We must keep challenging our children to read more

THE largest-ever study into children’s literacy in the UK and Ireland has just been published and it contains some good news for Scotland as well as identifying several areas for improvement.

I have been analysing data for the annual What Kids Are Reading Report, produced by Renaissance UK, which this year examines the reading habits of more than one million pupils across England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The good news is that Scottish pupils have the greatest level of reading comprehension amongst these nations. Less positively, they read slightly easier books than their peers in other countries, and it is essential for development that they read books they not only enjoy and understand but that also challenge them.

In Scotland, 29,524 pupils participated in the 2019 study. Jeff Kinney and David Walliams were the most popular authors, as was the case elsewhere. However, Wonder (RJ Palacio), Buddy (Nigel Hinton) and Skellig (David Almond) did particularly well in Scotland. Generally, Scotland’s pupils performed similarly to last year, although there was a leap in comprehension in Primary 3 with no corresponding decline in difficulty. The difficulty of books read rose steadily to P6 but throughout all years Scottish and Northern Irish pupils tended to read easier books than the others. Consequently they were shown to better comprehend the books they read. Comprehension quality held up well in P7 in Scotland but, worryingly, declined rapidly after this stage, just as in previous years. The difficulty of books plateaued after P6, a persistent problem in line with the other nations.

The P3 improvement and P7 sustaining of comprehension quality is to be celebrated, and Scotland’s distinctive taste in reading material is also a feature of interest but the simple fact is that Scottish pupils

One big positive aspect of the study was an increase in the number of words read

tend to read books that are too easy. This isn’t an issue of performance in one subject. Poor literacy standards impact on a pupil’s ability to fully understand examination questions in all areas. Beyond this, many are unlikely to be able to distinguish between fake and real news, affecting their ability to become informed and involved citizens.

Over all the UK, good quality comprehension was associated with higher reading attainment. Additionally, the more time spent reading in or out of school, the better was the pupil’s reading achievement. Readers of low ability also recorded better achievement the more they read.

One of the most positive aspects of the study was an increase in the number of words read across all participating nations. In primary, there were 22,757,319,929 extra words read in 2019, a 29 per cent increase (the number of pupils rose by 24 per cent). In secondary, there were 148,860,992,160 extra words read in 2019, a 3 per cent increase (1 per cent increase in pupils).

Teachers, librarians and parents need to encourage pupils to read harder books, especially in secondary school. However, there is little point in reading harder books if comprehension quality declines markedly as a result, so there is also a need to emphasis careful, patient reading to ensure good quality comprehension. Additionally, the pupil peer group should be activated, placing emphasis on pupils recommending their favourite (hard) books to their classmates.

In Scotland, the First Minister’s Reading Challenge is an interesting development and within this context, the idea of Reading Dares is perhaps the most pertinent. Pupils need to dare to read more difficult books while sustaining a high level of comprehension. It follows from the above that pupils daring other pupils to do this may well be more effective than anything adults can do.

Agenda is a column for outside contributors.

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