Sharing Good Practice
The power of reading fiction
By Gregory Anderson
E
ncouraging students to form
a habit of reading fiction will
not just improve scores and
grades - it will reward them
with an awareness of how multifaceted
perceptions and experiences can be.
A question that I often ask is why
do we read?
We don't read because we don't have
enough to do: we read because we
want to do more than that immediately
available to us.
We don't read because we want to
escape life; we read to affirm and
challenge life.
Do we read because we want to 'get
better' at English? Certainly, reading is
a vital aspect of improving literacy.
But is literacy a dirty word? It often
relates to the lowest common
denominator. It talks about the need
for students to gain a functional skill.
The need to teach literacy is a very
different from the need to teach
(and learn) the ability to reflect
on perception. This is certainly a
more inspirational and functionally
empowering way of perceiving
reading. If students merely read
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stories as a pretty way of passing time,
or of appreciating plot, then watch a
film.
Reading fiction is a supremely active
process that relies upon students
experiencing the story. However,
that process of experiencing is
not just about feeling the narrow
gamut of 'happy or sad' - it is about
understanding the expectations that
make up the values of the growing
child. This is especially important
to the international child, who has a
great many distractions away from
reading. For example, for the first time
a student understands the concept of
melancholy, then they might realise
that to feel sad is OK sometimes.
Alan Bennett's metaphor of a hand
intellectually raising from the book to
take yours in companionship is real.
Therefore, for those who want their
children to be suitably challenged in
their reading, literary fiction exists to
both satisfy and subvert expectation.
The easiest stories to read are ones
in which all our expectations are met.
These are often entirely plot-based.
The most literary are ones in which our
expectations are almost entirely defamiliarised. These are almost entirely
stylistic, and can make them seemingly
nonsensical to the casual or immature
Class Time
reader, and a seeming waste of time.
However, if you have a child who
struggles with reading, yet has no
discernible difficulty with literacy, then
I would suggest that modelling the
reading and contemplation of texts
comes most from the environment in
which they reside. That means parents,
older siblings, and peers. Do they read
and question the world around them
with wit and vivacity? If so, brilliant.
If not, those children will likely rely
upon the salesmanship efforts of their
teachers to sell reading on a frequent
basis.
Ultimately, I would guide you to
consider the metaphor of seeing the
reading of fiction or non-fiction as the
choice to run on a treadmill versus the
chance to run freely. Watching a film or
playing a game continues regardless
of whether we are creating that reality,
with all its flaws etc.. Reading nonfiction does not always rely upon
us to construct reality, to confirm or
confound our impressions of the world
around us, of what we do and why we
do it.
Only fiction has that demand; only
fiction has that reward.