One of the most common lamentations I have heard from my fellow colleagues is about why our adolescent students don’t read for pleasure at all or as much as they perhaps once did. How to tackle such a pervasive problem? It is not my intention in this post to examine the intricacies of teenage reading practices or the factors underpinning why their engagement is in decline – that would be the task of a lengthy doctoral thesis. What I can safely say is that yes, the rates and volume of reading for pleasure amongst teens are most certainly in decline, with current research indicating that reading as a preferred recreational pursuit is ranked by close to a third of surveyed students as ‘their least preferred activity,’ (Manuel, 2012, p. 20 as cited in Merga, 2015, p. 36).
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What I do wish to do is reflect on something that I am currently in the midst of planning in order to buck the trend so-to-speak and that is the creation of a digital platform for students at my school where they can publish their own creative writing, read each other’s writing, share what texts they are reading and engage in discussion forums about their reading and writing. My purpose in creating such a space taps into what O’Sullivan (2012) cites is an ever-increasing trend whereby students are active participants in ‘alternative literacies’ beyond the classroom and thereby would function to value the ‘sophisticated literacy demands required for reading, comprehending, and constructing non-linear, multi-layered texts,’ (p. 192).
I envision that aside from the initial set-up of the space via our virtual learning platform and the maintenance involved in ensuring that student content is uploaded and relevant to the context, this digital creative writing and reading hub will hopefully be a student-owned space for their creative expressions and engagement with texts (of whatever form). Furthermore, I envision that the sheer fact of having a dedicated digital space for these expressions will eventually gain more and more traction with the student body and form part of the foundations necessary for their participation (or in some cases, renewed participation) in reading and writing widely for pleasure.
References
Merga, M.K. (2015). ‘‘She knows what I like’’: Student-generated best-practice statements for encouraging recreational book reading in adolescents. Australian Journal of Education, 59(1), 35–50. DOI: 10.1177/0004944114565115.
O’Sullivan, K. (2012). Chapter 12 : Books and Blogs : Promoting Reading Achievement in Digital Contexts. In Manuel, J., Manuel, J., & Brindley, S. (2012). Teenagers and reading: literary heritages, cultural contexts and contemporary reading practices. Wakefield Press in association with the Australian Association for the Teaching of English.