BOOKWOR

Objectives:
1.

Choose at least 2 options for the 3 parts of the

questionnaire

2.

Match at least 4 out or 8 words to their meaning

correctly

3.

Identify at least 3 out of 5 true or false statements

correctly

Reading is to the mind what

exercising is to the body.
-Richard Steele

ACTIVITY 1
Answer the questions in the questionnaire and then
compare your answers with your friends.
I read because
It helps me understand the world
It is fun
It helps me find out what I want or need to know
I know I should
For exam purposes

Which of the following do you read?

newspapers

novels

magazines

catalogues

text books

encyclopedias

fiction

websites

comics

text messages

Which types of fiction do you like

reading?
adventure

romance

horror / ghost

suspense/thriller

crime stories

science-fiction

historical

about wars

about animals

comedy

fantasy

about spies

Dont force young to read

classics, says Anthony
Horowitz
Alexandra Frean, Education Editor
The Times

Parents risk putting children off reading by dragging them

around bookstores and force-feeding them literary
classics, leading childrens writer Anthony Horowitz has
suggested.

Horowitz, author of the bestselling Alex Rider series of

action adventure books, said the current public concern
about childrens reading had been fuelled and hijacked
by the overanxious, white, middle classes.

Reading is not an issue we should keep banging children

over the head with, he told The Times.

Horowitzs comments follow publication yesterday of a

major review of literacy in primary schools by Cambridge
University, which suggested that gains in reading skills at
school through the national literacy strategy had been
achieved at the expense of pupils enjoyment of reading.

He also called on schools to set aside more time for

children to read for pleasure and less time for
deconstructing texts line by line.

At home, parents should not worry about trying to get

their children to read books they read as a child as
childrens literature was now in a golden era, he said.

As children, my generation was given the books that our

parents read. Now children can discover their own
writers. There have never been so many good living
young writers.

Horowitz suggested that the best way that parents could

encourage a child to read was to set aside 15 minutes a
day to read to them.

We are all so busy as adults that we tend to forget the

inestimable value of spending 15 minutes a day reading
with our child. There is no better way to get to know your
child than to share their books with them.

1
0

Its not going to be forever and they may not thank you
for it by the time they are teenagers, so that makes it
more valuable, he said.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk November, 2007

ACTIVITY 2(Vocabulary)
Find these words and expressions in the article.
inestimable overanxious to set aside literacy
dragging at the expense of putting children of hijacked
1.

discourage; cause someone lose interest

2.

take someone somewhere even if they do not want to go

3.

too worried

4.

ability to read and write

5.

causing harm to

6.

to save or keep something for a particular purpose

7.

beyond calculation or measure

8.

to engage in such stealing -

ACTIVITY 3
Read the article and decide whether the following statements are
true (T) or false (F).
1. Horowitz does not think we should worry too much about childrens
reading.
2. The review of literacy in primary schools by Cambridge University
suggests that the national literacy strategy has been successful.
3. According to Horowitz, schools should allow children to discover
that reading is fun.
4. Parents should put more pressure on their children to read literary
classics.
5. In Horowitzs opinion the best way to encourage a child to read is to
make them read a book for 15 minutes a day.