Rewarding Reading
An English Department's Attempts to Raise the Profile of Reading
in a Decile 3 School
Helen Almey is an English Teacher at Karamu High School,
Hastings. Along with the Teacher librarian Jan Clothier, Helen
presented a workshop for the first time at the 2006 English
Conference held in Napier, Helen and Jan shared Karamu High
school's initiatives in promoting reading
Jan and I are representatives of a school that has a solid
commitment to school-wide reading in a bid to improve the
literacy standards of the pupils.
Karamu High school is a decile 3 co-ed school. It is a
challenging school in a lot of respects, but one of our major
concerns has been pupils' poor literacy skills. Over the years,
the English department has focussed on one aspect fundamental to
good literacy - Reading. And that is what our workshop is about
today, to share with you some of the ideas that the English
department and library at Karamu High school have had, and that
have worked, to the point where we feel that there is a positive
culture about reading in the school.
So why the school-wide emphasis on reading and not spelling or
grammar? Well we felt that getting pupils to read was beneficial
in numerous ways. It helped to address problems with grammar,
punctuation and spelling, as by osmosis almost, pupils were
confronted with correctly written texts. It helped develop their
imagination and broaden vocabulary as a frightening lack of the
latter had been evidenced. Reading improved concentration, due
to our reading lesson initiative, and it broadened their minds,
helped them to gain pleasure and success in English lessons and
gave them word wisdom when speaking. My one mission is to
encourage pupils to talk to one another without casually using
'f***' every second word. Needless to say, some of these
initiatives cost money and at this point I need to stress that
most of the initiatives have involved funding and we are very
lucky in having a principal who encouraged us in our aim to
improve literacy levels. I am also a member of a hugely
supportive English department without whom the initiatives would
not work. Jan Clothier, our librarian, is fabulous and the
interlinking between library and department has been a
cornerstone in our success.
We are now seeing the rewards of these strategies, implemented 5
years ago, in a more confident, literate senior school. Also on
the way to school, it is not unusual to see pupils with heads
down, not texting, but reading a library book.
Catch 'um Young!
As soon as pupils enter Karamu's English classrooms, one of the
first things we do is get them into books. We get them talking
about books they have read, and liked, looking at books,
choosing books. We do not usually choose class texts until we
know our classes and their ability range as teachers are
encouraged to choose texts to fit their class. My HOD always
spends some of the budget on new books. We have a broad range of
texts and we update them as regularly as we can.
Choice of texts
We have a broad range to choose from at each level. We use a few
'first in a series', so by studying one and gaining the pupils'
confidence through the study, as novels can look daunting, they
can confidently choose the second in the series knowing
something of what they are about to read.
Deltora Quest Emily Rodda
First in a series of 7 and there are 2 other series. Pupils love
this fantasy whether low ability or high ability. The writing is
vivid, with great use of verbs, action and a wondrous fantasy
setting. It is the simple story of a boy, a quest and a battle,
but allows pupils to explore structure, style, character
development and in response, the pupils write amazing fantasy
short stories or openings and the static images that accompany
them have been incredible. These books have been consistently
our 'best seller' over a number of years due to pupils studying
it in Year 9.
The Just Stupid short story books by Andy Griffiths encourage
the most reluctant readers into picking up another book by him
and show them that reading can be fun. And once those have been
read, there is Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman.
Year 10 enjoy the Chris Ryan Survival novel of 5 teenagers
having to join forces despite the antagonism between them, to
survive on an island. Pupils love playing survival games, like
to side with characters and have their favourites and again it
is the first in a series written for teenagers. Once they have
exhausted them, there are his 'adult' novels, or the Spy High
series by A J Butcher to progress to.
John Marsden's Tomorrow When the War Began is the first in a
hugely successful series. Pupils, years later, often on seeing
the text again 'remember reading it in 4th form.' As it is told
from a teenager's point of view, it speaks to pupils, allows
them to debate the issues surrounding the group's guerrilla war
effort. It can lead into war poetry, debates and static images.
