A house without books is like a room without windows – Heinrich Mann

#1 The Why? Why we have to raise reading age
#2 The What? The Reading Canon
#3 The How? The routines which make morning reading work

Whether barricading the blockade with Jim Hawkins, sensing disaster through Piggy’s spectacles or helping Liesel Meminger hide a Jewish accordion player, is there a better feeling in the whole of education than reading your class a classic story?

For an increasing number of secondary schools across the UK, who believe that a well-planned reading scheme is central to a rigorous curriculum and a culture of improving standards, morning reading kicks off the day.

#1 The Why? Why we have to raise reading age

The reading ages of our poorest children in Britain are often well behind their chronological age, and morning reading is a radical approach which aims to do something about it. Evidence from a range of schools now appears to demonstrate that only when a reading curriculum is invested in, planned well, rolled out with precision, and delivered with verve, does any significant change to reading age happen.

The way it was
To be a poor child in 1860s Britain, probably meant a sixty hour working week breaking up coal or picking oakum or selling newspapers on a street corner. Education meant listening to a teacher reading stories at one of 23,000 Sunday schools.[1] A poor child in 1860s America would have been a little more likely to have been in class, being read a ‘McCaffrey reader’ – story collections that were the original best of what has been said, thought and written, [2] and which at that time even outcompeted Scripture in sales.

There were arguments about what would help children learn to read best. In these ‘reading wars’ exponents of phonics were on one side and the ‘whole word’ story-reading caucus on the other. This argument went on for years, but as Samuel Johnson said: “so while you are wondering which of two things you should teach your child first, another boy has learnt them both.”

Western governments finally accepted that the literacy of the general population (not just the elite) was a precondition for a developed society, and schools changed from being places of religious instruction to places which taught children how to read. As the nineteenth century progressed, literacy soared from 30% to about 75%. Yet still, by the beginning of World War Two, a quarter of British army recruits remained functionally illiterate. And with a third of UK pupils leaving school today without a good GSCE pass in English we have to ask whether we have made much progress for our poorest children since the nineteenth century.

Which is why more and more schools are doing morning reading. I’ve seen a number of versions of the reading programme in secondary schools across the country, but few more effective than that used by the Greenshaw Learning Trust, described here:

#2 The What? The Reading Canon

The concept is very simple:

• Pupils read approximately 20 challenging classic texts per year.
• Across their schooldays they will have read 100 classic books from a range of genres.
• Teachers read to pupils for 25 minutes in the tutor time reading programme (TTRP) at the start of the day, then for 20 minutes in DEAR time at the end of the day.
• TTRP sets a high bar on the Canon (more challenge), DEAR time is where children choose their own book (more engage). The intention is that, over time and as children’s ability develops, the books they choose for themselves in DEAR time become more challenging.

Why a Canon?
When a child hears and follows a story they would never normally choose by themselves, which is read with a fluency they could not master by themselves, within a background and context they could not comprehend by themselves, they can make huge progress in their reading. There are three main reasons why we need a centralised canon in our schools:

1. Text Selection – over the last twenty years we have prioritised engaging literature and genres at the expense of more challenging reads. Here’s one example of a reading scheme:

Y7 – The Diary Of A Young Girl, Anne Frank (1947); Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman (2001); The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (1884); The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster (1961); Tamar, Mal Peet (2005); Skellig, David Almond (1905)

Y8 – Mud, Sweat and Tears, Bear Grylls (2011); Bog Child, Siobhan Dowd (2015); Northern Lights, Philip Pullman (1995); A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness (2011); Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens (1838); The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)

Y9 – Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (1932); Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (1847); Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder (1991); Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (1938); Tales Of The Unexpected, Roald Dahl (1979); Touching The Void, Joe Simpson (1988)

Y10 – Life of Pi, Yann Martel (2001); Lord Of The Flies, William Golding (1954); Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813); Shakespeare: The World as Stage, Bill Bryson (2007); To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee (1960); The Seeds Of Time, John Wyndham (1956)

2. Pupil Choice – reading schemes often give pupils too much freedom over which books to read. In the hands of a child, engagement will always outdo challenge. “Our pupils will have been almost exclusively exposed to benignly appealing youth fiction written after 1980, chosen specifically because of its easy accessibility.” [3]

3. Shared Discourse – a significant part of the value of reading is to be able to talk about the important books which everybody has read, and then for pupils to own the knowledge and the language to be able to discuss the ways in which different writers deal with their chosen themes. A powerful reading programme can help young people build the cultural capital to hold their own at the best universities in the country. It is the job of a teacher and a school to gradually and systematically expose children to harder texts, and lift the bar on reading. A powerful Canon is a list of books which will enrich, inspire, challenge and broaden our pupils’ experiences twentieth and twenty-first century novels by writers from across the globe; together they cover a multitude of themes which affect young people.

This robust reading strategy accelerates the progress of those who are afraid of reading, can’t read or won’t read. This sets a high bar for disadvantaged students who have had less access to books and the passion of reading, so that they do not fall further behind.

What about children who need extra help?
The challenging reading programme is for all pupils with no exceptions: pupils read for 25 minutes in the tutor time reading programme (TTRP) at the start of the day, then for 20 minutes in DEAR time at the end of the day. In addition schools often use a robust phonics programme building on instruction at primary, from the start of Y7. For pupils below age-related expectations, small groups are identified for extensive phonics and numeracy catch up (the ‘code’), and for pupils well below age related expectations, individual reading at DEAR time may be supported through specialist TA support.

#3 The How? The routines which make morning reading work
A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read – Mark Twain

How not to do it:
Many reading schemes fail, for some of these reasons:

• There were not enough resources to get books for all pupils
• Teachers received no training on how to read effectively
• Not enough detailed thought and planning went into it
• The co-ordinator didn’t have the backing of the Head or senior staff to really drive it
• The co-ordinator is not the right person, or is focusing on the wrong things (not reading scores – these are goals and that comes later, start by getting the system up and running)
• The co-ordinator dilutes the canon, buckling under the pressure of challenge versus engagement

Badly constructed reading schemes do much more damage to a school culture than no scheme at all, because they sow negativity instead of reaping joy. Reading becomes haphazard, tokenistic and even a punishment, rather than the delight that it can be.

How to do it:

1. Train staff well: ‘Teachers circulate the room, reading. The walk a bit, stop, walk a bit, stop, reading all the time, focused on the story. This allows them to do three things: (a) track all pupils in the class well, (b) ensure that everyone knows where they are and (c) check that the seating plan they have set up is supporting the weakest readers.’ Josie Mingay – Senior School Improvement Lead, GLT.

The aim is for teachers to read exquisitely, with real expression and an energy which carries the story along. So we make sure that training provides good modelling. But this doesn’t mean reading has to be flawless, nor do we want it to be. In fact, stumbling over tricky sentences or difficult words sends a great message for reluctant readers in our classes and models tenacity and resilience and also a sense of fun. It’s a brilliant arena for a teacher to build great relationships through the story, as children see them relax, going for a deep south voice in To Kill a Mockingbird, battling through a paragraph of German in The Book Thief or sharing the emotion of Fahrenheit 451. There are sometimes tears from the reader. And that’s OK.

2. Use context slides: the tutor ensures that this is on the screen before pupils arrive. They include key messages about author, context, genre and key characters. Whenever a child lifts their attention from the book they see helpful prompts, subliminal messages and there is a feeling of being imbued in the atmosphere of the novel.

3. The subtle signposting of synonyms: tutors pre-read the few pages that will be read, and mark in pencil any tricky vocabulary or difficult terms and write next to the word two or three synonyms. This means that when they arrive at that point in the story, the reading is not interrupted by a pause to think, but the word is there at hand. These subtle verbal prompts nudge everyday vocabulary upwards. Probably in each reading you’ll choose no more than 5-10 synonyms (unless you are reading Hardy!) It is tempting to want to explain where the story is going, or break down a particular episode in the dialogue to make comprehension easier for pupils. That’s all well and good, but as far as possible it’s really important that you don’t stop the flow of your reading, the magical momentum of the story.

4. Rulers or book marks: experience suggests that when children are offered the choice of tracking without a ruler or a book-mark, a significant minority will struggle to follow the reading at the correct speed. Inevitably, the children who find it hardest to follow without help are most likely to be disadvantaged or have additional needs. These are the ones who can least afford to fall behind, and for whom this scheme is expressly designed. If they are not sure where on the page we are, this means they are not matching the shape on the page to the sounds the teacher is making. This means that many of the more complex words will pass them by.

The ruler supports them, and helps begin to build a tracking habit. After many months of this practice, children begin to track automatically. This tracking develops into their DEAR time reading and their reading at home. The shape of the words begins to merge with the sound of the words, and with growing confidence they can begin to apply this knowledge to other parts of the curriculum. Rulers are NOT a punishment – rulers are to a weak reader what a life-raft is to a drowning sailor.

5. The teacher reads: current thinking about how children learn to read best and ancient wisdom (all the way back to the McCaffrey readers in 1860s America) tells us that it is the teacher who is the ‘reading expert’ in the room. Since reading is such a significant lifeline, and since we cannot afford for this to be an experiment, the best diction, pronunciation and passion will always come from the teacher, whether they believe that or not. 

6. You just read? Is that it? That’s it. Not every word will be understood by every child, but schools believe that the accumulative gains of exposing all children to a huge number of words per day regularly and the full range of vocabulary will counteract that. Thus it is important not to lose the rhythm of the story by frequently stopping or interrupting to explain.

7. Parent Letter: Because the reading programme includes adult texts it also includes adult themes, so a parent letter can be helpful. Reading a story is a brilliant safe space within which to explore these themes alongside a respected teacher, before they encounter them in real life.

A checklist to help monitor standards:

• Context slide up in each classroom – this helps the teacher who is not an English specialist. The teacher opens up the new book, introduces the context slide and then off they go!
• Every child with a book (check there are enough texts – no sharing)
• Every child with a ruler/book mark
• Every child tracking and at the correct point on the page (tutor and or TA checking while they read)
• Synonyms annotated in tutor’s book
• Teacher moves around the class as they read. Circulation is important.
• Check teacher confidence in their reading
• Check which staff may require daily SLT support or additional training
• Have spare sets of books for when one class has finished before another class so they are not waiting

The tiny details: Chairs pushed under desks, bags away, jackets in bags, books flat on the table. The picky details of uniformity allow the teacher reading to breathe and relax untroubled, knowing that standards are right. It also allows her to walk the perimeter of her classroom, focused on the book under her nose, without obstacles becoming an assault course.

How does the reading programme support the rest of the curriculum?
Let’s imagine that I read with my tutor in Y8 about the pain of dislocation as Okonkwo is banished from his Nigerian tribe in Things Fall Apart. This helps bring to life the discussion we had in Y8 history on Cecil Rhodes and the impact of British colonialism on Southern Africa. Achebe’s characters help me to start to get under the skin of these issues, and then reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in Y9, gives me a second opportunity to see racism and discrimination in a different part of the world through the eyes of Scout, the white daughter of lawyer Atticus Finch, who stands up to white prejudice in the deep South. Reading Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple in Y10 deepens my understanding through the perspective of a black woman facing domestic violence and who displays heroic inner strength. Finally in Y11, reading Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things widens my scope even further with the complexity of forbidden love against a post-colonial Indian background of caste, ‘untouchables’ and religious discrimination.

