to not force my teenager to read a book a week?

[milafawny]

My 15 year old daughters school have initiated a new reading scheme that states every child must read a book "for pleasure" each week and produce a written report on it for every Monday.

I have a few objections to this.

Firstly, this is not "reading for pleasure", this is enforced reading with follow up home work each week.

The selection of books isn't open, they have to read books provided on the app on their iPad, again, making it not "for pleasure" when they cant select the book.

The smallest book in the selection is 300 pages long. Most are longer. The largest has 1200+ pages. Expecting a book of that size to be finished weekly along with a completed report, on top of GSCE level homework, is a big ask.

Specifically regarding my daughter, she is diagnosed with both dyslexia and ADHD. She has already be informed in school that this scheme is expected of her too. Reading is not, nor has it every been, an activity she does for pleasure. Its takes her time, she gets frustrated and upset when she cant understand or stay focussed. We have tactics in place for when she has to read, usually breaking it into smaller sections but this doesn't allow for reading longer texts, but these tactics are not enough to have her motivated to read a different book every single week. She cannot read something aloud at all. She still find its difficult to focus attention long enough to watch a film. In something she has no interest in, namely reading, she's not even going to manage 5 minutes. I have bought her many many books over the years that are ones she has expressed an interest in - most are non-fiction biology books. Ive tried with books of things she has shown interest in, such as horrible history's that are more factual. None of the selection of books are like this, they are all fictional story based. We have tried harry potter and hunger games as we broke the films down and watched it as you would watch a tv show, i think she managed the first chapter of book 1 of harry potter in a month. She gets no enjoyment from it.

Would IBU to email school and state my daughter is not participating in the scheme, and expect this not to result in a weekly detention due to the reasons i have outlined?

I think you should be supporting the school who are trying to instil reading habits in pupils which have a positive effect on their vocabulary

Go for it, I would, my DD14 with ASD and ADHD tries to read a few pages a night and falls asleep with the exhaustion of school.

I'd definitely be say no.

She has only read half a book outside of school curriculum requirements since July.

Writing a report on a book is the quickest way to put anyone off reading for pleasure.

I would go in and request reasonable adjustments for her which they should be happy to do, such as lengthening the amount of time per book or letting her pick her own books or listen to audio books instead. That way she could still take part but do things in a more manageable time frame. I'd sit down with her before and discuss what she thinks she'd actually be able to do and what would help her and then take her feedback to the school. I personally would try to engage her in some way rather than opting out altogether because if nothing else it will help her learn her strategies for navigating situations like this and she's not being left out either. I'm surprised that her teacher hasn't already identified this as a potential challenge for her and sought to negotiate something.

Even if its activity my daughter is old enough to decide she doesn't want to do for pleasure?

She reads as part of her English curriculum which is hard enough for her already.

I understand the positive impact of reading, and agree it is good for them in many ways. However, if its being enforced under the guise of reading for enjoyment, and its not enjoyable, then opting out should be a possibility.

read it yourself, write the report and give your daughter the gist 😂😂.

I don’t know what to do, why do schools think kids need no down time?

if I was you I would get her to listen to the books on audible. I hate enforced reading like that, and writing of book reviews, kids hate it and it backfires.

complain to the school. They should be better at psychology!

Oops just added to the yabu cute but I meant yanbu, don't seem to be able to change it.

For all the reasons you gave that's bollocks.

Firstly, this is not "reading for pleasure", this is enforced reading with follow up home work each week.

Agreed.

Reading for pleasure includes reading newspapers, magazines, comics and journals.

Is there any other material your DD would like to read regularly throughout the week or at least over the weekend?

I wouldn't mind the reading.

But who has time in year 11 to be doing weekly book reports?

My 15 year old daughters school have initiated a new reading scheme that states every child must read a book "for pleasure" each week and produce a written report on it for every Monday.

bit of a tautology there - if they're writing a report, it's not reading for pleasure, is it?

send the assignment back to the school: 0/10 must try harder

I have suggested audiobooks to her, she uses hearing aids and dislikes headphones or taking them out for inner ear phones, and when we play them through the alexa she zones out and doesnt pay attention to them. Ive suggested maybe she can do something else while listening such as colouring or similar. But at the minute the app doesnt have an audiobook option but i will maybe suggest this to school

@Parlourgames To help her fall asleep?

