<a class="navbar-brand" href='https://www.literacyforboys.com.au/' title='Literacy For Boys' rel='home'>

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

10 Ways to Create Learning Spaces for Literacy

Learning occurs best in a social context – that is, we learn best when we are allowed to share ideas, ask questions and engage in problem-solving with others. Learning should be a joy for children and promote a sense of confidence and competence. Students of all abilities learn best when they feel safe, in control and unhurried.

It’s important to recognize that gaining skills and knowledge isn’t a sprint to the end. We should appreciate the learning journey as much as the final outcome.

The following list gives examples of how teachers can create quality learning spaces ~

1. Create a comfortable space for independent and peer-assisted reading.

2. Use a variety of settings, both indoors and outdoors – for example, table work, floor work, relaxing on cushions and rugs with shoes off.

3. Create a sense of fun with learning spaces – a reading area might become a jungle, a spacecraft, a boat: assume the role of book characters by wearing a costumed hat or clothes.

4. Create a well-organised library that is easily accessible; organise resources into genres or interest areas; use wall displays/posters of reading tips. ** New schools receive our free UNREAL Reading poster.

5. Think digitally – take advantage of online and electronic learning tools. Use tech such as ipads, e-readers, computers and interactive whiteboards.

6. Ensure that there is always an element of collaboration when working in small groups.

7. Ensure resources and learning materials are well organized and fit for purpose. Require all students to care for and respect learning materials.

8. Set up writing centres for up to 4 or 5 students – include a variety of paper, card, smelly pens, writing tools. Read our article here on 6 Sure Fire Ways to Make Writing Fun

9. Accommodate the physical needs of students – some students learn best when sitting in a chair, others prefer to sit on the floor or walk around.

10. Where possible, use concrete resources and props such as a word wall and visual reading tips.

FREE for new home and school subscribers! Our UNREAL Reading Strategies Poster

I’m a bit of a fan of an Acronym – and this poster is perfect for helping students to unpack text to assist with comprehension. Contact us today ~ info@literacyforkids.com.au

Enquire today about our online programs that reflect sound educational thinking, current knowledge and research about best practice in reading acquisition. When used regularly, we deliver reading results.

Literacy For Kids now available for schools

Our programs ~ Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids ~ have had a huge uptake with schools and homeschoolers this year. It reflects two things:

a) the need for quality reading material that engages students

b) a decline in reading skills nationwide

We are incredibly passionate about improving kids’ literacy – research consistently supports the fact that confident readers achieve more highly than disengaged learners.

If we can get our children to enjoy reading they will grow into a reader, and that reader has more doors open to them in this world.

If you are wanting a resource that can boost your child’s or class’ literacy in 2024, please visit Literacy for Boys or Literacy for Kids

Check out our recent appearance on Channel 7 News ~

Parents ~ sign up for a free 30-day trial and improve your son’s literacy this year!

As an educator, do you want more from your literacy program? Contact us for a 30-day free trial in your school or classroom. Sign up for our newsletter and get FREE Comprehension Worksheets for Years 3 to 9.

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

Unleashing Potential: Empowering Boys to Soar Beyond Coasting

Many of my articles focus on improving literacy for boys who are below standard literacy levels. But what about the boys who ‘coast’ and don’t challenge themselves? Boys dislike learning that is too easy, but of course at the same time they do not want learning to be too difficult. In teaching, the principle of ‘optimal challenge‘ is what we aim for: it is the balance between learning tasks that are ‘too easy’ and ones that are ‘too hard’.

Let’s explore how to design for “challenge” in the learning environment: whether it’s in the classroom, home-based learning or completing homework tasks. Basically, how do we motivate our boys to achieve higher?

1. Boys will work for success if the learning conditions are right

Success and enjoyment does not mean easy. A subject is enjoyable if it appeals or is relevant to the boy, challenges their thinking and is taught in an active, fun way. When boys refer to ‘fun’ they mean two aspects of it: humour (having a joke with the teacher and his mates) and actively doing (the hands-on involvement and completion of a task that took mental challenge).

