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Practical strategies for engaging students in reading

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 Teenagers
and
Reading
Literary heritages, cultural contexts and
contemporary reading practices

Edited by

Jacqueline Manuel and Sue Brindley

AATE
T H E AUST R AL IAN ASSO CIAT IO N F O R T H E T E ACH ING O F E NG L ISH
Wakefield Press
1 The Parade West
Kent Town
South Australia 5067
www.wakefieldpress.com.au

in association with
The Australian Association for the Teaching of English
416 Magill Road
Kensington Gardens
South Australia 5068
www.aate.org.au
First published 2012
Copyright © Australian Association for the Teaching of English, 2012
All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the
purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under
the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced without written permission.
Enquiries should be addressed to the publisher.
AATE has endeavoured to seek permission to use any material which may
be copyright. In some cases we have not received replies to our requests.
We would be grateful for any information that would assist us in this task.
AATE Interface Series Editor: Cal Durrant
Cover designed by Stacey Zass, Page 12
Designed and typeset by Wakefield Press
Printed and bound by Hyde Park Press, Adelaide
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Title: Teenagers and reading: literary heritages, cultural contexts and contemporary
reading practices
/ edited by Jacqueline Manuel and Sue Brindley.
ISBN: 978 1 74305 097 2 (pbk.).
Series: AATE interface series.
Subjects: Youth – Books and reading.
Children – Books and reading.
Books and reading.
Reading.
Other Authors/ Manuel, Jacqueline.
Contributors: Brindley, Sue.
Dewey Number: 028.50835
 Contents

Preface How well (s)he’s read: From sandbox to silicon screen vii
Cal Durrant, series editor
Chapter 1 Teenagers and reading: Literary heritages, cultural contexts and
contemporary reading practices 1
Jacqueline Manuel
Chapter 2 Why literature matters 5
Libby Gleeson
Chapter 3 Reading lives: Teenagers’ reading practices and preferences 12
Jacqueline Manuel
Chapter 4 Reading and secondary school English: Historical contexts
for some contemporary English in education theory and practice 38
Paul Brock
Chapter 5 A call for action:
Building bridges between literacy in school and out 66
Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Michael W. Smith
Chapter 6 What we know about teenagers and reading: A
survey of research findings 82
Maxine Broughton and Jacqueline Manuel
Chapter 7 Reading real life writing 111
Alice Hall and Christine Hall
Chapter 8 Teenagers and reading in school: Some observations on
Australian senior secondary English reading lists 128
Don Carter
Chapter 9 Really teaching reading: Revisiting a MyRead strategy in a
secondary English classroom 141
Rita van Haren and Janette Vervoorn
Chapter 10 Using drama to teach
difficult texts 161
Kelly Freebody and John Hughes
Chapter 11 Crossing borders: Reading Indigenous playtexts in
White classrooms 176
Matthew Clausen and Michael Anderson
Chapter 12 Books and blogs: Promoting reading achievement in
digital contexts 191
Kerry-Ann O’Sullivan
Chapter 13 How to read a film: Experiential approaches to
film learning 210
Miranda Jefferson
Chapter 14 Teenagers and reading 1:
Factors influencing reading (under)achievement 228
Jacqueline Manuel
Chapter 15 Teenagers and reading 2:
Creating creative reading spaces 254
Jacqueline Manuel
Chapter 16 Practical strategies for engaging teenagers in reading 271
Jacqueline Manuel
Contributors 283
 Chapter 16

Practical strategies for

engaging teenagers in reading
Jacqueline Manuel

Intro duc tion

The purpose of this chapter is to offer a range of practical strategies for:

1. encouraging, supporting, enjoying, sharing and developing reading;

2. improving reading comprehension; and
3. supporting teenagers who experience difficulties with reading.

