Initially I didn’t really want to write a separate reading passport for teachers but following discussions with staff at Bishop Grosseteste University I decided it was a good idea. There is plenty of research to show that the more teachers read the more likely they are to be able to get their pupils to read. I was also inspired by Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer which shows how powerful a well-read teacher can be.
The cover is a patchwork design, beautifully stitched together by Rob Whitney, the designer of all the passports. It uses all the different colours of the existing passports and was inspired by reading about commonplace books that many readers have used to collect ideas and quotations from their reading.
Inside, each page encourages the teacher to think about how whatever they have read could be used to enrich their teaching, to record how they and the pupils responded to it and how the text might be used in the future. I’m sure teachers will find their own ways to use the headings. There is also some information about why reading for pleasure matters, useful links and lists of prize winning books since 2000.
So who will use this new passport? I would like to think that head teachers who want to encourage staff to read will buy every teacher, and teaching assistant, a copy. All secondary English teachers could certainly use one to keep track of their reading, gather ideas of books to recommend to students and to generally enrich their teaching. With 64 A6 pages the passport will fit neatly in a pocket or bag and at just £3 each from the Lincolnshire Teaching School Alliance, ( you can download an order form by clicking here) they are cheaper than many equivalent sized blank notebooks.
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