Reading... A Real Obsession! Actions and Good Practices to Promote Reading in Cyprus Primary Schools

Context and Challenges

In spite of the documented significant benefits of a child's positive relationship with books and reading, international studies show low levels of reading habits, attitudes, and motivation among young readers (Gallagher; Karakitsios; Krashen). The situation in Cyprus and Greece is quite discouraging (EKEBI, 2010) as reading education seems to be limited to formulaic teaching/learning and evaluation, through reading activities that are mainly concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and skills and not so much with the development of reading engagement (Katsiki-Givalou; Panaou).

Within the Greek-Cypriot context, literature has its own separate curriculum throughout primary education, distinguishing it from language teaching and learning. This separate curriculum emphasizes the importance of literature in modern schools and showcases the value of literature on its own merit. As is usually the case, though, what actually takes place in schools looks quite different. The majority of elementary school teachers only occasionally incorporate literary texts other than the ones included in their Language Arts textbooks, and only to enhance their language units rather than for the sake of literature itself.

And while the development of reading engagement is identified as a central aim in the Literature Curriculum, schools usually only devote one or two weeks per school year to it. It should be noted here that during the 2016–2017 school year, the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture set reading promotion as an emphasized yearlong goal across all Cyprus elementary schools; while this was a commendable effort, it was abandoned the very next year.

Some possible reasons for the disjuncture between official policy and practice could be the lack of guidance and support for the teachers, the lack of relevant materials and school infrastructures (e.g., school libraries), unclear expectations regarding the texts and practices to be incorporated, and the lack of professional development of literature in education (Panaou).

The Lifelong Readers Program

As a public school teacher, and in the absence of state initiatives, I was first involved in a reading promotion program in 2011, through the EU-funded project Lifelong Readers (LiRe). LiRe, which was launched by the international research center CARDET in cooperation with partners from six European countries, developed a reading school-wide promotion framework, aiming to

• • convince stakeholders of the need to devote more time and effort to reading promotion and to place reading for pleasure at the center of their policies, approaches, and practices;

• • provide stakeholders with guidance, training, and an array of tools for reading promotion in the primary school; and

• • initiate change by implementing reading promotion programs in all participating countries.

The public school I was working at (3rd Macedo-nitissas Elementary School) collaborated with the project coordinator, Dr. Petros Panaou, and placed the development of a reading for enjoyment culture at the center of our efforts. As part of my graduate work at the time, I combined my involvement in the project with a study of the effects of reading promotion actions on first grade students. The action plan we had designed was based on four pillars: the active involvement of everyone who worked at the school at that time, the active involvement of all of the students, reaching out to our students' families, and collaborating with the community and other organizations.

In order to engage all school staff, we prioritized reading promotion discussions during staff meetings and collaborated to revamp the central school library. At the same time, we strived to make the most of each teacher's special talents and abilities and involved all school subjects through interdisciplinary approaches. Conceptualizing the development of school-wide reading promotion as a team effort, we highlighted our school's reading culture across the entire school building, adopting the motto "We read! Do you?"

Good Reading Promotion Practices

Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) was an effective practice we had implemented. Children in all rooms across the school were free to choose and read whatever they wanted for at least ten minutes at the beginning of the day. We confirmed other research findings that have shown how FVR enhances reading engagement and...