Teaching and learning reading - an interview with Sam Duncan
Irene Schwab Irene Schwab is the course leader for the PGCE/Diploma Language, Literacy and Numeracy at the Institute of Education (IOE) in London. Sam Duncan is a lecturer in education, also at IOE. Sam Duncan has already written about the research process of her study of reading circles in RaPAL. 'Researching the Reading Circle Experience' . RaPAL Journal, 72, 32-37).
Irene interviewed Sam recently about her findings in that study and how they might make a difference to the way we approach the teaching and learning of reading.
Irene: Can you tell me about your research on reading circles? Sam:
I did some research by setting up a reading circle within an existing Entry 3 /Level 1 adult literacy class in a London college. At the beginning of the year they'd shown interest in reading longer texts. So we set up the reading circle and they decided to read a novel.
There was a lot of discussion about what people understood by a novel and what kind of thing they'd want to read. They came up with criteria like not longer than 200 pages; not too many complicated sentences; interesting, and we brought in examples, did a vote and chose a book. We also talked about how we would spend the time. They decided we'd have the last forty minutes of the lesson; that we'd rearrange the room so that it felt different from the class; that I would be involved a bit but I would try and edge out and it would be more self-run; that they would read a bit at home every week. They had a chairperson every week, a different person who volunteered to keep order, who would usually start by saying, “Tell me about what we've read,” and then it would be a kind of memory gathering, partly remembering things and clarifying what happened, but also discussing or interpreting, so there'd be a discussion.
They wanted to read aloud, which is controversial, and they ended up taking turns, reading about a page each. We made it really clear that not everyone needs to read if they don't want to but in fact everyone did. And we decided to stop after a page because otherwise some people wanted to read much more. They all wanted to take turns but would support each other, so someone may get a lot of help in decoding; others were reading quite quickly but wanted a lot more help with vocabulary, with others it was more about confidence reading out loud.
Within a few weeks they were really self-running in the sense of defining vocabulary for each other and drawing on each other's strengths. The woman who was the least confident reader had worked in a hospital and so she had experience of medical vocabulary and procedures and there was some bits in there that were medical, so people went to her for that.
Irene: What were your main findings?
Sam: Well it seemed like we could describe reading as five different acts: it was an educational act, an act of learning words, but also learning about say, orchestras and how they work, or learning about hospitals, learning about the lives of other people. It was a cognitive act, they talked about remembering, about linking words and sentences, about linking sounds and words; a communicative act, in terms of how they related to each other and of reading with other family members; an imaginative act, so they were creating this fictional world; they talked about the
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