booklists linked to a variety of themes. They also have an excellent interactive reading attitudes toolkit to help you to develop a survey to measure qualitative impact of interventions or projects. King Alfred’s participated in a pilot programme to help develop this.

The Book Trust (@Booktrust) is a charity that aims to get children and families reading and the site has many tips for encouraging young people to read. They have programmes to support readers of all ages. The school library pack for Year 7 students is FREE and always includes high quality books.

Authorfy (@authorfy) has interactive resources, videos and activities to support children’s reading and writing https://authorfy.com/about/. These 10 minute videos with challenges by acclaimed children’s authors are brilliant https://authorfy.com/10minutechallenges/, as are these Masterclasses (you can filter by age): https://authorfy.com/masterclasses/

The World Book Day site has an ‘Author and Illustrator Academy’ with videos, resources and book extracts for all ages and stages (@WorldBookDayUK).  https://www.worldbookday.com/online-masterclasses/. For KS2/3 students, I highly recommend Eoin Colfer (The Fowl Twins); Onjali Rauf (The Boy at the Back of the Class); Katherine Rundell (The Good Thieves); Matt Haig (Evie and the Animals); Matthew Syed (You are Awesome – about a growth mindset); and for older students, Malorie Blackman & Patrice Lawrence (Noughts and Crosses & Orangeboy); plus Muhammed Khan (Kick the Moon). Sophie Henn has a video to teach students how to create their own comic book characters. The World Book Day site has also started a ‘Book Ideas Hub’ with links and resources to encourage children (of all ages) to read, write and draw for pleasure. https://www.worldbookday.com/2020/03/book-ideas-hub-brilliant-stay-at-home-ideas-free-resources/

Literary Festivals: One unexpected advantage of the pandemic is that literary festivals (which used to be expensive and involved travel) are now free and available to all. The Hay Festival has a wonderful series of talks for young people of all ages: http://www.hayfestival.com/education, and the Hay Player archive includes dozens of free video talks from some of the best children’s writers around. Don’t miss the teacher resources for individual books featured! The Bath Children’s Literature Festival (@bathkidslitfest) offers access to their whole 2020-2021 programme for a nominal fee of £5.

This outstanding padlet created by Andrew Rough (@teacher_mr_r) has many other links to organisations and individuals who promote reading for pleasure.

Recommended Reading Lists and Ideas

I create and regularly update booklists for different ages and interests. Over the last few years, I have worked particularly hard to ensure that the many fabulous writers who are POC are well-represented — several lists include BAME authors highlighted. I have also added a list with books I have personally written reviews for (Book Recommendations for Key Stages)

One of the most important areas for improvement in many schools is to ensure that texts represent diverse communities, ethnicities and backgrounds. The hashtag #ReflectingRealities is a useful way in, and the website Letterbox Library (@LetterboxLib) has bookpacks and recommendations of books. There are many bloggers/writers exploring ways to ensure ALL children are represented in children’s fiction, including @clpe1 @storyriver @ILoveCopywright @rapclassroom @ksandsoconnor @DiLeed @helloiammiraim. Also watch this powerful speech by Darren Chetty (@rapclassroom) about bias and the need for books to positively engage with children’s personal realities.

Book Riot (@BookRiot) is an American website dedicated to discovering and promoting diverse books from a variety of perspectives and across genres/age ranges. It is a new discovery for me and absolutely superb. See this non-fiction page, for example, with historical true crime novels or 12 books about climate change solutions. Unusually, they also have a whole page with articles on and recommendations for audiobooks. The YA page ha many interesting categories, including fiction books about OCD, and YA books recommended based on students’ favourite games!

Mighty Girl (@amightygirl) is a superb website with books that portray strong female heroes – some fictional, and some real. I love their ‘character collection’ which includes historical characters. Their daily tweets (@amightygirl) and their blog are excellent – I always learn something new.

The Empathy Lab (@EmpathyLabUK) stems from the science showing that stories make us more empathetic. As part of their annual ‘Empathy Day’, each year resources and booklists/guides of books to help children develop empathy are provided for both primary and secondary students. The brand new 2022 collections are now available.

