By Jaya Carrier
I hope everyone’s having a great week! Continuing our thinking about literacy and communication, and in line with forthcoming plans we have for World Book Month, I was interested to see this research summary released by the National Literacy Trust about children and book ownership. We are planning to give every child in the Academy their own book (more details to come) as part of our first-ever “WA’s Big Read” and we are excited for them to be reading and exploring these in TTBs later in T4! Objectives: To look at trends and correlations between children’s book ownership and other important measures Summary:
- Children who own at least one book are much more likely to be engaged with reading, and six times more likely to read above their reading level
- 6% of children in the UK don’t have a book of their own at home
- A greater proportion of Pupil Premium children have no books at home (9.2%) compared with their non-disadvantaged peers (5.3%)
- Ownership of books at home also correlates with reading frequency and enjoyment
Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:
- How does this research make me reflect on my role as a teacher and as a tutor?
- How often am I discussing reading with my tutees?
These statistics are very depressing Jaya/Holly. The fact that this research suggests that over 68 students at WA may not own a single book means this strategy is so important.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely - it was really very interesting to see this research, and has given us lots of impetus for the Big Read!
DeleteLove this and couldn't agree more with the importance of owning books! I've loaned out a few of my books to students and they get very excited about them - I know they really appreciate personal recommendations too!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the WA Big Read sounds very exciting - looking forward to seeing what the book choices for the students will be!
Thank you for loaning your books - I know the students will have appreciated it hugely!
DeleteIf there are ways we can promote the use of the library by our students, I would support them. I was in Putney library at the weekend and was encouraged by how many people were bringing their children to browse the stacks and take out books. No reason why WA students shouldn't be doing the same on a regular basis.
ReplyDelete