The teaching of reading provokes heated discussion, particularly when the reputations of governments and institutions rest on what students do and achieve. This paper focuses on the first two years of a three year project where the researchers worked in communities of practice with secondary school English teachers in state, Catholic and independent schools in Victoria, Australia with a focus on examining and improving the teaching of reading. A starting point for practitioner inquiries was giving close attention to what students say about their reading experiences. Based on the students' insight and a return to key theorists, we suggest that the process of reading in English is largely an imaginative act. Like the students, we argue for curriculum that is less "fenced in" by limited notions of quality and more open to genuine learning.