open questions allow learners to express their thoughts in their own words. Reading groups provide opportunities to read aloud, to talk about a text and ask and answer questions relating to it, and to develop skills in working out what words mean by the context or by directly looking them up in a dictionary. Reading is not a passive process, it involves problem-solving, active prediction (guessing), searching and an ability to use past knowledge and experience to make sense of what we are reading. Reading is an active process in which readers interact with text to reconstruct the message of the author. Facilitators can help adults to improve their reading by using these different strategies.

Community settings The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has funded NIACE to kick-start reading-group activity in a variety of community settings. With just a simple toolkit and a few sets of Quick Reads to start them off, we now have 34 reading groups, including a teenage parents’ group, a mental health support group, a lesbian, gay and transgender group, and a group of women living with or affected by HIV, as well as groups in prisons, on housing estates, in a riding school and in a care home. The accessibility of the Quick Reads means they can open up reading groups for a wider audience but also allows those who already enjoy reading to come along too. The Southwark Community Reading Group has come together because of existing connections with the learning centre but has helped people from the community meet others who are like-minded: ‘It’s more fun than reading on your own – to talk about it with others.’ Some are attending courses and others are friends or family members: ‘My daughter told me about the group. I’d not heard of Quick Reads but it’s on my doorstep so I thought I’d give it a try.’ One member has brought her grown-up daughter along to encourage her to read, whilst another reads regularly but enjoys ‘the chance to talk about a book, not just read it on my own’. One member commented: ‘I joined because I wanted a challenge and it has made me want to read more.’ Our approach was to start Quick Reads reading groups in places where adults already were and support a key worker to become a reading group facilitator by producing a toolkit to help them get started. In this way, the reading groups were embedded into the existing community or workplace setting. The aim was to provide support to get started, with a plan for continued sustainability. The frequency and length of the meetings was left for each group to decide but it was hoped the participants would reflect on and discuss the book in ways that best suited them and their individual circumstances. Generally, reading groups can extend reading, and the Quick Reads reading groups are no exception. Participants are involved in making choices about the books they choose to read and the aspects of the books they

Reading is not a passive process, it involves problem- solving, active prediction (guessing), searching and an ability to use past knowledge and experience to make sense of what we are reading discuss. Hopefully, the reading groups will continue to meet regularly and go on to choose a variety of other books to read, discuss and enjoy. At Rampton Hospital, some of the pilot participants have gone onto read other books and evaluate them too. Some have taken out longer books written by the same authors. One member who read Bloody Valentine has become a James Patterson fan! He commented: ‘I was unable to put this book down and became “lost” in the story, watching things unfold.’

Sue Southwood is Programme Manager, NIACE

The Quick Reads Reading Group Toolkit, Reading Breaks Toolkit and new resources to support the new 2012 titles are available from: www.quickreads.org.uk/resources. NIACE is currently working with UNISON to produce a toolkit for union learning reps to facilitate reading.

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