But I am much better at it than I was two years ago. I am much more discerning and much more critical; more methodical in note-taking on individual books and articles, and better at organising those notes so that they are of greater use and easier to return to. The reading alternates between journal articles, books and blog-posts, which, although perhaps of less 'academic' value, often offer useful insights and perspectives, and allow consideration of how reading and reading teaching is perceived in the social media and the popular press.
The reading also seems like a luxury, when I should be coding data, and I have therefore enjoyed it almost as much as I did that first summer when I was just reading whatever came to hand next.
Here is this summer's reading list:
Clark, C. (2016) Children’s and Young People’s Reading in 2015. Findings from the National Literacy Trust’s annual survey 2015. London: National Literacy Trust
Clark, C. & Teravainen, A. (2017). Celebrating Reading for Enjoyment: Findings from our Annual Literacy Survey 2016. London: National Literacy Trust.
Cliff Hodges, G. (2011). Textual Drama: The Value of Reading Aloud. EnglishDramaMedia, Issue 19, 19-26.
Cremin, T. (2011) Reading for Pleasure and Wider Reading - UKLA Resources https://ukla.org/downloads/November_11_Resource_TC_Reading_for_Pleasure.pdf [Acessed 4th August 2017]
Cushing, I. (2016) Words on the page, Worlds in the mind. The English and Media Magazine (71) 26-29
Fogarty, M., Clemens, N., Simmons, D., Anderson, L., Davis, J., Smith, A., Wang, H., Kwok, O,. Simmons, L., Oslund, E. (2017) Impact of a Technology-Mediated Reading Intervention on Adolescents’ Reading Comprehension, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. 10:2, 326-353.
Jamshidi, K. (2016) You’re An English Student Who Doesn’t Read?: An exploration of how assessment-driven literary study does not require students to read in order to succeed.
https://studyingfiction.wordpress.com [Accessed 2nd August 2017]
NATIONAL READING PANEL (U.S.). (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: teaching children to read : an evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction : reports of the subgroups. [Washington, D.C.], National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health.
Robinson, V., Hohepa, M., Lloyd, C. (2009) School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying What Works and Why. Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration [BES]. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Speaks, H. (2017) ‘Reading is Knowledge’ https://horatiospeaks.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/reading-is-knowledge/ [Accessed 30th August 2017)
Speaks, H. (2016) ‘Seven Steps to Improving Reading Comprehension’ Thinking Reading http://www.thinkingreading.net/files/files/7%20Steps%20to%20Improve%20Reading%20Comprehension.pdf [Accessed 14th August 2017]
Sutherland, J., Westbrook, J., Oakhill, J. and Sullivan, S. (2017) An ‘immersive’, faster read: increasing adolescent poor readers’ comprehension of text, using an inference-based, whole-text model of reading (under review).
The Secret Teacher (2017) We’re not reading - so why do we assume children will? The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2017/may/20/secret-teacher-were-not-reading-so-why-do-we-assume-children-will [Accessed 3rd September 2017]
Wigfield, A. & Guthrie, J.T. (1997). Relations of children’s motivation for reading to the amount and breadth of their reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 420-432.
And I'm looking forward to next Friday which will be my first official PhD day at home as I move down to four days a week at school. Roll on my first ever part-time term.