I have taught it with our accelerate year 10 and some of them
are now devouring the series and love the character of Ellie.
Their related poetry about war has been really mature.
To extend pupils in the junior school, Ender's Game by Orson
Scott Card has been very successful and is a fantastic read. It
deals with a protagonist who is a genius and is used by the
state to win a war against The Buggers. In doing so, Ender is
forced to be an isolated figure. Pupils can readily identify
with the character, but also opens for many the world of science
fiction writing and is the start of a huge interlinking series.
Reading Lessons
We get junior classes into the library early and establish a
culture of reading in the English curriculum. Throughout Years 9
and 10 and into senior school, classes have regular timetabled
reading lesson. Every week, every junior class has a regular
time to read. Reading needs to become a habit and part of
English.
Classes are taken to the library and pupils are shown round and
encouraged to get a book out. As a teacher, I am proactive in
helping the pupils, going round, offering suggestions. I often
ask 'What was the last book you read that you liked? 'Or, 'What
do you like to do in your spare time?' to get some idea of the
genre/style or subject they like. At the start of lessons, I
sometimes have a pile of books to talk about that I may have
read or liked the look of. Any good looking books I see when
browsing with the class, I try and 'sell'. I do not just let
them choose on their own. A library can be very daunting and
although Jan has set up the library to make access as easy as
possible, such as face-out titles for the most popular and
specific shelves for Quick Reads and series, 'choose a book' can
still be a difficult task for many pupils. As the enabling
adult, my role is to get the pupils reading and to be
comfortable with what they are reading.
To that end, you need to know your library. You need to read
teen novels and know what the most popular books are and where
they are. In doing so you can create rapport with the pupils and
they will then come to you for recommendations, for example, one
pupil has exhausted the entire spy genre and likes action so is
now enjoying Jeffrey Deaver and I have already marked him down
for a John Grisham. The philosophy is that there is no such
thing as a non-reader; they just haven't found the right book
yet. It is also a lesson, so it has to be done, just as any
other lesson, so the expectation is that they're to read.
Pupils are expected to read silently back in class or in the
library. The teacher models: no marking or working - reading -
what an indulgence! But it is essential as many pupils come from
homes where no one reads or is seen to be reading openly. It is
often not seen as 'cool', so it is important to establish that
reading is normal and can be pleasurable. Pupils are encouraged
to change a book if they don't like it and to talk informally
about any books they like as peer recommendations are more
effective than teacher ones! Just recently, in my year 10 class,
The Nightingale Floor has become popular. It is on to the fourth
person in the class and there is a waiting list for it just in
that class - all on the recommendation of one pupil.
Positivity about the reading lesson from the teacher is also
vital. I sell it as my favourite lesson of the week as I can
read and relax ( far from it in reality, it is hard work to get
a class to read, but I do read a bit). So long as they are
reading, it's good. That can be tough at times, but even with a
low ability year 11, they now ask if it is reading lesson and
all sit in the library quietly and read: a magazine, newspaper,
non-fiction, novels, graphic novels, but they read and that
can't be bad!
Assessment
Because we place a huge emphasis on reading in the junior
curriculum, we felt that it should be assessed. Consequently,
the English department has developed an assessment schedule
based on the Curriculum document. It is still under review, but
so far, it has been very successful and user friendly.
The assessment grade is communicated home in the pupils' English
report where there is a Personal Reading section. Teachers can
grade the pupils' reading ability in terms of being able to
choose texts, type of texts they read, ability to read silently
and engage and enjoy reading. It also stresses to the parents
how much value we place on reading.
Rewarding Reading
Recently, it was felt that the pupils needed to be further
encouraged to enjoy reading, not just as part of an assessment,
but to be given real rewards like sports awards and for the
school to recognise prolific readers. Also, on a practical
level, teachers, while encouraging reading, were finding it a
challenge to keep up with what the pupils had read, reading
logs, and reading reviews. Consequently the Rewarding Reading
scheme was set up.
