testimonial_3
Accelerated Reader & Star Reading North East
Nunthorpe Academy, Redcar and Cleveland
Using STAR testing we are able to monitor all KS3 students’ progress and easily identify students who need some form of intervention. This means we’re able to keep a forward momentum throughout KS3 and help continue the good work begun at Primary. Through AR we are able to monitor that students are actually reading 20 minutes per day as instructed (combination of lessons, form time and homework) and that they are reading within their ZPD. The impact is seen throughout the school in all subjects and all year groups as they progress through the school.
We needed a far more efficient way of discovering students’ reading ages without simply giving them all the same paper test which did not differentiate for ability and was also incredibly time consuming to mark. On top of this, once we knew the reading ages we need a simple effective way of knowing whether students were actually reading or simply taking a book for the lesson, reading the middle and replacing it – never reading a book from beginning to end.
All students in KS3 are STAR tested at the beginning of every term. Students have one literacy lesson per week where they read and their quizzes are monitored by the class teacher. Students are able to quiz during their literacy lesson and have access to Kindles for quizzing in the school library every day.
A huge increase of books being loaned from the library. It’s no longer uncool to carry a book around school as all KS3 students are required to have a book. A big increase in interest around books – conversations about which books are interesting or easy or funny, etcetera.
We use the Screening Reports to help identify students who need intervention. We use the Growth Reports to monitor students’ progress. For intervention groups we use the Reading Dashboard to identify which areas they need help with.
It has raised the profile and importance of literacy across the whole school, raised the literacy skills of students across the school and made reading more than just acceptable – students now see it as fun and get excited about new books and author events