Raising achievement in reading is a concern for all European countries. There is a strong body of evidence to suggest that increasing motivation for reading impacts positively upon reading achievement. The DFE publication: "Research evidence on reading for pleasure" (May 2012) succinctly articulates this importance. Our project is informed by this research and aims to increase the skill level of teachers involved so that they become more proficient in the teaching of reading and enable all children to improve their achievement.The project will bring together professionals to focus upon and share the strategies that they employ successfully to teach reading. These will, through shared observation and peer review, be the focus of case studies that will be collated to form a professional pedagogical handbook on the teaching of reading. Alongside this we will investigate ways to enthuse and motivate children to read more widely, but holding special book events, publicising reading activities, and engaging in creative and fun opportunities to increase motivation. Children will correspond with their European partners and share work on reading, providing a context in which they can develop wider interest in reading activities. They will create and share work on an agreed theme that provides purpose to their reading, thus encouraging participation. They will produce a book for partner children that will be published ans shared, demonstrating the value in books and reading. They will extend their understanding of European partners and consequently develop more tolerance and understanding. It will provide an authentic context in which to apply their foreign language skills, helping to demonstrate purpose.The outcomes of the project will influence the staff in each school, but will also be used to inform academic journals, teacher training opportunities, and initial teacher training. This will provide impact and sustainability beyond the life of the project.
The project has been a great success - initial objectives have been met and exceeded in some areas. The project set out to increase children’s passion for reading, enabling them to access learning more successfully and result in higher attainment throughout their education and become lifelong learners. Through the range of activities and events held, children’s enthusiasm for reading and literature-based activities has increased. Through the project, many children have had increased access to literature and opportunities to perform. Extra support was given to families where barriers to learning were present (immigrants, educational, financial, etc). This has resulted in improved relationships not only with the children, but also the wider community. Initial project activities included: sharing photos of favourite reading places, creating Top Ten book lists for individual classes, school exhibitions, learning about favourite authors and writing book reviews. These were all shared across the partner schools. All schools studied a national author of choice, reading their books and hosting Book Days to celebrate work and enjoy the books. Local authors visited schools, delivering workshops and hosting Q and A sessions. Each school created a Big Book of a traditional tale from their country, written in the mother tongue and translated into English. An audio version of the book was also produced. Schools produced their own performances of stories to outside audiences. Staff noticed a raise in self-esteem in some children as a result of the project: those who were reluctant to take part in class activities became more confident and engaged. Others with behavioural issues became more focused and enjoyed success. Via the sharing of teaching strategies across the partner schools, staff now have access to a wider range of successful methods for the teaching of reading. During each visit, the host school provided a range of workshops focusing on reading strategies. These covered a range of areas – phonics, guided reading, SEND, comprehension, additional-language learning, etc. As a result, these examples of best practice strategies have been incorporated into partner schools’ teaching and learning. Monk Fryston has recently become part of a multi-academy trust and so other schools within the trust will also benefit from the sharing of these reading strategies, thus spreading the work of the project even wider. As a result of the project, children now also have a fuller understanding and enjoyment of partner country languages, cultures and traditions. They thoroughly enjoyed writing penpal letters, cards, making bookmarks, etc for their european friends. Even the older children looked forward excitedly to their next correspondence. Staff believe the students now have a higher level of interest for language learning as they progress to secondary education. Reading attainment has risen across partner schools, although this cannot be wholly due to the project. However, we strongly believe that the new-found enthusiasm for reading may contribute to this success. The questionnaires completed at the end of the project demonstrate a higher understanding and appreciation of the languages, customs and traditions in each partner country. The children certainly know more about each country than at the start of the project and are eager to learn more. The reading questionnaires demonstrate an upturn in students’ desire to read and in how long they read for on average a week. Results show a much higher level of interest in reading books written by each country’s national author and a wider range of genres being read.