Reading

Reading at Pensby High School

Reading is good for you because it improves your focus, memory, empathy, and communication skills. It can reduce stress, improve your mental health, and the understanding of the world around you. Reading also allows you to learn new things to help you succeed in your work and relationships.  Reading also makes you a better writer.

Reading and writing have been thought of as opposites—with reading regarded as receptive and writing regarded as productive. Researchers have found that reading and writing are essentially the same process of meaning construction and that readers and writers share a surprising number of characteristics.

In the English department, we want to instil the love of reading in our pupils. We don’t want them to read only in a library lesson, as they need consistency, and they need to read with regularity.

Action:

• Students should read for a maximum of 10 minutes at the beginning (or end) of lessons.
• They might not read every lesson but they should read most lessons.
• They can read their own book choice or the whole class could read the same text.
• Discussions could take place about these books but they are not to be ‘studied’.
• Pupils could write reviews on the books that they read for pleasure. They should write a review at least once every half term.
• In the library they will have texts read to them. These texts will be related to what they are studying.
• They will have opportunities to discuss their reading with their teacher, the librarian and their peers.

Pupils have an entitlement to read whole books and whole texts; this occurs in all years. They read a variety of modern fiction, nineteenth century fiction, plays (including Shakespeare), short stories from across time and poetry from old English to modern, alongside a diverse range of non-fiction texts from differing time periods.

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