Reading Plus - A New Initiative

Kia ora koutou,

We have been trialling a new reading programme within the Year 7 and 8 Junior Block called Reading Plus. With this website, each student is given their own log in and an initial set up test which helps gather evidence of their reading speed (fluency) and their comprehension. 

We have discussed at length that a good reading programme will interest students. There should be three parts; independent reading, Reading Plus and teacher led sessions. I am a huge believer in literacy and my students spend a lot of their morning work time doing reading related activities. 

We start each morning with 15-20 minutes of sustained silent reading. Students go fortnightly to the school library to select a book of their choice. My only 'rule' is that it is something of their reading level and something they are interested in. I find many of my boys go for graphic novels, however, more recently this term many of my girls are getting into these type of stories too. We also have a packed bookshelf in the classroom that students can make a selection from. 

I have been attempting to have students use Reading Plus for at least 30 minutes per day as well. When they are not working with me for reading groups or during writing time, the expectation is that they are independently self-managing and using Reading Plus. 

After seeing some of our initial results, I have wanted to make this programme a priority. Below you can see where the majority of my class is sitting. 

Ideally, we want to be sitting in the green box. Red dots indicate that the student needs significant intervention and teacher support. The red diamond indicates that this programme is too hard, or too complex for the student at this time. This is my Week 4 graph, and we started this programme in Week 2 of the term. I can already say that many of my blue dots in the 'red zone' were much lower when we started. 

What I love about this programme and why I have changed my Literacy plan to suit it is that students have choice in which articles they want to read and the programme is levelled based on their scores and achievements. They can also work at their own pace and I am able to track their progress on the teacher end. If students use this programme 10 hours per week, they will increase their reading level by 1-2 whole years after a span of 10 weeks. At first I was worried about having a digital programme being seen as a 'cop out', by telling the kids "go onto Reading Plus" but I found that 1) the results are speaking for themselves; this stuff works 2) the majority of students actually are excited for when this part of the day comes around and 3) by lightening my teacher load for even 30 minutes a day, I can focus on planning even more meaningful lessons in other subject areas. It's working smarter, not harder. 

I always push for students to do 'their personal best', but these results are showing me that we need to be moving reading and writing to the forefront. My students will be entering Year 9 next year and into the 'mainstream' high school system where they will have 5 classes a day with 5 different teachers. I want to ensure they are prepared and have the skills not only to succeed, but excel in their learning. 

I am interested to see their results at the end of the term and how many of them have moved up in the 'red zone' or maybe even entered into the idyllic green area. I will post another reflection on the programme in time and look forward to seeing the way my students will improve.