She needs to read and listen to what she is interested in even if it is small pieces regularly.

I'm an avid reader and have tried very hard to encourage a love of reading in my daughter - with some success. Forcing them to read books they haven't chosen, to a strict timeframe, under pressure, and making them write a bloody book report about it is basically going to have the opposite effect on most teenagers. It will absolutely sap the joy of reading even from the ones who like it.

Making them read it on an iPad also negates a lot of the benefits of reading a book.

Suggesting they choose a book (from home, school or the library), reading it, and producing some sort of report or talking about it within class is a good thing. But maybe more like a book a term/half term/month, not a week - that's going to require a good hour or more reading each day, a time commitment few will keep up with.

HA! I would love to but im about to start the second year of my MSc so got enough boring reading of my own to complete

Audio books and oral 5min book report would work as accommodation for the dyslexia, but not for the ADHD.

As your DD has both, there isn’t a way for her to participate and it is unnecessary busywork that will unfairly hamper her chances for good GCSE grades by taking away energy and time she needs to read/study the coursework.

I would definitely be fighting this, you are being perfectly reasonable.

Pretty sure that having no choice in what they read and being made to write a report afterwards will remove all pleasure in reading. The school will need to make reasonable adjustments so work with your dd to find what she would be able to manage and then inform the school of the plan as a reasonable adjustment.

I work in the book industry and am an avid reader, this is more books than a 'heavy reader' would typically read and is a ridiculous expectation even taking any additional needs out of the equation. Reading regularly could just be 10 minutes a day, and should be material that the child/teen chooses themself. Otherwise it's not reading for pleasure, it's just a work assignment (and an unrealistic one at that). I don't know many adults who could manage a book a week!! I can but I'm a very fast reader and don't have a social life, am not studying etc etc.

You definitely need some reasonable adjustments to this!
The idea to read more frequently, for pleasure, is a great one for school to try to implement, but:
The restricted choices suck - we have them at school, and by trying to please everyone, they end up with insipid choices.
The amount is ridiculous. A book every half term would be my suggestion - and I'd say I read quite a lot, but still only get through a book a week or fortnight unless on holiday.
Book reports? Yack. How to turn kids away even more.

I'd talk to your daughter about what adjustments might help, and go with those. I'd suggest getting off the required books so non-fiction, comics, graphic novels etc can be included.

Oh good grief. Schools are getting worse.
It should be encouraged...but no way compulsory.
The school will probably end up abandoning this nonsense because half the kids won't do it for 101 different reasons.

I would absolutely say no. I love reading but my son has never enjoyed it - no way would I make him hate it even more. I’d be collecting her from school if they tried detention.

Thank you for the replies.

The app has been available all through school, and my son who has just left the school was number 1 on the "books read" chart for his year group as he reads every night. He pretty much exhausted all the books he was interested in on the app as he reads sci fi/fantasy/post apocalyptic type stuff, and even he is saying he wouldn't have read half as much if it was forced and had to write reports on them.

So discouraging children that do read for pleasure can probably be added to my list of objections too!

But thank you for the replies so far. I will write an email to her form tutor initially, as they are part of the English dept, though not her English class teacher.

I think what they are asking for is a little unreasonable. Especially given the narrow range of things she has to pick from.
However if your daughter is struggling to read the answer to helping her is not to discourage reading! You need to proactively encourage her and find things that she is interested in enough to want to read. Even if that is a short article in a magazine or poem etc.
perhaps rather than refusing to do the task you could offer up a compromise as a reasonable adjustment for her? So she gets to pick the text, read it, understand it and then write the report on it.

The reality is she is going to need to be able to competently read and write.

Another thing - reading on an iPad isn’t particularly good for eyes is it? I mean casual browsing sure, but not a couple of hours intensive reading every day on an ipad PLUS other screen time on top of that.