The Scottish Booktrust @scottishbktrust has reading lists for every age and a variety of interests/situations. The short stories for teens list is especially useful for ideas for reading aloud in secondary classrooms/tutorials and the list of novellas is perfect for students who read well but don’t want lengthy tomes.

Bookmark is a section of the @Booktrust website with recommendations for inclusive books featuring disability. Bookfinder is also great, as you can click on age/stage and select one of 16 different book types, then get recommedations with blurbs and author information.

Books for Keeps (@BooksForKeeps) is on online children’s book magazine with reviews of recently published children’s books and articles on a wide range of topics, including diversity in children’s book prizes, 10 of the best books starring children from BAME backgrounds, LGBTQI novels.

Booksfortopics (@booksfortopics) has hundreds of suggestions of books for primary school students with ‘top 50‘ for each primary year group (including checklists). They have also helpfully divided lists into subjects (History, Geography, Science) and topics. For example, I’m designing a unit using Colfer’s Illegal, and I found the ‘Community Recommends Children’s Books about Refugees and Immigration’ exceptionally helpful. The new ‘top books for each year group’ section is brilliant for encouraging reading for pleasure. Plus don’t miss the list of fiction books linked to mental health.

Anne Thompson (@alibrarylady) has a wonderful website with a weekly update on new developments/reviews/links/articles in the world of children’s/YA publishing. Her Saturday morning 9:15am newsletters are not-to-be missed if you are passionate about reading!

Bridget Hamlet (@HamletBridget) has created an outstanding Padlet showcasing the work of authors of colour. This includes information about books, links to their websites, author interviews and much more.

Scott Evans (@MrEPrimary) is a Year 5/6 teacher with a brilliant website called TheReaderTeacher. He has recently added key stage booklists — the Upper Key Stage 2 ones are especially useful for secondary school teachers, and include ideas for relucant readers; for read alouds; for graphic novels & picture books; for poetry; and for non-fiction. He also records YouTube videos about new releases! Another favourite section is #bookmatch with books to try if you have enjoyed a particular novel/author/series, including ideas for those who liked Wonder, Tom Gates, Percy Jackson, Moral Engines, His Dark Materials, Harry Potter, Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, Wimpy Kid, Boy at the Back of the Class, Alex Rider & more.

Simon Smith (@smithsmm) is a guru of children’s literature for primary school students. He created lists of brilliant books for Year 6, Year 5, Year 4 and Year 3; the lists focus on books that would be great to teach or read aloud, and they are superb. Simon also has lists of picturebooks, including for older readers — too many teachers/parents think picture books are only for little children, and Simon addresses this. Simon is a primary school headteacher and his blog (which includes the lists) is a great one to follow.

Dean Boddington (@Misterbodd) has an excellent website where he has created amazing ‘I See Me’ inclusive posters with many book suggestions for Key Stage 1 & 2 (also useful for KS3). He has book recommendations for different primary year groups and he writes blog posts reflecting on effective ways to encourage reading. He also creates really cool reading for pleasure tube maps.

Lovereading4kids (@lovereadingkids) has recommendations of fiction and non-fiction books to read for different age ranges. One of the best features is that most books have free extracts (great for book talks & short reading activities). I also like the ‘book awards’ tab, with the short/long listed books (and winners) of major UK children’s book awards, including Cargnegie, Blue Peter, UKLA, Costa, Guardian’s Children’s Fiction and more. The website also has a list of dyslexia-friendly books and recommendations for reluctant readers. Their list of diverse books for different ages is also helpful.

The Literacy Curriculum for Primary Schools (@theliteracytree) has a book-based thematic approach to the primary school curriculum. You can buy complete cross-curricular packages and there are also free resources available, including literature reviews with helpful book suggestions. The recent list ‘Books to Help Us Hope‘ is excellent. There are also articles that help educators to think about approaches to reading, as with this two-part article about the keys to unlocking comprehension: Part 1; Part 2

Reading-linked blogs & edu-Twitter feeds

Alex Quigley @HuntingEnglish is the author of Closing the Vocabulary Gap and Closing the Reading Gap and is one of the top educational thinkers in the country. Here is his blog: https://www.theconfidentteacher.com/

David Didau (@DavidDidau) is another top educational thinker with a stimulating blog called the Learning Spy which often delves into reading, and he has written a book called The Secret Literacy.

