Reading as an essential skill

Today I am spending a lot of time thinking about finding books for students who don't read. Not the 'reluctant' reader i.e. someone who is able to read but chooses not to. No, my focus is on students who have real difficulty.

We in the Library have been involved with the school's Link Group (a small group of students who, on entry in Y7 were found to have low literacy and numeracy). The aim of the Link Group is to improve their literacy and numeracy and enable these students to return to regular classes.

So, there are some students whose reading age is considerably below that of their peers and we have to find a way of encouraging them to read. Bear in mind that most of the Link students have been subject to reading schemes, phonics, Literacy Hours etc. Yet they still cannot read fluently. They have spent at least six years in school but this essential skill is lacking.

There is, to my mind, no point in going back over reading schemes for them and, to be fair, they are not small children any more so much of what is available is too young for them. I have looked at a great deal of material that is available from educational publishers and find much of it really unpleasant. The illustrations are awful, it does not look like a real book and they just do not offer an enjoyable reading experience. In this instance, I believe that style is as important as substance. I refuse to offer second rate, flimsy books which imply that non-reader equals not important enough to offer real quality.

Suffice it to say that it is not at all easy to find suitable material. However, we are very fortunate in having a brilliant Head of ICT in school who works with Link Group and we have decided to use ipads with them. Hooray! (Cheers to the senior staff for agreeing to this.)

This we hope will remove some of the fear engendered merely by the appearance of a book and will provide our students with an opportunity to achieve success with their reading. Now to find some good stuff for them to read ... Hmm, back to where I started, I think.