Human survival depends on the ability to acquire and use knowledge to one’s advantage. One avenue of acquiring knowledge is reading. But what is reading? Definitions are numerous and complex. Reading and understanding a text involves a nexus of perceiving the words, evoking memories, ideas and plenty of knowledge. This complexity seems responsible for variations among learners’ reading abilities and their differential academic performances. Basing on data from a quasi-experimental design using pre- and post-tests done by secondary school learners, lesson observations, interviews and focus group discussions, and guided by Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development and The Apprenticeship Model, this study analyses the interplay between the personal, the social, the cognitive and the knowledge building dimensions, scrutinizes the roles played by the internal and external meta-cognition processes to explore possibilities of providing pleasant and gainful reading experiences among Ugandan learners. It establishes that scaffolding is fundamental in teaching reading and suggests strategies for enlivening the reading experience, enhancing the reading culture, and highlights the pedagogical implications on learners’ academic achievements.

reading, apprenticeship model, Metacognition, classroom dimensions, cognitive development