Encouraging children to read and seeing them become fluent readers, is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a teacher. The world that opens up when you can read – for enjoyment, pleasure, or to find information for a purpose – is one with endless possibilities. IN school, we use Reading Plus and Accelerated Reader as online programmes to monitor reading habits and encourage children to read regularly. We celebrate their achievements with certificates and a display showing how much each year groups reads and their comprehension scores.
Since returning from the Christmas holidays, there has been a noticeable surge in children reading and this is reflected in the tremendous amount of words that have now been read. By reading regularly and being immersed in language, the children’s own vocabularies will become more and more expansive.
On Accelerated Reader, the children have read a combined total of 9.2 million words.
On Reading Plus, they have read a further 7 million words.
This means that the children in KS2 have read a combined total of over 16 million words between them!
A monumental effort and we are all extremely proud of them.
I wonder how long it will be before we reach 20 million!
