Reading rights and
responsibilities
2
In many countries, courses at the secondary level
typically focus on grammar, vocabulary, and the four
skills, but also reflect teaching trends in local contexts,
where in some places, approaches such as content
and language integrated learning (CLIL) may be used.
The styles of teaching that occur around the world vary
considerably.
3
In many countries, English is a required subject for entry into university and is also
a required subject for freshman/first-year university students.
In some contexts (e.g. China), a pass in an English examination may be a
requirement for university graduation.
The kinds of English courses offered at the university level may vary considerably.
The use of English to teach graduate, and even undergraduate, courses is now a
growing trend in many parts of the world.
What rights and whose responsibilities?
4
Controversy about the teaching of reading has a long history, and
throughout it there has been the assumption, at least the hope, that a
panacea can be found that will make everything right…. there is no
one method, medium, approach, device or philosophy that holds the
key to the process of reading. We believe that the knowledge does
exist to improve the teaching of reading, but that it does not lie in the
triumphant discovery, or re-discovery, of a particular formula …A
glance at the past reveals the truth of this. (DES, 1975)
5
What is it about reading that so fires an emotional response in
educators and politicians?
Part of the answer may lie in the fact that
satisfying or satisfactory reading does not just
depend on the range of texts available to a
particular age group, but on readers, contexts
and communities.
6
The right not to read
The right to skip pages
The right not to finish the book
The right to re-read
The right to read anything
The right to ‘bovarysme’
The right to read anywhere
The right to browse
Reads Like A Novel by The right to read out loud
The right to remain silent
Daniel Pennac (1994)
“
National Literacy Strategy or
National Curriculum
Level 4 (i.e., fully independent
readers) by the age of 11
“
Counterclaim
Committed reader who are making
choices according to inclination as wel
as need.
9
The Will To Learn by Bruner (1966)
Valuable pointers in teaching reading
According to Bruner (1966), motivation
is:
- fueled by the satisfaction of curiosity;
- the drive to achieve competence;
- the power of role models.
10
The right not to read
The right to skip pages
The right not to finish the book
The right to re-read
The right to read anything
The right to ‘bovarysme’
The right to read anywhere
The right to browse
The right to read out loud
The right to remain silent
Reading is therefore political. This means that readers have
both rights and responsibilites.
Reading experience and experiences
11
The greatest emphasis is given to the early stages of reading.
There is no discussion on how to teach reading , or how to build
experience and experiences of young, already fairly fluent, readers.
The idea is that once children can decode and read aloud fluently,
then we don’t need to teach them any more about reading.
Surface-skating the text is potentially more harmful to a young reader than still
having problems in articulating complicated text.
12
The reading experts, for all their understanding about ‘the reading
process’ treat all text as the neutral substance on which the process
works as if the reader did the same things with a poem, a timetable, a
warning notice.
(Meek, 1988)
A full reading curriculum goes beyond this basic assumption and considers
the range of texts which a reader needs to tackle, alongside the range of
reading processes and strategies which might help. It also takes into account
the development of reading preferences and reading experience drawn from
homes and communities.
13
There are many assumptions and prejudices about young
people’s reading at home.
For example, pupils are often reluctant to admit to certain types
of reading— newspapers, comics, magazines, computer texts,
television—because they think that these are not the kinds of
things teachers want to hear about and don’t count as reading.
14
Responses of one Year 5/6 class in a Cambridge primary school to a
questionnaire showed both boys and girls reading twice as much at
home as they did in school.
A small-scale research project with six Year 7 students from a
Cambridge secondary school noted that ‘pupils do not usually read for
pleasure or elect to tackle challenging texts.
Judging by this evidence, if we do not find out about, or pay attention to,
the whole picture of young people’s reading, then our conclusions about
their reading experiences, capabilities, and the curriculum we provide for
them are going to be simplistic and lacking in precision.
15
The survey’s findings not only support the view that young people, both
boys, and girls, read a wider variety of texts than we might suppose,
but also that within those texts, especially magazines, they encounter
an extensive range of genres: fiction, non-fiction and ‘faction’ (Hall and
Coles, 1999).
16
Over and over again pupils made comments like I watch TV for fiction and while
no one would want to advocate that this should mean we do not encourage the
reading of fiction we do need to expand our concept of reading so that we can
teach pupils to be critical readers of all sorts of text—fiction, fact and the
communications media.
(Spratt and Sturdy, 1998)
Forms of ‘cineliteracy’ play an increasingly important part in students’ reading
and have significance not just for the content of the programs, but particularly for
the structures of the verbal and visual texts involved.
Gender and reading
17
Another issue that is likewise much more complex is the whole
business of boys’ and girls’ reading.
Elaine Millard researched secondary schools, but gender difference is
an aspect of reading practice that can provide cause for concern at a
much earlier stage in children’s education..
18
Hazel Davies, a primary-school teacher in Essex, wanted to investigate why
some of her Year 6 boys had lost interest in reading.
The reasons are many and complex, but three main issues stand out.
