Reading is an important skill for our students to develop and has many benefits to the geography classroom.
The National Literacy Trust defines literacy as “the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world.” This definition alone highlights many of the reasons why reading is important within geography lessons. Firstly, literacy is essential to enable students to access the curriculum and to understand geographical concepts. Consequently, since reading is a vital aspect of literacy, the incorporation of reading into our lessons helps students to further develop their literacy skills and therefore enable them to increase their geographical understanding. Furthermore, in the definition above, it is stated that all of the components of literacy, including reading, are important to enable us to make sense of the world. Since Geography is the study of the world around us, this further suggests the importance of reading, and the other aspects of literacy, in helping our students to expand their geographical knowledge. This is supported by the Geographical Association’s guidance on literacy which also highlights the importance of literacy skills in enabling students to further advance their geographical understanding.
There is a significant amount of research that suggests reading comprehension has a positive impact on academic performance and progress. The EEF found that reading comprehension is a high impact, low cost strategy to support student progress, suggesting that reading has the potential to contribute to six months additional progress. Additionally, the GL Assessments ‘Read all about it’ report (2020) found a strong correlation between exam performance and reading comprehension, with the correlation being the same as in English Language but higher than all other subjects.
Reading also contributes towards enabling students to further extend their vocabulary. The average book contains around 70,000 words. Admittedly a number of those would be repeated, however there are still a substantial number of words that you come across in every book you read. Consequently, the more opportunities we provide in the classroom for students to read, the greater the number of words that we are exposing our students to and the more we are expanding their vocabulary. Vocabulary has an important role in helping students to access lessons, through understanding instructions, accessing the material and being able to communicate their ideas both in their written work and verbally. Vocabulary is also important in enabling students to access exams, through understanding what the question is asking and being able to communicate their understanding effectively in their written responses. I have written two previous blog posts on developing students tier two vocabulary (here is are the links to the first and second post).
Aside from the positive effects that reading can have on students’ academic performance, reading can also be important for inspiring students and engaging them in the topics we are teaching. News articles can highlight the importance of geography in real life and can show students the current relevance of what they are learning. Books, and other texts, can expose students to stories and other peoples’ experiences and can help provide students with greater insights into different topics through a variety of different perspectives. Furthermore, the texts that we use in class can broaden students’ horizons and enable them to be transported to different places or environments without having to leave the classroom.
In summary, reading has many benefits to our students, inspiring them and expanding their horizons whilst also positively impacting upon their learning and contributing to academic progress. Encouraging reading within our classrooms can inspire a love of reading within students, not just in Geography but beyond, therefore having a lasting impact on our students, both in their geographical studies and elsewhere.
In my talk at the GA Conference on the 5th April I will be discussing examples of texts that I have used in Geography lessons and potential strategies that can be used to engage students with reading. Come along!
ChandlerGeog 
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