Reading the Game

Ben Hubbard

Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand looks in every way the top-flight celebrity footballer, slumped in a seat with headphones covering long plaited hair…but wait…what’s that he’s reading? The BFG by Roald Dahl perhaps?

This poster of Ferdinand – now common in many schools and libraries – is the brainchild of the National Literacy Trust (NLT), which thought advertising popular heroes as readers would send a powerful message to children.

‘The idea was that their role models – people that excited them – were actually readers, so if they wanted to be like the players then they would have to follow them in that way and be more than just good at kicking a ball,’ says Jim Sells, Manager of the NLT’s Reading The Game.

The first series of posters, published in 1996, were so successful that that the NLT decided to form a complete football programme. This was Reading The Game (RTG), an initiative that works with professional football to promote literacy and to raise reading motivation for all ages.

RTG mainly delivers this through four different projects: Reading is Fundamental (RIF), Reading Champions, Premier League Reading Stars (PLRS), and Kick into Reading (KiR).

RIF

Reading Is Fundamental, UK, is an initiative aimed at young people up to 19 years. Working with volunteers, RIF projects promote the fun of reading, the importance of book choice, and the benefits to families of sharing books at home. RIF projects, run by bodies such as football clubs, promote an event at which children can choose three free books to keep, and enjoy other motivational reading activities.

Reading Champions

Reading Champions is a nationwide scheme which finds and celebrates males who have acted as role models for reading – not only celebrities, but any men who take an interest in reading both for themselves and for children. The scheme provides motivational frameworks and support materials designed to engage boys and men in developing a reading culture.

PLRS

The Premier League Reading Stars programme, in partnership with the Premier League, and the Football Foundation, delivers boxes of books recommended by 20 Premier League Reading Champions to clubs. The club then forms a partnership with local libraries and identifies a local school or group which selects ten 7 to 11-year-olds who love football but might not love reading. These children attend a reading group, with a guardian or relative, where they read and talk about their heroes’ book choices.

KiR

In Kick into Reading, storyteller Pat Ryan trains football club members to perform and tell stories for children. Once trained, these members then perform the tales in libraries, and show children how a love of books and stories is an important and fun part of their lives..

So, with so many projects in place, where does a teacher begin?

Sells says getting a footballer who is a genuine reader into the classroom to talk to pupils is the ultimate way to engage emerging readers who are seemingly only motivated by football. The visiting player takes a question-and-answer session, and then talks about their favourite books. The best way for the teacher to organise this is by contacting the local football club, although Sells warns these visits are not always the easiest thing to achieve. The Trust has advice on its website about how to identify a club and get them and a team player involved.

‘But it doesn’t need to be a first-team player. There are also community coaches, who are often ex-players themselves, or young unknown players that haven’t quite made it but have still got the badge, and that excites the kids. Often clubs also have academies which have the next Wayne Rooneys and they are like bigger brothers for kids and are good role models.’

But what happens if nobody is available to come and talk to a class?

‘The reason we’ve done the series of posters and have the Reading Champion website pages is because if you can’t get a player into the classroom, you can at least put their words and images in front of them. That’s the next logical step, because quite clearly you can’t put a player into every school so you have to think of alternatives, and it’s up to the schools to facilitate that where they can.’
Download a Reading Champion poster from the Reading Champions site.

Teachers can also emulate RTG projects by taking ideas from the website. These could include looking at the reading lists of Premier League Reading Stars and making a display of those books within the school library. If the pupils are keen on football but not books, teachers can also use other football material such as comics, magazines, graphic novels and websites to kick-start them into reading. Classroom resource suggestionsfrom Reading the Game site.

The Trust is trying to reach more schools by developing new projects. Next year, a new pilot, in conjunction with the DfES and the Football League, will have two football clubs – Preston North End and Northampton Town – sending six local schools a box of recommended reads, with an agreed number of literacy-based tasks for classrooms and pupils to fulfill. Once they have finished their tasks one of the clubs will come for a launch and classes could win incentives like free tickets to games, coaching sessions and visits from a Reading Champion. Sells says if schools are interested they should show their support and a nationwide rollout may be possible.

A DVD for schools will also be released for schools featuring six England players talking about books, and there are plans for a NLT/Premier League website. Watch the NLT website for news.

Sells stresses that although football is attractive for boys it is also for girls, and says recent research suggests it is UK girls’ favourite game.

‘It’s for everyone, but we do acknowledge that football is very appealing for boys, and if they don’t always listen to their teacher, well, they are very likely to listen to someone like Rio Ferdinand who says to them “I really liked reading Roald Dahl when I was at school.”’