Table Of Content“Why Has She Stopped Reading?”
The Case for Supporting Reading for Pleasure in Secondary Schools.
Alexandra M-L Warsop
Doctorate in Education
School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia
October 2014
©“This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is
understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any
information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In
addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution.”
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate why some children, who engage in reading for
pleasure at primary school, stop reading once they have transitioned to secondary school.
The study followed eight students from their last term of Year 6 primary education (10 to 11
year-olds) through to the end of their first term of Year 8 secondary education (12 to 13
year-olds). In this ethnographic interpretivist study I used a variety of methods including:
observation, questionnaires and group conversations to discover the reasons why some
students engage in less reading for pleasure once they begin their secondary school
education. I employed thematic analysis to allow flexibility to my research and to provide a
detailed and rich account. Some of the eight students involved in this study dramatically
reduced the amount of reading which they engaged in and some continued to spend a
similar amount of time engaging in reading for pleasure. Some students continued with
familiar, safe, readerly texts and some students branched out to explore new genres and
text types. This study provides insight into how the child as a reader changes once they
move to secondary school and identifies what teachers need to know about the child to be
able to facilitate reading for pleasure. New Year 7 students are concerned about perceived
negative peer perceptions of readers and suggestions are made about the ways in which
teachers and librarians can work with students to encourage reading for pleasure. A key
finding of this study was that a precise understanding of Year 7 students as readers by
secondary school English teachers is required for them to be able to facilitate students’
reading for pleasure. Suggestions are offered about how teachers can gain a greater
understanding of their students as readers and suggestions are also offered about how to
develop the child as a reader.
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Acknowledgements
There are many people to thank for their part in helping me complete this thesis. I should
especially like to thank Jenifer Smith, for inspiring me to pursue this research and for helping
me to climb over all of the barriers which were placed in my path.
To the wonderfully communicative and interesting students who allowed me an insight into
their reading lives, and without whom there would be no thesis, thank you, my life is richer
for talking with you. Special thanks go to the schools for allowing me to explore reading in
their educational establishments and to the parents of those great children.
Thank you to Lily and Kirsty for comments on previous drafts and for helping me to find my
voice. Finally, my thanks go to Simon, Rowan and Jasmine who helped me take this leap of
faith. This writing is for you.
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Contents
1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 8
2 The Importance of Reading for Pleasure ........................................................................... 12
3 Defining “Reading for Pleasure” ........................................................................................ 21
4 The National Curriculum 1989 to 2014 and Government Focus on Reading for Pleasure ... 28
5 Reading Surveys Exploring Children’s Reading for Pleasure – A Review ............................. 38
6 Research Design ............................................................................................................... 58
7 Selecting the Primary and Secondary Schools and Gaining Access ..................................... 62
8 The Schools Involved in the Research Project .................................................................... 68
9 Initial School-Based Observations ..................................................................................... 72
10 The Observational and Interview Setting .......................................................................... 75
11 The Questionnaire - Methodology .................................................................................... 86
12 The Research Participants ................................................................................................. 94
13 Group Conversations ...................................................................................................... 107
14 Defining “Readers” ......................................................................................................... 113
15 The Students: Their Reading Story – Summer 2010, The End of Year 6 ............................ 120
16 The Observational and Interview Setting – Secondary Schools ........................................ 165
17 The Research Participants: Questionnaire responses at the end of Year 7 ....................... 173
18 The Conversations in Years 7 and 8 ................................................................................. 183
19 Geeks ............................................................................................................................. 315
20 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 336
21 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 351
22 Appendix 1 ..................................................................................................................... 362
23 Appendix 2 ..................................................................................................................... 377
24 Appendix 3 ..................................................................................................................... 387
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Tables and Figures
Table 1: The National Curricula For English ...................................................................................... 28
Table 2: Government Publications concerning the teaching of English ............................................. 33
Table 3: National Curriculum Attainment Target 2: Reading ............................................................. 35
Table 4: Whitehead’s results for the average number of books read during one month. .................. 39
