I haven’t blogged or shared much for a bit so here is the first thread on Literacy – on raising the profile of reading: 1/
Invest in AR & a member of staff to deliver it. RA progress becomes measurable and can be tracked. Give students reading logs to respond to reading so they can track their progress. Get English Department on board put them in the AR training. 2/
Send the AR data to the English department to challenge student reading choices, habits and quizzing of students. Celebrate readers in assembly – often! Make reading usual and normal. 3/
Write a list of questions tutors can ask their tutees about AR eg. What did you get in your last quiz? What are you going to read next? The more staff talk to students about their reading lesson, the more effective it will be. 4/
Allocate a sixth former to library reading lessons. They can work with small groups of students to read to or with them or listen to them read. This can be an alternative to tutor time buddy reading. /5
Have two-week periods of Get Caught Reading at different times in the year. Issue staff with cards to give to students caught reading. Students then exchange it for a reward. Keep celebrating students doing the right thing 6/
Have staff recommend books in assembly. This is very powerful. Expect waiting lists on books staff suggest. Also, if you have a tutor time reading programme like RRR, make sure you use some new fiction from the library as promotion /7
Get English classes to challenge their teacher to read the class favourite YA fiction book – build up teacher knowledge of YA books. Give the teacher half a term to read it and report back 8/
Invite all staff to a ‘Books At Breakfast’ briefing in the library. Show them the books that can support their subjects. Give them tea, coffee and pastries while they browse. 9/
Book Y9 into the library for a lesson at least once every term. Often schools have library lessons and AR for Y7&8 and then it comes to a sudden halt. Also, as suggested by @chrismcg90 use a programme like Read Theory to continue the work of AR. 10/10
