Thread by @SNunneley

3 years ago, we made 📖reading for pleasure📚our focus @FearnhillSchool. 56% of yr 7 cohort had below chronological age reading age and 29% struggled with phonics. So, how did we do it? Here's 1 powerful thing we did that worked. #teamenglish #Reading

@FearnhillSchool We started with the English KS3 curriculum by teaching yr 7 & 8 2 challenging novels back-2-back according to the 'faster read' approach from the @SussexUni 'Just reading' study where 2 novels are read at a faster pace, pausing for vocab work and comprehension checking.

How did we do it? Well, we made sure that SLT knew what to expect when visiting lessons; reading, reading and more reading! Very little writing in books

English teachers employed reciprocal reading strategies while reading the novels as a metacognitive technique to help students become better readers.

The 'faster read' lessons took the following format;
- Do Now vocab recap
- CFU recap
- Read, pause to clarify vocab & question understanding, predict and enjoy the story
- End of lesson - 5 min writing task, e.g. summary or creative writing inspired by @TheWritingRevol

Impact? We saw a rise in reading ages (using the YARC reading tests) BUT, the single most exciting thing was...

...a number of parents telling us that their children had put a book on their Xmas list for the first time ever!

Our librarian reported an increase in book borrowing by yr 7 & 8 and a waiting list for the books by the authors we were reading📚

What made it work? Whole year group reading the same book. Teachers were enthusiastic about the project. SLT were shared the 'Just reading' study and were supportive. Expert teachers modelling high-level reading. It really worked!🙌

This was only possible with help from the fantastic @RLC__65 who ran the KS3 curriculum and supported all of the teachers. We also had support from our excellent English consultant @HfLSecondaryEng 🙏