This study explores the nature of foreshadowing in text as an aspect of the writer's craft in order to build a theory of active reading which would give rise to demonstrations of textuality. It treats the instances of foreshadowing as demonstrations of craft in writing and stresses that foreshadowing occurs in transactions between readers and texts. It seeks to show the potential for teachers as readers to provide demonstrations to students of reading practices which engage with text in such ways that the text may be exposed as existing at different levels. The study thus uses the developing theory as a base for building a pedagogy for foreshadowing and other aspects of reading and writing. An interlocking series of conceptual analyses explores the concepts of demonstration and foreshadowing, and also the interrelationships of reading, writing and interpretation. Textual analyses in the study demonstrate that identification of foreshadowing is practicable. The theory provided by the study asserts that text has the potential to be seen as transparent or opaque, and that the skilled and active reader can shift attention from one level to another during a reading. The study reviews the whole language orientation to pedagogy, and suggest that it could absorb some of the features of a genre approach to language teaching with benefit, through a greater emphasis on the ways in which texts work and acceptance of the flexibility of attention which can be paid to text without losing a focus on meaning. A range of pedagogical strategies explored in primary school classrooms is recommended as providing effective demonstrations of the textuality involved in identifying and employing foreshadowing in reading and writing.