At the end of last week’s article, I stressed the need for the development of a community of readers. According to C.S. Lewis, the author of the wonderful Narnia series, reading ‘enables us to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, and to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own.’ The American educational philosopher, Martha Nussbaum supports the very powerful role reading plays in our lives when she suggests that it ‘takes us on excursions of sympathy’ and teaches us how to be people capable of ‘love and imagination.’ Stories, myths and dramas of the human condition survive in literature because families, classrooms and workplaces are filled with their descendants. A young person deprived of books is deprived of a rich opportunity to make sense of their world and their place in it.

We read for a range of purposes: for pleasure, relaxation, and enjoyment; to collect information and ideas; for writing; for assessment; to confirm or challenge values, beliefs and attitudes; to solve problems; and to experience new worlds and perspectives. Unfortunately, reading at school is often associated with information collection and formal assessment tasks.

Fortunately, books are central to the subject English. Teachers appreciate the importance of students finding enjoyment and satisfaction in their engagement with literature. English lessons provide valuable opportunities for students to read – with a balance between teacher and student selected materials, silent and shared reading experiences, and reading aloud by the teacher. This commitment to reading requires unhurried time and quiet spaces where the reader can think, wonder, question and understand.

Reading is an act and process of making meaning and communication rather than the development of a set of sub-skills and techniques. Students are encouraged to become active thinkers, predictors, and evaluators of the reading process. Teachers promote speculation, anticipation, and critical thinking as well as the sharing of responses to build a rich, interpretive reading community. The value of such a community along with the immense power of reading is captured by Alan Bennett in his play The History Boys:

‘The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now it is here, set down by someone else…someone who is even long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.’

Clare Murphy
English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach