All formal education – and indeed daily living – involves the act of reading: the ability to decode, interpret, respond to, and make meaning from a range of texts. Whilst success at school is heavily dependent on a student’s proficiency with language across the modes of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing, reading and writing continue to be particularly important in the curriculum and assessment processes of many subjects. 

Years of research have shaped our understanding of the very crucial act of reading. We have come to understand that reading is an active process of making meaning from signs and systems of signs. Words act upon and shape the reader and the reader acts upon and shapes the meaning of the words. We know also that different kinds of reading make different kinds of demands on the reader, and that one thing young readers need to learn is to adjust their reading to the demands of the text. When reading a novel, for instance, we enter into a dialogue with the author where we undertake a long, sustained conversation. Yet, Science reports and History essays will make different demands, as will the wording of a question in an examination. 

Reading is therefore significantly more than a mechanical process involving the decoding of words on a page. It is a thinking process where we establish understanding from the cues in the text made up of letter-sound combinations, word order systems and the meaning of language. Reading is about making sense out of the words on a page, not just sounding the words out. 

As readers, what we bring to the text is very important. Firstly, we bring our experience and knowledge of language and how it works; and secondly, we bring our experience and knowledge of the world, which allows us to connect new ideas, incorporate these and make meaning. Prediction is a central feature of the reading process. We predict and then have these predictions confirmed or denied by the text as we read on. A reader’s capacity to predict is very strongly connected to their knowledge of the world. This predictive ability can range from merely anticipating what might happen next, to a continual questioning of the text at each reading moment. 

The challenges educators face today in engaging young people in purposeful and deep reading experiences are considerable. The social and private worlds of many adolescents are increasingly negotiated through language that is immediate, often fragmented, and typically conveyed as direct speech transferred through a digital platform. Exposing students to a variety of ‘continuous’ sustained texts, as distinct from ‘non-continuous’ texts or pieces of texts, is critical in the light of this situation. As well as immersing students in sustained texts, teachers in all subjects can promote deep and close reading by enriching students’ vocabulary, expanding their worldview, and broadening their knowledge of language and how it works.

Clare Murphy
English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach