Reading for pleasure is something that most teachers aim to instil in their students. In this post I’d like to draw your attention to some aspects of the classroom that could be discouraging reading for pleasure, without even realising it. Ashley Booth is the inspiration behind this post. I attended his webinar a few weeks ago, which I’d highly recommend. It really forced me to look at the way I approach reading in my classroom and tweak some of my approaches.

In this post, you will find affiliate links to Amazon and The Book Depository. Read more about this in my disclosure policy.

Why is Reading for Pleasure important?

The video below explains very clearly why it’s so important to encourage reading, through inspiring the why.

Reading corners

Reading corners can be BEAUTIFUL and eye-catching to some children. But nothing suggests that they actually improve attitudes to reading or reading attainment. Now with that said, I’m not suggesting to rip down your book corner that you’ve spent hours on or you’ve had success with in the past. I’m just trying to save you some time. Don’t feel you have to have a breath taking book corner, because the reality is:

• They take ages to create.
• They can be expensive.
• Often only 2-5 children can fit in them at any one time.

Below are some suggestions that can help to boost reading for pleasure in your classroom with or without a fancy book corner. What is most important is the books.

“Hire” librarians

Share the job description with the children. Inform them that they can organise, decorate and keep tidy the library. Host interviews and have a class vote on who will be a good fit for the role of the librarian. Influential children within your classroom are the children you want as your librarians.

We all know those influential children from early on in the school year. If they are reading, you can be sure that other children in the class will be motivated to read more. It would also be the job of the librarian to know what books are in the library.

This might mean reducing the number of books in there initially so that they become familiar with the books titles and can recommend different books to different children who are struggling to find a book that they like.

Reading for pleasure has been defined as: ‘Reading that we to do of our own free will, anticipating the satisfaction that we will get from the act of reading. It also refers to reading that having begun at someone else‘s request we continue because we are interested in it.’ (Clark and Rumbold 2006, 6).

Reading for pleasure doesn’t happen over night, sometimes all they need is to be handed the right book, by the right person.

Have front facing books

We’re always told not to judge a book by its cover, but the fact is that most of us do. Where possible, have the books front facing to attract the children to the books in the first instance.

Find a book shelf like this here.

Add new books regularly

There’s no beating around the bush here, children’s books are expensive! It’s no sustainable to be buying books constantly and that’s by no means what I’m suggesting. However, below are some suggestions of how you can add new books regularly to encourage reading for pleasure.

• Swap three/four books with the teacher next door every month.
• Put one of these books in an envelope addressed to the class and ask the secretary to send it up to the children.
• Have a ‘new book of the week’ display stand and choose a child each week to place a different book there (this can be from home).
• Check charity/second hand shops for books as they often have hidden gems for very low prices.

Click here for a diverse book list for your classroom!

Author of the Week

As mentioned above, sometimes all that children need to start reading is for someone to hand them the book/spark inspiration. By highlighting an author of the week, children can experience a new genre, style of writing or humour that completely draws them in.

Incorporating author of the week into your classroom could be delegated to the class librarians. Or if it’s too much extra work, it could be changed to author of the month. This is probably what I’ll aim to do in the next academic year to be honest, with a stand to prop up some books by the author in question.

Everyone’s a Free Reader

This was a really interesting point highlighted by Ashley Booth in the webinar mentioned above. YES- children need to have levelled books in order to ensure fluency and accurate progression is made.

However, to supplement their levelled book, children should be allowed to choose a book that interests them. This way they can move away from the label of being “just a brown level reader”.

The type, length and difficulty of a book shouldn’t matter, it’s all about it bring their choice. Guiding children to books that you think they might like is different, of course. It’s more so being more mindful not to discourage them from a book they have chosen because you think it’s “too hard” for them. They will discover that by themselves if it is.

Reconsider your Reading Competitions and Incentives

There are tonnes of fabulous reading incentives out there. Each year, the reading competition displays seem to get more and more creative. I remember in my NQT year, our year group decided to make a Harry Potter themed display, where each child’s name was on a broom and they moved their own name up a new step each time they read a new book.

Here is another type of reading incentive chart below that I had displayed in my class three years ago. The children each had a number and whenever they read a book, the put a lollipop stick in their pouch on the minion, ‘be a reader’, display. When they reached 10 books read, they received a prize.

But what I learned from using these types of incentives is that it can only inspire a few children. They can:

• Discourage children from reading larger novels (as they wouldn’t reach the target as quick).
• Disengage your struggling readers.
• Decrease the likelihood of reading for meaning and understanding.
• Increase skim reading.

Of course, there are some positives to these type of incentives too. But for me, I will be opting out of creating incentives for reading as I do believe that it takes away from the whole “reading for pleasure” notion.

Instead, I’ll be offering DEAR time (drop everything and read), linking topics to picture books to put more of a focus back on books and praising children for reading.

I hope that you found some of these ideas useful. If you know of anymore ways to encourage reading for pleasure, please do comment and let me know!

Other posts like this:

A Guide to Promoting a Love of Reading

Items mentioned in the post linked if interested: