Today is Roald Dahl Day!
It’s great to see schools taking part in activities to celebrate the author and his works while encouraging a love of reading.
If you don’t know much about Roald Dahl Day head here: Roald Dahl Day. You’ll find information about the day, the author, his works, and even free resources for schools.
During my time teaching, Roald Dahl’s books were always in my classroom. I always had a good selection for the pupils to use and for me to share in story time. Luckily, another teacher I worked with had a large collection of his books and was happy to share them with the team.
Six reasons why I recommend using Roald Dahl’s books in the classroom
- Pupils love them
If I read one of Road Dahl’s books during story time, the pupils were enthralled. Concentration levels were high, even for pupils who particularity struggled with their listening and attention. All the classes I taught absolutely loved the humour, the characters and the imaginative plots. They were always eager to know what would happen next.
- The vocabulary is fantastic
My pupils really improved their vocabulary knowledge from listening to and reading Road Dahl’s books. They showed good inference skills by making suitable suggestions for the meaning of the nonsense words. We also had some great discussions about why an author might want to use fake words in their writing.
- They make excellent reading comprehension texts
These high-quality texts give pupils the chance to enhance their comprehension skills. The fact the books are so interesting encourages pupils to want to have discussions about them. Some of my pupils used to find it hard to ask questions about texts, but there was always something that sparked their curiosity when it came to these books.
- They challenge pupils
Some of my pupils loved listening to the books so much they wanted to improve their reading skills so that they could read them by themselves. I had pupils reading more often at home and challenging themselves to read the texts, even though normally they would have chosen a simpler book.
- They instill a love of reading
The fact the pupils loved the books so much meant they really started to love reading. Some of my pupils really liked the character Matilda. Reading about how much she loved books, encouraged them even more.
- They appeal to even the reluctant readers
Even my most reluctant readers couldn’t resist smiling when listening to these books. Even if they weren’t able to read the stories themselves they would still actively listen and participate in discussions about the books. Some of my readers working at greater depth, wouldn’t read much at home, would rush through their books and take little pleasure from them. For them reading was easy and not very interesting. However, when introduced to Roald Dahl books it was a different story. They couldn’t help but laugh at all the disgusting things George put into his marvelous medicine or cringe over the dreaded spaghetti worms in The Twits. The books were a real winner!
If you aren’t using Roald Dahl books in your classroom, I really recommend it. I’ve only listed six reasons why but there are many more.
If you aren’t sure which book to start with, have a look at this guide from Penguin: Roald Dahl Reading List