The project focused on getting students to read more, to choose their reading material and to embed regular reading into every class.
The project focused on getting students to read more, to choose their reading material and to embed regular reading into every class.
The vast majority of GCSE English language resit students don’t read. This project explored strategies to create classroom routines which encourage students’ engagement with and their reading of non-fiction texts. Reading sessions were implemented as routine to provide regular mental exercise in reading. The project team tried to keep the ‘routine’ fixed so students came to expect it. These reading slots took place at the start of each lesson and lasted approximately 15 minutes. Involving students with the project from the outset gave students a sense of ownership of their own learning and this empowered reticent and unconfident learners. For some students, confidence in their own academic ability increased.
OTLA 8
4. Be creative and innovative in selecting and adapting strategies to help learners to learn - The project created time to trial a range of strategies to introduce a reading routine for students. By asking for students’ perspectives, students’ experience and learning preferences could be evaluated and taken into account when categorising strategies. As the project progressed, modifications to improve students’ experiences were made such as, displaying sentence starts to overcome students’ verbal barriers and introducing more opinion pieces.
13. Motivate and inspire learners to promote achievement and develop their skills to enable progression - The project enabled students to become acquainted with, and used to reading, non-fiction texts. Low stakes, consistent questioning of each text developed a routine that enabled students to build their confidence when handling non-fiction texts.
17. Enable learners to share responsibility for their own learning and assessment, setting goals that stretch and challenge - Students were made aware of the project from the beginning. Engaging them in the project empowered students to try activities they would usually be uneasy with. The project enabled students to select materials for the class to study. This gave the opportunity for learning to be relevant and gave students ownership of their own learning. Students were often challenging themselves with longer texts. As the project progressed, discussion developed and the levels of stretch and challenge increased through the quality of discussion.