characters and they also described how, the more they knew of the characters as the process went on, the easier the reading got. An affective or emotional act, both in the sense of feeling happy or sad about their own reading, but also feeling happy or sad, or other emotions, with the characters.
Another one that I thought was important for thinking about reading was the idea of reading identity. At the initial interviews, everyone gave quite a strong sense of where they saw themselves in terms of reading. So some were saying, “I'm not a good reader because of this; good readers do this, I can't do this.” And then as that developed, and what they were doing in the reading circle by supporting each other and scaffolding each other in reading the novel, they were creating a shift in those reading identities, so that then they can feel: “Okay, I am someone who can do this.”
And it also made me think a lot about how we understand fiction and non-fiction, and the types of learning there[are], because they all talked about learning on different levels, and part of it was learning about certain medical conditions, or learning about how an orchestra works, so they learnt true things, or important things, from reading the novel. But there was also this sense that it's not true, so what does that mean for it to be true or not true?
Working in a group seemed to be quite empowering. There were some people in the group who wouldn't have talked together that much, and one person in the group who definitely felt that he didn't have friends and that he couldn't really communicate with people. But because they were talking about the novel, they seemed to be much closer and much more supportive. And this seemed to show me something about peer learning, and that a group of adults could really help each other, because everyone's needs are just that little bit different, and so some can support this, someone with that.
Irene: What do you think the benefits were for the learners of being part of a reading circle?
Sam: I think besides the mutual support it gave lots of differentiation in a really meaningful way, because you're doing something all together as a group, but it's broad or fluid enough for people to be doing slightly different things. So another thing I did was give everyone a notebook, so they could use it for the reading circle however they liked, and the five who used it, used it for very different things. One person was quite a strong reader; she read in other languages, but she wanted to develop her vocabulary. So she used it to record vocabulary. Another, I think I already mentioned, a young woman who was trying to remember what was going on, and she used that for those notes. Someone else was really interested in the idea of different people's interpretations and she used to record those. I didn't even say, “If you want to work on vocabulary, you could do it this way.” It just happened.
Irene: So there's already a benefit for the teacher as well as a benefit for the learners. Any other benefits for the teachers?
Sam: It's something different, and once you've got into the swing a bit I think it's really important and meaningful learning for everyone, but it's also not something you need to do masses of preparation for.
Irene: I'm just thinking of the teacher's role in helping people learn. 40
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