I taught Elliot in Year 7. He struggled with reading and writing and participated in as little as possible in class. He lived for 4 Wheel Driving. His intelligence in this area blew me away, yet he was a shadow in the class. With the librarian’s help, we sourced 4WD books and magazines and I tailored the core subjects of writing and maths problem-solving around his interest. As his learning confidence grew, so did his results. His achievements were ultimately down to the fact that he started experiencing success.

2. Powerful motivators for boys

The difficulty for schools and staff with an expanding curriculum is the ever-increasing requirements, targets and checklists within particular learning areas. Over-crowded curriculum places an ever-growing burden on teachers and education systems and it impacts on our boys. Based on my research and the comments of boys, four key factors can be identified as powerful motivators for boys at school :

a) Good teachers.

b) A strong emphasis on physical activity and challenge.

c) Learning that is presented as new and exciting, with elements of challenge and fun.

d) The opportunity to both work and socialise with your mates.

Teachers are the critical factor if boys’ social and academic standards are to rise. And what do boys bring to the classroom? Boys bring unique attributes: many value education, enjoy challenges, love physical activity, have a quirky sense of humour, show loyalty to their mates and show pride in things accomplished.

3. Gamification in learning and why it’s important

In our modern world, technology is naturally a driving force behind learning and the development of curricula. Gamification is the process of using game elements in a non-game context. It has many advantages over traditional learning approaches, including:

Increasing learner motivation levels
Improving knowledge retention
Better learner engagement through social mechanisms like badges, points, or leaderboards

It’s why gamification is a crucial element in our Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids programs. The most popular models of gamification are included for our learners and includes:

a) Point systems
Assigning points for completing different tasks can encourage boys to work hard. It also provides an accurate representation of their effort level to show how much they have progressed throughout the level.

b) Badges
Badges are a fantastic way to acknowledge and reward boys for their efforts. A badge is an award given in the form of a virtual object when a boy meets literacy objectives.

c) Leaderboards
Leaderboards are great for creating competition among students, as they will want to see their name on top and work harder as a result.

d) Goal Tracking Progress Bar

Goal tracking progress bars are a great way to motivate boys toward working through the literacy tasks. The bar makes them aware of their performance.

Watch this 2-minute clip of the features of the Student Dashboard in Literacy for Boys ~ boys can track their percentage performance, view their progress bar, see their completed literacy activities and more:

A boy’s education starts well before he starts school. What happens in the home, his interaction with people of all ages and play are all part of a boy’s schooling. Schools and teachers have a vital role alongside parents in helping boys to reach their full potential. Ultimately, we want our boys to make the most of educational opportunities and putting the challenge, curiosity and the ‘want to learn‘ into his schooling.

FREE for new home and school subscribers! Our UNREAL Reading Strategies Poster

I’m a bit of a fan of an Acronym – and this poster is perfect for helping boys to unpack text to assist with comprehension. Contact us today ~ info@literacyforboys.com.au

Our programs ~ Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids ~ have had a huge uptake with schools and homeschoolers this year. It reflects two things:

a) the need for quality reading material that engages students

b) a decline in reading skills nationwide

We are incredibly passionate about improving kids’ literacy – research consistently supports the fact that confident readers achieve more highly than disengaged learners.

If we can get our children to enjoy reading they will grow into a reader, and that reader has more doors open to them in this world.

If you are wanting a resource that can boost your child’s or class’ literacy in 2024, please visit Literacy for Boys or Literacy for Kids

Check out our recent appearance on Channel 7 News ~

Parents ~ sign up for a free 30-day trial and improve your son’s literacy this year!

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

Reaching Struggling Readers and Reader Anxiety

There really is no better way to open doors than through literacy. And it’s not just reading – it’s access to knowledge and it’s access to a future.

We can’t exaggerate the importance of learning to read, nor can we exaggerate the challenges that people have to overcome when they are not proficient readers.

