Strengthening the Social Element of Reading: Facilitating Conjunctions of Readers

Abstract

When most people picture reading, they picture someone sitting alone holding a book or a screen of some type, such as a smartphone or tablet. In other words, reading is not seen as a social activity. Just the opposite, reading can be seen as an anti-social act; instead of talking with others, people go off alone to read, maybe even as a means of escape. However, reading is inherently a social activity. It represents an interaction between writers and readers. Writers attempt to put their ideas into words and maybe images, too. Readers develop their own interpretations of what the writers wrote, and they connect these interpretations to their own lives and thoughts. In this article, we propose that extensive reading, which involves students doing large quantities of reading, be combined with cooperative learning as an important way to strengthen the existing social nature of reading. We discuss supporting theories, research, and principles of extensive reading and cooperative learning, before providing and illustrating ideas on how to integrate extensive reading and cooperative learning in the classroom. We hope that the examples provided, based on knowledge of principles from cooperative learning and extensive reading, will inspire and sustain teachers’ efforts to strengthen the social element of their students’ reading, thereby making reading a more beneficial and enjoyable activity for their students that may continue for the rest of their lives.