ABOUT
The Scottish Book Trust worked with Bishopbriggs Academy to adapt the ‘Book That Changed my Life’ campaign for use in a schools context. The pupils at Bishopbriggs adapted the project to The Book I Will Never Forget and spent a week collecting stories, interviews and writing their own personal response to the project. Collectively, they developed a series of podcasts sharing a range of stories around the topic.
The project developed support materials for the project, following planning meetings with the Principle teacher of English, which clearly linked the project with Curriculum for Excellence – particularly the Literacy and English outcomes and Experiences. Because the project was implemented in Bishopbriggs as part of Determind to Succeed, the approach also focussed on skills for life, and included interviewing techniques, collaborative planning and working, team work and problem solving.
PURPOSE
The project was developed as part of the school’s enterprise approach with the aim of building a sustainable relationship with an organisation (Scottish Book Trust.) SBT was interested in developing methodologies for schools to engage with The Book That Changed My Life. Supporting pupils at Bishopbriggs to develop their own version of the project offered an excellent opportunity to understand the impact of this campaign within the context of Curriculum for Excellence.
Scottish Book Trust wanted pupils to understand the impact and meaning that books can have upon individuals’ lives and to apply that understanding to their own reading. It was the intention that pupils would develop knowledge of how to design and conduct an interview to gather desired information, and use that information to make podcasts to share the findings of the project. By the end of the project pupils were able to share the story of the book they would never forget, make podcasts of interviews they had collected from the school population and its community.
IMPACTS
Evaluation with the participating pupils at the end of the project demonstrated that a majority of pupils agreed that this project had helped them to develop their talking and listening skills, and that the activity had made a positive impact on their attitude to reading. Further to this, a large majority of pupils agreed that they had enjoyed this approach to learning and would like to do more activities like this in English.
Some feedback from pupils:
- – the main aims of the project were made clear at the start of the project and they were set clear achievable targets
- – felt they had successfully overcame a particular problem
- – agreed that they were set a challenging task
- – agreed the project helped them develop their talking and listening skills and that they enjoyed this approach to learning
- – felt that the project had made a positive impact on their approach to reading
Bishopbriggs has been shortlisted for a Determind to Succeed award and this project formed a key part of their presentation to the prize committee.
OTHER
Partners:
- – Scottish Book trust
- – Bishopbriggs Academy
- – Members of the community
Levels and stages:
- – Third and fourth levels
- – All S1 pupils
Funding:
- – Scottish Book Trust staff time
For more information contact:
Philippa Cochrane, Learning Manager (Scottish Book Trust) on 0131 524 0160 or email philippa.cochrane@scottishbooktrust.com
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