As we start the new year, I want to continue to advocate for and work toward improved literacy for our students. Let’s explore how we can help struggling readers and kids with reading anxiety. I feel that we can address this with a three-pronged approach.

Classroom Refresh and Routines: 5 Tips

We hope that our teachers enjoyed time with family with friends and that you had the chance to rest and recharge.

Upon returning from a break, our routine involves readying lessons, planning activities, and establishing goals for the upcoming semester. But what about our students? Many will have forgotten how to ‘do school’. They tend to grapple with executing familiar procedures and routines that were once second nature before the break. Rather than overlooking these misbehaviours, there are proactive measures you can take. Let’s delve into five tips for conducting a classroom routine reset.

Easy, fun ways to support students with writing and reading

This article is going to explore some things to keep in mind when thinking about and reflecting on your literacy blocks and how you have been teaching, reading and writing in your classroom. How can you make reading and writing come to life in your classroom? Here are some ideas – is there something that you’d like to try?

1. Read to Please

You will have heard this before, but providing opportunities for students to read for pleasure is one of the BEST ways that you can improve their comprehension. Students’ vocabulary will also improve because they are not being forced into reading a certain text that the teacher is providing for them. Whenever students read for pleasure they’re going to want to explore deeper. Aim to read everyday.

Encourage library borrowing before they break for the holidays. Your Teacher Librarian is your best human resource to direct students to what they like to read.

Download and print our LFK LFB Reading Survey printable for your learners, ready for Term 3. This will also give you an indication as to how they view themselves as a reader.

2. Box of Books & the Newspaper

Include a shelf of books or a box of books in your classroom. Ensure that you’re including biographies and different forms of genre. Consider bringing in the newspaper from the weekend – it contains the sport report from the weekend. This will appeal to your sport lovers: the footy fans (rugby, league and soccer), netball lovers, hard-heeled hockey fans etc.

A newspaper is also a great way to keep your students up to date with current affairs. Weekend papers feature a ‘Wellness’ section – which may appeal to students who are interested in health, diet, exercise, meditation etc. A newspaper offers chunks of information, rather than long text.

3. DEADLINE (Dedicated Effort for Achieving Desired Literary Excellence)

I’m a bit of a fan of an Acronym – as those who received our UNREAL Reading poster will know (see left).

Another fun acronym that I’ve used to help students to develop a writing routine is DEADLINE. Encourage your students to write every day, even if it’s just a few minutes. Writing doesn’t need to be a long essay – little moments can be either structured or free writing. Use this acronym in your other subject areas – students can respond to information that they’ve read in maths/history/geography etc. Try to find the time to embed those quick opportunities to write.

I attempt to disguise writing in a way where students have maximum buy-in but don’t even realise they’re actually doing it. Just 10 minutes (or less each day) will increase stamina, build confidence, provide opportunities for writing skill practice, and will leave your students craving more. So who’s ready to eliminate the moans, those groans, and maybe even tears?

4. Graphic Organisers

Utilise these to help students to organise their thoughts. We’ve added some fun by using food to help kids plan their writing: the OREO biscuit Opinion, Reason, Example, Opinion) and the Hamburger paragraph plus other visual examples to suit all your learners. Click here to download and print.

A key point here is that you want to engage your students in talking about what they’re reading and what they’re writing before, during and even after they are doing the reading or writing. You also want to provide students with opportunities to write for different purposes and read for different purposes.

5. Feedback & Collaboration

Feedback is going to help your students to improve their writing and to improve their reading. If you hear them reading a certain way, provide them with specific, constructive feedback so that they know what their goal will be to work toward. The same thing for writing: you have to be specific, constructive, and timely when you are thinking about giving feedback.

I do acknowledge that feedback can be time-consuming – especially when you are trying to get to every student! Consider the following to ease your stress:

Grouping students: opportunities to collaborate on writing projects, research projects and reading can help them to learn from each other and to improve their writing and reading skills overall.
Save their writing to a flash drive – this can allow them to print it from another part of the school (if you don’t have access to a printer in your classroom) and also a resource where the teacher can read it later.

