Reading the Changes

In the context of changing perspectives on and experience of language, learning and schooling, Eleanor Anderson suggests a new model of the reading process and how it may be applied to classroom practice. She provides an overview of research and development in the field of language and literacy over the past 40 years, a new framework for the reading process, and practical suggestions for use by teachers. She discusses, for instance, strategies for reading whole texts and complex texts, reading "real books", reading and information handling, reading across the curriculum and reading within national curricula. She also tackles how to develop a school reading policy, how to communicate such a policy within the community and to other professionals, and the challenge of reading for teacher education. She constructs a theoretically sound model which teachers may adopt to their own needs in trying to make sense of the myriad changes with which they are being asked to cope, and in the daily decision making in which they are involved.