Teacher, an online magazine published by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), has shared a terrific article about encouraging students to read for pleasure. It features 2021 Reading Australia Fellow Edwina West, who talks about the reading culture at her school and the impetus for her to develop her own resources.
‘It stemmed from my own experience in the classroom teaching really able students – students who were easily getting As in English, but were aliterate (refused to read) or even had a desire to read, but didn’t know where to start,’ Edwina shared. ‘They maybe had been really avid readers when they were in primary school or even in lower high school, but as they moved into year 10 and above, they had lost that habit or urge. So, I thought it would be important to develop those resources because I wanted to use them, but then I also thought others might benefit.’
The full article, which contains links to Edwina’s website and other useful resources (including a podcast with esteemed researcher Dr Margaret Merga), is freely available from Teacher’s website. You can also hear Edwina speak about her project as part of the 2022 Literature Symposium.
More information about the Reading Australia Fellowship for Teachers of English and Literacy is available from the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
Quotes reproduced by permission of Teacher magazine.