Biblioracle: The case for giving students large print books
When 'Orbital' by Samantha Harvey won this year's Booker Prize in what I, at least, thought was an upset over 'James' by Percival Everett, I was instantly eager to read it.
As I had a pre-planned trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, the week after the announcement, I was even more eager because I could buy a book that won the biggest U.K. book prize in the United Kingdom.
But I was soon frustrated and disappointed, not by the book's quality, but by its design, the use of a small font and little white space on the page. I found I could not comfortably read the book except under blazing illumination.
Now, some of this is due to my aging eyes, but I also compared the U.K. edition to the U.S. edition of 'Orbital' and saw that at the same paperback format size, the U.K. edition had 144 pages, while the U.S. edition numbered 224 pages.
Maybe this seems like small potatoes, but the incident reminded me that a book's layout and design absolutely impact our experience of reading it. Obviously publishers know this, but they also know that paper and binding can be expensive, so there is a temptation to squeeze books into the smallest package possible.
I don't know what motivated the design of the U.K. edition of 'Orbital,' but I found it almost literally unreadable.
My 'Orbital' experience immediately came to me when a reader alerted me to a recent study sponsored by Project Tomorrow, a nonprofit organized around studying education practices, that found large print texts may help struggling readers develop their reading skills.
The study was simple. Students were provided large print texts for their classwork, and then students and teachers were surveyed and interviewed about their experiences working with those texts.
As someone who spent 20 years teaching writing, a subject that most students disliked, and with which many students struggled because of a lack of self-belief, I can testify to how significant a barrier it is for students to do work that they think is beyond them. One of the more interesting findings of the study on the impact of large print texts was that the vast majority of students reported that they 'enjoyed' reading the large print and a significant number reported being more 'engaged' when reading large print.
Teachers also reported that, from their perspective, students seemed more engaged and enthused. Importantly, this resulted in increased student confidence and feelings of self-efficacy. Over three-quarters of students in grades 6-8 expressed a desire for more large print books. More than 85% of high schoolers reported the same wish.
This study doesn't delve into any links to what we know about human cognition, but it's important to emphasize this is nothing new. Research psychologist Miles Tinker was studying the impact of print and layout on legibility to readers in the 1920s. He later published landmark books 'Teaching Elementary Reading,' (1961), 'Legibility of Print' (1963), and 'Bases for Effective Reading' (1965).
It's important to recognize that providing large print books to students who would benefit from them is very low-hanging fruit, requiring no shift in teacher instruction or training.
What I realized when working with reluctant and frustrated writers is that much of their schooling had been focused on their perceived deficits and in many cases, they internalized these deficits as immutable conditions, e.g., 'I'm a bad writer.'
We want to improve in important areas, but continually being reminded how we fall short is significantly demotivating. If something as simple as giving students large print short circuits those negative feelings, we should give students what they need.
John Warner is the author of b ooks including 'More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.' You can find him at www.biblioracle.com.
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you've read.
1. 'Speaker of Mandarin' by Ruth Rendell
2. 'The Reader' by Bernhard Schlink
3. 'Barabbas' by Pär Lagerkvist
4. 'Small Things Like These' by Claire Keegan
5. 'The Message' by Ta-Nehisi Coates
— Biff G., Valparaiso, Indiana
J.M. Coetzee's 'The Life and Times of Michael K' is a slim novel, but it packs a wallop.
1. 'The Satanic Verses' by Salman Rushdie
2. 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Márquez
3. 'The Rose and the Thorn' by Michael J. Sullivan
4. 'Bleak House' by Charles Dickens
5. 'The Covenant of Water' by Abraham Verghese
— Elizabeth A., Worth, Illinois
How about Ken Follett's epic, 'The Pillars of the Earth' for Elizabeth?
1. 'The Demon of Unrest' by Erik Larson
2. 'City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles' by Jerald Podair
3. 'The Tennis Partner' by Abraham Verghese
4. 'When We Cease to Understand the World' by Benjamin Labatut
5. 'Telephone' by Percival Everett
— Dave B., New York City
Dave doesn't seem to mind fiction that puts a bit of a puzzle inside the story, which is why I'm recommending 'Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright' by Steven Millhauser.
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