One of the recognised ‘constants’ in successful teaching is effective, informed

pedagogy – the kind of pedagogy that is both shaped by theoretical knowl-
edge and understanding, and attuned to and adapted for the needs, inter- ests
and capacities of a particular group of students (cf. Sawyer, Brock and
Baxter, 2007). As teachers, we are exceptionally well-placed to ‘act to good
effect’ (Boomer and Torr, 1987, p. 6) when it comes to building our students’
reading proficiencies and generating interpretive communities (Fish, 1980) of
language users in our English classrooms.
The practical strategies that follow are drawn from the ‘collective wisdom’
of successful teachers of English and other subjects such as Drama. Although
current curriculum reform in secondary education in Australia (and curric-
ulum in other countries) is conservatively structured according to orthodox,
discrete subjects (English, Mathematics, Science and History, for example), I
urge you to strive for the kind of informed eclecticism, interdisciplinary and
arts-informed approaches to pedagogy that characterise vibrant, engaging and
effective teaching and learning (cf. Ewing, 2010).
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Teenagers and Reading

English teaching and learning can, does and should draw on and inte- grate,
for example: drama as a learning medium; historiography and inquiry- based
models employed in the history subjects; and elements of the creative arts
(visual arts, music, media, multimedia, and performance). Ways of knowing
and learning in the Arts are continuous with the ways of knowing and learning
in English: both English and ‘the Arts enable an immensely rewarding way
of knowing and being – of imagination, aesthetic knowledge and translation
and expression of ideas’ (Ewing, 2010, p. 5).

Over ar chi ng principl es

Research in the teaching of English and adolescent reading highlights a
number of overarching principles that may serve as guideposts for creating
and maintaining an inclusive, stimulating and productive community of
learners in our classrooms. Chief among these are the following:

• Knowing and understanding the processes and skills required for effective
reading, including: decoding symbols; interpreting structures and features
of language; understanding the codes and conventions of diverse types of
texts; and applying and translating the existing knowledge of the world
that each reader brings to a text in order to access, interpret and connect
new ideas, synthesise these and make meaning.
• Recognising and valuing the literacy and experiential ‘capital’ of each and
every student. Identifying and seeking to build on the unique experience,
knowledge, skills and capacities that all students bring to their learning in
English.
• Developing the capacity to ‘normalise’ the range and diversity of types of
reading in everyday life, through demystifying the reading process and
integrating a wide range of shared textual experiences in teaching and
learning activities. Familiarising students with otherwise unfamiliar texts
and unfamiliar ways of reading is an essential component of strengthening
each student’s reading proficiency and, in turn, their receptivity to new
textual experiences.
• Facilitating abundant opportunities to read, play with, enjoy and interpret
a wide range of texts: print, visual and multimedia texts; non-verbal
language; symbols and signs.
• Having the ability and willingness to model good reading practices by
reading out aloud to students, demonstrating enthusiasm and discussing
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 Creating practical strategies for engaging teenagers in reading

the pleasures and satisfactions that can be derived from reading. This
principle is summed up in the maxim that we should not expect of our
students anything that we do not expect of ourselves. If we do not model
exemplary reading, we cannot expect our students to be exemplary
readers.
• Providing students with at least some degree of choice in what they read.
Some students will need more guidance and encouragement than others
in making selections for reading in, for example, Literature Circles, and
Reading/Book groups. Enjoying self-selected reading builds reading
proficiency. Routine and predominant force-feeding of teacher-selected
reading materials can undermine student engagement, enjoyment and
learning.
• Emphasising, through modelling and explicit teaching, that reading as
an act and process of making meaning and communication rather than
merely a series of sub-skills. Using whole texts regularly (stories, poems,
plays, articles), rather than fragments of text (isolated words, phrases,
exercise paragraphs).
• Encouraging readers to become active, critical thinkers and decision-
makers, honing skills of prediction, anticipation, speculation, reflection
and evaluation through the shared experience of reading as part of an
interpretive community.
• Consistently and explicitly linking reading practices 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. Fostering the integration of the language modes:
writing, reading, talking, listening, viewing and representing are
organically intertwined in communicative acts.
• Being ever mindful 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 telescoped and is
too readily bound to information-gathering tasks, or serves as a precursor
for writing and/or the means to an end for the completion of assessment
tasks.

