Recreatory Reading
Recreatory Reading
Recreatory Reading
READING
Recreatory Reading
also known as leisure reading, pleasure
reading, free voluntary reading, and
independent reading, is independent,
self-selected reading of a continuous
text for a wide range of personal and
social purposes.
It can take place in
and out of school, at
any time
Readers select from a wide range
of extended texts, including but
not exclusive to narrative fiction,
nonfiction, picture books, e-
books, magazines, social media,
blogs, websites, newspapers,
comic books, and graphic novels.
Generally intrinsically
or socially motivated
and pleasurable activity
for the reader
Benefits of Recreational Reading
Play pleasure/immersive pleasure is when a
reader is lost in a book. This is a prerequisite to
experiencing all the other pleasures; it develops
the capacity to engage and immerse oneself,
visualize meanings, relates to characters, and
participate in making meaning.
Benefits of Recreational Reading
Intellectual pleasure is when a reader engages in
figuring out what things mean and how texts have
been constructed to convey meanings and effects.
Benefits include developing deep understanding,
proactivity, resilience, and grit.
Benefits of Recreational Reading
Social pleasure is when the reader relates to authors,
characters, other readers, and oneself by exploring and
staking one’s identity. This pleasure develops the capacity
to experience the world from other perspectives; to learn
from and appreciate others distant from us in time, space,
and experience; and to relate to, reciprocate with, attend to,
and help others different from ourselves.
Benefits of Recreational Reading
Work pleasure is when the reader develops a tool
for getting something functional done—this
cultivates the transfer of these strategies and
insights to life.
Benefits of Recreational Reading
Inner work pleasure is when the reader imaginatively
rehearses for her life and considers what kind of person
she wants to be and how she can connect to something
greater or strive to become something more. When our
study participants engaged in this pleasure, they
expressed and developed a growth mindset and a sense
of personal and social possibility.
PROMOTING THE
PLEASURES OF
READING
To promote play pleasure
use drama techniques like revolving role play, in-role
writing, and hot seating of characters in order to
reward all students for entering and living through
story worlds and becoming or relating to characters in
the way that highly engaged readers do.
To promote intellectual pleasure
frame units as inquiry, with essential questions. Read a
book for the first time along with your students—figure
it out along with them, modeling your fits and starts
and problems through think-alouds and discussion. Or
pair an assigned reading with self-selected reading
from a list, or a free reading choice that pertains to the
topic. Use student-generated questions for discussion
and sharing.
To promote social pleasure
be a fellow reader with students. Foster peer
discussion of reading and response in pairs,
triads, small groups, literature circles, book
clubs, etc. Do group projects with reading that
are then shared and even archived. Have a free
reading program and promote books through
book talks, online reviews, etc.
To foster work pleasure
use inquiry contexts and work toward
culminating projects, including service and
social action projects.
To foster inner work pleasure
engage students in imaginative rehearsals for
living, inquiry geared toward current and
future action, or inquiry for service. Have
students think as authors making choices and
plan scenarios for characters in dilemmas or
those trying to help the characters. Write to
the future or to a future self.
Thank you!