Fewer Reasons to Read and Greater Distractions

We need to convince the older cohort that books are worthy of their free time. There are so many distractions at the fingertips of adolescents and reading is often associated with negativity, so we need to offer these learners more reasons to read. While it’s widely accepted that different books appeal to different people – that we should be filling classrooms and libraries with different sorts of reading content (both online and physical) – there’s still a fairly narrow perception of what constitutes a book, and what we offer learners in schools still tends to be quite traditional. They are often books that can feel quite dense and off-putting to a reluctant reader.  

Reading Engagement before Reading Stamina

Embracing formats such as Flash Fiction – short (200–500 word) stories that open straight into the action and end without conclusion or finality – is worth considering in terms of engaging older learners because the immediacy and urgency is exciting, dramatic, and tense. Characters, settings, and plots don’t need to be explained because there’s no requirement to know what’s gone before or what will happen next to make sense of and enjoy the material. It is a scene – absorbing and immediate. The open format facilitates plot depth and complexity and helps develop higher-order thinking skills such as interpretation, inference, and deduction.

Different Format, Different Experience

The idea behind this format is not to develop reading stamina, although that is, hopefully, a consequence of providing disengaged readers with material that will motivate them to read. It’s about confronting some of their perceptions of books with an alternative. Flash Fictions are not extracts from longer stories; they’re complete and contained, but crucially, by being short, they are more accessible. There are fewer reasons to avoid them or disassociate from them, they can be read in one sitting, and perhaps more importantly they’re relatively easy to compose.  

Become an Author on World Book Day

So, this World Book Day, try something different. By all means explore ideas around book swaps, costumes, book reviews, or presentations to increase exposure to different types of content, but you could also try creating some Flash Fiction content. Or better still – get your learners to create their own. A Flash Fiction need only be 300 words – half a page. Devise the inspiration and ask your learners to write their own pieces. We know that linking writing and reading activities supports both skills, encouraging learners to read like writers and write like readers. So, what better way to celebrate World Book Day than giving learners the opportunity to create their own texts. As a bonus, you’ll have thirty pieces of flash fiction to share and enjoy together, plenty to discuss and – hopefully – a fresh way of thinking about reading and what a book looks like.