Abstract
Based on data collected in 24 Belgian, French, Quebec and Swiss classes of 12- and 15-year-old students regarding the reading of Romain Gary’s short story ‘A Craving For Innocence’, this article studies what these data reveal about the progression of pupils’ reading skills and that of their teachers’ practices, as well as about national specificities. Attention is focused more precisely on the treatment reserved by students and teachers of the three reading operations of comprehension, appreciation and interpretation, as well as the place that teachers reserve for transversal didactic schemes, types of school activity and basic didactic practices.