Badger Learning is extremely pleased to announce we are once again present on multiple occasions within this year’s What Kids Are Reading report, compiled by Accelerated Reader – Renaissance Learning. The annual report is in its sixth year and is assembled using reading data from 2,106 schools and over 420,000 British students. These school children have read and been quizzed on over 6.5million books, amounting to over 77 billion words in total. All of us here at Badger Learning are extremely proud to have our own publications amongst this impressive list of titles.

Reading for Pleasure

The report itself provides an insight into the reading state of the country and has highlighted, quite positively, that children using the Accelerated Reader programme are now reading more literature than ever before. The AR programme highlights two key instigators to persuade reluctant readers to pick up a book: reading for pleasure and choice of literature. The latter is extremely important as books pitched at the appropriate level can positively challenge and stimulate young children.

Reading for pleasure is of course now a main focus in the National Curriculum, rendering it as accepted wisdom in the Department of Education. The OECD has also recognised the importance of this activity in relation to academic achievement and the impact it has on attitudes towards education. It is no surprise at all then that reading for pleasure is directly associated with higher performance levels in Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA).

Badger Learning Publications

We are extremely privileged and delighted to be listed under two different categories in this year’s report – Books for Struggling Readers Read Most Often and Non-Fiction Books Read Most Often. We are also tremendously happy to see two of our very own authors consistently making the list; congratulations to Alison Hawes and Jonny Zucker! See below for our publications present in the list (numbers in brackets indicate the difference from last year’s position):

Books for Struggling Readers Read Most Often

Year 7

#2 (–): The Good Student – Alison Hawes

Year 8

#8 (-6): The Good Student – Alison Hawes

Non-Fiction Books Read Most Often (Primary School)

Year 3

#8 (-3): Awesome Animals – Alison Hawes

Year 4

#7 (+4): Big Fast Rides – Alison Hawes

#8 (+1): Awesome Animals – Alison Hawes

#15 (+18): The Biggest Lies Ever! – Alison Hawes

Year 5

#5 (+2): Big Fast Rides – Alison Hawes

#17 (+12): Goal Scorers – Jonny Zucker

#19 (-10): Awesome Animals – Alison Hawes

Year 6

#6 (+1): Big Fast Rides – Alison Hawes

#10 (+15): Awesome Animals – Alison Hawes

#20 (+14): The Biggest Lies Ever! – Alison Hawes

Year 7

#8 (–): Goalkeepers – Jonny Zucker

#9 (-2): Big Fast Rides – Alison Hawes

#15 (+2): Goal Scorers – Jonny Zucker

Year 8

#5 (+1): Goalkeepers – Jonny Zucker

#9 (-2): Big Fast Rides – Alison Hawes

#10 (+2): Goal Scorers – Jonny Zucker

#14 (+1): Dangerous Stunts – Jonny Zucker

Year 9

#4 (–): Goalkeepers – Jonny Zucker

#5 (+4): Goal Scorers – Jonny Zucker

#12 (+3): Dangerous Stunts – Jonny Zucker

#13 (-1): Big Fast Rides – Alison Hawes

Summary of Report Findings

The Accelerated Reader software offers computerised quizzes and questionnaires on the content of books chosen by children, allowing data on their reading habits to be captured effectively. So this report accurately details the books that children have actually read across an academic year from August 2012 to July 2013. The report highlights a number of positive messages and conclusions, such as:

  • The difficulty level of reading is on the rise, especially in primary schools;
  • The accuracy of which books are read is also on the rise, especially with struggling readers;
  • Boys and girls are performing equally as well;
  • Children reading motivating books are doing so at a high level of difficulty;
  • Year 5 students are doing particularly well reading non-fiction books.

In contrast, there are less positive notes to take away from the report, such as:

  • Struggling readers and highly able readers are not challenged enough;
  • Non-fiction readers are also not challenged enough, especially in secondary school;
  • Northern Ireland are behind England and Scotland in terms of book difficulty;
  • Year 7 primary students in Scotland show a decline in difficulty.

These conclusions definitely show the positive impact the Accelerated Reader programme is having on our school children and how they approach literature. It also highlights some possible needs for improvement, including the need to better encourage struggling readers. Once again though, we are extremely pleased to be involved in these top 20 lists and we congratulate both Alison and Jonny for their hard work and dedication. Thank you to all who have been involved and let’s hope to see more titles up there next year!