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Teenagers and Reading

Prac tical s t ra tegies

Tables 1 and 2 describe a range of practical 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. Table 3 provides an overview of a pedagogical model for
teaching texts using four phases of classroom learning experience. Table 4
provides an overview of the key principles for supporting teenagers who
experience difficulties with reading.
Table 1 – Strategies for engaging students in reading

Strategy Examples Context

Reading out Engage students in the worlds, pleasure and WC, SG,
aloud enjoyment that texts can open up; acclimatising P
them to language and discourses that may be
unfamiliar, and to conventions, patterns and
structures of texts. Serialise a novel by reading one
chapter to the class each day (or once a week);
model excellence in reading through reading out
aloud whenever possible.
Wide Reading Students self-select material and time is set aside in WC, SG,
Program class for this kind of reading. This program exists P, I
alongside and contributes to the class reading
program which may be more teacher-directed.
Personal literacy Students complete a survey of favourite books; I
history topics; interests; leisure activities; and goals. This
allows the teacher to identify and build on the
needs, interests and capacities of each student.
Reading Log Include books read; books to be read; wish lists; I
agreed reading goals. This can be undertaken
through, for example, a Wiki, or other digital
platforms.
Reading Journal Include reading goals; reflections; responses to I
books; questions; reviews; wish-lists; rating books
1–10; self-evaluations. This need not be linked to
formal assessment.
Reading Personal negotiation with teacher. I
contracts
Focus on texts Book of the week/month; Author of the week/ WC
month; Genre of the week/month.

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 Creating practical strategies for engaging teenagers in reading

‘Bring Your Encourage students to bring in to class something WC, SG,

Own Literature’ they are enjoying reading to share with the P, I
(BYO Lit) class. Should not 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. Useful for pre-reading/
pre-viewing, building the field, getting ready for
the text.
Displays and Boxes of books and classroom book displays – WC, SG,
Wikis reading ‘corners’ if you have a homeroom. P, I
Posters from book publishers or posters about
books made by students; Favourite Books list;
quotes from favourite books, or about books on
posters and collages displayed around the room;
Wikis created for sharing ideas and responses and
recommendations for further reading.
Resource files Source files/blogs/book raps/digital portfolios WC, SG,
compiled by students with reviews of books and P, I
suggestions for further reading and responses.
e-Books, Encourage the use of e-books where appropriate WC
Webquests, Book and accessible. Join Book Raps, or students can
Raps and digital create their own. Explore apps relevant to reading.
apps
Excursions Visit places of significance to particular texts/ WC
thematic units.
Sharing Literature Circles, Book Groups, Book Clubs: WC, SG,
virtual and actual – based on interest, ability, P, I
friendship. 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.

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Teenagers and Reading

Reciprocal With teacher and peer groups. More able readers SG

teaching work 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 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 WC, SG,
Immersion, grow in confidence and competence. P, I
Pleasure

Table 2 – Strategies for improving reading comprehension

Strategy Example/Purpose Context

Prediction Predict from visual, printed and spoken cues WC, SG,
(e.g. book, DVD cover). Draws on real-world P, I
knowledge to speculate on possible meanings.
Engages interest and promotes anticipation for
reading on.
Cloze Designed to promote students’ use of efficient SG, P, I
semantic and syntactic cueing systems to construct
meaning. Provides experience in using anaphoric
(backward) and cataphoric (forward) referencing
techniques.
Discussion Talk about, hypothesise, speculate on stories or WC, SG,
add missing scenes – verbally, dramatically or in P, I
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 SG, P, I
form so that students are brought back to the text again
and again and gain insight into the art and craft
of creating text and shaping response. Encourages
students to ‘write as a reader’ and ‘read as a writer’.

276
 Creating practical strategies for engaging teenagers in reading

Questions Open-ended questions about texts which are WC, SG,

generated by students. P, I
Dramatising and A very valuable way of improving comprehension, SG, P, I
performing promoting embodied knowledge, and encouraging
interpretation.
Fact and opinion Use a highlighter to identify facts and opinions SG, P, I
(e.g. in newspapers, blogs, feature articles,
advertisements and magazines).
The implied Speculate on the intended audience of a passage SG, P, I
reader based on evidence of its subject matter, language,
style and presentation.
Fables, fairy tales, Employ these as parallel texts because they WC, SG,
nursery rhymes are readily accessible and often familiar and P, I
and parables cross-cultural.
Versions Select and compare different versions of poems, SG, P, I
stories, myths, fairy tales – e.g. Cinderella. There
are many versions of such stories to enable students
to explore changes in language, audience, purpose,
context etc. See, for example, http://ethemes.
missouri.edu/themes/153 for world versions of
Cinderella.
Character grids/ Students complete this during reading, to SG, P, I
trees create connections between and understanding
of characters – motivation, action, behaviour,
dialogue etc.
Representation Timelines, mind-maps, Venn diagrams, SG, P, I
word-webs. All work well to assist readers in
understanding quite complex patterns of language,
ideas and form in texts.
Drawing Students create symbols, maps, plans and cartoons. P, I
Visual representations of aspects of texts can be
illuminating for some readers. Represent a poem,
short story or other text in visual form.
de Bono’s Six In small groups of six, each student wears a SG
Thinking Hats different 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.