All pupils on entering English early on in the year are given a
reading record card with the rules on the front. It is a four
tier scheme, loosely based on a year 9 student being able to
read 1 book a week, and as they progress through the school and
read more challenging books, 1 a fortnight. The Pewter award
gets kids reading with any 40 books from school or home, and
they receive canteen voucher and a certificate.
The rules are simple, read read read with certain books
specified at bronze, silver and gold linked to senior reading
unit standards (8808, 12905) and encouraging the pupils to read
widely As they gain the awards, they get books token and
certificates in assembly.
This is our first year using the scheme. It has been very
successful in junior school, with many pupils already gaining
Pewter and a number gaining bronze too. Seniors are a bit
reluctant as it is more 'work', but some are filling it in
retrospectively and have gained rewards and there is a bit of
friendly competition going on in some year 10 classes. It is
dependent on teacher enthusiasm, but it is periodically
highlighted in Daily Notices and it keeps ticking along. Again,
this would not work as an independent initiative as the
librarians are central to its success. They remind pupils about
the scheme as record cards are kept centrally in the library to
be accessed in reading lessons. They then 'sign off' entries
made, keep lists of winners and fill out certificates to get
signed. It has taken money and storage space, energy and drive,
and the library and teachers' wholehearted support to get the
school reading. We envisage that it will filter up the school as
the juniors move up.
Senior School
As well as the reading reward initiative we try to keep them
reading through senior school by using unit standards in
reading. At level 1, 8808 can gain them 3 credits, at level 2,
12905 can gain the 4 reading literacy credits and level 3, 8834
reading/viewing unit standard is one of the central components
of our Level 3 course.
Level 3 is thematic investigation incorporating written, visual
and oral text and at Karamu, we use the class texts as a basis
for it. We try to ensure that the extended film text and
Shakespeare have some similar themes (but not necessarily) and
then allow the pupil to extend a theme into their own choice of
texts to gives them 6 credits. This complements their research
and seminar achievement standards. We use Hamlet as the initial
starting point, and for texts, we have used Tu which opens up
the world of family and The Chosen which, although set in Jewish
quarter in Brooklyn, pupils find curiously compelling and can
allow them to look at the role of fathers. This reading unit
standard works really well as it encourages the pupils to access
a variety of texts, a chance to explore an issue they want, gets
them doing independent research similar to tertiary and most
importantly, keeps them reading.
Other Initiatives
All the time we want to try to enhance and challenge readers and
my HOD runs an invited Guided Reading Programme from Year 10 up
which meets once a fortnight and reads and discusses good
classic and contemporary literature. That was the original
premise. From that first year, where there were seven members,
there are now over thirty regulars. One tangible benefit of this
has been our first English scholarship group, of seven, four of
whom are GRP regulars, a real achievement in Karamu and all
fostered through a love of reading.
The library also runs an All Comers Book Club which meets once a
fortnight. The library is closed for this and one of the perks
of attending is that you get the first pick of the new book and
can even have some input into choosing new books for the
library. It is very popular, especially with boys.
The Rewards
So how do we know that all this reading encouragement is
worthwhile and successful? It is hard to evaluate as lots
involves observation and informal chats, but we have noticed the
following:
* Over the last year, library borrowing has increased 30%.
* We have a scholarship class, the first in years with the
majority coming through the GRP.
* In senior school, the creative writing results are better
and the level of vocabulary has improved.
* Pupils will talk to you very readily about books, not just
the bright pupils but lower ability ones as well.
* Reading is now seen as a normal occupation at Karamu.
Seeing kids on the way to school heads down, often as not they
may be texting. Recently, two teachers commented on this and
observed that actually the pupils were reading! It does not work
for all, but it certainly is working for some.