I’ve been putting this together for a few months and here it is!
A list of films (taken from www.literacyshed.co.uk), the core books we use and Talk for Writing activities linked to my school’s topics. We use these books and films to make cross-curricular links and develop our topics. This really helps us to develop ‘reading for meaning’ and making sure our topics are rooted in a context.
We’ve been working really hard to think about how we can create a ‘book based’ curriculum and put books at the heart of our learning and make meaningful connections.
Very often we take one book and build our curriculum and topic around it, whilst also making sure we link to the national curriculum. For example, when I’ve taught the Stone Age, I have used Stone Age Boy by Satoshi Kitamura as the basis for the topic and all my English teaching. I also supplement this with UG: Boy Genius of the Stone Age for Guided Reading.
Once a term, we also carry out a theme week, which is very similar to the ‘Take One Book’ approach discussed here: https://www.hertsforlearning.co.uk/sites/default/files/user_uploads/00_news/documents/english_nate/nate_te_primary_matters_michelle_nicholson_2.pdf
In the summer term we wanted to focus on developing and strengthening Geography and History skills, so the whole school used Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill. It was a fantastic week and the displays around our school are looking fabulous!
Lots of teachers are ‘given’ a topic and often ask me which books or films I would suggest using for their topic – I hope this resource helps! Use it all, use some of it, dip into it, add to it or don’t use it!
This is not an exhaustive list – just a collection of ideas and resources. In September, I will be putting this resource list in our staff room and then asking staff and visitors to add any ideas to it of books or films they’ve used successfully – perhaps you could do the same?
Putting books and films at the heart of learning – a resource bank
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