British want kids to read 50 books a year

March 28, 2011 By Joanne 19 Comments

British students should read 50 books a year, says Education Secretary Michael Gove, after touring a KIPP charter in Harlem with a book-a-week goal.

In talking to students preparing for school exams, “something like 80 or 90 per cent were just reading one or two novels and overwhelmingly it was the case that it included Of Mice and Men.”

“We should be saying that our children should be reading 50 books a year, not just one or two for GCSE.”

I wonder why Of Mice and Men is ubiquitous in Britain. Well, it’s short.

For adults, The Telegraph suggests 50 books you must not read before you die.

In sixth grade, we filled out an index card for every book we read independently.  The minimum was one book a month. I read 183 books during the school year.  The teacher saved my stack of index cards to terrify future students.

-->Filed Under: Education Tagged With: books, Britain, charter, KIPP, reading About Joanne
CommentsMark Roulo says: March 28, 2011 at 9:00 am

St. John’s College (liberal arts school in Annapolis and Santa Fe, not the school known for basketball in New York) has an excellent great books curriculum, where the education is largely centered around reading, discussing and writing about great books of western civilization.

The freshman year load is 43 books and some essays … but the books include some fairly short ones (e.g. The Frogs, by Aristophanes).

I get that these books are probably longer and harder than the ones that Michael Gove is envisioning, but the K-12 kids are also younger and less motivated than the self selected students at St. John’s.

Does he really think that the kids will read (as opposed to skim … or looking up a summary on-line or via Cliff’s Notes) one book a week? Assuming that the books are as long as Harry Potter and/or The Wind in the Willows? I’d love to see it happen, but I just don’t see *how* it actually can/will happen …

Happy Elf Mom says: March 28, 2011 at 9:08 am

Yeah, way to impart that love of reading. Read 50 books, or read 200 pages, or read for 20 minutes each night. I’m so stinkin’ tired of these odd guidelines. How many of us actually give children a bit of non-busy, non-hurried time to pursue reading about a topic or exploring a book they enjoyed?? It’s all about the lists and the charts. No wonder we don’t raise readers!!

wahoofive says: March 28, 2011 at 9:43 am

50 books you must “not” read before you die?

gahrie says: March 28, 2011 at 9:59 am

That is a book a week. Quite a heavy load for a school year, but easily done in a calendar year.

Deirdre Mundy says: March 28, 2011 at 10:29 am

a book a week really isn’t too much to ask of kids, if we limit their screen time. Why shouldn’t they read an hour a night? What else are they doing? When I was young (I was a fast reader) a typical kids/YA novel took me about 2 hours. I easilt plowed through 10-16 books a week (of course, I was known to skimp on projects and homework to spend more time reading! )

Basically, if we want kids to be FLUENT readers by adulthood, a book a week is probably not enough!. If we follow the 10,000 words makes an expert rule, we want kids to read for closer to 2 hours a night for their k-12 lives. Not just during the school year—all year long.

Now, given that the average US kid supposedly spends 4 hours a day watching TV, this shouldn’t be too much to ask.

It’s a culture problem. Even at 1 book a week, these kids will never be great readers. They need to start hitting the 3-5 books a week mark, at least.

Jen Green says: March 28, 2011 at 10:45 am

I think all points are fair. Obviously the length of the book is a huge factor, as is the fact that the average school year is only 40 weeks, making the average 1.25 books per week. I agree that reading should be encouraged, but so should athletics, and music, and the arts, not to mention math, history, languages, sciences etc. I think the idea of mandating the amount of time spent, or quantity of pages read, is what kills the love of reading for many people not just children. I am an avid reader, but after a heavy university curriculum where I “had” to read so many texts and books, I spent the following year not even reading for pleasure… Reading should be a joy, and encouraged, and I think this quote that children “should” read 50 books per year, is meant to be taken as a guideline, and not a mandate.

Mark Roulo says: March 28, 2011 at 10:50 am

Deirdre,

You aren’t asking the kids to read if they *must* do so. You are forcing them. As a parent you can do this, but how do the schools do this? Assign it as homework? Which won’t get done?

It is, as you mention at the end, a culture problem. But adding a new, non-enforceable requirement isn’t going to change the culture.

Deirdre Mundy says: March 28, 2011 at 11:00 am

A charter school might be able to have an extended day with reading (instead of TV) time after school. But you’re right, in the end, for most kids, it comes down to the parents.

I teach second grade CCD right now. About half the kids in the class have flat screen TVs, blueray players, video game systems and laptops IN THEIR BEDROOMS. It’s clear where the family’s priorities are…. but I don’t think parents realize that by giving their kids unlimited gadgetry, they’re actually damaging academic performance and condemning them to the underclass.

Michael E. Lopez, Esq. says: March 28, 2011 at 11:16 am

This reminds me of a conversation we’ve had before…. it wasn’t the point of the post but it came up in the comments:

http://www.joannejacobs.com/2009/12/holding-the-gate-against-ideas/

Cal says: March 28, 2011 at 11:40 am

Why make kids read? There’s no evidence that reading makes kids better readers. Vocabulary and content knowledge makes kids better readers, and if they aren’t going to get content knowledge from reading Aristophanes.

Mark Roulo says: March 28, 2011 at 11:45 am

If we follow the 10,000 hours makes an expert rule…

Actually, the rule is more that the experts tend to have put in 10,000 hours. But that doesn’t mean that 10,000 hours makes you an expert. It is more that if you *DON’T* put in 10,000 hours, you shouldn’t expect to be an expert (note that the rule of thumb doesn’t define expert …)

palisadesk says: March 28, 2011 at 12:12 pm

Only 50 books? Those Limeys are wimps. Get with Pennsylvania schools and the 100 Book Challenge!

http://www.americanreading.com/products/100bc/

I think it has spread to other states as well.

Where children’s books are concerned, 50 or 100 is no big deal, most are quite short. By the middle grades they are longer ,but few kids are reading Treasure Island or Stacy in NJ says: March 28, 2011 at 12:37 pm

Ughhh. I homeschool and assign reading to my boys daily. Typically they read for an accumulated 2-3 hours per day. This includes both fiction and non-fiction. I would never assign a certain number of books. As a kid I easily read 100 books per year – 100 crap books. Quality matters. Kids need to be read to, guided in their choice of material, and engage with the material they read (reflect on it). That is what education is. Reading 50 or 100 or 200 books just to git ‘er done is stupid and random.

My boys also read comic books, manga, and fun series like Percy Jackson. They do that on their own time, though.

Claudia Vandermilt says: March 28, 2011 at 12:51 pm

I like this goal. Give or take depending on the length of the book. Younger kids could read (or be read to) most days really. Short texts, lots of pics.

When you get into the chapter books even a book every 2 weeks would be great.

I like this goal and will consider implementing it into our routine.

Thanks!

Pete says: March 28, 2011 at 1:35 pm

First time posting.

I think everyone on this thread is crazy. I am an avid reader and have been for 35 years (since early elementary) but I could never read 50 books in a year. I read at the same speed that I talk, which means it takes close to 2 minutes to read a page in a paperback novel. I love longer novels (600+ pages) so you can do the math. This rate of reading gives me time to enter the world of the novel and become fully enveloped in it.

If I had to read a book a week I would be forced to skim the books and I would hate reading.

Mark Barnes says: March 28, 2011 at 2:05 pm

Wonderful topic and stimulating discussion. I strongly recommend Donalyn Miller’s remarkable work, The Book Whisperer. This is one of those truly transformational books. I teach seventh-grade language arts, and I employ a reading program, similar to Miller’s.

I give my students time in class daily to read. I allow them to choose virtually anything they’re interested in reading, only coaching them on reading level. I never assign homework, choosing rather to encourage, not demand, outside-of-class reading.

While the average student in my school reads somewhere between one and three books throughout the year, mine will read 20-40, depending on the student. Many who entered the year as non-readers now read, saying “I used to hate reading.”

I’ve had parents tell me they come home from work to find their children reading for pleasure — something that never happened prior to this year.

Give them choice and time to read and reflect on reading and to discuss it with peers, and kids will read. Of course, this means spending less time teaching to standardized tests and assigning meaningless homework.

Deirdre Mundy says: March 28, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Hmm…. I’m an adult and have no problem reading a book or two a week (and reading a novel a week outloud to the kiddos.) But my husband and I don’t watch TV.

Liz Ditz says: March 28, 2011 at 7:33 pm

The January of my 5th grade year (and what year that was is none of your business, but it was before cable or internet or anything) I injured my knee badly enough that I couldn’t manage going to school. Crutches, steps….just not happening.

My mother was a stay-at-home mom so it didn’t put a dent in the family lifestyle.

All there was to do was read. I was propped up on a couch with a fortress of reading material — everything from the Encyclopedia Brittanica (we had a set) to Lang’s Fairy Stories to my father’s children’s books (Tom Swift, the complete run of the Oz stories) and some English children’s books from a neighbor.

In retrospect, that week of nothing to do but read changed my life. Did I understand everything in the EB? No, but I learned about struggling to understand written material and to save up questions for adults. I think I sort of absorbed by immersion the difference between fiction and non-fiction, and the particular tone of authoritative texts (back then, the EB).

