Experiment 2: Active reading

Sarika and Carol are working on the concept and assessment of Active reading. We ran two sessions so far, one with a year 7 group and another with the SAR group to try to decipher their understanding of the term 'active reading'. In the second session, the students worked on reaching a common definition, followed by sculptures, in pairs, of 'active' readers and 'passive' readers.
Session 3 involved them assessing each other on the qualities of active reading: Some of the qualities they thought were important in active reading were: focus; imaginative engagement; the understanding of a book; the ability to talk about the book; and the ability to develop a relationship with the book in enjoying the book...Some added that getting to the end of the book is important; for some describing the beginning, middle and end were crucial for an active reader; also being able to draw the main message in the book, or to capture a certain scene was a possible sign of a good understanding.
It was obvious from all these qualities that judging an active reader was no easy task; writing comments for each other in role as teachers mirrored the difficulty in that assessment: some talked about confidence in communicating information and about the choice of the book.
the benefit of this experiment was in throwing the question back at the students, which made them think of what they are being assessed on and how. More on this process will come soon