The Results

Learning to Love Reading: Strategies to engage adolescents with reading for pleasure as a classroom literacy practice

The Learning to Love Reading programme produced encouraging results, particularly in helping students engage with reading during school time. While it did not magically turn every student into an avid reader, it showed that teachers can, even without specialist or whole-school support, make a meaningful difference by creating the right conditions for reading engagement to develop.

Reading Is More Social Than We Often Think

One of the strongest findings was that reading engagement is shaped by social factors. Many students liked the idea of sharing books, getting recommendations, and talking about stories with others. However, they rarely initiated these activities themselves and often needed structured opportunities and encouragement to participate.

The programme found that reading became more appealing when students:

discussed books with peers,
shared recommendations,
participated in Book Buddy activities,
and experienced reading as something people do together rather than alone.

The most successful social activity was the Audiobook Club model, where small groups listened to the same story together. This helped create a shared experience and reduced many of the barriers students associated with reading (such as being far more interested in what their friends were up to in the library).

Time Matters

Many students simply were not reading enough to develop confidence, enjoyment, or reading stamina. This also meant they had very limited ability to join in the social activities around books, because they didn’t have much to talk about. Therefore, the research found that engagement improved most when reading time was:

regular,
protected,
uninterrupted,
and embedded into normal classroom routines.

Students often needed several weeks before reading routines became established. Once routines were disrupted, engagement frequently declined again. This suggests that successful reading programmes depend less on one-off events and more on consistent opportunities to read over time. This includes restricted reading time, during which students are not allowed to ditch their chosen book. (This also incentivises them to make better choices.)

Choice Helps — But Students Need Guidance

The programme confirmed that choice is important, but simply offering free choice of hundreds of books is not enough. Many students struggled to:

choose a book,
identify their interests,
evaluate whether a book would suit them,
or persist when their first choice was unsuccessful.

Teenagers benefited most when teachers helped them:

discover genres they might enjoy,
develop confidence in selecting books,
receive recommendations,
and access carefully curated collections.

In other words, genuine reading independence develops through support and practice rather than unrestricted choice alone; the students needed scaffolded quality over unlimited quantity.

Audiobooks Were a Powerful Tool

The most significant programme innovation was the use of Audiobook Clubs and shared audiobook experiences.

For many students, audiobooks:

reduced anxiety about reading,
improved access to stories,
increased concentration,
supported struggling readers,
and helped students experience success with longer texts.

Audiobooks were particularly effective for students who had previously shown little interest in reading. They allowed students to focus on enjoying stories while reducing some of the mental workload that made reading feel difficult or frustrating, and helped reduce distractions across the class.

However, audiobooks were not a perfect solution for every student. Some preferred print books, while others moved between formats depending on the text and situation. The most effective approach was offering multiple ways to access stories.

Technology Was Helpful, But Not Transformative

The research found that ebooks, audiobooks, online classroom spaces, and other digital tools were useful when they improved access or supported participation. However, technology alone did not create engagement. In the post-COVID and BYOD saturated environments, the novelty of technology has well and truly worn off.

Successful reading experiences still depended on:

relationships,
routines,
teacher guidance,
social connections,
and access to appealing books.

Technology worked best when it strengthened these existing aspects of reading culture rather than attempting to replace them.

A Wider Concern: Attention, Reading Identity, and Disconnection from Narrative

One of the most significant and concerning findings was that some students appeared to be struggling with more than reading motivation or literacy alone. Across both years of the programme, many students found it difficult to sustain attention on a single text, follow a narrative over time, remember what had happened in previous chapters, or return to a story after interruptions. Frequent book abandonment, repeated restarting of texts, and difficulties maintaining engagement with longer narratives were common for a significant number of participants.

The study also found that many students lacked a clear sense of themselves as story consumers. When asked what they liked to read or watch, a surprising number struggled to answer. Some were unable to identify favourite genres, themes, or story types, regardless of whether they were being asked about books, films, TV, or even games. In many cases, students had not developed an awareness of their own interests because they had spent so little time successfully engaging with narrative media of ANY kind. Many consumed large amounts of shortform and algorithmic digital media each day, but some struggled to engage with stories that unfolded slowly, required sustained attention, or demanded that details be remembered and connected across time. For these students, the challenge was not simply reading words on a page; it was participating in a long-form story that required patience, concentration, and continuity, which included highly visual long-form media like film and TV. This suggested significant underdevelopment in their ability to make choices at all.

This is an enormous challenge for students and their teachers and families. While research often emphasises student choice, the findings suggest that many young people these days do not automatically know what they are even interested in, let alone how to find it. Developing reader identity therefore emerged as an important part of the programme, requiring explicit teaching, guided exploration, recommendations, and scaffolded opportunities to sample different genres and formats.

Teachers and parents need to be aware that skills often taken for granted, including sustained attention, reading stamina, narrative memory, and awareness of personal reading interests, may need to be actively developed and supported to engage students with reading, and thus continue to develop their literacy (and learning) skills.

Improvements Were Strongest in School

As a result of the programme, many students became more positive about reading during school and reported enjoying library time more than they had previously. Teachers also observed improved behaviour, greater participation, and stronger reading routines. However, changes in students’ reading beyond school were more modest.

The reality is that students' reading habits are influenced by many factors beyond the classroom, including family life, competing activities, digital media, and broader cultural trends.

Educational Design Principles for Reading Programmes

By the end of the study, four key principles emerged for building successful classroom reading programmes:

1. Make Reading Social

Create safe, low-pressure opportunities for students to share recommendations, discuss books, and experience stories together.

2. Provide & Protect Meaningful Time

Protect regular reading time and establish routines that allow students to become immersed in stories.

3. Scaffold Agency & Autonomy

Teach students how to choose books, explore genres, and develop confidence as readers while providing curated recommendations and manageable options.

4. Introduce Novelty Thoughtfully

Regularly offer fresh books, formats, activities, and recommendations to spark curiosity, while ensuring they are supported by stable routines and relationships.

Overall Conclusion

The research suggests that adolescents are more likely to engage with reading when they have time, social support, appropriate guidance, and access to stories in formats that work for them. Reading engagement is not simply a matter of motivation or willpower. It is shaped by the environment around students and the opportunities they are given to see themselves as readers. Through relatively modest classroom changes, teachers can help create conditions in which more young people experience reading as worthwhile, enjoyable, and meaningful.

If you would like to know more about the programme and its resources, please submit a query through the contact form. I'm happy to share exemplars and resources to educational/school email addresses. Thesis publication pending.

I also love to share my research in person with teachers, professional bodies, and parents - see this page for more information.

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