Or why ‘encouraging higher reading levels’ is not an easy task. 

Teenagers are reading at below their chronological age. The problem with that is the complexity of GCSE texts makes the English exams inaccessible for many students. Those whose daily (weekly or monthly) diet of reading is mainly Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid will struggle with A Christmas Carol and Macbeth. The answer, many schools seem to think, is to force students to read harder books.  I can see the logic, but it doesn’t work.

It’s not hard to work out why.  Reading is essentially solitary.  Of course it is wonderful to read to someone or be read to, but the majority of the reading a young person will do must be done alone.  To do something by yourself, you must be motivated to do it.  Someone who has the choice only of books that are at the top of their ability will inevitably feel less motivated to read alone, particularly if you were struggling to sell them reading as a hobby in the first place.

Schools have got into the habit – especially through the Accelerated Reader scheme (which some day I may have the courage to write about honestly) – of trying to force children to choose books from a narrow range because they are at the ‘right level’. This harms reading habits in at least two ways. Firstly, the students don’t have the breadth of choice they need.  To love reading, you have got to like the genre, the style, the characters, the themes of the books you read.  If you have only a few to choose from, you could find yourself bored or even repelled by what you are reading.  It could easily put you off picking up another book. Secondly, if the books are at the top of the child’s reading ability, they will get tired of working so hard every time they start to read. They will associate reading with hard work, instead of with fun, enjoyment and pleasure.

None of us read to the top of our ability all the time.  It will not surprise you to learn that I am a reader. I love to read and spend a lot of time doing it. I do read books which are very challenging at times. The books I really find a challenge are likely to be modernist works (like James Joyce’s Ulysses or Samuel Beckett’s Murphy), or, alternatively, books written in old English (like Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde or Piers Plowman). There is no way in the world I could get out a poem by Chaucer every night before I go to sleep and still keep my love of reading.  I adore a good murder mystery, a romance, a fantasy book.  I love children’s books of all genres. They do not stretch me as much intellectually, but I love them.  Why do we not allow children the freedom to choose in the way we would like to be able to choose for ourselves?

The other issue I have with reading to the top of your ability is that, if it is guided by teachers, parents and librarians, it will become a way of being judged and judging others.  “Are you only on the silver books?  I’m already on the red ones!” You might hear a comment like that in a primary school where they focus on reading schemes.  But I have taught children who are embarrassed to admit their Accelerated Reading score, knowing it is lower than others in their class.  And I have seen the distress of students wanting to take home a book which is not in their ability band, being refused, and then thinking “Oh that means they think I’m too stupid for that book.  I must be rubbish at reading!”. As soon as we make reading about success and failure rather than fun, well being and interest, we will alienate the very people we want to encourage.  

So, encouraging young people to read is to foster a love of reading. Of course, try and offer other books with other ideas in them, if your child or student has got stuck in a rut with the same old thing. But to narrow down choices, make books about what level you are on, make reading about ‘work’ rather than fun, will be a deterrent to continuing to read. To put it as mildly as possibly, it will be counter productive. We want children to do well, to improve, but we want them to enjoy themselves as well.  If we don’t make it fun, they won’t do it. A simple lesson we could all do with learning!