The National Literacy Trust’s latest report reveals that only 35 per cent of young people aged eight to 18 today read for pleasure. This marks another annual drop, which the report rightly calls “shocking and dispiriting”. So what can we do about it?
Reading the report, I was reminded of a recent interview, in which Oxford University English Professor Sir Jonathan Bate spoke of students at higher educational institutions not being able to “read books” for lengths of time.
The discussion moved through the reasons, including dopamine hits from social media meaning shorter attention spans and the ‘thinning’ of the GCSE and A level syllabus with less-dense texts.
As the conversation moved on, there was a suggestion that students who were privately educated would persevere with a challenging book for longer, and that those students who had not been privately educated were equally able to read but had not been exposed to large numbers of challenging books.
This is the gap our trust’s Astrea Reads programme sets out to bridge. Its very purpose is to give students access a wide and diverse literary repertoire and to improve reading for all in our schools.
Every student should have the right to read a rich array of literature across the genres, allowing them to discover the joy of reading. Being able to read and understand text is a crucial life skill that every person should have the chance to develop, and should be able to do it well.
Yet we know that nationally, 25 per cent of 15-year-olds have a reading age lower than that expected of a 12-year-old. That’s why our method aims to boost levels of literacy in tandem with exploring a rich variety of texts.
Astrea reads
Students taking part in Astrea Reads cover six texts a year in addition to those on the curriculum.
We have a wide variety of texts and materials to appeal to students, to encourage them to enjoy reading. These include Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
How it works
The programme begins in year 7, when new students are assessed in the ‘New Group Reading Test’, our evaluation tool to benchmark reading progress. We use this information to help us begin to understand how best to support each student.
At the very start of the academic year, our teachers, in a dedicated, daily 25-minute reading session, read aloud to the class, fluently and at pace, in an interesting and exciting way as students follow the text.
Known as ‘immersive’ reading, this method allows all students to listen and read along, with those weaker readers who might be struggling able to follow the flow of text. It also allows teachers to check vocabulary that students need for each session.
Competent and higher-level readers will develop a more rigorous understanding of the text and will also read aloud as the classes progress.
Catering for all levels
Our three strands within Astrea Reads are tailored for all students’ capabilities, including reading aloud, reading interventions for weaker readers and Sparx Reader, a reading, comprehension and vocabulary programme, to encourage regular reading and improved vocabulary.
We also have special provision for those students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), who need extra support with reading and understanding.
In addition, reading is also a central part of academic subject lessons in our schools. We aim to expose our students to approximately 8,000 to 10,000 words per day.
Some studies suggest that regular reading can help to enhance academic performance and cognitive development. Our ambition for students at Astrea schools is that they will be able to tackle lengthy novels, persevere with trickier texts and continue to read and enjoy challenging literature.
We want every student to develop a lifelong passion for reading for pleasure, whatever path they take in their lives.
I’m sorry but Astrea Reads is a one size fits all approach filled with sanction fuelled fear.
My child pre secondary loved reading, has a reading age 6 years above their age. We’ve worked really hard to instil that love of reading.
Now they sit through these 25 minutes more worried about the book being flat and the ruler being in the right place for fear of sanctions. Not looking out the window or sitting up straight. The teachers might not finish books because they’ve run out of time before the term ends and they move onto the next one. There is no time for discussion or questions or deepening understanding.
Combined with sparx reader which disrupts the reading with questions and doesn’t show previous sections of text Astrea reads have sucked the joy of reading from my child.