Helping every learner find their way in reading

Down the Rabbit Hole: Helping Every Learner Find Their Way in Reading

Guest blog by Dr. Sarah Moseley

There was always something I loved about going back to school. After those long summer holidays, September meant a trip to the shoe store for new school shoes, a new skirt and freshly labeled uniform, along with a mix of excitement and trepidation about what the new school year might bring.

I also loved books, although looking back now, with everything I know about literacy and dyslexia, I realize that my relationship with reading was not as straightforward as I thought. I often read quickly, scanning the pages and picking out the main ideas, but not always taking in all the details. Reading can be hard, even though I love books, stories, and finding things.

was one of my absolute favorites Alice in WonderlandBut my love of Alice didn’t just come from print. I read it, listened to it, watched it and watched plays and puppet shows. I especially loved going to the Polka Theater in Wimbledon and I still remember that feeling of being transported to another world. I felt like I was inside the story. All those experiences took me on different paths and led me to return to the book.

This feels especially relevant as we celebrate the National Year of Reading and Connecting With Everyone. How can we help children and young people, particularly the growing number with dyslexia and other literacy needs, to read?

Perhaps we start by recognizing that there is no one way to be a reader. What we can decode, what we understand and what we are interested in are not necessarily the same things. A learner may find it difficult to read with the language, knowledge, and curiosity needed to connect with richer stories, information, and ideas. A ten-year-old child who struggles to read is still a ten-year-old, and access to interesting, age-appropriate texts should not be limited to what they can currently decode independently.

Finding out what they’re interested in is a great place to start. Football, gaming, animals, music, cooking, places, jokes or anything else we know nothing about can provide the first attraction. From there we can find books, comics, graphic novels, magazines, audiobooks, poetry, and non-fiction that give anyone a reason to read.

Printing also has an important place. There is something wonderful about browsing a shelf, picking up a book, and finding something you weren’t looking for. We can embrace audiobooks, text-to-speech, and technology while ensuring that physical books remain visible, accessible, and valuable.

September gives us a chance to bring back some excitement when the routine has worn off. Wrap a book and uncover clues about what’s inside, have a mystery book of the week, make a story bag or organize a book hunt. Share a book and experience it in a different way through audio, performance, puppetry or drama.

Reading should also become part of the everyday routine, but it does not require extra time. Five minutes may be enough. A quick quiz, word search, fact-finding challenge or clue provides a reason to read and can easily become part of the week.

Singing can also be excellent. Rereading makes sense for developing fluency, but asking a student who finds reading difficult to read the same passage over and over again may seem like too much work. Give that repetition a purpose and it falls apart. Reading song lyrics because you’re going to sing together means returning to the words again and again, developing familiarity, phrasing, expression and confidence with the real reason for re-reading.

As children grow up, reading aloud should not disappear. Hearing someone bring a great story or interesting text to life gives learners access to vocabulary, language, and ideas that may currently be beyond their independent reading. We can talk about what we’ve read, but we don’t always have questions or any assignments afterward. Sometimes we can just enjoy it.

The big challenge is to ensure that it does not disappear by October. If Go All In makes sense, how do we celebrate and celebrate reading all year long?

We need to pay attention to milestones that can easily be missed: independently choosing a book, discovering a favorite author, connecting with a song, finishing an audiobook, finding information without someone prompting or someone else suggesting something. We need to measure progress in decoding, fluency, vocabulary and ultimately understanding complex text, but I also want to know if learners are becoming more confident, independent and willing to engage.

Student voice and agency are key. Ask children and young people what they like, what they don’t, what makes reading easier and what they would like to do next. Let them recommend lessons and influence what’s available. Progress should not be measured just in terms of learners; They themselves need to recognize and celebrate it.

For me, reading was Alice in WonderlandPrints, listening to Prunella Scales (a story on tape), puppets and theatre, all coming together and making me feel like I’ve stepped inside the story. For someone else it will be completely different. We can all start reading in our own way. As we go back to school, let’s find ways to celebrate, establish routines, celebrate milestones, and continue them throughout the year.

If we want every learner to do everything, we need to give them something worth doing.

Big thanks to our guest blogger, Dr. Sarah Moseley – an expert in literacy, inclusion and neurodiversity – for inspiring our back to school season with such a wonderful story. We couldn’t agree more: finding a world where you belong, and discovering all the different formats a story can take, is one of the best feelings out there.

Visit Dr. Sarah Moseley’s Creating Inclusive Classrooms course for more ideas.
You can find even more information about his incredible work on his website.