Table 5: Whitehead’s results for the number of children choosing not to read ................................ 40
Table 6: Cole and Hall’s results for the average number of books read in the previous month ........ 43
Table 7: Coles and Hall’s results for the number of children choosing not to read ............................ 44
Table 8: Coles and Hall’s results for children’s views of reading by age ............................................ 44
Table 9: Hopper’s results for children reading a book at home ........................................................ 46
Table 10: Clark and Douglas’ results for reading frequency ............................................................. 50
Table 11: Clark and Douglas children choosing not to read or to rarely read .................................... 50
Table 12: Overview of research ....................................................................................................... 59
Table 13: Overview of research participants’ primary and secondary schools .................................. 61
Figure 1: Primary School A Library ................................................................................................... 77
Figure 2: Primary School A Library Stock .......................................................................................... 77
Figure 3: Primary School B Library ................................................................................................... 78
Figure 4: Primary School B beanbag area ......................................................................................... 78
Figure 5: Primary School .................................................................................................................. 79
Figure 6: Primary School C’s book display ........................................................................................ 79
Figure 7: Primary School C’s Book of the Term display board. .......................................................... 84
Table 14: Completion Rates for My Primary Questionnaires ............................................................ 87
Table 15: Completion Rates for My Secondary Questionnaires ........................................................ 88
Table 16: Average number of books read in the previous month my results .................................... 90
Table 17: Number of children reporting no reading in the previous month my results ..................... 91
Table 18: Positive attitudes towards reading ................................................................................... 91
Table 19: Jamie’s Primary Profile ..................................................................................................... 99
Table 20: Theo’s Primary Profile .................................................................................................... 100
Table 21: Joe’s Primary Profile ....................................................................................................... 101
Table 22: Tom’s Primary Profile ..................................................................................................... 102
Table 23: Gemma’s Primary Profile ................................................................................................ 103
Table 24: Scarlet’s Primary Profile ................................................................................................. 104
Table 25: Anna’s Primary Profile .................................................................................................... 105
Table 26: Brandon’s Primary Profile ............................................................................................... 106
Figure 8: An Example of a Primary Word Cloud .............................................................................. 110
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Figure 9: An Example of a Primary Picture Collage ......................................................................... 110
Figure 10: Laura E Kelly’s Classification of Book Lovers and Other Readers .................................... 114
Table 27: The Booktrust Reading Habits Survey Categories of Readers .......................................... 115
Table 28: Howard’s Preliminary taxonomy of teen readers ............................................................ 118
Table 29: Howard’s Taxonomy of teen readers .............................................................................. 118
Figure 11: Secondary School A cosy corner .................................................................................... 166
Figure 12: Secondary School A fiction area .................................................................................... 166
Figure 13: Secondary School B fiction ............................................................................................ 167
Figure 14: Secondary School B comfortable seating ....................................................................... 167
Figure 15: Secondary School C comfortable seating area ............................................................... 167
Figure 16: Secondary School C study alcoves and whole class desk provision ................................. 167
Figure 17: A display of students’ views about their fiction texts. .................................................... 169
Figure 18: A display board in the library ......................................................................................... 170
Figure 19: A display of recommended reads by students ............................................................... 172
Figure 20: An Example of a Secondary Word Cloud ........................................................................ 174
Figure 21: An Example of a Secondary Picture Collage ................................................................... 174
Table 30: Jamie’s Secondary Profile ............................................................................................... 175
Table 31: Theo’s Secondary Profile ................................................................................................ 176
Table 32: Joe’s Secondary Profile ................................................................................................... 177
Table 33: Tom’s Secondary Profile ................................................................................................. 178
Table 34: Gemma’s Secondary Profile ............................................................................................ 179
Table 35: Scarlet’s Secondary Profile ............................................................................................. 180
