ABSTRACT
In terms of literacy development, one of the primary tasks of a classroom teacher is to understand and extend children’s responses to literary texts. The process begins in the early years of schooling and continues through the primary and secondary stages of education. However, in terms of teacher education and current government guidelines, the actual teaching of the reading of literature warrants a more prominent profile. In order to recognise and extend what Jonathan Culler (1975) called ‘literary competence’ in their pupils, not only should teachers be familiar with a wide range of literature for children (Aidan Chambers, 1993) suggests a newly trained graduate should be familiar with ‘a basic library’ of 500 texts), but they should also have an understanding of the phenomenology of reading – of the diverse and complex ways in which readers bring meaning to texts. Jon Stott (1994), referring to the value of literature for children, sees the teaching of the reading of literature as a developmental process:
. . . one in which each stage of the instruction can introduce reading skills that provide the foundations on which more complex ones are built. Specific stories can be chosen not only for their literary merit but also for introducing, developing or reinforcing response skills.
