Book Review: Bug Club Shared
At a glance
- Engaging stories with curriculum-linked vocabulary progression
- A structured and systematic approach to vocabulary development
- Introduces children to rich and challenging words from across the curriculum
- Rich cross-curricular links throughout
- Beautifully illustrated books with highly engaging texts
- Developed in collaboration with expert Mary Myatt and the Knowledge Schools Trust
Guided online learning and digital provision is now more important than ever. But it isn’t new and some publishers have been supporting schools with their trusted brands for years.
Well ahead of the pack have been Pearson and their ActiveLearn platform which contains plenty of online resources to help schools teach and assess. These are available in print too.
Their latest resource offer is Bug Club Shared and forms part of a whole-school reading solution for primary schools.
This new reading scheme has been created to help Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children become fluent and self-assured through the exploration of a range of cross-curricular subjects and shared stories using high-quality books each with a flexible two-week teaching cycle.
It makes the sheer delight of sharing wonderful texts with children a top priority as a key part of boosting their emergent literacy skills.
There are 36 books available and these are books for reading aloud, dissecting and discussing as a class and do so magnificently with their engaging texts and high quality illustrations.
They are perfect for introducing children to complex gear changes in their reading, extending their vocabulary and for widening their ownership of the world. Some books are better for reading out loud than others but this collection is fun all the way.
Bug Club Shared is easy to use and no training is needed just some investment of time to familiarise yourself with the bits and pieces. There is a neat and tidy Classroom Support section which details what you need to know, the programme principles and pedagogy and how to use it with videos to watch as well.
What Pearson do very well is focus on what works best for children based on credible and reliable research. For example, they are confident that Bug Club Shared will help close the word gap because they draw on tried and tested methods of spaced learning, repetition and formative assessment.
The beauty of buying into Bug Club Shared is that you are guaranteed to save a shed load of time and effort because the lesson plans are all there for you to pick up and adapt as you see fit. Shared reading sessions are therefore logistically easier to plan and organise as everything is streamlined and made efficient.
If you sign-up for a subscription then you get plenty of value because it includes digital versions of each book for IWB use, interactive schemes of work and access to videos with professional storytellers, copious teaching notes and professional development videos too which delve further into the benefits of shared reading. This costs £349 whereas the print pack only version is £239.
Bug Club Shared via the ActiveLearning platform is something school’s need more than ever before and it was a Winner in the 2020 Teach Primary Awards English category.
The verdict
- Resources crafted and built to ensure the effective delivery and retention of knowledge
- Inspires children to become confident speakers and fluent readers
- Builds excitement around reading for pleasure
- Improves the production effect and memory of words
- Ready-made and adaptable lesson plans considerably ease workload pressures
- Dynamic and responsive to all needs
- Promotes reading aloud as a vital bridge to literacy
Upgrade if…
you are looking for a set of intuitive and self-service resources that can be used to ensure that children have the vocabulary they need to succeed across the curriculum this is full of cognitive empowerment.