What Are We Reading For? | Series 1, Episode 25

Episode 25 transcript

What are we reading for? Positive and negative influences on reading culture in schools

What hinders a positive reading culture in schools?

Schools face numerous challenges in cultivating a positive reading culture that encourages reading for wisdom or pleasure. From limited resources to restrictive policies, these barriers can severely impact children’s attitudes toward reading. This article explores both the practices that prevent schools from nurturing a love for reading and categorizes the different levels of reading cultures in educational settings.

The Reading Culture Spectrum – from positive to negative

It’s important to examine and discuss with school staff the purposes of reading in school. What are we reading for? Are children reading for pleasure, reading for wisdom, reading for enlightenment, reading for character, or just reading for academic progress? What do these phrases mean? What do they translate to each day in your setting? What concrete measures can you put in place to develop a positive reading culture?

Schools can create a spectrum of reading experiences for students, ranging from those fostering autonomy and enjoyment to more restrictive or mandatory approaches that limit reading freedom. Below is a scale of reading culture levels from the most positive to the most restrictive:

Reading for Wisdom or Enlightenment

1. Children Choose
   In the most positive reading cultures, children are empowered to make informed choices about their reading. They have excellent access to books, librarians, and a range of resources, with minimal restrictions on reading materials.

Reading for Pleasure

2. Positive Guidance
   Teachers and librarians provide guidance by recommending books based on student’s interests and reading levels, offering support while maintaining autonomy in reading choices.
3. Strings Attached
   A positive reading culture is present but hampered by mandatory reading records, structured reading assessments, and strict timing for book selection. These requirements add a degree of formalisation that can detract from the spontaneity of reading.

Reading for Apathy

4. Fractured Choice
   Students have some reading choices, but limited access to books, library time, and reading role models restricts this autonomy. Opportunities for finding diverse and engaging reading materials are constrained.
5. What Books?
   Children might choose not to read at all. There are no librarians, no suggestions, no posters or displays, few books, and no reading spaces. No one really cares.

Reading for Misery

6. X Knows Best
   Adults or computer systems select books based on criteria such as vocabulary richness or educational value. This restricts student choice and prioritises prescribed educational objectives over personal interest.
7. Cancel Culture
   Frequent purges of books by authors whose values are deemed controversial or outdated limit students’ exposure to diverse perspectives. This approach can reduce the variety of accessible literature in school libraries.

Reading for Indoctrination

8. Mandatory Lists
   A uniform, prescribed list of books must be read by students, with limited regard for individual preference or interest. This approach often emphasises inculcation rather than voluntary reading.
9. Book Bans
   In the most negative environments, books are banned based on religious, political, or social content, severely limiting access to diverse materials. Such restrictions constrain students’ ability to explore a range of viewpoints through literature.

What are the most common Barriers to achieving a Positive Reading Culture in schools?

