A Note for Teachers
World Book Day
Assembly
Facing History UK Assemblies
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World Book Day
What is World Book Day and what are the benefits of reading for pleasure?
What is World Book Day?
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies … The man who never reads lives only one.
Self-Reflection
The Benefits of Reading
What are the benefits of reading?
Reading an Article
Why You Should Read This Out Loud
For much of history, reading was a fairly noisy activity. On clay tablets written in ancient Iraq and Syria some 4,000 years ago, the commonly used words for “to read” literally meant “to cry out” or “to listen”. “I am sending a very urgent message,” says one letter from this period. “Listen to this tablet. If it is appropriate, have the king listen to it.”
Today, silent reading is the norm… But a growing body of research suggests that we may be missing out by reading only with the voices inside our minds. The ancient art of reading aloud has a number of benefits for adults, from helping improve our memories and understand complex texts, to strengthening emotional bonds between people. And far from being a rare or bygone activity, it is still surprisingly common in modern life. Many of us intuitively use it as a convenient tool for making sense of the written word, and are just not aware of it.
Sophie Hardach, ‘Why You Should Read This Out Loud’ BBC Future, 18th September 2020
Celebrating World Book Day
This World Book Day, we are going to spend some time reading together.
Today, we will be reading an excerpt from the novel The Maze Runner by James Dashner.
The Maze Runner is a contemporary YA dystopian novel.
Excerpt from The Maze Runner
Chapter 1
He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air.
Metal ground against metal; a lurching shudder shook the floor beneath him. He fell down at the sudden movement and shuffled backward on his hands and feet, drops of sweat beading on his forehead despite the cool air. His back struck a hard metal wall; he slid along it until he hit the corner of the room. Sinking to the floor, he pulled his legs up tight against his body, hoping his eyes would soon adjust to the darkness.
With another jolt, the room jerked upward like an old lift in a mine shaft.
Excerpt From The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, Book One), Penguin Random House
Excerpt from The Maze Runner
Harsh sounds of chains and pulleys, like the workings of an ancient steel factory, echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls with a hollow, tinny whine. The lightless elevator swayed back and forth as it ascended, turning the boy's stomach sour with nausea; a smell like burnt oil invaded his senses, making him feel worse. He wanted to cry, but no tears came; he could only sit there, alone, waiting.
My name is Thomas, he thought.
That... that was the only thing he could remember about his life.
Excerpt From The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, Book One), Penguin Random House
Excerpt from The Maze Runner
He didn't understand how this could be possible. His mind functioned without flaw, trying to calculate his surroundings and predicament. Knowledge flooded his thoughts, facts and images, memories and details of the world and how it works. He pictured snow on trees, running down a leaf-strewn road, eating a hamburger, the moon casting a pale glow on a grassy meadow, swimming in a lake, a busy city square with hundreds of people bustling about their business.
And yet he didn't know where he came from, or how he'd gotten inside the dark lift, or who his parents were. He didn't even know his last name. Images of people flashed across his mind, but there was no recognition, their faces replaced with haunted smears of color. He couldn't think of one person he knew, or recall a single conversation.
Excerpt From The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, Book One), Penguin Random House
Think, Pair, Share
If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
Challenge Yourself
Exit Ticket
Take a moment to think about the following:
The benefits of reading include ________ _________________________________________.
I enjoy reading when ___________________
_________________________________________.
A reading goal I have for this year is _________________________________________.
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