There have been many studies and reports about the effects of reading for pleasure on the learning of young people.  For example this summary of OECD findings and the UCL’s work on the impact of reading are highly regarded and unanimously point to “reading for pleasure” as being a key indicator of a student’s success academically.  They contain findings such as:

“Teenagers who read in their spare time know 26 per cent more words than those who never read, according to researchers at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS).”

It is seductive isn’t it?  The Government report by the Education Standards Research Team in May 2012 was pretty emphatic that students who choose to read more, perform better academically.  They know more things, have a greater vocabulary, communicate better and concentrate longer than their peers who do not choose to read.  So it looks pretty straightforward doesn’t it?  Get students reading for pleasure more often and their grades will improve.  Well it is a little more complex than that.

It all balances on the words “choice” and “pleasure”.  Students who choose to read for pleasure do better than their peers.  So in other words, students who choose reading as a form of entertainment do better academically than those that don’t.  Well that’s an entirely different assertion altogether isn’t it?  It also makes absolute sense.

Someone that chooses reading as a form of entertainment is likely to be a proficient reader already.  They are likely to be informed enough about their own reading habits to know what they like and choose books they are interested in.  They are likely to possess a set of skills and broad knowledge base that allow them to encounter unfamiliar vocabulary without it derailing their reading.  In short, they are likely to be expert readers who are ready for unguided, independent practice.  For them, Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) or a “Library Lesson” is a dream come true, a time to spend immersed in something they regularly do for fun anyway.

But what about the rest of the group?  Those for whom reading is a chore.  Or those students that lack the basic knowledge of phonics that allow them to decode words automatically.  Or even just those that just dislike it.  For them, DEAR is a very different experience.  An unpleasant time to be endured rather than the joyful experience of their more skilled peers.  And no amount of repeatedly practising it will make them better at it or find it more pleasurable.  (Whether or not we can (or even should) influence what another person finds pleasurable is an entirely different issue and not something we are going to unpick here.)

We’ve written before about doing things with the best intentions at heart that are ultimately ineffective.  It is time to add DEAR to that category: a well intentioned strategy that ultimately doesn’t have the impact we think it does.  In his brilliant blog about independent reading here, Dr Timothy Shanahan says:

Meta-analyses have examined the average impact on reading achievement of summer reading programs (in which kids are encouraged to read on their own during the summer) and sustained silent reading programs (in which kids are encouraged to read on their own during the school day). They have found positive impacts on reading achievement, though the average effect sizes have been pretty low (.14 and .05, respectively — Kim & Quinn, 2013; Yoon, 2002), meaning that such reading leads to learning but not to very much learning.

In other words, the evidence we think applies to all reading actually only applies to those that choose to read as a form of entertainment in their spare time and not to those that read because we make them.  It has some benefits but not the benefits we think it does nor to the extent we think it does.

So what can we do about DEAR?

Well firstly we need to accept that our intentions and the outcomes are not well matched in a Drop Everything And Read strategy that just requires students to read independently.  Even if it is an adult doing the reading it is still going to present too many barriers to too many students to be worthwhile.  For many students it will be a time where they “fake read” enough to keep the teacher off their back for long enough to get through the session and move on to something less unpleasant.  So independent reading where a student sits for an extended period of time with a book is not going to work for many students.  We need to continue to “teach” reading even when we think students are competent.

It is time to Rosenshine Reading

1. Present reading in smaller chunks.  A whole hour in the library or making a full Science lesson devoted to DEAR with an expectation that students read independently is just too long for novice readers.  Within even a 20 minute tutor read aloud session there will be those that struggle to keep up for a number of reasons.  There will be unfamiliar vocabulary that derails them, contextual references that they don’t understand, and background knowledge missing that is crucial to comprehending what is going on in the text.
   
   Reading should be in small chunks for novices and done often.  Break up longer reading sessions with other tasks (see point 3 below) and work to embed reading across all subjects so that students encounter it as a primary method of accessing new information multiple times every single day.  The EEF report on improving literacy in secondary schools places “disciplinary literacy at the core for a reason.  It is this repeated access to smaller chunks of reading that build over time into a power package of deliberate reading practice.

2. Provide models of what successful reading looks and sounds like.  Now we’ve seen it stated in several DEAR policies over the years that teachers should model independent reading by… reading independently during a DEAR session.  Students will apparently learn how to successfully engage with reading if they see an adult engaging with reading.  Well let’s look at this through the eyes of a struggling reader.  That struggling reader could emulate exactly what they see the adult doing and stare equally intently at the pages of an open book without ever reading a single word.  Modelling means actually modelling reading, not engaging in independent reading yourself.
   
   In other words, read to them as often as possible.  As adults we are the expert readers in the room.  We need to be modelling how unfamiliar vocabulary, especially domain specific, Tier 3 vocabulary, should be pronounced.  Prosody is something very often missing when a novice reads resulting in an almost robotic monotone.  Even non-fiction texts should be modelled in the way they sound to an expert reader.  Model the emotions stirred by a text or the interest felt when encountering new information.  You may be the only person in their life that has shown any reaction to reading other than distaste, so it is a good opportunity to send the message that reading is an enjoyable experience.
   
   By reading aloud to students we can also model what expert readers do when they encounter unfamiliar words themselves.  Model breaking words down and using phonics to decode them.  Discuss the etymology and morphology of words to see if they can be linked to other words a student already knows.

3. Check for understanding during the reading.  Successful teachers ask lots of questions.  They constantly check whether what is being transmitted is being received.  Reading is no different for those we are teaching to read.  We should be constantly checking that students understand what they are reading.  By checking for understanding during a text we can intervene immediately to remove barriers.  We can clarify unfamiliar vocabulary, add contextual knowledge, guide discussions around difficult ideas and topics and ensure that students are with us on the journey through a text.  With an adult expert to guide them through it, students can successfully enjoy texts that are more advanced than their own skills would allow them to access independently.

4. Obtain a high success rate by preloading vocabulary.  One of the main ways students become disorientated by a text is when they contain too many words that are unfamiliar to a student.  If a reading session starts by teaching the student some of those unfamiliar words, discussing where they might be encountered and how they link to other prior knowledge we increase the success rate for students navigating a text.  Where the text is domain specific this access to Tier 3 vocabulary is crucial as the likelihood of students encountering those words outside the lesson is slim.  But it is equally true of fiction.  If a Tutor Reading programme is being followed where Form Tutors regularly read a novel aloud to their group, it is good practice to pull out more advanced vocabulary so it can be taught prior to it being encountered.  It definitely isn’t going to be beneficial to simply read the book out loud and plough on past unfamiliar words without engaging with them in some way.
   
   
5. Provide scaffolds for independent practice.  The more “effective reading instruction” we can embed into independent practice the better.  If students are going to be allowed to choose their own books to read, the student whose teacher has carefully curated a reading list of manageable books for them to pick from will be more successful than one placed in a library and given free reign.  Add in support strategies that students can refer to if they encounter unfamiliar words or contextual misunderstandings.  It is also worth considering heavily structured practice strategies such as choral reading where a group read a passage together or echo reading where they repeat an adult who has modelled how a section should sound.
   

The bottom line is this.  In no other subject area would it be appropriate to drop everything and complete some learning, completely independently, regardless of proficiency, and yet we regularly expect it with reading.  Can you imagine a regular “Drop Everything and Fraction” session across school where students were asked to choose the way they practised working with fractions independently for 20 minutes?  It is time to rethink the way reading is practised in a more deliberate way.

DEAR is the discovery learning of the reading instructional repertoire.  If novices could learn efficiently and effectively in areas they had limited motivation in by themselves we would all be out of a job. They can’t. They need careful, deliberate instruction, modelling, guided practice with feedback and THEN independent practice.  Skipping the stages prior to independent practice results in that practice being ineffective and in some cases damaging where misconceptions are reinforced without intervention.

Ultimately, if we want students to choose reading as a form of entertainment to do for pleasure, we need to teach them how to actually read for pleasure.  We can’t just make them read more and expect them to magically find it pleasurable the more they do it.  So it is time to drop “Drop Everything And Read” and think about a structured, deliberate and whole school approach to reading instruction.

Our research into what effective reading practice looks like can be seen in The Literacy Engine Model.  Have a look, try out our FREE resources, and see how we can help you transform your approach to deliberate reading practice across your school.