11 Summary of Session 6
To build communities of engaged readers, teachers need to take a broadly social view of being a reader and offer appropriate support based on their own knowledge of children’s texts and of their children as readers. Through combining this with their responsive RfP pedagogy, reader agency and positive reader identities will be nurtured. Reading Teachers who reflect upon their own experiences as readers play a key part in building reader-to-reader relationships and making the experience of choice-led reading authentic and informal.
Alongside the school environment and library, reader relationships between children and adults will serve to kindle children’s interest, excitement, and pleasure in being readers. Creating reading communities is energy intensive and arguably never fully ‘achieved’; they need constant nurturing. In these communities, children, parents, reading volunteers and teachers interact around reading in a manner which is reciprocal and shared. Wider support networks and opportunities to work with authors are also capitalised upon.
Building communities of engaged readers is essential in order to support children’s pleasure in reading. Involving parents is crucial in such communities and this is the focus of Session 7.
You should now go to Session 7 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .