I know that not everyone reads ‘for fun’ – and certainly for some of my students, it’s an alien concept. Reading is something you do because the teacher tells you, or to get some information, or for religious reasons.
However, those students generally watch TV, and so have an understanding of ‘story’, which (I hope) can be transferred to another medium! I’m such a fan of reading for relaxation myself – but for students I see it as a great way to get more language input, more exposure to language patterns, and more clues about cultural expectations. It also offers so much opportunity for discussion of ‘real issues’ – and the chance to explore that very important critical literacy.
Summer reading special!
I’ve made three intermediate level e-books free on Smashwords until Feb 28: they’re called The English Chip (free in epub = Apple-compatible only), Blood Kind (free also in mobi version for Kindle), and the 1853 best-seller (seriously – I just adapted it), A Lady’s Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53.
Now there are also Book Club questions (and chapter by chapter questions) for the first two books, to download as a pdf.
I’m hoping to publish these stories as print books some time this year, but you can grab them now as a download. Find out more at my other site, The Book Next Door, in the news section, or go to these links – and happy reading!
