Educators across all curriculum areas recognise the importance of students’ engagement with and enjoyment of a wide range of texts. As teachers, we aim for our students to become accomplished, focused and determined readers, receptive to the kinds of satisfactions, pleasures, and rewards that can flow from an immersion in texts. Yet research suggests that as little as 3% of all secondary school classroom experience is spent on reading – and an even smaller percentage of this on reading for pleasure.

At the heart of achievement in reading is the ability of the reader to create meaningful connections between the words on the page and his or her lived, constructed, or imagined world of experience. The struggling reader often requires added teaching support in the ‘engagement’ phase of this process. Building both interest and confidence is essential to improving the performance of secondary school readers. Teacher expectations play an important role in student success. 

I was fortunate recently to visit the Year 7 Opal English class at a time when the students were engaging with Morris Gleitzman’s novel Two Weeks with the Queen. I took the opportunity of reading a chapter out aloud – an activity I enjoy immensely. After my reading, I asked the class to write a brief response to some association that came to mind when listening. As they were writing their responses, I wrote my own on the board for them to read. When sharing our writing, it was fascinating to see the connections we were able to make in our engagement with the story. Associations ranged from Queen Elizabeth battling COVID, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the uncanny similarity of the main character’s aunt and uncle to Harry Potter’s Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. It was then a very natural extension to focus the students’ attention on the way the author managed to draw us into the world of the book at the same time as turning our minds to the outside world.  An enthusiastic discussion followed where we spoke about Gleitzman’s more recent books which explore young people’s experience of friendship, conflict, and trauma.This encounter with Year 7 and Two Weeks with the Queen reminded me of the very powerful part stories play in our lives and in our thinking and learning. Learning to read is an ongoing cognitive need for all students. The overwhelming majority of young people struggling with reading do so because of factors other than their own inability to attain the necessary skills to succeed. When teachers communicate to students a belief that reading competence is achievable, immerse them in a range of rich and engaging texts, and model effective reading practices themselves, students can become capable and confident readers. The development of a community of readers is crucial here.

Clare Murphy
English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach