A survey suggests that up to a third of children in an average classroom are hindered from keeping up with lessons because of their reading ability and need additional help.
However, while 69% of the teachers in the research said they felt well-equipped to address the needs of students with differing reading skills, 84% admitted to sometimes feeling at a loss as to how to help struggling readers in their lessons.
Teachers also report that parents often struggle to encourage their children to read at home, especially due to digital distractions and also because parents themselves sometimes do not read much.
The findings reveal a key challenge for schools – the conflict between effective interventions to support struggling pupils versus lost curriculum and classroom time.
Teachers in the study said that around a quarter of their pupils are being taken out of lessons and classrooms for around 2.5 hours a week due to reading interventions (2.7 hours a week in primary schools and 2.3 at secondary). This equates to roughly 16 days of classroom time a year.
The research is based on responses from 611 teachers working in both primary and secondary schools and has been published by Renaissance Learning and GL Assessment.
More than half of the teachers (58%) said sufficient time is given to developing reading skills across the curriculum and 66% of the secondary teachers agreed that it is their school’s responsibility to teach phonics.
The study however finds that not all teachers are supportive of the common strategy of sharing the books they are reading with pupils – 60% of the respondents said that their school asks them to do this, but 47% are reluctant to share their book choices due to privacy concerns or because the books they choose are “low-brow” or controversial. Other approaches being implemented in schools include daily reading time (79% primary; 65% secondary).
The foreword to the research report has been written by Jonathan Douglas, chief executive at the National Literacy Trust. He said: “This research makes a valuable and much-needed contribution to the evidence-base around the many ways we can better support the next generation to flourish as motivated, independent readers. Helping teachers access the resources they need to be able to confidently teach reading and make reading a part of everyday school life will equip more children and young people with the reading and literacy skills they need for life.”
Commenting on the research, Kay Tinsley, director of teaching and learning at the Kemnal Academies Trust, said: “In all of our schools, teachers are expected to read to students. There’s a lot more reading out loud, there’s a lot more listening to texts, and there’s a lot more focus on reading longer texts in lessons, asking comprehension questions, or encouraging children to be more strategic readers within subject areas.
“Teachers will … focus on non-fiction texts, to explore concepts within the curriculum in a way that they didn’t do before, when they would have perhaps relied on bulleted information rather than encouraging them to read lengthier texts.”
The survey also asked teachers about their own reading habits. Almost all teachers read for pleasure – 57% all the time, 40% some of the time – and 65% spend more time doing so now than they did five years ago.
- The research report, Turning the page: Tackling the myths and assumptions that impede reading in schools, is available via https://reports.gl-assessment.co.uk/turning-the-page/