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Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Using Technology to include all literacy learners

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

Super Skills of Reading: how to help your child become a better reader

This reading thing…… I know from teaching experience that the path to literacy isn’t always straightforward or pain-free. In 20+ years of teaching and tutoring, I’ve seen children chip away at the reading process ~ and when a child cracks the code it’s a wonderful thing. And if you have a struggling reader, they need our help before they come disengaged. Let’s look at some Super Skills for Reading: skills that are relevant to pre-readers, primary school-aged and early secondary students.

Ensuring the super skills happen

When the super skills work together smoothly and effectively, children learn to read efficiently. Although reading is a complicated, multi-layered task, it is an individual journey. It’s important to mention that what takes place in the early years holds the key to them being reading-ready: it will shape their experience to sail rather than fail.

Let’s break down some core literacy development skills with the aim of setting our kids up to soar.

1. Alphabetical understanding: the basic grasp that written words are made up of letters of the alphabet and are parts of spoken words.

2. Phonological awareness: this is the ability to focus on the sounds of spoken language rather than their meaning. This includes word awareness, hearing rhyme patterns in a list of words and in the sounds of rhythms that make up words.

3. Phonics: the ability to recognize the connection between sounds and letters they make. This process of mapping the sounds in words to written words is a very important reading skill. Children first decode the words into sounds and encode the sounds into words as they write and spell.

4. Vocabulary: A good vocabulary is a fundamental part of academic success. This reading skill is necessary to understand the meaning of words, their definitions, and their context. The more words a child knows, the better they are at reading and understanding the texts they read.

5. Fluency: is the ability to read aloud with understanding, accuracy, and speed. It is a skill needed for good reading comprehension. Kids fluent in reading know how to read smoothly, at a good pace, using proper tone, and without making too many errors.

6. Comprehension: this is the endgame. It’s a biggie and it’s my passion. When a reader can read and understand, and remember what it is that they’ve read, they’ve made it! Reading comprehension is a complex skill that requires time and practice to develop fully. If you are an educator and parent of upper primary, or early secondary children who struggle with reading don’t despair. My firm belief is that reading comprehension skills CAN be improved, IF you present kids with great content and quality reading instruction.

How we have implemented these reading ideas into our programs

How can we improve the learning experience for those who find literacy challenging or those kids who don’t engage with reading?

Kids need content that appeals to them. Find books that are a great read.

Children also need reading resilience. In high school, they will read huge pieces of text – and it’s not always what they love, find funny or are interested in. I often ask parents: How is your child going to cope if all they’ve had is a diet of joke books with small bites of text? Provide them with lots of different books, be a reading role model and even read the same books as them (I found this very successful with my young teen). If you’d like some ideas to get your kids reading, listen to my ABC Canberra interview here:

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.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Super skills of Reading: How to help your child become a better reader

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

10 Common reading mistakes and how to fix them. Simple tips for helping kids become stronger readers

This article is for everyone ~ teachers, teacher aides, parents & caregivers ~ because all of us want our children to become better, stronger readers.

We’ve packed this article with practical tips and recommendations on identifying reading behaviours and how to respond to them.

Scenario 1: Child appears to be reading the text from memory. They might be retelling the story using different words from the book.

In this instance, the child probably sees reading as something they ‘need to do’ for the teacher, the parent or for homework.

Recommendations ~

Ask them to point to the words as they read.
Can they point to a particular word?
Place a piece of clear plastic under the line as they read. It’s important that students are aware that other words in the text will help them to work out any tricky words. This is what good readers do – they can read ahead for context.
Recite what the child read – ask them if there were too many/too few words that were on the page?

Two important messages here: a) readers need to know they have to read the correct number of words on a page & b) we must give positive messages about reading that it is fun and not a ‘duty’.

Scenario 2: Child can give answers to literal questions (the “how, what, who, when, where” types of questions) but struggle with inferential questions (requires deeper thinking).

Students can gain meaning from directly stated meaning but do not realise they need to make logical conclusions from reading.

