When I was in Year 6, I was made to read Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, along with the other children in my class. We were set chapters to read independently, which were then discussed in lessons.

This opportunity, we were told, was a privilege; it would open our eyes to the rich canon of English literature and would help us to develop as readers.

I hated it. I think most of the class did. I could not relate to Jane’s world and did not really care.

I found the language tedious and difficult, and the very small print intimidating. Having had a rich reading diet of a wide range of classic children’s literature and more modern writing until that point, I could not understand why I was being forced to read something so profoundly uninteresting to me.

This experience shaped how I read for pleasure, how I chose books and what types of fiction I enjoyed (I have never picked up anything like Jane Eyre again, by choice).

I was reminded of this when reading a recent study by Miriam McBreen and Robert Savage (2020) on motivational reading instruction, and its impact on the attainment and motivation of students.

Let students study books that interest them

In their research, they analysed the overall effects of 49 separate studies of motivational reading interventions on students, collating the findings to identify the features of these interventions that seemed to have the greatest effect.

They identified that these kinds of interventions tend to work, with the effect sizes indicating modest but significant impact on multiple aspects of reading achievement, including fluency, comprehension and word reading. The intensity of the training mattered - more frequent sessions over time resulted in a stronger outcome.

The type of intervention mattered, too - interventions that were aiming to enhance students’ interest - including studies that used authentic or interesting texts, or enhanced relevance through hands-on activities - were valuable.

Those interventions that developed readers’ attitudes to themselves and their reading - such as seeing success or failure as being due to factors within their control (for example, by teaching students to recognise positive versus negative talk or use self-talk) - also seemed to have a greater impact on reading attainment than some other approaches.

However, when it came to encouraging students to become volitional readers - that is, readers who are intrinsically motivated to read because it is personally interesting and satisfying - the study suggests that many of the interventions were not so successful.

But is that surprising? Getting students to see reading as something they want to engage with in their spare time is not easy, and methods that improve reading do not necessarily go hand in hand with this ambition. Reading Jane Eyre may have improved my reading ability as a child but it did nothing for my interest in reading that type of fiction.

Nevertheless, this study adds further weight to the idea that our reading curricula should include ways of developing reading motivation alongside reading ability.

What you enjoy matters. We need to ensure that students understand the value and power of reading but also that they have the capability to choose texts they will enjoy.

Megan Dixon is the interim director of education for the Holy Family Catholic MAT and a part-time student

This article originally appeared in the 1 October 2021 issue under the headline “‘Reader, she married him!’ (So what, I thought)”