Literacy Update

Reciprocal Reading

At The Leigh Academy, we believe that every child should have strong literacy skills. Not only are literacy skills vital to the ability of students to truly understand and work with complex texts in virtually every subject studied, but they are also indispensable when entering into the world of further education or work.

This year, in order to give our students the best opportunities to develop their reading, comprehension, written and oracy skills, we have introduced an effective strategy to ensure that students of The Leigh are given the opportunity to excel. Improving literacy at The Leigh is one of our core priorities.

Reciprocal reading uses four elements to enable students to fully understand what they are reading. Even the most able student will most often scan a text, not fully absorbing the nuances of the writer, be it fiction or non-fiction. By employing the elements of prediction, clarification, questioning and summarising, students are able to create their own ideas about a text, discover new vocabulary, explore the text and summarise its main points, to ensure they have a full understanding of writers' ideas. Armed with just a text, a highlighter and a dictionary, our students are honing their reading, writing and verbal skills.

Reciprocal reading has replaced DEAR time and takes place in tutor time each week for years 7-10.

As part of the quality assurance of reciprocal reading, your child will sit three Accelerated Reader tests throughout the year; the baseline testing took place during Module 1 and there will be follow up testing in Module 3 and Module 6 to ensure that your child's literacy skills are improving.

So what can you do to help? If at all possible, have a dictionary in your home so that your child can look up words they do not understand, therefore widening their vocabulary. When you are reading with your child, ask them what they think is going to happen in the chapter or paragraph you are reading. Ask questions about the writers' ideas; what is he/she trying to convey to the reader and finally, once you have finished a section of the text, ask your child to summarise what they have read.

It really is that simple!

Reading should be a lifelong pleasure, filled with challenges, exploration and learning. By ensuring that our students develop the skills required to examine a text independently and with confidence, we are giving them the building blocks to discover a whole galaxy of information and entertainment.

Ms. L. Bodle - Literacy Coordinator