Table 36: Anna’s Secondary Profile ................................................................................................ 181
Table 37: Brandon’s Secondary Profile ........................................................................................... 182
Table 38: Jamie’s Recorded Reading .............................................................................................. 186
Figure 22: Jamie’s Secondary Questionnaire Image........................................................................ 189
Figure 23: Horacek’s ‘The Book, The Child, The Adult’ .................................................................... 193
Figure 24: Horacek’s ‘My Brain Needs Sharpening’ ........................................................................ 194
Table 39: Theo’s Recorded Reading ............................................................................................... 202
Figure 25: Theo’s Secondary Questionnaire Image ......................................................................... 210
Table 40: Joe’s Recorded Reading .................................................................................................. 211
Figure 26: Joe’s Recorded Reading ................................................................................................. 217
Figure 27: Secondary School A Bookmarks ..................................................................................... 219
Figure 28: The Reading Circle ......................................................................................................... 221
Figure 29: The Reading Tree Display .............................................................................................. 224
Figure 30: The Reading Tree Reviews ............................................................................................. 224
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Figure 31: Adventure Story Suggestions ......................................................................................... 224
Figure 32: What to Read Display .................................................................................................... 224
Table 41: Tom’s Recorded Reading ................................................................................................ 225
Table 42: Secondary School B’s Library Reading List ....................................................................... 228
Figure 33: Tom’s Secondary Questionnaire Image ......................................................................... 235
Table 43: Gemma’s Recorded Reading ........................................................................................... 247
Table 44: Secondary School C’s Library Reading Helpsheet ............................................................ 250
Figure 34: Secondary School C’s Recommended Reads Display ...................................................... 251
Figure 35: Secondary School C Library Display ............................................................................... 251
Figure 36: Gemma’s Secondary Questionnaire Image .................................................................... 252
Table 45: Scarlet’s Recorded Reading ............................................................................................ 257
Figure 37: Scarlet’s Secondary Questionnaire Image ...................................................................... 261
Table 46: Anna’s Recorded Reading ............................................................................................... 268
Figure 38: Anna’s Secondary Questionnaire Image ........................................................................ 275
Figure 39: Scarlet and Anna’s Secondary Questionnaire Images ..................................................... 278
Table 47: Brandon’s Recorded Reading .......................................................................................... 281
Figure 40: Brandon’s Secondary Questionnaire Image ................................................................... 289
Table 48: My definitions and an explanation of their meanings ..................................................... 305
Table 49: My Vocabulary Used to Define Readers .......................................................................... 309
Figure 41: Man, Woman, Geek ...................................................................................................... 316
Figure 42: Dweeb, Dork, Nerd and Geek Attributes........................................................................ 317
Figure 43: The Evolution of the Geek ............................................................................................. 318
Figure 44: Geek Hierarchy ............................................................................................................. 319
Figure 45: Geek and Nerd Traits..................................................................................................... 320
Figure 46: Geeks and Reading Word Cloud .................................................................................... 331
Figure 47: Children’s Drawings of Geeks ........................................................................................ 332
Table 50: Questionnaire Results for Reading and Geeks ................................................................. 333
Table 51: Clark and Osbourne’s Results for Children’s views of Readers ......................................... 334
Table 52: Clark and Osbourne’s Results for Friend’s Views of Readers ........................................... 334
Figure 48: An Example of a Life Map from Secondary School A ...................................................... 343
Figure 49: An Example of a ‘River of Reading’ ................................................................................ 344
Figure 50: An Example of a ‘River of Reading’ ................................................................................ 344
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1 Introduction
“Why has she stopped reading?”
The impetus for my research came when a parent asked me this question. I’m a secondary
school English teacher and the school where I was teaching English had just taken in its first
Year 7 cohort and parents of the new Year 7 students were invited into school. A parent
approached me and said:
“If my daughter was still at her middle school for Year 7, she would have a reading
book that she would be sent home with every night for me to hear her read. Why
doesn’t she have a reading book sent home with her at this school? Why has she
stopped reading?”
(Year 7 parent)
I could not answer these questions.