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Teenagers and Reading

Table 3 – Four Phases of Classroom Experience

This pedagogical model is commonly applied to the study of texts in English.

It consists of four sequential phases of teaching and learning. The model
assumes an activity-based and student-centred approach to English. Phases 2
and 3 are the most widely applied in English classes. While Phase 1 is not
always a pre-requisite for Phases 2, 3 and 4, it is an important means of
stimulating student interest for Phase 2. Phase 4 – going beyond the text – is
a crucial phase for the fostering of scope and sequence in English, whereby
students build upon, connect and extend their learning.

Phase Purpose Strategies

Phase 1 Getting ready for the text
through pre-reading/
pre-viewing strategies. Ways of
arousing interest, activating or
building upon prior knowledge,
scaffolding, and encouraging
readers to form some initial,
tentative hypotheses about and
expectations of the text.
Phase 2 Getting into the text through
engagement strategies. Ways
of involving the student in
the process of anticipation/
retrospection/reformulation/
confirmation of initial responses. a character’s course of action,
Preparing students for a text through:
• a mystery box filled with items
relevant to the ideas, action or
characters of the text;
• predictions based on the title, cover
or visual images related to the text;
• parallel experiences of events,
setting or incidents in the text;
• the use of an extract;
• activities setting the scene;
• an issues discussion;
• an excursion.
Engaging with the text during
reading/viewing through:
• prediction of a character’s
motivation/personality, a character’s
reaction to a particular event,
a sequence of events, a possible
resolution;
• developing story maps;
• creating character grids;
• developing director’s notes;
• creating action webs;
• constructing timelines;
• maintaining a reading/viewing
journal;
• generating open-ended questions;
• small group discussions of key ideas
and elements of the text.

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 Creating practical strategies for engaging teenagers in reading
Phase 3 Coming back to the text
through response strategies.
Facilitating, stimulating and
encouraging students to return
to the story, to refine their
understanding, response and
evaluation of the text, and
shape their own personal
interpretation of it.
Phase 4 Going beyond the text
through reflection, synthesis
and further textual experience.
Ways of encouraging students
to recognise intertextuality.
Going beyond the text enables
teachers and students to take
up the issues and experiences
represented in the text and to
explore them further. Many of
the common response strategies
can be extended well beyond
the text.
279
Through:
• providing opportunities for
reflection so that greater meaning
can be brought to the text. There
are many strategies for responding
to texts, ranging from creative and
critical written responses, dramatic
interpretations, oral responses,
translating the text into another
medium or form, drama strategies
of hot-seating and panels.
Metacognitive strategies include:
• Jigsaws;
• Think, Pair, Share;
• Readers’ Theatre;
• Debriefing after role-play;
• De Bono’s Thinking Hats;
• Double entry journals (student and
teacher);
• Response journals;
• Portfolios and e-portfolios.
Lef
Through:
• the use of related texts;
• exploring other works by the same
composer;
• engaging with texts in a similar
genre, with a similar focus or in a
similar medium;
• using the text as a springboard for
examining broader concepts;
• research projects;
• web-based projects.
Teenagers and Reading
Table 4 – Practical strategies for supporting teenagers who experience difficulties
with reading
This table provides an overview of the factors, principles and strategies that,
according to the research literature in adolescent reading, are critical in
assisting struggling, resistant, reluctant and under-achieving readers.
Factor Key Principle
1.The Learner Reading difficulties for
teenagers are often the result
of factors other than an
individual’s learning disability.
Given this knowledge, it is
possible for most students,
with expert intervention and
support, to achieve success in
reading.
2.Expectations Teachers can work to
and demystify the reading process
Relationships and convey to students,
through explicit language and
modelling, that learning to
read is not a mystery or a prize
to be won by an elected few. It
is wholly within their reach if
they are willing to engage and
they have access to stimulating,
appropriate texts.
3.The Learning Schools and their practices
Environment vis-à-vis literacy and reading
can position some students
as ‘failures’ and thereby
institutionalise deficit models
of adolescent achievement.
280
Strategy
Make learning fun, at least
for part of the time. Reading
is more than mere skills
development. It is about
books, stories, communicating
and understanding. It is about
opening new worlds, and
illuminating old ones. There
is a powerful nexus between
enjoyment, engagement and
learning.
The relationship between
the teacher and the student
has a decisive impact on the
student’s self-image as a reader.
High teacher expectations,
effective pedagogy and
modelling of purposeful
reading are crucial for success.
Conversely, poor expectations
and labelling of students
can have lasting deleterious
effects on the reader’s self-
image that may in turn have a
profound influence on levels of
achievement.
There is a vast array of
strategies to empower and
enable readers to exercise
ownership of and control
over their language in a
non-competitive environment
that values and builds upon
each student’s personal literacy
capital.
 Creating practical strategies for engaging teenagers in reading

