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? My teachers are bursting with enthusiasm and creatively which they’ve passed on to the children and other teachers” Headteacher, Power of Reading School Per capita incomes are higher in countries where more adults reach the highest levels of literacy proficiency and fewer adults are at the lowest levels of literacy. 14 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. Sample Curriculum Maps to help schools develop a text-based English curriculum across the whole school.

Longden E., Davis P., Billington J., et al (2015) Shared Reading: Assessing the intrinsic value of a literature-based intervention Medical Humanities, 41 (2), pp. 113-20] ↩ Research has proven that just 30 minutes of reading can lower your blood pressure, heart rate, and feelings of psychological distress. Having books in the home is associated with both reading enjoyment and confidence. Of children who report having fewer than 10 books in their homes, 42% say they do not like reading and only 32% say they are 'very confident' readers. For children who report having over 200 books at home, only 12% say they do not like reading and 73% consider themselves 'very confident' readers. 8 Research has shown that long-term fiction readers tend to develop a better "theory of mind"– the term used to describe our capacity for empathy and ability to understand others.

Choose books with strong human themes that enable children to inhabit the world of a story and characters with whom they are invested. In our fifty years of research and work with schools, we have long known the benefits for all children of making reading for pleasure a core part of the curriculum for all children. In July, the update to the DfE Reading Framework was published, and we are pleased to see this recognised more fully in this revised version, alongside the continued emphasis on phonics to support decoding. For a book to be on our Power of Reading list it has to have many distinct and different elements. We work to put together a collection that contains books that are emotionally powerful; books with storylines and plots that allow opportunities to explore dilemmas, challenges, morality and ethics; protagonists that children can identify with. But above all, texts take you inescapably into the world of the book - a book you can lose yourself in. Our Power of Reading collection showcases a breadth of types of texts as well: narrative, poetry, traditional tales, texts with powerful illustrations, and interesting non-fiction texts. These areas and approaches have long been recognised by CLPE as transformational to children’s engagement and attainment in reading. Our face-to-face and online training programme including the Power of Reading and our Teaching Reading and Phonics courses explore how to put this guidance into practice, offering planning and resources for teachers to immediately implement learning in the classroom. Model how a skilled reader draws on the range of comprehension strategies required to make meaning from a text rather than focussing on one domain in isolation. Comprehension is an outcome, not a skill to practise, and so it does not make sense to divide up the elements of skilled reading and teach them separately.

There is much to be welcomed in the updated framework, but we also want to ensure that schools and settings interpret this new guidance with a wider view about what we know works in the teaching of reading, particularly at the early stages. There are millions of incredible books out there, and there's a perfect reading genre for everyone – from fantasy novels and classical literature to self-help guides and business books.For our nursery pupils the focus is predominantly on their communication and language development. They share the same texts as the Reception pupils and as a team we collaborate on our Power of Reading* planning for each week. As EYFS lead I am delighted to observe the nursery children chatting about the text and illustrations, predicting what the story may be about, describing what they see and examining each character in detail. The Power of Reading* has resulted in children using a rich and varied story vocabulary. Further to this, the rich language is transferred into the children’s role-play and into many of their child initiated learning experiences. And the great news is that one membership allows access to the whole school for 12 months so all year groups can benefit from creative teaching approaches. 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 One study found that older adults who regularly read or play mentally challenging games like chess are two and a half times less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

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. Read our reports into the benefits of reading for pleasure and empowerment (BOP Consulting, 2015) and of creating a society of readers (Demos, 2018), or explore more reading stats and facts below. Skills and Learning Support children’s independence and agency in book choices and reading material, rather than limiting children to books with an assigned band or score which can impact on the development of reader identity and engagement. Reading widely best supports children to articulate reading preferences. Build a progressive English curriculum by planning for children to enjoy increasingly demanding books, which also enable them to make intertextual connections within and across year groups. Successful readers read widely and often; reading engagement supports the development of skilled reading; and reading for pleasure impacts on academic attainment.Studies have found that reading for pleasure enhances empathy, understanding of the self, and the ability to understand one's own and others' identities. 23 For example, reading Harry Potter has been shown to improve children's attitudes toward stigmatized groups such as immigrants, refugees, and members of the LGBT community. 24