Jennifer Webb @FunkyPedagogy is a superstar educator, advocating passionately for literacy to empower students. Her website is outstanding with many free resources, and she regularly offers low-cost webinars on topics linked to reading. The Reading List Project, her crowd-sourced recommended reads list for class texts, is a godsend.

Laura @LauraCurranBun has a wonderful new website called Leading on Reading where she shares ideas and resources on her whole school approach to reading, including how she encourages disciplinary reading, how the school utilises Accelerated Reader, and how they ran World Book Day.

Katie Vince (@KVinceyxx) has an excellent website called Leading Literacy with a blog where she reflects on her experiences as a Reading Ambassador and Whole School Literacy Coordinator; the site also has many useful resources for encouraging reading.

Kieran Rhys (@K2SR7) is a MAT Strategic Lead Ambassador for Reading for Pleasure and he creates brilliant resources to build a reading culture and develop reading as a whole school priority. His visuals are a thing to behold!

Fiona Ritsen (@AlwaysLearnWeb) has a fabulous website with literacy tips under ‘Alphabet St’ https://alwayslearningweb.wordpress.com/. She is a top Tweeter to follow if you are interested in reading, literacy and education.

Freya O’Dell (@fod3) reflected on reading for pleasure and progress in action at my school after her visit. Freya’s blog explores a whole range of ideas and experiences in education and international teaching: https://wheninromeeng.wordpress.com/

Kate McCabe (@evenbetterif) https://twitter.com/evenbetterif has excellent resources and ideas, including an excellent Staff Literacy Handbook shared on 15/7/19 and she has a discussion of disciplinary literacy pinned.

Diane Leedham (@DiLeed) is superb for promoting diversity in reading; she reads widely and if you are looking for an intellectual framework to begin decolonising the curriculum and challenging ‘traditional’ perspectives, check with Diane. She is also very good with anything to do with EAL.

DeMarco Ryans (@AnansiRyans) has created excellent home reading resources for use with remote learning or as homework: use this link. He is a reflective edu-tweeter engaged with a wide range of issues, including advocacy for justice and equality. Also, if you would like fantasy recommendations, he is your ‘go-to’, especially for anything linked to Afrofuturism or influenced by African traditions.

Daniel Willingham (@DTWillingham) wrote one of the best books on education called Why Don’t Students Like School, but The Reading Mind is also excellent, as is Raising Kids Who Read. On his website, the articles section has useful research and thoughts on reading.

Doug Lemov (@Doug_Lemov) is well known for Teach Like A Champion, but he has also written an outstanding book called Reading Reconsidered and he is currently developing a reading curriculum so he is one to watch. His blog is here.

James Clements (@MrJClements) is the founder of Shakespeare and More, and his aim is to bring high quality, engaging texts to readers of all ages. His book Teaching English By the Book is excellent; it includes specific strategies for how to use beautiful texts to get students to engage with big ideas and develop their understanding of the world and themselves. With the support of OUP, he is leading a excellent series of webinars on reading and literacy.

Ashley Booth (@MrBoothY6) is a thought leader in developing whole class reading in primary school. His blog explores how to do this successfully — and it also has much more. He also has a fabulous list of 100 books to read in Year 5 and 6 and he has done a brilliant job of using social media to connect authors with students and engage reluctant readers.

Aidan Severs (@thatboycanteach) is a primary school teacher leader and has reflections on a range of topics, but reading is one of his greatest passions. Visit thatboycanteach.co.uk for reviews of books for younger readers and for reflections on how to teach reading. Aidan also helpfully explores how to meet the needs of struggling readers in whole class reading sessions.