6. Technology – such as talk-to-text software

Talk-to-text software, also known as speech recognition software offers several benefits, including:

Increased productivity – eliminates the need for manual writing
Improved accessibility – especially beneficial for individuals with conditions that make typing challenging
Pronunciation practice – can help language learners improve their pronunciation skills by providing immediate feedback on their spoken words.
Enhanced creativity – some of your learners may find that speaking their thoughts out loud allows a flow of ideas
Assists with proofreading – can help with editing text by narrating the text back to the student

7. Host a Publishing Party

Once you have completed a type of genre, consider hosting a celebration. You might want to publish their writing in a class book, or photocopy examples to share. Simple party food as a reward also goes a long way to reinforce that reading and writing can be enjoyable, fun and achievable.

The theme I wish to communicate is that reading and writing are interconnected with everything that you do. Some of these tips, even though they are just a few minutes, are going to compound and compact – it’s going to enhance your students’ abilities. Every 5 to 10 minutes, if you multiply it by school days, is many hours of practice so that your students can read and write for a variety of purposes.

Our programs ~ Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids ~ have had a huge uptake with schools and homeschoolers this year. It reflects two things:

a) the need for quality reading material that engages students

b) a decline in reading skills nationwide

We are incredibly passionate about improving kids’ literacy – research consistently supports the fact that confident readers achieve more highly than disengaged learners.

If we can get our children to enjoy reading they will grow into a reader, and that reader has more doors open to them in this world.

If you are wanting a resource that can boost your child’s or class’ literacy in 2023, please visit Literacy for Boys or Literacy for Kids

Check out our recent appearance on Channel 7 News ~

Parents ~ sign up for a free 30-day trial and improve your son’s literacy for the upcoming school year!

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

Taking Advantage of Technology to Include All Learners

Last week I had a very insightful meeting with James Smith, a Solutions Architect in the eLearning space. We chatted about the challenges in delivering engaging, interactive and collaborative learning environments in an online setting. And how can we make those learning experiences better for all learners?

Tools to help create a learning environment for all participants

James says, “For your session to be truly inclusive, it’s important to at least give consideration to cognitive, digital, cultural, language and socio-economic accessibility.” These are his suggestions:

Cognitive: a truly diverse audience will be neurodiverse. When someone sees the world a little differently, they can bring a whole new perspective to how you deliver your content.
Digital: this is relevant when there’s limited digital literacy and/or access. Keep the design and navigation simple and cross-platform. Someone may be logging in on a phone, a really old PC, or a public library computer.
Cultural: think about different lived experiences that render colloquialisms and jargon confusing or even redundant.
Language: imagine that your primary language is someone else’s second or third (or new) language.
Social and Socio-Economic: ultimately, your context and examples need to be accessible to a range of backgrounds. Examples and context shouldn’t assume anything about education, wealth, upbringing, etc.

How we have implemented these ideas into our programs

Our current success lies largely in its engagement ~ quite simply, the students love the topics and want to work through the content. In turn, their reading, comprehension, and spelling results climb (along with their confidence!). They can transfer these improved skills across to their writing of factual and imaginative texts.

How can we improve the learning experience for those who find literacy challenging or those kids who don’t engage with reading? James’ advice aligns with many of our principles:

keep presentations simple, clean, and visual
use animation or video to stimulate and engage participants
to cater to the variety of communication styles and accessibility requirements, use a variety of engagement tools
Most platforms allow facilitators to split participants into breakout rooms, with some even having timers, group leader roles, and more. These groups should be small so that they can work well together in an online setting. (We are SO excited to be introducing this feature into Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids programs!!)

Many of our teachers (and parents) successfully use text-to-speech software with their learners. It’s a popular feature that lets your computer read text aloud to you. It’s a great accessibility feature to help students who have trouble reading on-screen text but it’s also convenient for those who want to be read to.