4.Remedial Remediation programs that Choice of reading materials

Reading decontextualise literacy and reading that is purposeful
learning for struggling and contextualised is critical
adolescent readers, and/or for reading success. A balance
focus merely on a ‘getting of teacher-selected and
the word right’ approach to student-selected materials is
reading, can be more harmful essential.
than helpful in reversing the
individual’s reading problems.
5.Reading Well-informed teaching Start where the student ‘is at’.
Pedagogy practice is pivotal for the Build on their current skills,
struggling reader. All teachers knowledge and interests.
are teachers of reading, Employ a range of approaches,
even in high school. Poor including whole class, small
pedagogy can imperil reading group, pairs and individual
achievement for struggling work. Make time for reading,
adolescent readers just as and make reading count.
excellent pedagogy can Understand and implement
enhance it. effective reading pedagogy, in
all curriculum areas. Model
being a committed reader who
enjoys reading for a range and
variety of purposes.
6.Choice and The most significant factor Empower students through
selection in diminishing interest levels the use of student-selected
of reading and reading difficulties for materials in the curriculum.
materials adolescents is inappropriately When given the opportunity,
selected or taught reading most students will make
materials. Students can become ‘good’ reading choices that
passive, apathetic and resistant can be a potential asset to
readers if the reading materials our teaching. The range
are not appropriate and of materials and access to
negotiated. materials are fundamental
ingredients in an effective
reading program in all
curriculum areas.

281
 Teenagers and Reading

7. Connecting ‘All readers are good readers,
school and when they have the right
beyond-school book’ ( Jean Henry). Readers
life use reading for their own
purposes. Reading must have
a purpose beyond the merely
functional or assessable.
Teenagers’ motivation levels
are clearly linked to the quality
and kind of reading they are
required to undertake.
Ensure that reading has
purpose and meaning that
challenges students to use
higher-order thinking skills,
rather than requiring reading
for mere information retrieval
and low-level busy-work
tasks. Reading is more than
a tool for academic learning
or functional daily activities.
It can also be a source of
pleasure, enjoyment and
personal satisfaction.

References
Belsey, C. (2002) in Davies, C., What is English Teaching? Buckingham: Open University Press.
Boomer, G. and Torr, H. (1987) ‘Becoming a powerful teacher’, in B. Comber, and J. Hancock, (Eds)
Developing Teachers. North Ryde: Methuen.
de Bono, E. (1992) Six Thinking Hats for Schools, Victoria: Hawker Brownlow.
Ewing, R. (2010) ‘The Arts and Australian Education: Realising potential’. Camberwell: ACER.
Fish, S. (1980) Is There A Text in This Class, Harvard: Harvard University Press. Goodman, K. (1968) The
psycholinguistic nature of the reading process. Detroit, MI: Wayne
State University Press.
Goodman, K. (1996) Ken Goodman on reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Manguel, A. (1996) A
History of Reading. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Manuel, J. and Carter, D. (2009) The English Teacher’s Handbook, A to Z. Sydney: Phoenix Education.
Sawyer, W., Brock, P. and Baxter, D. (2007) Exceptional Outcomes in English Education. Teneriffe: Posted
Press.
Thomson, J. (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.

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