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What can we learn from young adolescents’ perceptions about the teaching of reading?

Young adolescent students are at a critical time in their schooling. Once they embark into secondary schooling their prospects of achieving well across a range of curriculum subjects can often depend on their ability to critically analyse and understand a range of text types. This article focuses on 34 young adolescent students’ views about learning to read. By better understanding what works for these young adolescents, teachers and educators can further enhance effective learning environments for students’ reading development. The research study explored the views of 11 to 13 year old students who came from six schools. Overall, the school populations had a higher representation of students from diverse cultural backgrounds, than in the majority of New Zealand schools. Five of the schools were in low to mid socio-economic areas and one school was in a higher socio-economic area. The small group interviews with the students found that they appreciated teachers using explicit teaching strategies to guide their learning during reading. Many of the students valued learning to read as they perceived it as an essential skill for their long-term wellbeing and career opportunities. It was apparent that these young adolescents valued learning to read in a safe and respectful learning environment. Irrespective of socio-economic or cultural backgrounds, the students viewed learning as a serious matter. Learning to effectively read and comprehend was viewed as a foundation to their success in the future.