Tonight at London’s Guildhall, Michael Morpurgo will be speaking at the inaugural BookTrust Annual Lecture. Drawing from his own experiences as a learner, writer and teacher, tonight he discusses the vital difference between teaching literacy and encouraging a love of story.
In his lecture, Morpurgo will say you “cannot force-feed children” with literacy, urging parents and teachers to instead focus on sparking a lifelong love of story.
“All that matters at that early age is that they learn to love it, that they want to listen to more stories, read them, tell them, write them, act them out, sing them, dance them. All the rest will come later, the literacy side of things, which is important, once that seed is sown.”
Read Michael Morpurgo’s lecture on fostering a love of story in full
More like ‘fostering a love of story’ in the news:
- ITV: War Horse author Michael Morpurgo: “Failing 11-plus was like a dagger to the heart”
- The Guardian: Michael Morpurgo says exams created ‘apartheid’ in schools
- TES: Testing is creating an ‘apartheid’ in reading, says Michael Morpurgo
- BBC: School tests ‘kill joy of reading’, says War Horse author
- Daily Mail: Too many tests are killing pupils’ love of books, War Horse author warns
- Express: Michael Morpurgo says constant school testing is ruining the fun of reading for youngsters
- The BookSeller: Morpurgo urges ‘story’ to come before literacy