Click here for the full article by James Smith.

Five years ago I asked the question: how can we address our worldwide decline in literacy? Through LMS (Learning Management System) trials, running a successful tutoring business, interviews with kids and classroom teaching, I could see the benefit of collaborating technology with core literacy skills. So we designed an online learning platform that targetted literacy for boys. It’s popularity with girls led to the release of Literacy for Kids.

We are incredibly passionate about improving kids’ literacy – research consistently supports the fact that confident readers achieve more highly than disengaged learners.

Tracking our learners is integral to the teaching process. “We have worked closely with teachers to develop a state-of-the-art reporting tool. School administrators and teachers can closely monitor student achievement, percentage grades, on-task learning and quiz results via a slick interface on the Teacher Dashboard. Our program is also rated highly for users with disabilities,” says Tanya.

“We are also excited to launch our writing feature for teachers and students, whereby students’ writing can be peer-reviewed or set by teachers. Discussion forums, online calendar function, wikis and news sections are also options for older students.”

If you are wanting a resource that can boost your child’s literacy leading into 2022, please visit Literacy for Boys or Literacy for Kids

Check out our recent appearance on Channel 7 News ~

Parents ~ sign up for a free 30-day trial and improve your son’s literacy for the upcoming school year!

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Inspiring Kids to Read – 6 Ways to Create a more literate environment

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

How can parents help with learning and revision?

Today I received a message from a concerned mum about her son’s literacy. Both parents are committed to helping their son, but they also work full-time. Leading into the holidays, she wants some advice on how to ensure he doesn’t slip further behind. Parents often ask: “I’m not sure how to help my child with schoolwork.” or “I see my child study for tests and not do well.” and “How much help is too much? Or not enough?”

As teachers we want parents to help their children with their learning – but not to do it for them! But what can parents actually do? Here are some suggestions ~

Remember: Our goal is to support our kids to learn themselves.

Consistent routine and motivation:

We must emphasise that parents play a key part in making learning at home a normal, routine part of life. Establish a set time each day when homework will be completed. This routine will help children develop good study habits and create a sense of structure and predictability.

Motivation has far-reaching positives. The motivation to study has long-term benefits (ambition to succeed in the future) plus short-term benefits (completing work before you move onto recreational interests).

Parents can ultimately help in both areas. Routine and habit-forming behaviour means that study time shouldn’t be a big drama as they do it each week – it should be something they do without question.

Homework: everyone’s children have tried the ‘No homework’ line. The key is in the question: “What homework do you have this week? Let’s take a look.” This communicates that there is homework and that you’re willing to help them plan what they need to do. Kids respond better to parents taking an interest, rather than critical scrutinizing.

Making Revision Timetables Visible: this works so well in our house. A timetable that’s visible on a wall (or fridge) is really effective, rather than attached to the back of a bedroom door (or scrunched in the school bag). Establish this early – this becomes so important once they reach high school. Studying at the kitchen table or in their room with the door open facilitates easy supervision and supportive checking in. (A great tip I received was to take in a hot chocolate or milkshake when they are studying as a good excuse to check in.)

Parents require the right information

Fewer than 10% of students have parents who are certified educators. Where can the other 90% of parents go to find answers? Here are some ideas to help:

Provide parents with access to study material: subject topics/themes, curriculum overviews, knowledge organisers, word lists and let them know where these things can be found online and which resources their children will have been provided with. I’ve always encouraged parents to read the same novel as their child.
Try to make your parents’ information as curriculum specific as possible. Study tips that are too general are much less effective than specific tips on studying maths, French, science, history and spelling rules.
Create resources that are highly quizzable by a non-expert. I always say that a good knowledge organiser is one you can give to your mum or your sibling or a friend and they can quiz you on things you’re meant to know: dates, definitions, bullet point summaries; equations; quotes; sequences of procedures or events; labels for diagrams…. so many things! Flash cards are terrific and can be used for all ages – even upper high school!
Provide guidance about doing the quizzing. Ask a small set of questions; give your child time to think and say or write the answers; then show them or tell them the correct answers. Then discuss any they got wrong.
Provide questions and separate answers. Tell parents – your child should be able to answer these questions. Ask them. Then provide the answers. If there are any queries, provide a means for parents to ask you or suggest resources or links for them to look at. Here, parents don’t even need to provide answers – they just have to ensure their child follows the routine. Test – check- evaluate. Repeat.
Offer a variety of the type of quiz questions that you send to parents: simple factual recall; lists; multiple choice; ‘tell me as much as you can about….’; ‘summarise the main points about….’
Set practice tasks that parents can supervise: eg handwriting practice; drawing/sketching exercises; times tables practice; French terms practice. Parents don’t need to do more than establish what the practice task is and ensure their child does it with sufficient repetition and intensity to make an improvement.

Reading

This circles back to my original query from a parent today. If parents are looking to help their children with holiday revision (it might be maths, literacy, a language) then try these strategies:

Parents, set up the materials the night before at the kitchen table: worksheets, readers, pencils etc. Have everything at hand before you start.
No tv or devices until they have completed their tasks. Asking a child to turn off the xbox or tv in order to ‘do extra work’ is going to have a negative effect.
Parents if your child is struggling with the text, read the set material to them; then ask them questions to check for understanding. (ie ‘Read these passages to your child; then ask them these questions to see how well they understood).
Parents can support accountable independent reading: (Ask your child to read these passages independently; then ask them these questions to see how well they understood.)
Celebrate success: Celebrate when your child completes their homework and achieves their goals. This will provide positive reinforcement and motivation for future homework assignments.

If you’re looking for a literacy resource to boost student literacy, we have it covered. Testing has shown that 100% of students in a Year 6 cohort improved their reading comprehension after using our program.

Our programs ~ Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids ~ have had a huge uptake with high schools this year. It reflects two things:

a) the need for quality reading material that engages older students

b) a decline in reading skills over the past three years (COVID’s impact largely)

We are incredibly passionate about improving kids’ literacy – research consistently supports the fact that confident readers achieve more highly than disengaged learners.

If we can get our children to enjoy reading they will grow into a reader, and that reader has more doors open to them in this world.

If you are wanting a resource that can boost your child’s or class’ literacy in 2023, please visit Literacy for Boys or Literacy for Kids

Check out our recent appearance on Channel 7 News ~

Parents ~ sign up for a free 30-day trial and improve your son’s literacy for the upcoming school year!

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Super Skills of Reading: Helping your Child to become a Better Reader

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Building Student Confidence around test taking

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

UNREAL! Reading Strategies Poster to Help Students

I know how important it is to engage students with reading. We need to give them structure to tackle a passage. This is one of my favourite acronyms that I use with my students.

As we head into the half way mark of the school year, make sure they are confident and strong with their strategies now!

Contact us at info@literacyforkids.com.au or info@literacyforboys.com.au for your pdf copy for your classroom or child’s study.

https://www.facebook.com/literacyforkidsaustralia/

https://www.facebook.com/literacyforboys/

Our programs ~ Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids ~ have had a huge uptake with schools and homeschoolers this year. It reflects two things:

a) the need for quality reading material that engages students

b) a decline in reading skills over the past three years (COVID’s impact largely)

We are incredibly passionate about improving kids’ literacy – research consistently supports the fact that confident readers achieve more highly than disengaged learners.

If we can get our children to enjoy reading they will grow into a reader, and that reader has more doors open to them in this world.

If you are wanting a resource that can boost your child’s or class’ literacy in 2023, please visit Literacy for Boys or Literacy for Kids

Check out our recent appearance on Channel 7 News ~

Parents ~ sign up for a free 30-day trial and improve your son’s literacy for the upcoming school year!

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

7 Tips to prepare your students for test-taking success!

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy