Read Aloud Literacy

Children and young people are more likely to read if they have support from role models and access to books with time and space to read them. Reading aloud to children is the most effective way to encourage them to choose to read for pleasure independently.

Research shows that over half (56%) of children and young people aged 8 – 18 don’t enjoy reading in their free time. Yet if children read for an additional 6 minutes every day, their reading performance could increase by 100%. In fact, children who are read to ‘daily or nearly every day’ are much more likely to choose to read themselves.

Our staff and students have a range of opportunities and strategies to support reading across the curriculum. Read Aloud happens three days a week in literacy lessons. During these 30-minute reading lessons, students are exposed to a wide range of age-appropriate texts selected to develop cultural capital, encourage empathy, and explore different viewpoints and perspectives. Having the teacher read aloud models prosody and helps build vocabulary as students encounter new words. Reading comprehension, working memory and active listening skills are developed and students’ reading fluency and expression is improved as they follow along with their own text.

We know that being read to helps children experience the pleasure of reading and results in them wanting more of it. We know that children are helped to love reading by having a wide choice of books and having free choice to select their own. Our extensive library is updated with new titles throughout the year and offers a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction. We know that teenagers who read in their spare time know 26% more words than those who never read, and that teenagers from book-loving homes know 42% more words than their peers who grow up with few books.  Our librarian has curated a range of ‘suggested/recommended reading’ book lists to help our students make informed, personal choices when borrowing up to three books at a time.