Decline in Reading ("Good Weekend" Magazine Article - 5 July 2025)

An article was published recently in Good Weekend Magazine (The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age) on July 5 that raised concerns about the decline in reading amongst Australians, particularly school students. 

A number of issues associated with reading and literacy were raised, which included the following:

• 29% of secondary school students no longer read for pleasure.
• Year 9 writing standards have slipped to the standard of a primary schooler.
• As many as one in three students in a typical classroom struggle with reading.
• Debates over how reading should be taught.
• Under-resourcing of school libraries and, in some schools, the removal of their libraries altogether.
• Decline in reading for leisure has resulted in poorer writing skills.
• Less critical engagement with texts in the classroom as a result of less reading.
• Difficulty in publishing successful titles. Fewer and fewer titles are being released each year that become "best sellers"

The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Social Media was also explored, and the impact it has on reading and writing, e.g. ChatGPT can produce essays that cannot be detected as being AI-generated. 

A warning is given: if we as a nation fail to address the decline in reading and literacy skills, there will be significant social and economic consequences in the years ahead. 

I have always believed that reading underpins success in life.  I believe that reading is an essential skill that one should possess, as it forms a foundation for success in learning and active participation in society. 

This article will assist in library advocacy, particularly in highlighting the importance of reading to ones broader development, but also to boost reading and writing skills.

Reference:

Callaghan, G., 2025, ‘A ticking time bomb’: How Australia’s reading slump is making us stupid, The Sydney Morning Herald, viewed 1 August 2025, <https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-ticking-time-bomb-how-australia-s-reading-slump-is-making-us-stupid-20250501-p5lvoe.html>.

Devices eroding teens' reading attention (Newspaper feature)

Recently, The Sydney Morning Herald published a feature on the 2024 What Kids Are Reading Report by Renaissance Education, based on data from the Accelerated Reader Program, used by 440 schools across Australia.

Source: Harris, C. 2024. "Devices eroding teens' reading attention. The Sydney Morning Herald, October 26: 9. 

A table towards the top right of the article lists the top 20 books read by students in Years 9 to 12. While the number of books read by students has increased, concerns were raised about the difficulty of reading texts—students opting for easier rather than more challenging reads.

Diana Wing (Renaissance Education Australia) attributes this to a preference for social media and, hence, a preference for literature that does not require sustained focus. 

The challenge for me, as a Teacher Librarian, and for every Teacher Librarian, is to encourage and provide access to more challenging texts that require a more sustained focus. This adds to the challenge of just getting a person to read.

The second half of the article focuses on the role of school libraries in advocating for reading. Author Andy Griffiths stated that "libraries were essential to building a school's reading culture and ensuring that students, teachers and parents had access to and knowledge of a panoply of books". 

On the Hatred of Literature

On a Teacher Librarian forum, I recently read an article entitled On the Hatred of Literature. I was more curious and found an article from The New Yorker, focusing on why people don't read.

While the article focuses on American reading habits, there is some information relevant to those here in Australia.

When I was at school during the 1990's, there was no social media, the internet took the entire decade to penetrate into Australian homes and then it was slow because a telephone line was required as part of a connection.

Not to mention, Pay-TV was in its infancy, computer gaming was nowhere as advanced as it is now and no streaming media.

If you wanted to read a newspaper or magazine, you had to go to the newsagency and purchase it in person. No electronic editions were available.

Technology has eaten away at time that could be used for reading and that even includes the rise of social media.

One argument I may question is read by socioeconomic status where it is claimed that those that are more financially well off are more likely to read than those in lower socioeconomic classes. It does interest me from experience how those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds tend to be sometimes the most committed readers in our schools or those who speak English as an additional dialect.

But what about the busy nature of lives? Does that have a part in it? I think so.  There is so much competing for ones time, work and leisure related

The article doesn't mention about reading and performance at school even though the two are linked to each other.

It does remind me that I have to promote reading as a fun activity which can be just as entertaining as what is screened through our television sets and screens.  I make sure that books that I recommend reflect student needs and interests. Forcing students to read a particular type of book will not help them.