In my view, the various lists (like this one) http://www.collegeboard.com/parents/plan/hs-steps/21276.html are WAY too heavily weighted towards fiction, poetry and personal narrative/biography Where are the books on science, natural history… or even history?

Cal says: March 28, 2011 at 10:09 pm

Oh, god. Must everyone else suffer through these little life stories? Are you all so self-absorbed that you think your own fatuous love for the written word only requires forced exposure to books to ignite a two way passion?

Focus hard, anecdatrons: correlation is not causation. You liked reading. Good for you! It had diddly to do with exposure and everything to do with a mixture of preference and IQ.

Speak Your Mind Cancel replyName *

Email *

Website

Please leave these two fields as-is:

Protected by Invisible Defender. Showed 403 to 54,554 bad guys.

The BookSubscribe

Recent CommentsCal on Tom West on Gates v. Jobs on liberal artsObi-Wandreas on Bonus doesn’t lure best teachers to worst schoolsLiz Ditz on Chartermom on Gates v. Jobs on liberal artsRecent PostsDoes college pay?Gates v. Jobs on liberal artsBonus doesn’t lure best teachers to worst schoolsSturdy hybrid vigorAds
(a) EdBlogsAnswer SheetBrainstormBridging DifferencesChange the EquationCharter InsightsCharterBlogClass StruggleCollege PuzzleCommon CoreCommunity College SpotlightConcord ReviewCore KnowledgeCritical MassCurriculum MattersDaily RiffDana GoldsteinDiscriminationsDropout NationEarly Ed WatchEarly StoriesEd BeatEd ReformerEdMoneyEdspressoEducated GuessEducation GadflyEducation InnovatingEducation NextEducation OptimistsEducation Policy BlogEduFlackEdutopia BlogEduwonkEdWizeEIA InterceptsFIRE’s TorchFlypaperGotham SchoolsGradebookHechingerEdHome EducationInside School ResearchJay P. GreeneKitchen Table MathLarry CubanMedia BullpenMinding the CampusNAS BlogNational JournalOut in Left FieldPolitics K-12Public School InsightsQuick and the EdredefinEdRick Hess Straight UpRock the SchoolhouseSchool Law and ReformShanker BlogSherman DornStuart BuckTeacher BeatThe Educated ReporterThis Week in EducationTurnaround ChallengeUniversity DiariesWhitney TilsonWhy Boys Fail(b) TeacherBlogsA Teacher’s EducationA Teacher’s ViewAssorted StuffBiology and BlueberriesCoach BrownCoach G's Teaching TipsCurmudgeonDaily GrindDeTocqueville's DaughterDy/DanExponential CurveGently Hew StoneHistory is ElementaryHuffEnglishLightly SeasonedMathNotationsMildly MelancholyMiss BraveNot All Flowers and SausagesNYC EducatorOrganized ChaosPractical TheoryRight on the Left CoastShrewdness of ApesSiobhan CuriousStories from SchoolTeach for America BlogsTeacher in a Strange LandTeacher VoicesTeacher, I Don't Get ItTeacherLingoTeaching NowThe LineWhat It's Like on the Inside(c) Blogroll11DAnn AlthouseBetsy’s PageBuzzMachineHit & RunI Speak of DreamsInkwellInstapunditIowahawkJames Lileks’ BleatJim MillerJust One MinuteKausfilesMegan McArdleRoger SimonThe CornerThe PlankTim BlairVirginia PostrelVolokh Conspiracy(d) News/InfoBest of the WebCalifornia WatchCity JournalCommentary MagazinePajamas MediaReasonSlateTCS DailyThe OnionWeekly Standard(e) CollegesCalifornia business schoolLinksApidexinArtificial Christmas TreesAsbestos Lung CancerChicago CollegeChristmas DecorationsColleges in IllinoisColorado Nursing SchoolsEducatorFacebook EmoticonsMesotheliomaPhlebotomy TrainingScentOnline EducationAccredited Online CollegesBachelor Degrees OnlineBachelor of AccountingCNA Certification OnlineCollege OnlineDay TradingElementary & Secondary EducationEngineering Programs OntarioHealthcare Management DegreeMassage Therapy ProgramsMedical Billing and CodingMedical Billing and Coding TrainingOnline College EducationOnline Courses in AustraliaOnline Criminal Justice DegreesOnline MBAOnline Psychology DegreesOnline Trading EducationOnline UniversityPhlebotomy CertificationPhlebotomy TrainingReal Online Degrees BlogUMATX-Ray TechnicianSiteMeter

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2011 · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in