Practical Strategies for Engaging Teenagers in Reading*

Jacqueline Manuel

Preamble

From decades of research, we understand that reading is an active process of making meaning from signs and systems of signs. Reading is a transaction between the reader and the text: the text acts upon and shapes the reader and the reader acts upon and shapes the meaning of the text. As readers, what we bring to the text is critical:

1. Our experience of the process of reading (decoding symbols; knowledge of structures and features of language; and our understanding of the codes and conventions of types of texts).

2. Our experience of the world: we use our existing knowledge of the world to connect new ideas, synthesise these and make meaning.

Reading is not merely a mechanical process of decoding print, but a thinking process – a ‘psycholinguistic guessing game’ (Goodman, 1968, 1986, 1996) where we make meaning from the grapho-phonic, syntactic, and semantic cueing systems in the text. Reading is about making sense out of print, not just sound out of print. We can read phonetically, for instance, without understanding the meaning of what we are reading. 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. Some reading programs tend to ignore or undervalue the experience a student brings to the text in the meaning-making process. Packaged programs are actually detrimental to these readers, confirming their assumptions that reading is boring, meaningless and tightly controlled by adults. As teachers, we need to avoid the ‘bits- and-pieces’ or ‘bottom-up approach’. Instead,  model good reading practices by reading out aloud to students, demonstrating enthusiasm and discussing the pleasures and satisfactions that can be derived from reading.

 Provide students with some choice in what they read. Some students will need more guidance and encouragement than others in making selections for Literature Circles and reading groups. Enjoying reading builds reading proficiency.

 Emphasise reading as an act and process of making meaning and communication rather than merely a series of sub-skills. Use whole texts regularly (stories, poems, plays, articles), rather than fragments (isolated words, phrases, exercise paragraphs).

 Encourage readers to become active thinkers, predictors and evaluators of their reading process. Encourage speculation, anticipation and critical thinking and the sharing of responses to build an interpretive community.

 Constantly link reading practices and responses with students’ writing, building an understanding of the art, craft and skills involved in shaping language for a purpose and audience to represent ideas and communicate meaning.

 Keep in mind that we read for a wide range of purposes: for pleasure, relaxation and enjoyment; to gather information and ideas; for writing; for assessment; to escape; to learn more about other people, places and experiences; to confirm or challenge values, identity, beliefs and attitudes; to solve problems; and experience vicariously new worlds and perspectives. Too often, reading at school becomes associated predominantly with information gathering, a precursor for writing, and the completion of assessment tasks.

Practical strategies for encouraging, supporting, enjoying, sharing and developing reading

The table below describes a range of ways to engage and support students in their reading. Many of these strategies can be embedded in reading programs and units of work. Indications are given for the suitability of each strategy for whole class (WC); small group (SG); pairs (P); or individual (I) learning contexts. Strategy Examples Context Reading out aloud Engage students in the worlds, pleasure and enjoyment WC, SG, that texts can open up; acclimatizing them to language P and discourses that may be unfamiliar, and to conventions, patterns and structures of texts Personal literacy Students complete a survey of favourite books; topics; I history interests; leisure activities; and goals Reading Log Include books read; books to be read; wish lists; agreed I reading Reading Journal Include reading goals; reflections; responses to books; I questions; reviews; wish-lists; rating books 1-10; self- evaluations Wide Reading Students self-select material and time is set aside in class WC, SG, Program for this kind of reading. This program exists alongside P, I and contributes to the class reading program which may be more teacher-directed Reading contracts Personal negotiation with teacher I Focus on texts Book of the week/month; Author of the week/month; WC Genre of the week/month ‘Bring Your Own Encourage students to bring in to class something they WC, SG, Literature’ (BYO are enjoying reading to share with the class. Should not P, I Lit) be assessed. Intended to encourage enjoyment, self- awareness of reading development; recognition and valuing of diverse tastes; awareness that not all reading is associated with school assessment; building a community of readers and an interpretive community Celebration and Participate in book fairs; writers’ festivals; reading WC events challenges Parallel creation Use films, music, excursions, recordings or visual WC stimulus as resources for parallel creation prior to reading the book. Pre-reading, building the field, getting ready for the text Displays Boxes of books and classroom book displays – reading WC, SG, ‘corners’ if you have a home room P, I Posters Wall charts from book publishers or posters about books WC made by students; Favourite Books list; quotes from favourite books, or about books on posters and collages displayed around the room Resource files Source files/blogs/book raps compiled by students with WC, SG, reviews of books and suggestions for further reading P, I and responses Podcasts There are many books available as podcasts on the web WC

Excursions Visit publishing houses or places of significance to WC particular texts/thematic units Sharing Literature Circles, Book Groups, Book Clubs: Virtual WC, SG, and Actual - based on interest, ability, friendship. P, I Students can create their own book clubs (through sites such as Facebook), participate in established book clubs and share reading on sites such as Facebook’s Virtual Bookshelf Reciprocal teaching With teacher and peer groups. More able readers work SG with less able readers, with assigned roles. Stages are: 1. Attempting to predict the story 2. Clarifying any misunderstanding 3. Asking questions concerning key content and language structures, patterns and features 4. Demonstrating understanding and comprehension through response Interviews Mock and real interviews with composers WC, SG, P, I Contact Writing to/emailing authors and other audiences about WC, SG, books, plays, poems etc P, I VIP: Variety, Immersion in a wide variety of texts so that students grow WC, SG, Immersion, in confidence and competence in exploring and making P, I Pleasure meaning

Practical strategies for improving reading comprehension

Strategy Example/Purpose Context Prediction Predict from visual, printed and spoken cues (e.g. book, WC, DVD cover). Draws on real-world knowledge to SG, P, I speculate on possible meanings. Engages interest and promotes anticipation for reading on Cloze Designed to promote students’ use of efficient semantic SG, P, I and syntactic cueing systems to construct meaning. Provide experience in using anaphoric (backward) and cataphoric (forward) referencing techniques Discussion Talk about, hypothesise, speculate on stories or add WC, SG, P, I missing scenes - verbally, dramatically or in writing as you are reading Sequencing Heightens understanding of the ways texts work. SG, P, I Readers’ expectations and assumptions about texts and story are enriched and challenged. Develops understanding of narrative structure; voice; tense; plot and form Changing the Translating, transforming and imitating the form so that SG, P, I form students are brought back to the text again and again and gain insight into the art and craft of creating text and shaping response. Promotes concept of student as simultaneously writer and reader Questions Open-ended questions about texts which are generated WC, SG, P, I by students Dramatising A very valuable way of improving comprehension, SG, P, I and promoting embodied knowledge, and encouraging performing interpretation Fact and Use a highlighter to identify facts and opinions (e.g. in SG, P, I opinion newspapers and magazines) The implied Speculate on the intended audience of a passage from SG, P, I reader the evidence of its subject matter, language, style and presentation. Fables, fairy Employ these as parallel texts because they are readily WC, SG, P, I tales, nursery accessible and often familiar and cross-cultural rhymes and parables Versions Select and compare different versions of poems, stories, SG, P, I myths, factual v fictional treatments – e.g. Cinderella. There are many versions to enable students to explore changes in language, audience, purpose, context etc Character Students complete this during reading, to deepen SG, P, I grids/trees connections and understanding of characters – motivation, action, behaviour, dialogue etc Representation Time lines, mind maps, Venn diagrams, word webs. All SG, P, I work well to assist readers in understanding often complex patterns within texts Drawing Students create symbols, maps, plans, cartoons. Visual P, I representations of aspects of texts can be illuminating for some readers de Bono’s Six In small groups of six, each student wears a different SG Thinking Hats hat. Red: Feelings (What are my feelings about this?); Yellow: Strengths (What are the good points?); Black: Weaknesses (What is wrong with this?); Green: New ideas (What is possible?); White: Information (What are the facts?); Blue: Thinking about thinking (What thinking is needed?) Adapted from Edward de Bono (1992) Six Thinking Hats for Schools.

References: Belsey, C. (2002) in Davies, C., What is English Teaching? Buckingham: Open University Press. de Bono, E. (1992) Six Thinking Hats for Schools, Victoria: Hawker Brownlow. Goodman, K. S. (1968) The psycholinguistic nature of the reading process. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. Goodman, K. S. (1978) Reading of American children whose reading is a stable, rural dialect of English or language other than English. Washington, DC: National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Goodman, K. S. (1986) What's whole in whole language? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Goodman, K. S. (1993) Phonics phacts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Goodman, K. S. (1996) Ken Goodman on reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Manguel, A. (1996) A History of Reading, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Manuel, J. (2005) Effective Strategies to Address the Needs of Adolescents 13+ Experiencing Difficulties with Reading: A Review of the Literature, NSW DET: Curriculum Support Directorate, Morgan, W. (2004) “Critical Literacy”, in Reviewing English in the 21st Century, eds. W. Sawyer & Gold, Melbourne: Phoenix Education. Thomson, Jack, (1987) Understanding Teenagers’ Reading: Reading processes and the teaching of literature, 1992 edn. Norwood: AATE.

*Material in this chapter is drawn from The English Teacher’s Handbook, A to Z, edited by Jacqueline Manuel and Don Carter, Phoenix Education, 2009.