Why is Reading for Pleasure important in Primary Education?

Why is Reading for Pleasure important in Primary Education?

Reading pleasure is something that is done not because you have been told to (although may start out this way) but is primarily for your own enjoyment. The National Literacy Trust defines it as reading that we do of our own free will or continuing the reading started at someone else’s request but keep going because we are interested in it (National Literacy Trust, 2006). It does not always entail just sitting at home reading a fiction book but reading non-fiction or being read to. We will explore and discuss some benefits of reading for pleasure and challenges that it may along way.
 Teachers are now placing a higher importance on reading for pleasure as it has many benefits to children. One of those benefits is the affect it has on their development. There is evidence to suggest that children’s emotional and social development is advanced when reading for pleasure (Clark, & Rumbold, 2006). This could be due to being able to relate to the characters in a book so helps their emotional self regulation unconsciously or speaking to a friend or in class about a book or reading material will help with their social skills. Other benefits also include having a positive reading attitude, taking pleasure in reading later in life, increased general knowledge and better text comprehension and grammar (Clark, & Rumbold, 2006).
One of the most obvious benefits of reading for pleasure is the opportunity of language and written skills to be developed and increased (DfE, 2012). Children who read for pleasure have also been found to make more progress in maths, vocabulary and spelling between the ages of 10 and 16 than those who rarely read (Institute of Education, 2015). This is something which if encouraged and motivated from the start, can have a great impact on the pupils but also a whole generation of children.
“Reading is one of the most complex achievements of the human brain” (Wyse, & Goswami, 2008, P.706) and this may be why there’s such of discussion over how reading should be taught. Some say that using synthetic phonics is the way to go and others vouch for multiple methods and that reading for pleasure should be prioritised (Lewis & Ellis, 2006)(Wyse, & Goswami, 2008). With key theorists supporting both arguments, it is hard to give a definite answer to which is the most appropriate.
Reading for pleasure is not always straight forward for children. Some may have difficultly choosing a book that is suitable for their age range or that captures their interest but a major problem for a child to be reading independently is if they can almost or not at all read (Schraw et. al. 2001). A way to over come this is to read with/to a child. Reading with them allows them to experience the text that is beyond their personal level of fluency and introduces them to a more varied and complex language and ideas (Bearne, & Reedy, 2017). This can be done on a one to one basis or as a whole class using a ‘big book’ or on an interactive white board. This will model the rhythms and cadences of the particular text but using intonation and different speech effects to bring the text to life (Bearne, & Reedy, 2017). Children can work together in groups on the same text to give each other support through a combination of discussion, thinking out loud and reading. Texts used in these situations would be selected to match the reading ability of the group but also to present some challenge (Bearne, & Reedy, 2017).
Reading for pleasure can sometimes start at home before school, however if this is not the case teachers can be great role models and have been shown to have a big impact on children’s reading lives (Cremin et al 2009).
Overall, reading for pleasure is a great tool for a gateway to developing skills and motivation within a child’s education. There are endless possibilities on the types of things that children can read about (fiction and non-fiction) which would hopefully cover at least one interest a child has or maybe spark them to discover a new one. When you read as a child and read for pleasure, you are making a pathway to enjoy reading for life.


References:
Bearne, E. & Reedy, D. (2017) Teaching Primary English: Subject Knowledge and Classroom Practice. London; Routledge.
Clark, C., and Rumbold, K. (2006). Reading for Pleasure a research overview. The National Literacy Trust.
Cremin, T. Mottram, M., Collins, F. Powell, S. & Safford, K. (2009) Teachers as Readers: Building Communities of Readers 2007-08 Executive Summary. The United Kingdom Literacy Association.
Department for Education (DfE) (2012) Available online at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284286/reading_for_pleasure.pdf(Accessed on 5thMay).
Institute of Education, (2015) Reading for Pleasure: Research impact case study,
Lewis, M. & Ellis, S. (2006) Phonics: Practice, research and policy. London: Sage
National Literacy Trust, (2006) Reading for Pleasure, London: National Literacy Trust
Schraw, G. Flowerday, T. & Lehman, S. (2001) Increasing situational interest in the classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 211-224.
Sullivan, A. & Brown, M. (2013) Social inequalities in cognitive scores at age 16: The role of reading. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/sh ared/get- file.ashx?itemtype=docume nt&id=1719
Wyse, D. & Goswami, U. (2008) 'Synthetic phonics and the teaching of reading', British Educational Research Journal, P.691-710

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