What is supported Wide Reading?
What are the important features of Supported Wide Reading?
What does Supported Wide Reading look like in the classroom?
Helping Students to Choose Reading Material
How can I turn on reluctant readers?
Strategies to introduce and support a Wide Reading Program
Where can I find more information?

What is Supported Wide Reading?

Supported wide reading is

• personal reading in a social context
• an individualised program which matches students’ interests and abilities
• a regular opportunity for students to individually read texts of their own choice within the classroom
• an extension of students' reading to include a wide range of texts and genres

What are the important features of Supported Wide Reading?

The important features are

• a broad definition of text which includes a variety of fiction/non-fiction from Literature, Mass media and Everyday texts
• ease of accessibility for individuals to select texts
• self monitoring and teacher monitoring of the process
• setting of personal goals for reading
• reflection on what is being read and learned
• regular opportunities for students to talk about the texts they are reading
• teacher modeling of and enthusiasm for reading
• enjoyment and celebration of reading by students and their peers
• exciting reading corner in the classroom which includes information about texts and authors and displays of student and teacher recommendations for reading

What does Supported Wide Reading look like in the classroom?

A Supported Wide Reading Program includes

• regular opportunities for students to read privately
• sharing and talking about reading such as book chat and book share interviews and informal talk
• a physical space in the room which promotes the sharing of new reading materials such as lists, top rated books, student recommendations and reflections from within and outside the classroom, author information, a display of texts, a reading corner, a book box,
• regular visits to the library or resource area
• surveying students to establish their interests and reading preferences
• valuing and including student preferences and extending their reading repertoire
• maintaining a record of what is being read in a central file in the classroom
• pro-formas for students to record information such as pages read during a session and ratings of texts
• students exchanging ideas on texts with their peers
• students setting goals for their wide reading including the number and range of texts they will read
• a range of opportunities for analysis and reflection through journal entries, plot profiles, mind maps, cut and pasted illustrations, audio and video tapes
• connections being made with the rest of the teaching program, for example, through explicit teaching of narrative style
• teachers providing regular feedback on student reflections
• teachers modeling reading and reading their own text during wide reading sessions

Helping Students to Choose Reading Material

For more information on helping students to choose their own reading material and share their responses, have a look at Literature Circles.

Teachers and students can find suggestions in the book review sites listed in Books for Students.

How can I turn on reluctant readers?

• Start with their interests and abilities. You might have to put your tastes aside, as often the books that hit the mark are not the ones that appeal to you.
• Try humorous texts. Humour has a universal appeal.
• Whet appetites by finding some gripping openings. Also reveal that some of the most satisfying and enjoyable books require close reading.
• Provide time to read - time for the student to be caught by a book DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), TART (Totally Awesome Reading Time).
• Read young adult texts yourself- widely - You can’t feign enthusiasm about, or knowledge of, books you haven’t read.
• Provide choice - reading only set texts, chosen by the teacher can decrease rather than increase interest. Include lots of picture books and other visual texts.
• Arrange for someone (like Glyn Parry) who doesn’t fit anyone’s stereotype of an author or a reader to come and speak to the students.
• Provide for lots of talk - meaning often comes through talk.
• Don’t always ask the questions; let the kids in on the action.
• Use a buddy system with a stronger and weaker reader reading the same book so that they can talk about it.
• Read aloud to students. Reading aloud is not just for young school students.
• Provide immediate and positive feedback on any successes no matter how small by regularly conferencing with students to monitor their progress.
• Experiment with a range of contracts which clearly articulate achievable goals and which celebrate success.
• Demonstrate how to go about writing short responses to texts which have been read and provide positive written feedback.

(adapted from Making the Hard Decisions, Boys and Reading, Pam Macintyre )

Strategies to introduce and support a Wide Reading Program

Reading Survey

Name…………………………………………..

Class……………………………………………

 

Finish these sentences
11	I would read one book every: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
12	My favourite book is: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
13	I like to read books about: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
14	Some of my favourite authors are: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
15	I like or dislike to read because: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
16	When I read I: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
17	I like or dislike to read at home because: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
18	I like or dislike to read at school because: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
19	The things that attract me to a book are: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………

Answer these questions
20	How often do you read at home? ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
21	How often do you watch TV at home? ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………
22	When was the last time you received a book as a gift? ………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………

(from J Hancock and S Hill, Literature-Based Reading Programs at Work, Australian Reading Association, 1987.)

The Reading Journal

The purpose of your reading log/journal is to

• Help you capture your developing responses as a reader
• Help you understand what you are reading
• Show how you are improving as a reader.

It is your record of your thoughts as you read and it shouldn't end up like anyone else's.

What should you write about?

• Speculations about how the story might develop (what you think might happen next)
  
• Comparisons with things that have happened to you
  
• Accounts of things that have happened to you that you are reminded of by events in the book
  
• Reflections on things in the book that really strike you
  
• Reactions to characters and what they do
  
• Comments on how the author is telling the story
  
• Comments on other books, films, plays or poems that you have read
  
• Questions that you think of as you are reading
  
• Things that are puzzling you as you read
  
• Anything else you think of as you are reading

How often should you write?

It's best to write often, while you are reading the book as well as when you finish it. When you have finished reading for the day, why not write then and there, while it's fresh in your mind? You should be writing at least once a cycle, anyway.

What should entries in your reading journal look like?

• Always date each entry, and note the book's title and author in the first sentence you write.
• Your teacher will write to you in your reading journal, so it should develop into a written conversation with your teacher.
• It definitely should not be a collection of book reports or plot summaries.

(from Janet Rickwood and Jenni Satrapa, (1989) When it's fun you learn. Organising for learning in the secondary English classroom, AATE.)

For more information on using journals, have a look at teaching strategies

Where can I find more information?

Harvey Daniels, (1994) Literature Circles, Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered Classroom, Stenhouse

Curt Dudley-Marling and Dennis Searle, editors, (1995) Who Owns Learning? Questions of Autonomy, Choice, and Control, Heinemann

Joelie Hancock and Susan Hill, editors, (1987) Literature-Based Reading Programs at Work, Australian Reading Association

Janet Rickwood and Jenni Satrapa, (1989) When it's fun you learn. Organising for learning in the secondary English classroom, AATE

Wayne Sawyer, Ken Watson, Eva Gold, (1998) Re-Viewing English, St Clair Press.