Section 2: Stimulating interest in reading stories

Key Focus Question: How can you stimulate pupils to want to read stories and books?

Keywords: shared reading; creative responses; silent reading; beginnings and endings; stimulating interest

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will have:

  • used shared reading of stories in your teaching to support developing readers;
  • used activities that focus on alternative beginnings and endings to stimulate interest in reading;
  • explored different ways to promote sustained silent reading (SSR) in your classroom.

Introduction

Pupils are more likely to learn how to read successfully if they enjoy reading and read as often as possible. If you asked your friends what they enjoy reading, their answers might vary from newspaper sports pages to recipes, romantic novels, detective stories or biographies – or they might not read much at all! Like your friends, different pupils may enjoy reading different kinds of texts. They will respond to what they read in different ways. Your task is to motivate all the pupils in your class to read successfully and to enjoy reading.

This section focuses on helping pupils to find pleasure in reading and responding to stories.

1. Reading aloud