Abstract

You can't teach pleasure: you have to share it (Frank Cottrell Boyce, quoted in Weber, 2013) This chapter examines the distinctive Reading for Pleasure Pedagogy developed by teachers in the Phase II project Teachers as Readers: Building Communities of Readers. Research findings concretise the statement above by Cottrell Boyce, a well-known children's author, and provide evidence of how sharing can become part of a robust pedagogic strategy for supporting young readers. The Reading for Pleasure Pedagogy was seen to encompass four specific practices: reading aloud, social reading environments, book talk and recommendations, and independent reading. Combined in different patterns and made real through action and continual reflection of the part of the teachers, these practices contributed to the development of communities of readers in school. Many of the child members of these communities came to participate in spontaneous inside-text talk; child-initiated conversations about texts and reading were seen to count and contributed to the informal, yet supportive, reading environments which were documented. The chapter explores each of these practices in turn. It notes the value of teachers becoming reflective readers who are not only knowledgeable about texts, but who take action in the classroom based on their knowledge and reflection, and offers a case study of the work of two teachers. It commences with an examination of the project teachers' previous pedagogic practice with regard to reading for pleasure and reader engagement.

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