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The Open University

Developing Reading for Pleasure: engaging young readers

The Open University via OpenLearn

Overview

It is widely recognised that supporting children to become capable and engaged readers plays an important role in their future success. Reading empowers; it facilitates education and employment, and it enriches one’s personal life and growth. Learning to read is therefore a key goal of primary or elementary education, and high-quality literacy instruction is fundamental to any literacy curriculum. An effective literacy curriculum not only teaches children how to read, it also inspires them to want to read.Developing the skill to read and the will to read are interrelated, however, this course focuses on the latter; it is an exploration of Reading for Pleasure and its significance for children’s lives and development. You will consider current research, debates and challenges that impact on children’s reading and gain knowledge and strategies to help you promote reader engagement across schools, homes and communities.This free course has been authored by Dr Lucy Rodriguez Leon, Professor Teresa Cremin, Dr Helen Hendry, and Dr Sarah Jane Mukherjee from The Open University. It is primarily intended for teachers, teaching assistants, librarians, and school leaders, and some of the activities will focus on the curriculum. While reading volunteers, parents, and all those interested in promoting children's reading will still find this course interesting, not all activities will be applicable to these groups.TranscriptEnrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation – which also displays your Open University badge.The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others. This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation.  

Syllabus

  • Introduction and guidance
  • Introduction and guidance
  • What is a badged course?
  • How to get a badge
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session1Session 1: The importance of childhood reading
  • Introduction
  • 1 What is Reading for Pleasure?
  • 2 Reading for Pleasure and children’s attainment
  • 3 The decline in children Reading for Pleasure
  • 4 Reading for Pleasure in the school curricula
  • 5 Developing Reading for Pleasure pedagogies for all children
  • 6 Pedagogies and classroom practices
  • 7 Beyond attainment: the transformational power of Reading for Pleasure
  • 8 The affective power of reading
  • 9 Promoting equality through diversity in texts
  • 10 This session’s quiz
  • 11 Summary of Session 1
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session2Session 2: Being a reader
  • Introduction
  • 1 Reading as meaning making
  • 2 What ‘counts’ as reading?
  • 3 Digital texts
  • 4 Children’s texts
  • 5 Reading as a personal process
  • 6 Personal resonance in narrative and other texts
  • 7 Reader motivation
  • 8 The role of talk and book chat
  • 9 Reader networks and relationships
  • 10 Reader identities
  • 11 This session’s quiz
  • 12 Summary of Session 2
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session3Session 3: The power of narrative
  • Introduction
  • 1 Narrative
  • 2 Narrative: understanding the world
  • 3 Exploring possibilities through narrative play
  • 4 Dangers of the single story
  • 5 Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion through children’s literature
  • 6 Addressing sensitive issues and tricky topics
  • 7 Empathy
  • 8 Enhancing agency through narrative texts
  • 9 This session’s quiz
  • 10 Summary of Session 3
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session4Session 4: Knowing your texts, knowing your readers
  • Introduction
  • 1 The role of educators’ knowledge of children’s texts
  • 2 The affordances and benefits of different children’s texts
  • 3 Broadening your knowledge of texts that reflect children’s realities
  • 4 Teachers’ knowledge of children’s reading practices
  • 5 Finding out about children’s reading practices
  • 6 Using your enhanced knowledge of children’s reading practices
  • 7 This session’s quiz
  • 8 Summary of Session 4
  • Further resources
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session5Session 5: Reading for Pleasure pedagogy
  • Introduction
  • 1 Reading aloud
  • 2 Building books in common through reading aloud
  • 3 Making read aloud LIST
  • 4 Independent reading: time to read
  • 5 Supporting reading time
  • 6 Informal book talk and recommendations
  • 7 Opportunities for book blether and making recommendations
  • 8 Social reading environments
  • 9 Monitoring the impact of RfP pedagogy
  • 10 This session’s quiz
  • 11 Summary of Session 5
  • Further resources
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session6Session 6: Building reading communities in school
  • Introduction
  • 1 Characteristics of reading communities
  • 2 Reading Teachers
  • 3 A Reading Teacher in action
  • 4 Reader relationships across the school
  • 5 Reading volunteers
  • 6 The school reading environment
  • 7 The school library
  • 8 Involving authors, illustrators and poets
  • 9 Parents and wider community partners
  • 10 This session’s quiz
  • 11 Summary of Session 6
  • Further resources
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session7Session 7: Supporting children as readers at home
  • Introduction
  • 1 The nature of children’s reading at home
  • 2 Choice and agency at home
  • 3 Understanding shared reading in homes
  • 4 Supporting multiliterate children’s reading at home
  • 5 Reading at home: mirroring RfP pedagogies
  • 6 Developing two-way traffic between home and school
  • 7 Parents’ understanding of what counts as reading
  • 7.1 On-screen reading
  • 8 Building home–school reading partnerships
  • 9 Text access
  • 10 This session’s quiz
  • 11 Summary of Session 7
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session8Session 8: Enticing reluctant readers and addressing challenges
  • Introduction
  • 1 Reluctant readers
  • 1.1 Engaging RfP ‘disadvantaged’ readers
  • 2 Balancing RfP with reading instruction
  • 3 The concept of pleasure
  • 3.1 Different forms of pleasure associated with reading
  • 4 Myth busting
  • 4.1 Myth #1 - Reading for Pleasure is an optional extra in the literacy curriculum
  • 4.2 Myth #2 Reading for Pleasure is a standalone activity
  • 4.3 Myth #3 Girls enjoy reading more than boys
  • 4.4 Myth #4 Technology is killing children’s Reading for Pleasure
  • 4.5 Myth #5 Engaged reading is solitary and silent
  • 4.6 Myth #6 Children’s progress in Reading for Pleasure cannot be measured
  • 4.7 Myth #7 Children must learn to decode before Reading for Pleasure
  • 4.8 Myth #8 Some families just don’t read
  • 5 Applying RfP pedagogy
  • 6 Developing as a Reading Teacher
  • 6.1 Seeing reading and readers in a new light
  • 6.2 Developing your knowledge of children as readers
  • 6.3 Developing your knowledge of children’s texts
  • 6.4 Building communities of engaged readers
  • 7 This session’s quiz
  • 8 Summary of Session 8
  • Further resources
  • Where next?
  • Tell us what you think
  • References
  • Acknowledgements

Reviews

4.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review

4.5 rating at OpenLearn based on 13 ratings

Start your review of Developing Reading for Pleasure: engaging young readers

  • Profile image for Ekta Malhotra
    Ekta Malhotra
    The course was good, and I have gained a lot of knowledge. After doing this course I am excited to apply all the strategies that I have learned from this course. I would also like to share with my team of teachers and I am sure they all will be motivated for the RFP pedology.
    I would also like to suggest that the course could be a little shorter to make us understand about the topic. It was too long.

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