Reading for Pleasure

‘Reading for Pleasure’ certainly seems to be the phrase of the moment in education. In the last month alone we have been asked to work with groups of Literacy Coordinators from two different Local Authorities on the subject, and it would appear it is the area of many a conference this year, as well as a research paper or ten.

eHowever, as an area of interest, ‘Reading for Pleasure’ has been on the horizon educationally for a few years. The paper ‘Reading for Purpose and Pleasure’ by Ofsted back in 2004 explored the need for a stronger reading culture to be embedded in schools to support pupils in developing positive attitudes to reading – something not to be taken for granted – and identified successful schools which had embraced this. Since then the 2006 publication entitled ‘Reading for Pleasure’ by the National Literacy Trust have discussed their research on the subject, and more recently the Ofsted paper ‘Moving English Forward’ (2012) has recommended that each school develop policies that actively encourage reading for pleasure to take place in schools.

Of course, with creating any policy or statement that reflects the current practice of a school there needs to be a working party, or a consultation to define the strengths and agreed methodology of one workplace. This is problematic in itself as what one person will see as pleasurable will be another person’s pain and enforcing reading can be counter-productive. We need to be open about the range of methods we could use to promote reading in school, utilising breakfast and after school clubs, parents and volunteers to ensure opportunities are plentiful and varied and not just left up to class teachers to deliver upon, although through our reading instruction, we can ensure we are using books to engage and excite within our Literacy lessons.

The importance of having a variety of different reading material available in a school cannot be under-estimated. There needs to be a range of texts available to cater to different interests and ideally it should be different to the provision you would have for Literacy lessons or Guided Reading. Although we would always advocate the use of quality texts in school, we need to make sure that when children are allowed to pick their own books, we should not just have picture books and novels available, but comics, newspapers and graphic novels to hand as well. At one training session recently, we brought in a variety of reading material and gave delegates post-it notes with different facets of pleasure on; to laugh, to be informed etc. and asked them to place them on the texts, the result being that of course there isn’t one text that does everything. To be become readers for life, children need to be guided to be critical readers, picking up one text whilst disregarding another. Malorie Blackman, the new Children’s Laureate, has already spoken about this, snubbing the idea of prescribed ‘must read’ lists with books on it that are deemed more ‘worthy’ than others.

Recently, we were asked to work with a school on their new library as they had identified the need to support children to make choices about books. The opportunity to create a new library arose and so we re-organised the books into types – but as defined by the children. So, we now have sections with ‘Books that make us laugh’ and ‘Books that are set in other worlds’. Not only have these new section been used in the library, but they have been used in class libraries/book corners as well. This again helps us to create critical readers. After all, as adults, we are allowed to be choosy about the genre of book we prefer.

Of course there are many schools who already have regular events to promote reading for pleasure and have justified using curriculum time. Michael Rosen has a great list of suggested activities on his website entitled ‘A 20 point plan to ensure everyone is talking about reading’. Some of these include bookmaking and performing stories as well as creating close links with book-sellers and training colleagues on children’s literature.

Book groups are becoming increasingly popular with teachers and children as a way of supporting each other with choices whilst making reading a sociable activity, rather than an isolated activity. We run a monthly book group in South London for teachers and in the last year we have worked our way though a fair amount of the Carnegie long list – a great place to start for recommendations! Being seen as a reader and providing a role model for reading is much easier if you are reading a book you enjoy yourself as well. Many teacher’s classrooms now have signs outside their classrooms telling the children what they are reading, as well as book reviews in corners, written by teachers.

There are countless benefits of reading for pleasure cited within all the papers above, including having a significant effect on a child’s socio-economic status as well as supporting their grammatical awareness and ability to write using a wider range of vocabulary confidently. Of course, the main benefit of all these activities is that reading is seen as a worthwhile and pleasurable activity for life, not just in a school context and sometimes that can’t be measured. Something we find hard in education to cope with.

So, if you do decide you need a policy or statement on this area next year, please consider what ’pleasure’ your school wants to reach out towards. We are yet unsure whether ‘reading for pleasure’ is something that should be considered as the product or the process, but we do know that an emphasis on encouraging choice of reading material and an opportunity to have spend more time promoting reading is no bad thing. No bad thing at all.