I’ve been a bit quiet of late on the blogging front, what with new ventures taking up much of my time, but yesterday I was contacted by a young woman from BBC Radio5 Live to ask if I would go on their breakfast programme to comment on a story which appeared in the newspapers over the weekend. ‘The Real Truth About Boys and Books: They Read Less Than Girls – And Skip Pages‘ was the headline in The Observer, and it told you all you needed to know really. Or perhaps not.
The real truth had emerged from two research studies by Keith Topping, professor of educational and social research at the University of Dundee, and we are told early in the story that the research was based on extensive data from a ‘computer system used in schools across Britain to test the progress of pupils’ reading.’ What is this computer system that is used across Britain? I wondered, so I looked a little closer.
Reading For Boys. And Girls.
The innocent reader might instinctively believe that it would be a government-funded programme, designed to improve reading, but in fact it is a commercial product called ‘Accelerated Reader’, which in the words of the company’s website is ‘a powerful tool for monitoring and managing independent reading practice, motivating your students to read for pleasure.’ So hold on a minute. This is a computer system designed to monitor progress and a powerful tool to motivate students to read for pleasure at the same time? Highly unlikely, I would have thought, but I would be glad to hear from anyone who is using it, and there are many of you, if indeed it is being used extensively across Britain.
I have no doubt that there are issues with boys and reading (see previous posts Here Come the Boys and Boys Will Be Boys – If You Let Them), and that sometimes the motivation for boys is different from that of girls, but there is no quick fix, such as plugging them into a computer or providing a multiple-choice quiz at the end of every book. What it takes is a well-trained teacher or librarian who reads loads of children’s books and transfers that enthusiasm to the young developing reader. What it takes is love and care and attention and the right conversations at the right time. What it takes is patience and nurture and a room full of books. What it takes is investment, not the closure of school libraries. And what it takes is time, not more ‘reading schemes’. It’s a bit like comparing factory farming to the slow food movement. We already know that you can’t fatten a pig by weighing it, but force-feeding it doesn’t strike me as a healthy alternative.
Incidentally, the interview on Radio 5 was bumped after the death of Jimmy Perry, and rightly so. Cheer yourself up by reading the story of his life in yesterday’s Guardian.
Bill Boyd - The Literacy Adviser 
Hi Bill force feeding is the opposite of what Accelerated Reader does – it’s about giving the kids as much choice as possible with the quiz at the end being fun and motivating for lots of children. It is not designed to be rigid or prescriptive and is just one tool in a librarian or teacher’s arsenal of resources. The programme can be an excellent advocacy tool for librarians as well – Renaissance stress the importance of having a librarian/library full of exciting books to the success of AR. I run training days for Renaissance by the way, but I am not employed by them and my self employment allows me to choose to work only with companies whose products I wholeheartedly believe in.
Stewarton Academy spending £7000 on this against the wishes of the English Department.
Motivation has a big part in how students, especially boys view reading. Part of being a boy is having ego and pride in what you do. Boys want to be successful in everything they do and be able to say “look at me”, “look at what I did.” Boys don’t like to do things they don’t see themselves being successful at or something they can not do. Girls on the other hand enjoy challenges and don’t have as big of an ego that needs to be fed. For adolescents, it’s about giving them the opportunity to be successful. Giving them this opportunity allows for intrinsic motivation to take over, rather than someone always having to come along to motivate them extrinsically. As literacy teachers, it is important to teach adolescents different strategies and skills they can use to be successful readers and writers. It is important that the classroom culture allows them to seek challenges and give them avenues to achieve success. And most importantly, adolescents need and deserve literacy instruction that is differentiated and can provide for their specific individual needs. By doing these things, all adolescents can be successful and enjoy the rewards of reading and writing without having to be force-fed to do it.
Can’t find much to disagree with there James. Thank you for the contribution.