Sadie Phillips’ site Literacywithmissp.com (@SadiePhillips) has numerous interesting blog posts about literacy and reading. My favourite is the 2019-2020 literacy calendar she has created, and the tools for teaching vocabulary with links to useful sites is also excellent.

Mr A, Mr C and Mr D Present (@MrACDPresent) is a KS2 website with a clear focus on literacy. Some of the content is by subscription, but there are free resources as well, like the fabulous KS2 ‘Read around the World‘ and ‘Read around the UK’ (I’ve created a KS3 version of Read your way around the world)

Pen & Inc (@PenandIncBooks) is Cilip’s magazine which celebrates diversity and inclusion in children’s fiction. There are a range of articles about authors with a variety of perspectives, plus numberous book recommendations. You can read the first issue here, and the second issue here — and then order paper copies for your library or classroom!

The Literacy Globe: Teachers Who Read Getting Students to Read is a great place for book reviews and thoughts on developing reading and vocabulary in a variety of ways. @KevC46 @charlotteexton

Elizabeth Hutchinson (@Elizabethutch) is a passionate school librarian with a website with resources and blog posts about the importance of school libraries plus how to use school libraries (and librarians!) effectively. I found her link a RandomHouse publication about how to use audiobooks in the classroom especially helpful.

Melanie McGilloway (@librarymice) is another enthusiastic school librarian and her website has reviews of many fabulous picturebooks and books for teens (click on the cover for the review).

Jon Biddle (@jonnybid) is a Year 6 teacher who uses his blog to encourage students to read (the letter to his class is extraordinary) and to offer advice on how to create a reading school (or how NOT to, in this brilliant post)

Mat Tobin (@Mat_at_Brookes) is an expert in children’s picture books and he has a fabulous padlet site with suggestions for a wide range of picture books that can be used for cross-curricular planning to develop critical thinking; all books have suggestions about which years they would be best used in, and for some books there are links with ideas on how these books might be taught, including close readings of key pages.

Jo Cummins (@booksuperhero2) is a primary school teacher and an avid book blogger with reviews of hundreds of high quality books on her website. The reviews are in sections: picture books (older & younger), first chapter books, middle grade chapter books, tweens, information books, poetry, graphic novels, topics & seasonal. She also has a ‘Library Girl and Book Boy’ podcast with author interviews.

Tom Palmer (@tompalmerauthor) is one of the most prolific and enthusiastic writers for young people. He often provides free resources linked to world events, including recently materials to help children understand the Holocaust after the publication of his book about the Windmere children (After the War). His website has a treasure trove of resources. For example, for his books World War II books D-Day Dog and Spitfire, he has free first chapters, posters, prediction activities, poetry challenges, questions for class discussion, videos and more. His writing tips videos are also excellent. Tom Palmer is especially popular with reluctant or struggling readers, including football and rugby fans as he has series linked to these sports.

Fran Haynes (@FH_FranHaynes) at the Durrington Research School writes about a whole school approach to modelled reading; the class teaching website from the Durrington Research team is excellent.

Form Time/Tutorial Reading

Lyndsey Dyer‘s (@RealGingerella) Register and Read is a wonder to behold – check out her website: https://teachingfromtheheartnogimmicks.wordpress.com/

Sarah Buck (@SBuckEnglish) has created another amazing Register and Read resource. See her pinned tweet for access.

My version of Register, Read & Respond is here.

Joanne Tiplady (@MissJoT) details her whole school tutor reading programme here. She enthusiastically describes this as ‘one of her proudest accomplishments’. She also writes about using the Writing Revolution strategy because-but-so across the curriculum.

Elisabeth Bowling (@elucymay) developed an excellent form time reading booklet with extracts and vocabulary work. See her pinned tweet. She also has a blog with reflections on education; she recently wrote about what she has learned from her reading about reading and has also written about gateway vocabulary.

Academic Reading & Vocabulary

Katherine Mortimer (@Kathrine_28) has a blog focused on tackling inequality in education and has recently published an excellent book called Discipinary Literacy and Explicit Vocabulary Teaching. She wrote an excellent blog post explaining a vocabulary project she has been working on to close the vocabulary gap – she and her team created a bound dictionary of key words across subjects for the students at Torquay Academy.

