University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education, Primary PGCE 2019-20 discussion

Dear all,

I hope you're enjoying the half term/ study week.

Just wondered if anyone had the chance to read some children's literature? I hope so!

I've been reading Siobhan Dowd's London Eye Mystery (Brilliant!) and, following a recommendation from Fi, Peter Brown's Wild Robot (INCREDIBLE!!)

If you have read something, do add it to one of the discussion boards so we can all benefit from your efforts.

Best wishes,

John-Mark

Dear all,

I somehow destroyed my computer and phone in PGCE euphoria, and while they are both off for repair I've been reading the collected works of Diana Wynne Jones. I'd read the 'Howl's Moving Castle' series before, and some other of the major books, but honestly everything she wrote is gold and that's quite a lot of books as she wrote on average one a year.

I just finished the 'The Homewood Bounders' which was exhalating and bizarre, and the 'Dalemark Quartet' was magnificent - each book a piece of a puzzle, but great stand-alone stories in their own right.

If anyone grew up liking Harry Potter then I really recommend the Chrestomanci series; I think it's far superior to Potter, and criminally under-read. If you're working in year 4 and upwards then definitely recommend Diana Wynne Jones to your classes.

All the best

Joe

Just finished reading 'the island at the end of everything' by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. The book was a recommendation from a year 6 pupil and after finishing the story, I can understand why she was so eager for me to read it!
The book is beautifully written with extremely descriptive language and beautiful imagery.
From a teaching point of view, I think it would be such a good text for the children to explore an author's use of similes, metaphors, personification and other linguastic techniques and get the children to see how these tools can help make a text come alive!