Chapter 5 Creatively engaging readers in the later primary years

CHAPTER 5
Creatively engaging readers in the later primary years

from Cremin, T. (2015) with D. Reedy,. E. Bearne, and H. Dombey Teaching English Creatively (2^nd edition) London Routledge.

INTRODUCTION

Once children have learnt to read, the continuing challenge for teachers is to help them become engaged, enthusiastic and fluent readers who understand the pleasures and usefulness of reading, and who choose to read beyond the demands of the curriculum. Helping children develop into such readers requires more than simply giving children the opportunities to read longer and increasingly complex texts, although such experiences are important. This chapter focuses on teaching reading creatively to 7–11- year-olds; the primary focus is on supporting deeper engagement with texts through creative approaches that build a reflective reading culture within the classroom, develop children’s understanding of the texts they read and encourage personal responses, including critical readings. It also looks at how teachers can support children as they develop and expand their reading preferences, highlights the importance of teachers’ own experiences and knowledge of children’s books and reading in building communities of readers.

National curricula across the UK include the requirement to help readers develop a love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. For example, the English NC (DfE, 2013:3) aims to ensure that pupils ‘develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information’, the Northern Ireland NC (DENI, 2011) states that in the later primary years pupils should ‘engage in sustained, independent and silent reading for enjoyment and information’. These statutory orders and those in Wales and Scotland also suggest an acknowledgment of the importance of the reader developing personal preferences and responses to reading and in developing their capacity to understand, analyse and evaluate texts. In a creative classroom, as well as independent, private reading, these elements should be developed by experiencing reading as a social activity where readers share their responses and experiences within a community of readers.