Verbivoreteacher.com has been created by @Mr_P_Hillips and is an excellent place to go to learn about how to teach vocabulary. He has a ton of resources; I used the Greek/Latin word roots materials as the basis for my 2018-2019 Word of the Week.

Alex Quigley (@HuntingEnglish) has collected a number of articles with research and pedagogy on teaching vocbulary. This page also includes blogs, some of which I have included here. See also above for information on Alex’s books Closing the Vocabulary Gap and Closing the Reading Gap.

Amanda Fleck (@AJTF71) is a national leader in describing literacy and language in Science. See her pinned tweet for one of her many presentations on this topic.

Stuart Pryke (@SPryke2) is an English resource-creating powerhouse. He is a supporter of academic reading and vocabulary development and a number of his resources refect this. He has a Dropbox with all his resources – see the remote learning P&C poetry folder for examples. He also has a website with thoughts on teaching English.

Doug Wise (@DoWise) is another phenomenal English resource creator — the wider reading booklets for English GCSEs, available on his resources and blog pages, are excellent excamples of academic reading. He also does research digests and sends out a free newsletter with interesting links to blogs and websites on a range of education-related topics.

Tim Jenner (@TIJenner) is exploring ways to develop academic reading and scholarship in History. See his pinned tweet for an article he wrote explaining how he is approaching this.

Dan Warner-Meanwell (@mrwmhistory), a history teacher, has recently created a blog with some excellent resources linked to academic reading. Look in particular for the ‘Story, Source, and Scholarship’ resources for examples of how to make complex texts accessible.

Chloe Woodhouse (@AViewaskew) has introduced one of the best Academic Reading approaches — Reciprocal Reading — across her school. She explains how she did this in this Team English video.

Struggling readers blogs & sites

Dyslexia and Literacy International explains dyslexia and helpfully also offers a free Coursera MOOC course (together with the UCL) called ‘Supporting Children With Difficulties in Reading and Writing‘. The University of Michigan has a helpful website with detailed information for teachers and professionals but also some fabulous resources for dyslexic students.

Thinking Reading (@ThinkingReadin1) provides structured interventions for the weakest adoloscent readers. I highly recommend the book Thinking Reading: What Every Secondary Teacher Needs to Know About Reading by James and Dianne Murphy. Here is some of the best from their blog: https://thinkingreadingwritings.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/cant-read-wont-read/https://thinkingreadingwritings.wordpress.com/2015/03/14/7-misconceptions-about-teaching-adolescents-to-read

Other superb educators and reading advocates on Twitter

There are many other fabulous librarians, teachers and professionals working to develop literacy and reading for pleasure and progress. Here are some:

@272bookfaith tweets about books, competitions and anything related to reading. The twitter account and fabulous website are run by teenage Faith who does the reading and her mother Laura who tweets.

@AccReader is the handle for Accelerated Reader which many schools (including mine) use successfully to encourage reading. They often tweet interesting and motivational posters/photos/stats/articles/competitions linked to reading. You can find which books have AR quizzes by going to https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/

@Bectully: Literacy and Oracy Lead with an interesting blog; tweets on a variety of topics linked to reading, teaching & life.

@BobCox_SFE developed the ‘Opening Doors’ curriculum with its emphasis on high quality complex texts to engage students. He has published several books with detailed curriculum plans (see these free sample resources) and has a interesting blog.

@CILIPSLG, @CILIPinfo and @GreatSchLibs tweet about things related to school libraries, education and reading.

@debbiehepp is an advocate for synthetic phonics and the author of Phonics International (and other resources). She has a website which includes a webinar on her approaches.

@EmmaRadford4 is a huge advocate for reading for pleasure in schools, and is active in tweeting/retweeting anything linked to this.

@EnglishWales is a great account to follow as they provide and retweet excellent resources linked to literay, reading and English.

@GalwayMr has a blog called Quiet Fireworks with thought-provoking posts on a range of topics linked to reading. Also see his pinned tweet about reading fluency from his ResearchEd talk.

@GauravDubay3 is thoughtful and insightful, both in terms of his approaches to/questions about reading, and in his role as Head of English.

@hiasenglish: Hampshire local authority’s English team has a wide variety of tools to support reading on their moodle, which is continually updated. They offer numerous excellent training sessions.

@imaginecentre has superb resources on the Just Imagine website, including Reading Gladiators for higher attaining readers and more. They also have a podcast with interviews with some of the best children’s book authors. Follow @nikkigamble as well as she runs Just Imagine.

@Jb5Jane: Enthusiastic Literacy Coordinator & English teacher with primary school experience. She is fabulous at finding book bargains!

@jdurran: explores literacy, English and teaching in his blog and in tweets. One interesting area of focus is in approaches to whole class reading.

@JudeVandervelde: interested in cross-curricular learning, literacy, vocabulary. History teacher.

@KyleneBeers is the author of a transformational book called When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do and Notice and Note. She has recently been doing ‘office hours’ interviewing some of the most interesting authors of children’s fiction in the US.

@LitdriveUK is THE place to go for secondary resources for English – for a £5 fee, you have access to thousands of resources for a year, including reading booklets for different key stages. Look for their tweets/retweets for highlights of what is available.

@littlerebsprize celebrates radical fiction for children; each year they produce a shortlist of books that challenge children (and adults) to think in different ways and to understand the importance of social justice. Here is their website (where the winner of the prize is announced).

@marygtroche works on a number of things linked to children’s literature, but she is best known for her advocacy of picture books. She has a fabulous padlet with a variety of resources ‘for picturebook enthusiasts‘

@Mathew_Lynch44: Outstanding provider of free resources for English, some of which are relevant to reading & literacy.

@MissOliviaReads: Secondary Librarian and book blogger; creator of @RfPforAll promoting reading for pleasure at secondary, FE & HE.

@MrB_Y3 is a reading for pleasure lead in a primary school and creates resources to encourage and support reading.

@MrEFinch: Founder of Oxford Reading Spree & BrewEd. Force for positivity on Twitter (and in life).

@OUPSecondary has developed the amazing Super-Readable Rollercoaster series. Don’t miss their website with excellent supporting resources for this series.

@OvendenLaura is a thoughtful advocate for reading on Twitter with a wealth of expertise.

@PrimarySchoolBC is the home of the monthly bookchat; each month a different book is voted on and selected, and online discussions take place on the last day of each month. Also try @clubpicturebook for early years books.

@sara13librarian is a wonderful source of knowledge on anything linked to libraries, books and copyright. She is enormously helpful if you have questions!

@son1bun: Headteacher at St Matthew’s Primary – Teaching & Research School and winner of RfP School of the Year. UKLA Council member. Passionate advocate of embedding evidence-based reading for pleasure practices throughout her school.

@_Reading_Rocks_: Founder of Reading Rocks conferences in England. Twitter account promoting reading for pleasure, especially in primary schools.

@Reeba_Wood: Literacy Coordinator. Created a year’s worth of thematic literacy lessons for Year 7’s.

@RuddickRichard has a wonderful graphic novel padlet with graphic novels for KS2 students (and above). He also has a comic books blog where he reflects on classroom experiences using graphic novels.

@sdowdtrust: Siobhan Dowd Trust created to bring reading to young people who need it most. Siobhan Dowd was a brilliant Irish writer and set up the trust just before she died too young. Funding for disadvantaged schools/student is available from the trust.

@Teacherglitter is a primary school teacher who is hugely enthusiastic about reading for pleasure, and often tweets about creative ways (including using art) to inspire children to engage with books.

@TheFosilGroup is a group of educators and professionals exploring ways to help students develop skills and knowledge through inquiry learning. They have a website with a forum where a range of issues linked to reading and knowledge are discussed.

@uksla is the organisation which supports school librarians and libraries. Their website has some resources, including studies exploring the impact of reading and libraries. They also have a list of sites and authors providing free content during the closures>

@VIPreading promotes a love for independent reading with quizzes and resources available for club members.