Firstly, cultural attitudes. It is not cool to read and Dad’s only reading is the Evening
Gazette.
Secondly, the reading materials we provide. Books should be interesting and
stimulating to boys.
Thirdly, the way in which reading is offered in school. The reading project which
gave the boys the most pleasure was looking at the pictures together, working out the
puzzles together, and talking together, as opposed to silent reading. (Davies, 1997)
19
Although there is evidence that boys lag behind girls in literacy
performance, ‘there are no simple explanations for the gender gap in
performance, nor any simple solutions’ (Arnot et al., 1998).
20
There are solutions nevertheless, drawn together, for example, in publications like
the thought-provoking Boys and Reading (Barrs & Pidgeon, 1998). These include:
▸ more focused monitoring of boys’ and girls’ reading;
▸ using different groupings: mixed and single-sex;
▸ extending the range of texts available;
▸ greater involvement of adult role models, especially males, taking account of
class and ethnicity;
▸ discussions about individual progress with students; and
▸ planned and thoughtful teacher intervention.
Thus, solutions are more likely to be plural than singular, given the many-faceted
experiences brought by readers—both boys and girls—into classrooms
Responsibility and response
21
Students given the chance to talk or write about their reading will
often communicate not only huge enthusiasm but also insights of
startling perception and clarity. They provide us with rich material
from which to construct different ‘frameworks for teaching’ rather
than leaving us to attempt to fit everything into a single model.
22
Students were asked to give advice to teachers who wanted to help
children to improve their reading.
Here is a bit of advice for the person who is listening to whomever is
reading:
1. Remain calm at all times;
2. Try and give the reader help with a word by splitting it up;
3. Do not rush the reader on any word; and
4. Have confidence in the reader at all times. (Bearne, 1994)
23
I like to do things like reading books. Every morning my class do
reading. We fill in a little book called our Reading Record. I have not
always liked reading. I do not like reading books without pictures, and
books that are sometimes easy. I like to read books that are
challenging. I read a lot of the time when I don’t even know I’m reading.
I like a lot of adventure and funny storys. In our class we have group
reading. I like this and I like following storys when other people are
reading them. I like all Judy Blume storys. My teacher reads us first
chapters of books where we write down notes and then what we think of
the story. In assembly my teacher reads books. After she reads them
she asks us questions about the story she has read to us. I like it when
our teacher asks the questions. I like reading through my rough drafts of
work.
24
I have made a new friend. It helps me and it’s fun. I’ve
never had a reading partner before. It’s better than reading
to the teacher because he’s a boy like me. It means we can
laugh about it at the end and teachers wouldn’t have had
time to. As he’s older than me he knows more words than
me and he can correct me. He sometimes tells me to split
words up. Sometimes he tells me to look at the picture.
25
She is a good reading partner. I knew her before. If I miss out a word by
accident she tells me to go back. She says, ‘sound words out’, or she
finds a little word inside a big word. She lives right near to me so it’s
nice to have her as my partner. With a friend you can look at the
pictures afterwards—teachers can’t do that because they have other
children to listen to. You get more reading time. You can get more clues
to what is going to happen in the story, before you read it all at once.
With the teacher you only read a bit at a time
Insights, planning and assessment
26
Reflecting on reading doesn’t just contribute to personal
development, but to progress in reading. Most importantly, it
contributes to the development of independence and discrimination,
making choices about when, what, and how to read. Thus, having an
insight into the mind of the reader also allows the teacher to plan for
future development.
27
Judging by the teaching objectives (not ‘learning’ objectives)
in the National Literacy framework, criteria for progress
would be firmly tied to knowledge about text structures,
knowledge about language (at the sentence and word level),
comprehension, and composition. There is nothing wrong
with that except for the yawning gap it leaves. What is
missing is the essential element of developing preferences
and choices, in other words, becoming a reflective,
responsive and critical reader.
28
There is a body of firm evidence that formative assessment is an
essential feature of classroom work and that development of it can
raise standards. …Our education system has been subjected to
many far-reaching initiatives which, whilst taken in reaction to
concerns about existing practices, have been based on little evidence
about their potential to meet those concerns. (Black and Wiliam,
1998)
29
If the main assessment tools—SATs—are summative,
looking largely at the ‘comprehension’ elements of
reading, not at the readers’ abilities in making critical
choices (in spite of teachers’ attention to the structure of
texts), then we do not end up with a description of
genuine progress, let alone achievement, in reading
Conclusions
30
Teachers who are teaching reading should be ‘researchers in their
own classrooms rather than simply those who carry out instructions’
(Meek, 1997).
31
Reading is a delicate business and requires finely-tuned
instruments to record and assess progress and development.
Pennac concludes Reads Like A Novel with a reminder that a
sensitive rather than a heavy-handed touch may be the most
productive.
32
Reading is not just a means to other ends. It is one of the
great rewards for the use of our capacities, a reason for
living, an end in itself (Scholes, 1989).
33
ANY QUESTIONS?
34
THANKS!
