Teachers & Librarians
Working with Primary School Kids
Reading2Smile is a safe and empowering platform designed for use in an educational setting, at home or, when families are out and about.
Children can be tasked with searching for a book to develop their IT, literacy and communication skills, either in class or, as a homework exercise to encourage reading for pleasure.
Teachers, librarians and home educators can use the filters to find a suitable book for story time, the next class read, to recommend to a particular child or, for their own professional development.
Here are two examples of reviews by a primary school class:
- The House by the Lake (Key Stage One)
- The Misadventures of Mina Mahmood (Key Stage Two)
Share Reading2Smile with parents and consider asking the PTA to sponsor a child in your school to join the review panel, as the child’s family is unable to support them.
Working with Secondary School Kids
Reading2Smile is a free, trustworthy, independent, accessible resource that can be used for reading, writing and oracy projects. Here are some ideas:
- To promote reading for pleasure and self-expression students can be encouraged to search and select a book that interests them and then explain their choices.
- The published kids’s reviews can be a springboard for a discussion or classroom vote.
- If the book is available a student can write their own review, compare it to the review online and consider writing techniques that make some reviews more persuasive or interesting than others.
- Allow students to use Form Time to browse Reading2Smile on their smart phones/tablets provided they get chatting about books!
Staff can use the search filters to find an appropriate book for a topic or, to check if the content appears to be suitable for a groups’ age or ability.
You can also to keep-to-date with the exciting new titles that have been published since you were a teenager reader!
First use the filters to select the age range, category and genre and then choose a theme E.g. Black History, Environment or Emotions
Absolutely
Yes. It’s been done before, but it takes a bit of time and planning to key in with the title’s publication date to achieve maximum impact
This is inevitable. You can direct them to your public library, or consider buying a copy for the school library, if you decide it is likely to be popular title
Not directly via Reading2Smile. But you can contact Sarah@BooksUpNorth.com who will be able to advise you about possible webinars and in-person visits from authors.
Get in touch
Get in touch with any questions you have about submitting a joint review of a book you have reviewed as a class or reading group.
Or, for any other school / library related enquires.