OU RfP embarked upon a project called Teachers as Readers which built on Commeyras et al’s (2003) American research and revealed that those professionals who were both readers and teachers, and who examined their own experience of reading were better positioned to develop genuinely reciprocal reading communities. By sharing their own experiences of reading, these teachers made a positive impact on children’s desire to read and frequency of reading at home and at school.

  • Reflecting on their own and others’ reading practices, enabled teachers to:
  • Extend their understanding of what it means to be a reader
  • Appreciate the social nature of reading and the role of interaction and affect in RfP
  • Recognise the significance of reader identity in reader development and frame their pedagogic practice in responsive ways
  • Share aspects of their reading lives in schools alongside younger readers
  • Build strongly reciprocal and interactive reading communities.

Do watch this video with Professor Teresa Cremin of OU RfP and teacher Becky Thomson who explain the implications of the findings and how you can address them in our teaching practice. And download the full report here.

As a follow up to this Professor Cremin published an engaging text to offer primary school educators a principled way forward on their mission to nurture the life-changing habit of reading in childhood.

Informed and inspiring, Reading Teachers accessibly demonstrates how teachers who are motivated, engaged and reflective readers themselves, can develop new understandings of reading for pleasure and make a difference to young learners.

Drawing on a range of research evidence, including studies on reading teachers, dis/engaged boy readers, student teachers as readers and work with over 150 schools developing communities of readers, this book provides an accessible overview of international research alongside a highly practical classroom focus. Combining the insights of academics with 24 reading teachers in co-authored chapters, the book includes:

Case studies of how practitioners have used research to inform and improve their practice

‘In conversation’ dialogues between educators about classroom practice that fosters positive reader identities

Reflections on the editors own reading habits, practices and histories

Recommended reading and suggestions of engaging children’s books

Reading Teachers: Nurturing Reading for Pleasure enables practitioners to develop principled practice, helping all children find pleasure and purpose in reading. This book is therefore essential reading for all primary teachers, head teachers, literacy coordinators and trainee teachers