Dr Rachael Levy on What Kids Are Reading

I was intrigued by Alison Flood's article in the Guardian on the 7th March 'Alarm over secondary school reading habits', which presented findings from Professor Keith Topping's report 'What Kids Are Reading'. In brief, the report claimed that there is something 'seriously amiss' with the way young people are encouraged to read during their secondary school education, as many students are choosing to read books with an average reading age that is significantly below their actual age. While I agree that there is an urgent need to find ways in which to encourage secondary-age students to become motivated and engaged with reading, I am concerned that such a focus on 'reading age' will be at best ineffective and at worst demotivating for many young people.

Research tells us that as children get older and enter their early years in secondary education, they also report an increasing lack of interest in reading. This must be taken seriously as there is a wealth of further research, as Topping himself acknowledges, showing that students who enjoy reading have higher educational achievement. Moreover, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (a large international study of reading achievement) shows that England's children consistently rate poorly in terms of attitudes towards reading in comparison with children from comparable countries.

So how do we help our teenagers to develop positive attitudes towards reading? Firstly, I would argue that telling young people that the books they are already reading and enjoying are of a level that is significantly below their age, will likely result in these students giving up on reading altogether rather than encouraging them to read more challenging books. Secondly, research published in 2004 by Kristina Love and Julie Hamston at the University of Melbourne indicates that young people not only need to be allowed to experience genuine choice in what they read but they must also know that their reading choices and reading  identities are recognized and taken seriously by teachers and parents. This all strongly suggests that Topping's alarmist declarations are unlikely to support the quest to encourage children's engagement with reading. Rather, I would argue that schools need to employ reading initiatives such as the Booktrust programme Bookbuzz, which is designed to encourage reading for pleasure, independent choice and develop a whole school reading culture. Bookbuzz gives schools the opportunity to offer their Year 7 students a free book as a gift; the students choose their own book from a range of carefully selected titles.

Bookbuzz 'works' for a number of reasons, but findings from a recent evaluation of Bookbuzz indicate that much of this can be attributed to the fact that Bookbuzz provides schools with a very carefully designed programme, presenting a selection of books that allow young people to experience genuine choice, while simultaneously ensuring that this choice is appropriately guided. This evaluation is saturated with examples from students themselves who applaud the fact that Bookbuzz not only provides significant choice but extends their engagement with reading by introducing them to new authors, a new series, and new genres of books that they may not have otherwise experienced. In sum, Bookbuzz begins from the position of celebrating rather than condemning young people's reading - surely this is key to promoting positive attitudes to reading in our children?

Dr Rachael Levy, School of Education, University of Sheffield