But reading has a different kind of existence, as something people do for pleasure, out of choice. It’s far easier for students to see these subjects as something that they simply have to learn. We are supposed to enjoy reading in a way that we’re not necessarily supposed to enjoy solving equations or exploring coastal landforms. But there’s something about studying books that makes English different from Maths, or Geography, or the sciences. Like all subjects, it demands that students spend time engaging with concepts and topics that they might not choose to engage with in their lives beyond the classroom. One of the difficult things about teaching English is that the subject blurs the boundary between academic domain and personal pleasure. Some novels are Marmite, loved by some students but leaving others cold. You find a book that you think your students will adore, spend ages developing a scheme of work and resources, and sometimes it just doesn’t play as well as you think it will. It’s a difficult business, choosing a new class reader. My Year Sevens are just coming to the end of their study of Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow, and it’s a long time since I’ve found a book that has gone down so well with a class.
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