The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research

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OECD (2013) England & Northern Ireland (UK) - Country Note -Survey of Adult Skills first results p. 3] ↩ Why is reading important? As the 17th century English writer Joseph Addison once wrote , "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." Reading has the ability to completely transform your life situation. Even though reading is required literacy teaching for schools, its application goes way beyond that of the academic setting. By harnessing the power of reading, ordinary people can develop skills that are otherwise inaccessible. Detailed teaching sequences for over 300 high quality children’s texts, including embedded opportunities to explore phonics, vocabulary, spelling, grammar and punctuation. When we read well-written work, we naturally observe its writing style, cadence, and composition. These characteristics inevitably seep into our writing, in the same way that musicians are influenced by each other.

As well as additional or focussed phonics teaching, other strategies to support older early readers include pre-teaching, reading aloud and discussing challenging texts, revisiting and re-reading.Build a team of expert teachers who know and understand the processes that underpin reading and have both the subject and pedagogical knowledge to teach reading across all stages of development, including older early readers.

The cool thing is that the more you read, the better your memory gets. Think of your brain like a field of grass. The more you walk down a particular path, the more beaten down it gets, and the easier it is to take that same path the next time. When you read a lot, you're beating down your memory pathways.

Do you remember feeling so invested in the story or what you were learning that you would keep reading even when you needed to use the bathroom or were hungry? Not only does this training develop a whole school love of reading and writing, it meets all requirements of the National Curriculum. Plan daily teaching opportunities and meaningful contexts for children to use and apply phonic knowledge in Reception and Year 1, beyond the discrete phonics lesson. Bonus tip: if you want to accelerate the benefits of reading, teach someone to read! The principles of reciprocal teaching show that when you teach something, you yourself learn it better as well. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to teach, there are plenty of teaching strategies all over the internet. Teaching reading and comprehension strategies is a great way to gain all of the benefits of reading PLUS help someone else learn to read.

Losing yourself in a book is the ultimate relaxation," said Dr. David Lewis, the cognitive neuropsychologist who conducted the study. The teaching sequences allow children to immerse themselves in the text with the variety of activities. As a consequence, when it came to their writing, their minds were filled with ideas from the rich language and scenarios, allowing them the space to focus on mastering the writing techniques required to reach the framework standards. Their reading skills have been developed due to the exploration of author language, meaning, predictions and summarising which have been supported through comprehension style activities that have been woven into the children’s learning. The most obvious impact of this has been the children’s confidence when faced with reading assessments. Books provide some of the most engaging entertainment on the planet. As the author Stephen King said, "Books are a uniquely portable magic." Draw on thorough knowledge of how a child reads through diagnostic assessment and analysis of their reading behaviours to pinpoint specific interventions, including language comprehension and exactly where to start on a systematic phonics programme. Questioning is most effective when it is text specific and builds on rich discussion which encourages children to offer personal response and build on prior knowledge to make new connections and construct a mental model so that they understand a text’s meaning.A year ago my school started our journey with the Power of Reading, and if I am being totally honest, at first I was quite sceptical. We had just completed a successful year in year 6 with some very positive results, and I didn’t see why we needed to change what had worked so effectively beforehand - I am one of those who believes if it isn’t broke why try and fix it! So, the next time you're feeling stressed, remember the benefits of reading for pleasure and let the tension melt away. 9. Improve Your Mental Health Another one of the benefits of reading books is that they can improve our ability to empathize with others. And empathy has many benefits – it can reduce stress , improve our relationships, and inform our moral compasses.

Non-readers are 28% more likely to report feelings of depression, and about 1.3 million people in the UK say they rarely read because of depression. 27 There are several threads that run through all sections of the document and to which schools will want to give due consideration when reflecting on their English curriculum and reading provision. Schools that are part of CLPE’s community will, of course, be reassured that drawing on our evidence-based teaching approaches, training programmes, curriculum mapping guidance and resources, they already have much of this in place. Alongside each specific area of practice and provision explored, we have offered examples outlining how we can support you in implementing the recommendations.CLPE’s English Curriculum Maps demonstrate how to create a progressive English curriculum built around our Power of Reading book recommendations and associated teaching sequences . To replicate that feeling, or to experience it for the first time, all you need to do is find the right books to read. This four day programme shows teachers how to build a book-based curriculum by putting children’s literature at the heart of their primary English curriculum. The programme develops teachers’ subject knowledge and understanding of proven pedagogical approaches. In short, if you want to succeed, you need to focus. And if you want to focus more , you can practice by reading books. 4. Improve Your Memory