HARK! Hands up who really loves their classroom reading program? TRI this: three approaches to reading instruction (original) (raw)

We’d like you to read for pleasure… as long as it’s on this list: A holistic model of reading and its consequences for the literature curriculum

This paper explores the cognitive processes involved in intertextual linking as a reader-driven process – narrative interrelation. It considers how readers interrelate the narratives they experience over time and what impact this can have on the reading of individual narratives. In particular, I examine how the newly proposed literature curriculum facilitates or hinders students in drawing on other aspects of their narrative experiences outside the classroom and the consequences this has on the nature of reading when books are objects of study. My research explores the continuities of students’ narrative experiences inside and outside of the English classroom from a cognitive linguistic perspective. Much recent research in literary linguistics has recognised the importance of considering the responses of real readers in narrative analysis. However, such analysis is almost universally centred on one text in particular. The exploration of readers is therefore very narrow; they are readers of that particular text. This does not reflect the true nature of readers as readers of many texts, viewers of many films, plays and television shows, hearers of many stories. My research posits a holistic model of reading which more accurately models readers as experiencers of many narratives. Crucially, this enables us to examine how different narrative experiences influence and interact with each other; how the things a person has previously read or seen affect the meanings they construct and the readings they form when encountering a new narrative. I argue that this kind of intertextual linking – narrative interrelation – is fundamental to reading. I will suggest some of the potential implications of a holistic model of reading, and the role of narrative interrelation in particular, for the teaching of literature in the classroom.

Recognising the Power of Pleasure: What Engaged Adolescent Readers Get from Their Free-Choice Reading, and How Teachers Can Leverage This for All

The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 2016

This three-year qualitative study explored the reading of 14 middle graders who self-identified as passionate readers, and of 15 secondary school students who were highly engaged readers of genres typically marginalised in school: romance, dystopia, fantasy, vampire and horror. The purpose of the study was to help teachers think about free choice reading, including of marginalised genres, and to help teachers think about pedagogic responses. One salient finding reported here was that free reading of all kinds, including that of marginalised genres, brought readers five distinct kinds of pleasure (each pleasure in turn bringing many ancillary benefits): the immersive pleasure of play, intellectual pleasure, social pleasure, the pleasure of functional work, and the pleasure of inner work. Pleasure, however, and the benefits that accrue from it, is largely neglected as a research topic. With the exception of intellectual pleasure, the identified pleasures were not directly fostered in ...

Reading for pleasure: whose job is it to build lifelong readers in the classroom?

Literacy, 2018

A survey questionnaire was administered to 146 MEd students enrolled in a teacher-training institute in Singapore to determine the strategies they use to promote engaged reading in the classroom. The majority of the teacher respondents when asked how they motivate students to read, wrote down Not Applicable, and 38% were unable to write down strategies to promote engaged reading. However, the results further indicate that even the non-devoted readers amongst them were able to identify sound literacy instructional strategies. This paper argues that the desirability of lifelong reading and the need for teachers to be accountable for its promotion should be culturally positioned within locally shaped realities and perceived from within the unique configuration of the results-driven context of the Singaporean educational landscape.

Reading for Enjoyment: Empowering All Students to Succeed through Whole-School Reading Programs and Cultures

2015

The present study addresses how education praxis, research, and theory, can contribute to more justice, by developing, implementing, and evaluating a whole-school literacy program that enhances students' reading engagement. According to the OCD report Reading for Change: "Finding ways to engage students in reading may be one of the most effective ways to leverage social change" (Kirsch et al, 2002, p. 3). This conclusion is based on the finding that "being more enthusiastic about reading and being a frequent reader was more of an advantage on its own than having well-educated parents in good jobs" (Kirsch et al, 2002, p. 3). Guthrie, Schafer and Huang (2001) also found that the engaged reader can academically overcome obstacles of low parental education and income, as well as preferences and abilities associated with gender. An impressive body of research calls for equal and concurrent focus on both skill and will. The Eurydice Teaching Reading in Europe report emphasizes that "those who enjoy reading usually read more frequently, thus further improving their reading skills and getting even greater pleasure from reading" (2011, p. 130). Krashen's metaresearch emphatically stresses the importance of reading engagement, and reading for pleasure in particular: "Those who do not develop the pleasure reading habit simply don't have a chancethey will have a very difficult time reading and writing at a level high enough to deal with the demands of today's world" (2004: x). The present study presents research results from a school that did take reading enjoyment and engagement into serious account and acted accordingly.

"Reading Enjoyment" is Ready for School: Foregrounding Affect and Sociality in Children's Reading for Pleasure

New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 2022

While debate on declines in children's literacy is ongoing in Aotearoa New Zealand, very little attention in research and policy is paid to reading enjoyment and its capacity to support the reading development of children. Developed alongside a series of studies on children's reading for pleasure this article makes a theoretically informed argument to place reading enjoyment at the centre of literacy education in schools. Our argument is underpinned by a psycho-social conceptualisation of enjoyment that emphasises the fundamental sociality of emotion. Foregrounding affect and sociality in children and young people's reading speaks to the potential of teachers being with children and their whānau together reading for pleasure. When children are at school they can participate in the sociality of reading for pleasure, sharing its enjoyment with other class members and teachers without coming into conflict with the priorities of life outside of school. If schools embed reading enjoyment in their programmes, they might then have greater capacity to follow the literacy and communication strategy and work towards sharing the collective enjoyment of reading with families, whānau, and communities.

READING FOR PLEASURE -A SILVER BULLET OR A WILD GOOSE CHASE

Buckingham Journal of Education, 2024

Although we all inherently feel we understand the pleasure experienced when reading an engaging text, the application of these feelings to reading education can become conflated with subjectivity, socio-cultural partiality and personal bias, making the definition of 'Reading for Pleasure' highly subjective. This paper investigates the research around the phenomenon of 'Reading for Pleasure' and questions some of the assumptions made by that research particularly around the definition applied. It suggests that a more useful approach for educators would be to promote a commitment to reading in schools and, through research evidence suggests how this might be achieved.

From national policy to classroom practice: Promoting reading for pleasure in post‐Primary English classrooms

English in Education, 2015

In 2011, a national strategy Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life was published in the Republic of Ireland. One key aspect of the strategy was that it placed a renewed focus on reading for pleasure in post-primary classrooms. The researchers involved in this article worked for the Professional Development Service for Teachers, a national, government-funded professional development organisation. In response to the strategy, the researchers worked with teachers from nine post-primary schools across the Republic of Ireland. Through working closely with these English teachers, it was possible to identify assumptions that the teachers made around their students' reading in post-primary education. This article considers and challenges some of these assumptions and demonstrates what happened when the teachers were invited to do the same. In the course of the research, questions were also raised about some of the recommendations made within the national strategy, recommendations which were them