• Incomplete Book Collections
  Schools that lack full book series or updated library collections hinder students’ access to engaging, comprehensive stories. For example, an incomplete series like Harry Potter, Dog Man or Inkheart on library shelves can interrupt students’ reading continuity and dampen enthusiasm.
• Lack of Reading Modelling by Staff
  Teachers who do not actively model reading in class inadvertently signal to students that reading is not a priority. Instead of reading alongside students during quiet time, if educators engage in administrative tasks, the opportunity to set an example is lost.
• Limited Access to Visiting Authors and Storytellers
  When guest authors, poets, or storytellers visit schools, it is essential that students have access to these sessions. Prioritizing assessments, sports matches or scheduling conflicts during these events can prevent students from benefiting from the enriching experience of meeting literary figures.
• Mandated Reading Records
  Requiring students to log every reading session in journals may detract from the enjoyment of reading. Such mandatory documentation can shift the activity from pleasure to task-based, formalising an experience that should feel personal and voluntary. Having to read at least 10 pages or being required to write a 200-word review makes reading a chore, not a pleasure.
• Restrictive Book Selection Periods
  When students are given minimal time to select books, often under pressure, it restricts their ability to make thoughtful choices. Counting down from five and enforcing rigid deadlines for book selection can diminish the feeling of autonomy in reading. Telling children they must pick a book, any book, otherwise, they will have to read x is not conducive to encouraging reading. Telling children that if they don’t pick a book by the end of the period they will receive a demerit, written note, detention etc is not helpful.
• Focus on Reading Evidence Over Enthusiasm
  Prioritising formal evidence of reading, such as signed reading records, over the actual enjoyment of reading can deter students. You might want to hear every child read every day. But why do you need to report that and provide evidence? Where does that data go? Is recording reading every day useful for the child, or simply a management device? A negative response to unlogged reading—such as disapproval for not recording—shifts the focus from enjoyment to mere accountability.
• Overly Controlled Book Levels
  Limiting students to books strictly within their reading level disregards individual curiosity. Prohibiting access to materials that may be too challenging or simple restricts students from exploring topics of interest that may lie outside designated reading levels. Telling children they cannot read ‘y’ until they’ve read all of ‘x’ frames reading as a task to endure and overcome.
• Neglect of Community Library Resources
  Schools that do not engage with local libraries or children’s bookshops miss out on valuable resources that foster reading interest. Failing to connect with these community assets reduces exposure to diverse reading materials and people passionate about books. Many children don’t have a library card. Many more parents wouldn’t know how to sign up for one. Schools need to lead on this. Why not liaise with your local library to get the whole class, year group or even school signed up?
• Repetitive Book Selections Across Year Groups
  Continuing to read the same class novels across multiple years, regardless of age appropriateness, can make the activity seem monotonous. Selecting age-appropriate, fresh materials for each class year maintains engagement and variety. Give you class autonomy. Involve them in the process of choosing each class novel.
• Stagnant Reading Promotion Displays
  Unchanged reading displays, especially with outdated posters, communicate a lack of active interest in reading. Promotional material that remains static or features staff who have left the school fails to convey an evolving, engaged reading culture. If your school has a blank walls policy, remember that the two academic studies relied on to underpin this thinking are flawed, and there’s no evidence to support the notion that 7-16-year-olds are distracted by wall displays. No evidence at all. More often than not, no wall-display edicts in schools are set up by SLT teachers who are too lazy or disinterested to put up displays or celebrate pupils’ work and learning.
• Limited Library Access and Operating Hours
  Restricting library access to specific, infrequent times can create barriers for students wanting to explore new books independently. Additionally, keeping the library closed before and after school further limits opportunities for voluntary reading. School libraries should be open every day, all the time. If barriers are being created to this, perhaps challenge the personalities who are creating them and question their motives. The purpose of a school library is to encourage reading. Anything else is secondary.
• Outdated or Poor-Quality Reading Materials
  Retaining outdated, worn, or irrelevant books (e.g., “Will Humans Ever Visit the Moon?”) over fresh material can make reading resources appear neglected. Providing current, high-quality materials is essential to sustaining interest.
• Neglect of Poetry
  Poetry is an essential element of literature that often receives minimal attention in schools. When poetry is disregarded due to its limited role in standard assessments, students miss out on a diverse and expressive literary form.
• Limited Physical Interaction with Books in Shared Reading
  Minimising physical access to physical books, such as by sharing one copy among multiple students, using photocopies or relying entirely on eBooks, reduces individual interaction with literature. Physical engagement with books is crucial for fostering a connection to reading.
• Inadequate Classroom Resources
  A classroom lacking comfortable reading corners, author displays, or recommendation shelves limits students’ exposure to book suggestions and the comfort of a dedicated reading environment.
• Vague Teacher Interest in Reading
  When teachers express only a general interest in reading without discussing specific books, authors, or genres, students receive little guidance or encouragement to explore new texts. Encourage all adults to proactively model reading. That’s teachers, teaching assistants, support staff, governors and parents and guardians.
• Limiting Non-Traditional Reading Material
  Restricting students to traditional books and discouraging magazines, comics, audiobooks, or newspapers limits exposure to varied text types. Diverse reading material can provide a broader view of language and content, especially for reluctant readers.
• Prioritising SATs Papers Over Independent Reading
  In the lead-up to standardised testing, limiting Year Six students’ reading to SATs papers in primary schools or Year 8 pupils to entrance exams in prep schools can stifle their independent reading interests and opportunities for relaxation and enjoyment through books.
• Prescriptive Reading Questions for Parents
  Supplying parents with differentiated reading questions, often focused on formal concepts like inference, can overly formalise home reading sessions. This approach can detract from a more spontaneous, conversational exploration of texts. If your school provides guidance to parents, focus on encouraging parents to get involved in the reading, model the reading and make reading fun and informative.
• Multipurpose Library Spaces
  When libraries serve as storage spaces or venues for other school activities, students may feel that the library’s primary purpose is diminished. A dedicated library space communicates that reading is a valued, stand-alone activity. A library is a space to display and organise books and promote reading, research and books. It’s not a dumping ground for old computers, musical instruments, or sports bags. It’s not a spare room for one-to-one teaching, support lessons, detentions, parental yoga groups or mindlessness sessions. Use your library as a library!
• Strict Independent Reading Conditions
  When independent reading time is overly strict, such as requiring silent, upright reading at desks, it can reduce enjoyment. Enabling a relaxed and social reading environment may increase student engagement and interest.
• Lack of Student Ownership of Reading Culture
  Preventing students from having roles as pupil librarians or recommending books to peers limits their sense of ownership in school reading culture, reducing their enthusiasm and sense of community around reading. Involve your students in all aspects of the library – cataloguing, tidying, running, culling, purchasing, feng shui, pot plants, posters, displays and loan recovery. Students who are involved care more than those who are not.  
• Minimal Book-Centric Assemblies
  Rarely holding assemblies about books, aside from annual events like World Book Day or punitive diatribes about pupils who haven’t handed in books, limits school-wide promotion of reading. Regular assemblies at school, house, class and tutor group level dedicated to books and reading can strengthen collective enthusiasm.
• Omitting Book Discussions in Staff Meetings
  Not allocating time in staff meetings for discussing books and reading limits opportunities for teachers to share recommendations. When school staff discuss and recommend books, it helps build a cohesive reading culture among both staff and students. Be sure to involve all your teachers and teaching assistants, not just your English and literacy staff. It’s no good if reading and books are just an ‘English lesson thing’.
• Frequent Cancellations of Story Time
  Regularly cancelling story time, reading periods, DEAR or whatever you call reading in your school is a great way to stamp out a reading ethos. Call reading ‘reading’. No acronyms! Don’t cancel it to attend to administrative tasks or errands. These behaviours signal that reading is a lower priority! Reading isn’t subordinate to sports matches, getting changed for PE, one-to-one lessons, getting in late from break, or getting ready to go home. Admit it, your school would never treat maths lessons that way. Consistent, uninterrupted, contiguous storytime emphasises the importance of a reading culture in your school.

Final thoughts

Establishing a positive reading culture in schools is essential to fostering students’ interest in reading for pleasure and knowledge. By identifying and addressing these barriers and recognising where schools may fall on the reading culture spectrum, educators and administrators can work toward creating an environment that nurtures a love for reading, encouraging students to engage meaningfully with literature.