: Reading for Pleasure Elusive, tantalising-yet teachable (Part 1)

As adults mostly born before the current digital age, where much of life is delivered on or via a screen, there is a gulf between our experience of childhood and that which is being lived by the children in our classes. For many of us, reading was one of the few forms of entertainment available so there was a greater driver to access it from an early age. That is not true of now. Reading for pleasure has never been lower in our nation’s children. According to the latest statistics reported by the National Literacy Trust only 43% of children aged 8 – 18 choose to read in their spare time. The 2021 PIRLS Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report found that while our children are competent readers, they are very far behind their peers abroad (only 29% as opposed to the 46% of international children surveyed, who are volitional readers) in enjoyment of reading.

There is a large body of research to show that reading for pleasure has a positive correlation with social, academic and emotional benefits. It is a lever for social justice, enabling children to succeed beyond their starting points. Thus it falls, ever more, to us – their teachers – to give children the space, the guidance and the opportunity to explore the wide world of reading.And reading is incredibly complex. It is easy for the novice reader to lose confidence and motivation. If you look at the strands that make up ​‘the reader’ in Scarborough’s reading rope or the user-friendly EEF Reading House, you find that once the ​‘jump start’ of phonics has created an early reader, it is necessary to work on vocabulary acquisition and inciting or creating prior knowledge as the foundations on which reading comprehension rests.

The role of the teacher

Enter the classroom teacher: an adult uniquely placed as an expert reader whose expertise and modelling is the bedrock of the pleasure of reading in the class. There is magic here because, as those of us that remember Jackanory will tell you, listening to a well-read story is like listening to music or watching a show – it’s just that the performance happens inside your own head.

This is the cornerstone of a classroom reading community. Theresa Cremin et al (2014) have carried out extensive research to identify a pedagogy to teaching reading for pleasure. At its heart, it places reading as a shared social experience, conducted by a reading teacher who supports children’s choice and agency over what is being read, while offering their expertise on children’s literature when needed.

Us reading to them is the hook. Our prosody draws them in.

What’s the catch? There are two. One is time. And it can take courage in a crowded curriculum to protect your reading space in the timetable. The second is that you need to hand over the choice to the children. For this to be successful, teachers need to know children’s books. Beyond the well-trodden paths of celebrity authors and traditionally cited names there is a treasure palace of authors writing today. Our role is to make sure that what our children are choosing from will excite, enthuse and leave them wanting more. We are the curators of their experience, and we need to cultivate our knowledge so that our offer to them is of the highest possible quality. As in every subject, children don’t know what they don’t know. We can teach them about the other books we think they might like without passing judgement on what they do like. Children knowing that their choices are valid and respected by you is central to them trusting you as a guide so that they will let you take them down unexplored reading pathways.

In part two of this blog, I will explore the tweaks you can make to your classroom practice to promote reading for pleasure.