Reading is power…and such power comes from the will to read.
A study of children inEngland continue to read less independentlyand find less pleasure in reading than manyof their peers in other countries (Twist et al.,2003; 2007). In the 2006 Progress inInternational Reading Literacy Study (n: 41countries), only 28% of the English childrenreported reading weekly compared to aninternational average of 40%.
In addition, previous UKLA research, drawing onquestionnaires from 1200 primary teachers nationally,showed that whilst the majority read independentlyfor pleasure, professionally they rely on a very limitedcanon of children’s authors and can name only anarrow range of picture fiction creators and poets(Cremin et al., 2008a, b). This raises the questionof whether teachers are familiar with a sufficientlydiverse range of writers to enable them to fosterreader development and make recommendationsto young readers with different needs and interests.
This lack of subject knowledge, placed alongside thedocumented decline in reading for pleasure and thereduction in primary phase book spending (Hurd etal., 2006), suggested a need for increased professionalsupport to enhance children’s reading for pleasure.
As the teachers widened their repertoires, reflected upontheir own reading and began to find out more about children’s everyday reading practices beyond school, their conceptions of reading, initially somewhat book bound, broadened and they began to recognize textual and reader diversity more readily, re-framing their practice in response. This was multiply evidenced in both the quantitative and qualitative data, with typical comments including e.g.’ I feel it’s [my subject knowledge] developed immensely’, and ‘I see reading differently now – I’m not sure why I didn’t recognise how social it is’. The reading for pleasure pedagogy which developed, encompassed marked improvements that were observed and documented in each of the case study classrooms, these included richer reading environments, read aloud provision, book talk and text recommendations, as well as quality time for independent reading. The teachers though took some time to develop these practices; they had to work hard to include this in a packed curriculum and in some of their schools where fostering a desire to read was not seen as a priority. The new reading practices were frequently constructed as open-ended opportunities and profiled learner agency and choice, fostering spontaneous talk about texts and strong communities of readers.
Reading for pleasure urgently requires ahigher profile in primary education to raiseboth attainment and achievement and increasechildren’s engagement as self-motivated andsocially engaged readers.
There is still muchwork to be done toaddress the wideninggap in readingexperiences in andout of school and toextend conceptions of reading in this new media age.Strategic support is needed to enable the professionto find more equivalent and reciprocal ways ofworking with families and communities that connectwith their everyday reading practices and experiences.It is therefore recommended that schools,teachers and student teachers are supported to:
1. Take responsibility for developing reading for pleasure, alongside and as complementary to, reading instruction, and plan systematically to achieve this.
2. Widen their conceptions of reading and being a reader in the 21st century.
3. Develop as ‘Reading Teachers’: teachers who read and readers who teach.
4. Make space and time to build reciprocal reading communities in their classrooms that blur theboundaries between children’s home and school reading worlds.
5. Expand their knowledge of:
• literature and other texts
• everyday reading practices and experiences
• individual children as readers.
6. Develop pedagogy that encourages reading for pleasure, fosters ‘inside text talk’ and buildspositive reading identities for all children.
7. Foster children’s autonomy as readers who can exercise discrimination and choice within and beyond school.
8. Construct new, more equivalent readingrelationships with families and communitymembers, exploring the potential synergy between teachers,’ children’s and parents’ readinglives and practices
References:
https://ukla.org/downloads/teachers_as_readers.pdf
By: Mr. Ulysses Gabriel | Teacher III | Sta. Isabel Elementary School | Dinalupihan, Bataan
