Identifying and Removing Barriers to Reading, through Reading for Pleasure

Bring and share examples of Children’s Literature that you have had some success engaging readers with, and begin to network with others whilst enjoying some refreshments when you arrive.

This session will start with a discussion around a stimulus paper. The paper argues that to engage children in reading and disrupt ‘pedagogy of poverty’, particularly in low socio-economic communities, teachers need to enable children to reap the cognitive, wellbeing, and social benefits of Reading for Pleasure. We will discuss the implications of this paper on current practices and pedagogies:

Discussion of Hempel-Jorgensen, A., Cremin, T., Harris, D., Chamberlain, L. (2018) Pedagogy for reading for pleasure in low socio-economic primary schools: beyond ‘pedagogy of poverty’? Literacy 52(2) pp.86-94.

(A copy of the paper and a brief synopsis will be made available prior to the session. Reading the article prior to attending will support discussions and reflections in the session.)

Discussion and sharing of current practices:

• What does Reading for Pleasure look like in your schools/classrooms?
• How has this changed since the pandemic?
• The ‘10 Principles of Reading for Pleasure’ (CLPE), What do these look like in your school?

What are the opportunities for research?

• What deserves investigating in this area?
• What could be put in place to address this?
• What else would you need to know to support researching in this area?
• What would you want to get out of the research?

Takeaway: Ideas, reflections, and practices to take back into school.