Engaging Parents with Reading for Pleasure by Rachael Rogan

Rachael Rogan is the Founder of the BookTastic Book Festival and she has written an informative blog for us all about engaging families with Reading for Pleasure.

 

Why it’s essential to engage parents in the importance of reading for pleasure

Rachael Rogan, Founder, BookTastic Book Festival

The world is awash with reports on reading right now. The latest government statistics show that one in four children leave primary school unable to read to the expected standard (rising to 49% of children from disadvantaged backgrounds). More positively, the recent findings by the IEA’s Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) place England fourth out of 43 countries around the world, up from eighth place in 2016. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and you discover that our children’s reading is still in decline – other countries have simply plummeted at a greater rate.

Why the need to constantly monitor and measure and reflect and set standards and targets? Because literacy is the most powerful indicator of life success.

This is particularly poignant when we understand the economic cost of illiteracy. The World Literacy Foundation estimates the financial cost to the wider economy in the UK is £54.97 billion per year. Poverty and illiteracy are inextricably linked, and a love of reading represents the single most powerful route out of hardship.

With this in mind, it becomes clear that supporting parental engagement must be a fundamental goal: Parents are the first and most influential role models for children. Even a few minutes each day modelling reading for pleasure can have significant outcomes – many of the children we speak to who declare that reading is ‘boring’ or ‘school work’ learn this in the home.

Many years ago, we ran an Eager Readers programme, inviting parents to visit their local bookshop, choose a book, and ‘learn’ how to read with their child. What may sound simple proved to be a significant barrier, whether due to a lack of confidence in reading, speaking English as an additional language, or simply never having had storytime modelled to them by their own parents.

What did shine through was their enjoyment of the activity once they felt more relaxed and confident. No one wants to fail, and some parents saw reading with their children as an opportunity to expose a weakness.

When parents demonstrate a love for reading and make it a part of their daily lives, children are more likely to view reading as a valuable and enjoyable activity. It becomes normalised. Therefore, the critical step is to support parents in discovering that love for themselves.

This is something we prioritise at every BookTastic Book Festival event. We have a single goal: to make reading fun. We don’t preach the value of literacy. And we know we’ve succeeded when parents emerge from our events looking faintly shocked that they had ‘fun’.

Sharing storytime is one of the most effective tools we have used in all our years of working with reluctant or disengaged families. Starting simple, reading aloud in manageable chunks can have the most significant impact – that lack of confidence or fear of the unknown can be overcome simply by making storytime a shared experience.

Children and parents need positive reading experiences. Yes, phonics and comprehension and structure are hugely important if we are to allow potential readers to unlock the code and decipher the squiggles. But it is equally important to give everyone an opportunity to focus on the story captured inside.

The chasm between those who fling themselves headlong into a book as a form of relaxation, and those who cower from it as a form of torture, seems vast. And yet the key to bridging that gap comes from one of the most basic tools: fun. Create a positive association with reading and it will become a fun activity. And once a child loves to read, literacy will take care of itself.

For further details, please head to the link below.

Booktastic Children’s Book Festival Bedford

 

Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.