There has been much discussion in the media recently about declining educational achievement and the critical role of student literacy and comprehension as a foundation for achievement across all subjects, not just the more expected areas.
At Dilworth, we are fortunate to have a well-resourced library and a culture that supports everyone’s reading development—staff and students alike. Teacher Librarian Ms Annie White leads Dilworth’s Library Team, along with Librarian/Archivist Ms Lorraine Clark. Together, this incredible pair do some great work encouraging reading at Dilworth.
As the holidays near, it was time to hand out Dilworth’s Summer Reading Bags and an excellent opportunity to talk to our Library Team about why they go to such extraordinary lengths to hand-select a range of books for every student and staff member.
Annie passionately believes the ability to read well affects almost every aspect of a young person’s life.
“It (reading) impacts so many areas of students’ lives that you just don’t think about – not just academic but also their social and emotional development. Students can improve their analysis and evaluation by reading and constructing meaning for themselves as they encounter new ideas and language. They can also improve their creative writing through exposure to various forms of literature, writing styles and genres”.
She went on to say that reading for pleasure is a crucial aspect of learning to read well and listed the benefits:
• Improves core literacy skills (vocabulary, listening comprehension)
• Increases general knowledge
• Exposure to new ideas increases resilience and critical thinking skills
• Builds empathy through connections to characters and stories
• Improves concentration through perseverance with challenging material
• Increasing opportunities to access language increases independence
Dilworth’s Library Team use the concept of developing ‘reading stamina’.
“What we aim for is to develop reading stamina - that is, the ability to read without distraction for a sustained period. This skill needs almost daily attention”.
Annie sees that the demise of literacy has been exacerbated by the distraction created by dependence on phones and other digital devices, which leads to decreased concentration and focus.
"Reels on TikTok and Instagram have bytes of entertainment, which can just be scrolled through at speed”.
It makes sense to her that things can fall apart for some students during crunch time, when assignments and exams are due.
“We are expecting our students to be able to read paragraphs of text, understand the text, answer questions, or write an essay, but in reality, their world is increasingly made up of 15-second bytes of information, full of pictures and stimulation that requires little brain work from the individual.”
Her view is that we must retrain our students to have the stamina to read and comprehend without distraction.
Dilworth’s Summer Reading Programme is just one of the initiatives our Library Team has in place to help students. Above all, they are skilled at finding the right book for the right student, and finding the right book for a student will help engage them.
They are also adamant that the reading slump is real. Says Annie, “If students are not reading consistently over the long summer break, then getting back up to speed when school starts again is really hard work.”
Next year, Dilworth will promote a new initiative, 'Book in a Bag,’ to encourage daily reading.
Annie said, “Reading is a habit; it needs to be fed. It needs to be part of a daily ritual—reading before going to sleep is much more beneficial than being on your phone before bed”.
Definitions
Reading "stamina":
Students must gradually be able to read texts for sustained periods as they progress through school and are expected to gain knowledge from their reading. Although research has connected various features of text, including its length, diction, and syntax, to estimates of how difficult a text is to read, more research is needed on how to build stamina among students.
Reading comprehension:
The ability to understand what one reads. The skills that underlie reading comprehension, though, are complex and varied. Students need to decode the words on the page, understand the vocabulary used, apply their background knowledge to make sense of the text, parse syntax and text structure, and monitor their understanding as they read. Supporting students’ reading comprehension requires carefully planned and sequenced instruction