Readerful: Episode 3

Knowledge: Opening the Curriculum through reading

By Bennie Kara

Hear from Bennie Kara (Teacher, Writer, Speaker and Curriculum Consultant on Leadership, Diversity and Literacy) about how Knowledge has the power to open a curriculum

For many of our students, the curriculum can feel like a locked box.  We have teachers to help unlock the great mysteries of the universe, but when they are released, it is important to ensure that the content we put in front of our young people is not only useful, but enlightening, engaging, curiosity-inducing and wonder-stimulating.  It is no surprise, then, that reading is a fundamental part of the unlocking process.

The Reading Agency’s research into the benefits of reading for our young people highlights the development of: “enjoyment, knowledge of the self and other people, social interaction, social and cultural capital, imagination, focus and flow, relaxation and mood regulation,” [1].  The impact of reading to open worlds is not be underestimated.  A study by Clark and Rumbold in 2006 discovered “how reading for pleasure is linked to increases in general knowledge, understanding of other cultures, community participation and insight into human nature and decision making.”[2]

The role of Shared reading

Shared or class reading is an effective introduction to this world building.  The teacher as facilitator is the conduit for knowledge and for experiences that children may not have had yet.  They are, to paraphrase the words of Dr Rudine Sims Bishop, able to look safely through windows into the wider world. For the youngest of our readers, the teacher is able to function as guide and source of information. For older readers, independently learning, texts also have to point young people to the next text, and the next and so on.

The importance of linking different texts

Even more important is the necessity to link knowledge through text.  Where one encounters a place or person through a shared reader, how does the knowledge gained through that text link to texts experienced later? How does knowledge grow?  We organize information as we gather it; we form schema.  For this to happen, knowledge needs to build on what has come before – so shared readers have to support that process.

Making the right book choice

In order to create a world-view that is accurate, critical and equitable, books function as stepping stones to a fairer world.  If the books we choose to put in front of children do not reflect the people and places in it (in all their variety and joyousness), how can they ever expect to either see themselves in literature, or to see the world in all of its glory? For our young people to develop their ‘social schema’, books can represent, reveal and explore the experiences of different races, cultures, religions, abilities, genders and sexualities.  They can present age and youth.  They can outline what a family is, or how someone copes with loss.

Modelling book talk

To embed learning to memory, we must explore content, manipulate it, discuss it, share it and interpret it.  Reading, at any stage of a child’s development, is an opportunity to bring talk into our repertoire so that we are modelling the appreciation of text.  Our young people deserve our enthusiasm for text in all its forms.  It’s up to us to take the material we have and to bring it to life.

Bennie Kara

Bennie Kara is a Deputy Headteacher, Writer, Speaker and Curriculum Consultant on Leadership, Diversity and Literacy.