How did teachers connect practical activities and reading?
The study was based on the researchers’ beliefs that pupils could be helped to understand texts if those texts were closely connected to topics they already knew something about and were interested in exploring further. The teachers involved in the study believed that pupils’ motivation to read was improved by first giving them practical activities that captured their interest. Two groups of teachers taught the same science topics, which involved learning about birds or fish and how they survived in their environment. They did so by using a wide variety of practical activities. One group of teachers used considerably more of these practical activities to stimulate interest in, and knowledge of, the topic than the second group of teachers (the comparison group). To sustain pupils’ interest in the topic, the teachers provided follow-up reading on the same topic, using texts that were highly relevant to the practical tasks. For example, following a practical investigation in which pupils
