Top texts to engage reluctant readers revealed in new teacher insight report

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Wonder and Captain Underpants are the top three books suggested by teachers to engage pupils who are reluctant to read, according to a new insight report published by Laburnum House Educational.

 

Laburnum House, which has supplied heavily discounted books to schools for over 25 years and offers a wide range of titles for primary and secondary, fiction and non-fiction, reached out to its community of Headteachers, subject leaders, literacy co-ordinators, teachers and librarians to learn more about their approaches to the teaching of reading.

 

The follow-on report, Reading for pleasure & reading initiatives, summaries responses from 147 school-based professionals who completed the survey up to and including the end of the spring term in April 2021. It explores issues such as the time given in school to reading for pleasure (and the barriers), the use of schemes such as whole class reading, Accelerated Reader and Tutor Time Reading, as well as books to grab the attention of reluctant readers.

 

Whilst most schools (28%) allocate 15-20 minutes to reading for pleasure in school every day, only 12% give more than 25 minutes. Over half of respondents (53%) say they do not encourage reading for pleasure in the school day as there is not enough time. This suggests that more could be done during class time to generate a love of reading, the report says.

 

The overwhelming majority of respondents (90%) already use Accelerated Reader in their school as a supporting reading initiative. Over two thirds of schools (69%) also undertake whole class reading, or whole class guided reading, but less than half run Tutor Time Reading. Other popular reading initiatives include book clubs, reading buddies and paired reading.

 

The report also includes a link to a list of the Top 40 bestselling titles of 2021 so far, as purchased by schools for their libraries.

 

Laburnum House Educational are specialists in supporting schools running Accelerated Reader. Everything is half price, all Accelerated Reader books are pre-labelled with the quiz details free of charge, and there is free delivery on all orders over £50. School can also build out a full set of resource materials with the provision of dictionaries, thesauruses and atlases.

 

To download the full report go to:

https://images.scholastic.co.uk/assets/a/40/57/laburnum-house-educational-reading-report-summer-2021-2017602.pdf