Friday Mindset #140

Happy Friday folks!

It’s the last newsletter of 2024, and it’s an amalgam of resources and thoughts on the subject of reading - something that should be on all our minds following the release of the report we’re sharing today.

First though:

This isn’t finishing the year on a downer, we hope, quite the opposite. It’s an opportunity to make 2025 different, and - in a year’s time - to see those figures climb again, even a little.

Come on. Let’s dive in…

Something to try and Something we're reading...

OK, so the National Literacy Trust’s latest report on reading shows another - even bigger - decline in young people reading. Is this really a problem?

Yes. Extrapolate this forward a few years and we’re going to reach a point where levels of concentration have withered to such an extent that those with high degrees of focus will command huge salaries tackling interesting problems, while the rest of us watch short videos about cute dogs* and make each other lattes**.

There’s lots of interesting stuff in the report. At the forefront, for us, is the work the NLT have done analysing the motivations of those kids that read. Could be useful in persuading others. Have a look at this, for example:

Often we’re asked by worried parents, “They used to read a lot, now they read nothing at all. What can we do?” And now and again, if we’re feeling a little mischievous, we’ll say, “What are you reading at the moment?” The answer is mostly, “Nothing. I haven’t got time.” Ah. Well there we go. We covered an interesting aspect of modelling in last week’s paper. Anyone serious about improving student engagement, curiosity, literacy - need to be thinking about modelling whole-school reading as often as possible.

That, of course, means regularly reading (aloud) and discussing something with your students. We hope we’ve helped with that a little over the year. For this newsletter, we try to pick texts that are informally written, colloquially expressed and structurally accessible. Here are a few we shared this year:

You might want to revisit Paul Graham’s The Right Kind of Stubborn, for example. Read it with KS4 or 5 students. Lavish time on it, read aloud, stop and discuss, chop it up and assign sections.

Or a transcript of Jane McGonigal’s speech to undergraduates in which she reminds them, “we actually have more fun when things are difficult,” and designs a game all 4000 members of the audience can play at once.

Or have a read of Mark Manson’s How to Change Your Life.

Or download this fascinating article we shared about overcoming inertia.

Or the 80,000 Hours articles, exploring careers that solve world problems. If the list is overwhelming, start with this one.

Alternatively, check-out some of our go-to online resources for interesting articles. Every week we dip into possibly the best online blog out there, Maria Popova’s The Marginalian. In this piece, for example, she writes about Rebecca Solnit’s thoughts on the power of reading, which might be a good place to start with a small group of students.

We’re always looking for new things to read on Derek Sivers’ blog - he refines his articles over and over until they reach peak simplicity. We love the extracts from How to Live. Here’s one called Learn. Here’s one called Think Super-Long Term.

Or you could dive into Elizabeth Gilbert’s work. She’s always good on creativity and courage. Try Your Fear is Boring.

Or just look at some pictures and words together. We’re basically using Liz Fosslien as our unofficial counsellor and therapist.

All fascinating, all short, all good places to begin… and we’ve used other approaches too. Click the links below if you want to download and examine:

An example Curiosity Sheet, English Literature, or a Reading Challenge for Year 12 English Literature Students, the shortest novellas, with page-numbers included, that we could find. Or a great few pages showing students what University Reading Lists look like, and examples of texts they might have to read, so that students can prepare for the next level.

Lots to consider. Make reading a project for 2025!

Our latest offer...

It’s a book giveaway of course, what else would make any sense at all?

We have a copy of the wonderful Sarah Jayne Blakemore’s Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain to pass on to you good folks and it’s - as School-of-Rock-era Jack Black would say - in mint condish. (If you’re not familiar with Professor Blakemore’s work, try her TED Talk. If you’re not familiar with Jack Black saying ‘mint condish’ this will sort you out.)

Be the first to email us at [email protected], and the book’s yours. You could read from it in a series of tutorial sessions next year. Yeah! Happy Christmas folks. Have a peaceful one. Read something interesting…

All the best to you and yours,

Martin, Tony and Steve

*There’s nothing wrong with short videos about dogs. We like dogs, we like people who make videos, and we like people who make videos about dogs.

**This is not intended as a sleight on anyone who currently makes lattes for a living - we’ve done it. It’s a great way to earn good bank, meet customers, feel part of a community, hone people-skills and develop business acumen.