People will read if we talk about reading. I feel more keen to read if I am talking to people about what they read. It's usually the best source of finding out what is worth reading or not.

I think time management comes into play as well. I always have told students that there are ample opportunities to read in their daily routine. Many students in Sydney commute on public transport. The door is open up to read a book instead of texting their friend/s on the phone or to pass the time while they wait for a late train or bus to turn up.

Teachers Talk about Literature

Cover 2 Cover had an unexpected benefit in terms of building up a culture of reading in a school and this is reinforced through articles that I have read.

One of my colleagues was assisting me with Library supervision several weeks ago. They actually leaked out their favourite book to a group of students. The teacher in question was one of those featured in the staff favourite books guessing competition.

I recall that they shared some details about the book and this got the students interested.

The students who took part in the guessing competition themselves and even after the answers were publicly revealed (once winners had collected their prizes) learnt a lot about teachers' reading preferences and I hope it might encourage them to read. If teachers can reveal their reading preferences and share it, it will motivate them to read, whether it is the books featured or other books.

Most importantly, the message conveyed to students was that teachers, even with their busy schedules put time aside to read.

Even I learnt a lot about what my colleagues like to read. I could tell that the books meant something to them.

But in the classroom, what could you do as a teacher to promote reading as a fun activity?

• Find books with storylines that relate to the work being studied in class e.g. The Lord of the Flies is fantastic in reflecting how important having laws are in society. 
• Sharing background information, especially classic novels can be used to relate them to history.
• Share quotes or extracts from books with your class.
• Talk to students about your reading and invite them to share what they read with you.
• Get students to try and identify books or stories that relate to the content studied.
• Share books relating to a specific subject, e.g. Adam Spencer's books on numbers are great for mathematics.

There might be some other ideas. What could you suggest?

A Letter Writing Template (Self Created Resource) modelled on PEEL

I have had the opportunity to work recently with a group of special needs students at Marist College Eastwood, taking a religion class for five lessons a fortnight.

This week, I am sharing a template that I shared with them on how a person should write a formal letter. I focused on an assessment task that they were working on. For posting purposes, I have made some small modifications e.g. changing names.

I then created a template using a PEEL scaffold where they could draft the letter and then copy and paste each section onto a template.

The great plus of the PEEL scaffold is that I can apply it to any other text type. Feel free to use as needed.

Drop Everything And Read (DEAR)

This entry is going to be a little hard to do because I'm sending this from an Ipad and our internet service at home with TPG went down on Friday (and yet to be restored).

I remember doing "English Reading" in high school, which was the name for wide reading at school. Despite having an enjoyment for reading, I dreaded the time because I was not allowed to read the literature that I wanted to read like a newspaper or non fiction book.

This put me off reading for several years until I was at university and all of a sudden decided to read during my downtime.

More than fifteen years later, I'm left to reflect on wide reading. I love the name Drop Everything And Read as the name for a wide reading program. Students know what it is. It is about stopping what we are doing and reading an item of our choice.

All primary schools generally do it and many secondary schools do so in some capacity. Some use the time allocated for roll call to provide this time for students for instance instead of a designated period once a week or fortnight.

More often than not, it is expected that students bring only a fiction item. My concern has been that it could put some off reading, because they are not allowed to engage in reading a text that may interest them. Think of my experience.

I am of the view that reading non fiction items etc may not just arouse interest in reading, but also help in development of literacy skills. Some non fiction texts that I read can be quite difficult readingwise with the use of language and detail. 

I'm glad that last term, I had the chance to be part of a Drop Everything And Read Program that allows students to choose an item to read that interests them. The response was overwhelmingingly positive because it was them controlling the reading, not me. I was only a facilitator and they only saw me when they saw fit. There was a moment with one Year 9 group where they became disinterested in my book recommendations. I can see a positive out of it which would have nothing to do with me - They wanted to control their reading and that can be linked back to my experiences. By the way they love reading too.

What were my observations?  I'll have to comment on that later once the home internet connection is restored and I can have the report in front of me.