Shared Practice: Supporting Reader Identities

Join Scottish Book Trust to discover more about how to support pupils’ reader identities.

Children and young people’s understanding of what it means to be a reader are formed at a young age through their interactions with others at home and school (Bourne, 2002; Levy 2009). Through these interactions, they learn what counts as reading and what it means to be a reader. They experience the positive and negative outcomes (depending on how they are positioned) linked to different literacy identities. We know that school literacy practices strongly influence children’s developing reader identities. These practices create opportunities for pupils to see themselves as readers.

Scottish Book Trust encourage all reading to be seen as ‘good reading’. In this webinar, the Scottish Book Trust team will share practical and inspiring ways in which our programmes and resources can help support staff to nurture children and young people’s emerging and evolving reader identities. There will also be the opportunity to hear from guest speakers including other learning professionals, who will share some of their top tips on how to easily integrate ideas into your setting.

If you are working towards Reading Schools accreditation, this will support fulfilment of key areas 1.2.2 Learner role modelling, 1.2.4 Staff development, 2.3.2 Staff-led meaningful conversations about books, and 2.3.3 Creating learner social networks.

This session is aimed at staff working in primary or secondary settings in Scotland. It will be held as a meeting on Microsoft Teams. For the best experience, we recommend joining the webinar using the Microsoft Teams app rather than using the browser.

Reading Schools is a national accreditation programme for schools which are committed to building a reading culture with and for their learners and communities. Research indicates that reading for pleasure positively impacts on learners' attainment across the curriculum, supports wellbeing, critical thinking, creativity, empathy and resilience.

NB: We have two self-directed e-learning modules containing curated elements to help give programme participants the relevant knowledge to commence and achieve their Reading Schools accreditation. These can be found here.