Reading Research & Summaries

The DfE updated Reading Framework published in July 2023 is an extensive document providing research-based guidance on reading in primary schools and in Key Stage 3.

National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read. This is a weighty overview of the scientific research on reading with analysis of implications for reading instruction (US). Tim Shanahan summarises this in accessible language with practical teacher applications. The guide Put Reading First: The Research Blocks For Teaching Children To Read flushes out practical implications (National Institute for Literacy, 2006).

Literature Review on Reading for Pleasure in Secondary Schools (Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement, Coventry University) & The Impact of Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment Literature Review (Reading Agency, 2015)

Literacy Development evidence review from the EEF (2019): https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Literacy_Development_Evidence_Review.pdf and the Improving Literacy In Secondary Schools Guidance Report

The Science of Reading: A Defining Guide is an excellent evidence-based summary of what research on reading (across decades & disciplines) says, and what the practical implications of this research are. You can download the free report here.

Reading for Change: Performance and Engagement Across Countries — OECD. Results from PISA 2002

Teaching Reading is Rocket Science: What expert teachers of reading should know and be able to do by Louisa Moats

Teachers as Readers: Building Communities of Readers by Teresa Cremin et al 2009 — a research-drive project to develop teachers who read and readers who teach

Why Reading is Key to GCSE Success: GL Assessment research — an analysis of reading ability and GCSE results of 370,00 students (2020)

Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition from Novice to Expert by Anne Castles et al (APS) with a comprehensive review of the science of learning to read.

PISA reading results for the UK in 2018

PIRLS National Report for England (Progress in International Reading Study) — 2017

Social inequality in cognitive scores at age 16: The role of reading by Alice Sullivan & Matt Brown (Centre for Longitudinal Studies, 2013).

Reading England’s Future: Mapping How Well the Poorest Children Read. A report published by Read On, Get On (2014)

Connecting Early Language and Literacy to Later Reading (Dis)Abilities: Evidence, Theory and Practice by Hollis Scarborough, 2001 (includes famous Reading Rope)

Learning to Read: Developing Processes for Recognising, Understanding & Pronouncing Written Words (Morag Stuart, London Review of Education, 2006)

What Reading Does for the Mind by Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998

Link between fiction and teenagers’ reading skills: evidence from the PISA Study by John Jerrim and Gemma Moss (UCL)

Reading for Pleasure: Research Evidence by the Education Standards Research Team, DfE, 2012

Struggling Readers

Just reading: The impact of reading aloud on struggling readers. A study by Jo Westbrook et al published in Literacy. Full version here.

Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9: Practice Guide Summary March 2022 — What Works Clearinghouse, US Department of Education.

Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers: A Practice Brief (Centre on Instruction).

When Older Students Can’t Read by Louisa Moats: http://www.ldonline.org/article/8025

Readers Who Struggle: Why Many Struggle and a Modest Proposal for Improving Their Reading by Timothy Rasinski in The Reading Teacher (2017)

Effects of intensive reading intervention on decoding skills of high school students with reading deficits by Susan Woodruff et al (Institute for Academic Success), 2002

Raising the reading skills of secondary-age students with severe persistent reading difficulties : evaluation of the efficacy and implementation of a phonics-based intervention programme –– a doctoral thesis by Ben Jeffes from the Institute of Education (UoL).

Reading for Pleasure

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education has a number of research projects, including a yearly survey of reading for pleasure and the crucial ‘Reflecting Realities‘ reports that investigate representation in children’s fiction.

Vocabulary Research

A Wealth of Words by E.D. Hirsch: The key to increasing upward mobility is expanding vocabulary

The Percentage of Words Known in a Text and Reading Comprehension: A Study in the Modern Language Journal (2011)

Jessie Ricketts from Royal Holloway explores reading and oral vocabulary development in early adolescence. https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/jessie-ricketts(cf892d32-2e7e-4ef7-a2f6-bde092f3f19e).html

To see or not to see: How does seeing spellings aid vocabulary development? Bristol University research, also in Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools.

Fluency Research

Herts for Learning impact and outcomes from the Key Stage 2 Fluency Project.

How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate by Marc Brysbaert

Audiobooks

Audiobooks & Literacy: A Rapid Review of the Literature (National Literacy Trust, Emily Best, 2020)

Audiobooks: A Survey of UK Adults in 2021 (National Literacy Trust, Emily Best et al, 2021)

Reading and Empathy

Neuroscience explains why reading Fiction Makes You mhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-athletes-way/201412/can-reading-fictional-story-make-you-more-empathetic

Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy: Scientific American Summary of Research