It really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. Arundhati Roi, The God of Small Things

Without a comprehensive reading canon, and this kind of thinking about its sequencing, a pupil’s knowledge of these issues would remain shallow, underpinned perhaps by only a few dates in history or discussions in RE lessons. Instead, the reading scheme enriches my understanding through story, character, context and perspective, which means that I develop a more nuanced grasp of complex ideas. Ultimately, when faced with a discussion as an adult, I’ll hold tangible knowledge and will be able to intelligently (and with empathy) debate colonialism, discrimination and contemporary movements such as Black Lives Matter.

From my reading, words like colonial, subjugation, entailment, caste, untouchable, reconciliation, illegitimate, and atonement will now sit in my working vocabulary within their correct context. Implicit word learning (through story-telling) is more effective and more rapid than explicit word learning. A well-taught, ambitious reading curriculum means that disadvantaged pupils who knew fewer words to start with now learn more words per lesson than their advantaged peers, who already hold some of this word power. This is the definition of a good school, which benefits all children, but helps poor children twice as much. This is known as the Coleman Differential Effect, which helps the poorest most, as opposed to the Matthew Effect, which most disadvantages poor children.[4]

Developing a wide vocabulary is essential for all-round academic success. But strengthening our vocabulary strongly relates to reading comprehension, intelligence and general ability too. As children learn to read, they must learn to decode (sound-out) print, but they must also have a vocabulary base (word knowledge) in order to make sense of what they decode. Unless children are confident readers and writers by the time they embark on GCSEs in Y9, they will not be able to access each subject curriculum and simply cannot become academically successful.

Research tells us that children from poorer homes are exposed to less parental conversation and have a much-reduced vocabulary. Poor children in the UK hear 23 million fewer words before they start school.[5] The Guardian newspaper estimated the size of the average person’s vocabulary as developing from roughly 300 words at two years old, through 5,000 words at five years old, to some 12,000 words at the age of 12. It stays at around this number of words for the remainder of most people’s lives, while a graduate might grow this to 23,000 words. A large vocabulary is the hallmark of an educated individual and vocabulary is tightly related to reading comprehension.[6]

We can help our students emblazon their speech with the academic vocabulary that sets them apart for success beyond the school gates Alex Quigley

Since the best measure of ‘disadvantage’ in schools is being in receipt of the pupil premium, many of our children are by definition are word-poor. The Matthew Effect [7]tells us that the word-rich get richer and the word-poor get poorer. Thus one of our primary roles is to develop not only literacy, but to build and grow every child’s vocabulary. A reading programme tackles the word-gap head on. By reading with our children every day, we are providing them with a better chance at succeeding in exams, enjoying their subjects and ultimately having better access to higher education and better paid jobs.

How will you know the system is working well? In Morning Reading, you’ll know when you are getting there because when visitors walk in the room, heads don’t lift. When pupils become used to visits from senior staff, as the book is exchanged between adults (with finger pointing at the next paragraph to be read for a seamless transition) there is not a flicker of attention, nobody looks up.

It creates a sharp, disciplined and focused ethos right at the start of the day, which builds momentum for Period 1 and before you know it, the ‘feel’ of the whole morning has become more energised, more purposeful. But what really makes this whole school-shift is when teachers and children embrace the stories and show that they cannot wait to get into this inspirational moment in their day. You overhear chance conversations in the corridor: Where are you in ‘The Life of Pi’? Have you got to the bit where…Which begins a conversation.

And anyway, who doesn’t want to be reading stories with children for half an hour at the beginning of every day, imagining new worlds together?

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[1] Amy J. Lloyd Education, Literacy and the Reading Public, University of Cambridge

[2] Matthew Arnold (1869) Culture and Anarchy

[3] Doug Lemov, Colleen Driggs, Erica Woolway(2016) Reading Reconsidered

[4] E.D.Hirsch (2016) Why Knowledge Matters – rescuing our children from failed educational theories

[5] Frank Field (2010) Report on Poverty and Social Exclusion

[6] Isabel L. Beck. Margaret G. McKeown. Linda Kucan (2002) Bringing Words to Life

[7] Gospel of Matthew – chapter 25 v 29