1. A Suggested Reading Pedagogy

The following diagram provides a suggested structure for teaching reading in the upper grades (i.e. about Year 5 onwards) – that is, after students have reached the level of being able to read independently. The structure can be applied to a single lesson, series of lessons or even whole unit.

Further information about this structure and practical activities for each stage will be published in The Smart Word and the upcoming book, English Teaching: A Survival Manual.

2. Three Level Guide

The ‘Three Level Guide’ was introduced in the seminal text, Learning to learn from text: effective reading in the content areas by Bert Morris and Nea Stewart-Dore (Addison-Wesley, 1984). This strategy for promoting depth of understanding about a text can be applied across all subject areas.

If you don’t know much about Three Level Guides, look out for an upcoming edition of The Smart Word, wordsmart consulting’s regular newsletter.

It is a very useful activity for encouraging students of all ability levels and grades to read a text closely. The samples attached illustrates how Morris and Dore’s original format can be adapted to include a direct focus on grammar and how grammatical choices can be related to meaning. Two slightly different approaches to this are modeled in the samples.

Sample 1: The Iliad – suitable for Senior English, English Extension, and History.
In this example, grammar is dealt with under the literal level.

Sample 2: ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ – poetry.
In this example, grammar is included less overtly into Three Level Guide. The activity formed part of a Year 10 unit on representations of war and soldiering in poetry. Copies are the poem are available copyright free on the Internet.

3. Thirty six books to read before finishing high school

The table below is a suggested program of core reading throughout the high school years. (A copy of the table is also available as a printable PDF file.)

Year 7
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
Hovercar Racer by Matthew Reilly
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Deltora Quest: Forest of silence by Emily Rodda
Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman
Young Bond: Silverfin by Charlie Higson

Year 8
Walk in My Shoes by Alwyn Evans
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Pagan’s crusade by Catherine Jinks
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein
Lionheart by Jesse Martin
Tales from Shakespeare by Charlie & Mary Lamb

Year 9
The Magician by Raymond E. Feist
Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
We are the Weather Makers: The Story of Global Warming by Tim Flannery
Strange Objects by Gary Crew
The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Year 10
Fatherland by Robert Harris
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Ender’s game by Orson Scott Card
Beyond the Labyrinth by Gillian Rubinstein (aka Lian Hearn)
48 Shades of Brown by Nick Earls
Deadly Unna? By Phillip Gwynne

Year 11
The Mozart Maulers by Dorian Mode
Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson
Our Sunshine by Robert Drewe
Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

Year 12
Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

The list includes fiction and non-fiction books and the selection was based on the assumption of three books read per semester (that is, six books a year). Of course, this limited what could be included and the selection process has resulted in a list which I’m sure will be controversial – so feel free to modify the inclusions to suit your own school. The list is meant to be generative and in no way comprehensive or mandatory.

For your information, selections were based on a number of – at times conflicting – criteria:

1. Is the book of literary and/or cultural merit?
2. Is the book suitable for the year group – language and content?
3. Does it offer something a bit different from the norm?
4. Will the book challenge readers in some way?
5. Will the book encourage further reading and exploration?
6. Are the books representative across a range of dimensions, e.g. gender, genre, eras, fiction and non-fiction, cultures etc? While I have been as careful as I could, ultimately the self-imposed limit of 36 books has also limited my ability to be entirely representative.
7. Do the books have proven success with students? In most cases, the books are ones that have been recommended by students themselves.

No doubt others will have different opinion.

Comments and alternative suggestions can be sent to Lindsay@wordsmartconsulting.com.au.

Finally, the topic of general reading programs and further information about this list will be explored in much greater depth in up-coming issues of The Smart Word.