As an English teacher, I was aware of the statistics which showed a drop in children’s
reading as they got older (Whitehead et al., 1977, Clark and Douglas, 2011, Clark and
Osborne, 2008). However, I did not know why individual children changed their reading
behaviour: I wanted to find the story behind the statistics.
Thus I embarked on a study to follow a small number of children who held positive views
about reading at primary school. I followed these children as they transferred from their
primary schools to their secondary schools. I attempted to understand the impact that
transferring schools had on their reading and their attitudes to reading. I met with the
children regularly whilst they were in their last term of primary school, Year 6, and
continued to meet with them throughout their first year of secondary school, Year 7. Finally,
I completed the observation at the end of the children’s first term of Year 8.
This study provides insight into why and how some children’s reading habits change when
they enter secondary education, why some children continue to read for pleasure and why
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some children don’t, and therefore it contains some invaluable insights for teachers and
parents. This study tells the story of what happened to the specific children involved, and
will show how each child’s story is different. Pseudonyms have been used for all participants
and institutions to allow anonymity.
The study looks at the children themselves through observations, questionnaires and
conversations. The role of the children’s families is explored. I have observed the ways the
schools that the children attend have influenced their reading and I will look at how the
National Curriculum has made a difference.
I will draw conclusions about what supported, encouraged and prevented, these students in
continuing with their reading, and suggest how other students might be encouraged to read
for pleasure. In essence, this study is my attempt to answer that parent’s question, “Why
has she stopped reading?”
Thus, my research questions are:
Why do some children engage in less reading for pleasure after they transfer from primary
to secondary school?
How can secondary schools support and encourage reading for pleasure?
Below is a brief summary of each chapter.
Chapters 2 to 5 are literature reviews of the different areas involved in this research.
Chapter 2 presents a review of the arguments for the importance of reading for pleasure
and why I believe that reading for pleasure has a place in our schools. I examine the link
between reading frequency and reading attainment, reading attitudes and reading
attainments and reading on cogitative development in maths, vocabulary and spelling.
Chapter 3 discusses the various definitions of reading for pleasure and it concludes with my
definition. Chapter 4 summarises the National Curriculum for England and Wales policy
documents for the teaching of English for the last twenty five years and discusses the focus
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placed on reading for pleasure in the secondary school curriculum. The impact of Ofsted and
the Department of Education reports is also examined. Chapter 5 provides a review of the
various surveys which have looked at children’s reading for pleasure. The issues regarding
transition from primary to secondary school are also discussed with various reports and
research presented. The chapter ends with a discussion of what my research adds to this
debate.
Chapter 6 outlines my epistemological stance and provides an overview of the research
design and the educational paths taken by each student. Chapter 7 focuses on selecting
which primary and secondary schools to include in my research and the process by which I
gain access. Chapter 8 provides a more detailed picture of the three primary and three
secondary schools involved in my research and Chapter 9 looks at the methodology of my
school-based observations. In Chapter 10 I discuss the importance of school libraries and
consider the function and culture of the school libraries of the three primary schools
involved in my study. I also present a discussion of my primary school classroom
observations. In Chapter 11, I present the methodology behind my choice to use a
questionnaire as a data gathering tool and I focus on the selection process employed for
potential research participants.
I present vignettes of the research participants which were created after the initial primary
school based observations in Chapter 12 alongside a reader profile for each research
participant based on the child’s questionnaire data. Chapter 13 sees the research project
move to small group conversations and the methodology of this research method is
discussed. A review of the terminology which is employed to defined readers is presented in
Chapter 14 along with my conclusions about the appropriateness of this terminology for use
with my research participants.
Chapter 15 presents the research participants’ reading story at the end of their primary
school education and discusses their concerns about starting their secondary school
education. This section also contains a discussion of audiobooks and reading for pleasure.
Chapter 16 focuses on the secondary schools involved in the research and discusses the
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Description:Osborne, 2008). However, I did not know why individual children changed their reading behaviour: I wanted to find the story behind the statistics.
