With a return to face-to-face teaching and learning, teachers have been discussing ways to immerse our students more fully in reading material that will encourage a building of capacity in engagement, vocabulary enhancement and understanding. Every subject is looking for opportunities to expose students to sustained and challenging texts which in turn will assist them to become close, determined and resilient readers. 

Knowledge of the world, interpretation of language conventions in context, and a rich vocabulary are an important part of the reading process. 

Reading involves:

• decoding words and understanding the alphabetic code
• understanding vocabulary
• linking background knowledge and analysing information as it is being read and then rechecking after it has been read
• prediction/looking forward and retrospection/looking back
• categorizing, building, changing, redefining and sharing knowledge
• gaining meaning from, responding to and making inferences from words and images in a variety of contexts
• transferring knowledge to new contexts and subjects
• understanding the author’s point of view, purpose and intended audience
• critically analysing information in a variety of language modes for a variety of purposes 

Understanding and gaining meaning from texts, involves an interrelationship between reading, writing, listening, and viewing. As students attain skills in seeing patterns in words, it is essential that they continue to develop their ability to engage in, react to, understand, and comprehend both the explicit and implicit messages within the texts they read. 

Specific skills in how to approach the written word are explicitly taught and contextually practised to facilitate a higher degree of understanding, and to develop close links between the meanings readers gain and the author’s intentions. 

Language knowledge is taught in conjunction with other knowledge and skills in balanced programs in all subject areas at:

• word and sentence level, which specifically deals with grammar, spelling and punctuation
• whole text level, which focuses on text function, purpose, structure, ideas, and textual grammar.

There are many reasons and purposes for reading, and many ways to read and gain meaning from texts. The purposes, reasons and types of texts vary, and this affects the way readers seek and obtain information. Readers may use one or combine different ways of reading as they read to seek and gain meaning from texts. These include:

• skim – get the overall idea by looking for a number of cues to deduce meaning
• scan – look for special or specific information in a large amount of text
• visualise – convert words to images to understand events, settings and characters
• focus – read every word accurately as every word has equal importance
• interact – return and refer back to the text frequently

Reading comprehension involves three levels of engagement. The literal level is when a reader understands information that is stated in the text or is ‘right there’. Here the reader is reading on the lines. The interpretive level requires students to reflect on literal information, make links between information, identify relationships, or draw inferences from information given in texts. The reader here is reading between the lines. The inferential level requires readers to apply and evaluate knowledge from multiple texts, within different areas of one text, or use their background knowledge about topics. Readers are required here to read beyond the lines. 

Reading beyond the surface level is a challenge for many students. Reading comprehension is affected by the following:

• prior knowledge of the topic
• text structure
• language conventions
• knowledge of thinking strategies
• reasoning ability
• motivation
• a rich vocabulary 
• level of engagement

Reading is a vital part of the literacy picture. Over the next few weeks, English teachers will be recommending books for Christmas holiday reading – for Year 7 through to Year 12. Reading suggestions will also be provided for parents and teachers. Perhaps a gift for our young people, as well as ourselves this Christmas, could be a book!