Recommendations ~

Background knowledge is important. For example, if the text is about echidnas ask the child what they know about that animal.
Use the words, “This is a tricky question because it doesn’t actually say so in the text, so we have to think about what else we know.”

In my many years of teaching, most students struggle with this type of comprehension skill (ie inferring). It’s why we’ve included it as a key skill in every reading task in our programs Literacy for Boys & Literacy for Kids.

Scenario 3: Child doesn’t recognise the words that are spoken by characters in the text. Also may not pause at full stops or commas.

This is common even in older readers! Punctuation awareness is important as it assists greatly with comprehension.

Recommendations ~

Select text where there is a conversation between characters. Point out the speech marks and say, “This is how we know what (Character X) is saying.
As the teacher/parent, you read as one character and ask the child to read as the other character.

This is a pretty easy problem to fix. Awareness of punctuation adds to meaning plus it makes reading more enjoyable for learners, especially when there is a conversation to follow.

Scenario 4: Child does not seem to be progressing as quickly as other children in the year level.

They may have reading problems or the books they are reading may be used to improve their confidence and fluency.

Recommendations ~

As a parent, talk to your child’s teacher and mention your concerns. Discuss the level of books they are reading and whether these are inside the range of progress for their age.
Steer clear of discussing/comparing your child’s progress with other parents ~ this often leads to extra worry.

Remember that reading is not a race to the finish line. Some kids take longer than others and often the talented, early readers can level out as they move through the primary years. However, a small gap can sometimes lead to a large gap quite quickly so talk regularly with your child’s teacher.

Scenario 5: Child does not correct their reading mistakes as they read.

In this scenario, they are focussed only on saying the words and not trying to gain meaning from the book/text.

Recommendations ~

As teachers and parents, it’s tempting to interrupt their reading. However, the aim is to allow the child to realise that they have made a mistake and then correct it.
Use phrases like, “You read……. Did that make sense?” “Which part was tricky for you?“
Our goal is for the reader to reflect and say That didn’t make sense.
A useful technique that I use is for students to build up a picture of what they are reading and visualise.

The key message is that reading has to make sense. Allow the reader some time to self-correct, use wording such as Did that make sense? rather than That didn’t make sense at all as you want them to make the critical link between reading and it making sense.

Scenario 6: If the child loses track of the text, becomes muddled, upset and it all falls to bits.

The child needs time to pause and regroup.

Recommendations ~

Some phrases you could try: Let’s go back to the start of the sentence, and try again. Which part did you find tricky? Have another try and I’ll be here to help you through the tricky parts. Let’s have a break for a minute and come back to it.

Success can often be buried on the other side of frustration. Ensure that the reading experience is positive.

Scenario 7: The reluctant reader

“Literacy is fundamental to success in life. It is important for an individual to not only read the words on a page but also to engage successfully with the text.” (Tanya Grambower, Founder of Literacy for Boys & Literacy for Kids)

Reading skills overarch every subject area. It can’t be avoided. Students will read if you give them choice, appropriate texts and model reading behaviour. Nothing is more rewarding than receiving messages from parents, teachers and schools telling me that their child/students now enjoy reading. It’s the best!

However, they may be reluctant to read if they perceive that the text is too difficult or too long.

Recommendations ~

Break up the load by reading with them – you read parts, they read parts.
Utilize texts that include pictures. I’m often recommending high-interest magazines to parents because the text is broken up into blocks of text.
Audio books can be very useful and help to develop a love of reading. With older students, I’ve used audio books to help students get a foothold on difficult text such as plays, Shakespeare etc.

Persist with reading. The research shows that poor readers tend to be poor writers and this affects all areas of their schooling. Use a sports analogy – to get better at something, you must practice.

Scenario 8: If a child makes errors on more than 1 in 10 words

The book/text is too difficult for them and therefore they won’t comprehend it.

Recommendations ~

If the text is a prescribed text at school, I advise parents to read the text too. This way you can help them with written tasks and responses.
Help them with background knowledge of the topic. If possible, ask a librarian for an easier text on the topic.
Familiarise the child with key definitions or difficult words prior to reading. Build a wordbank to assist with their understanding.

If the text is too difficult this will lead to frustration for the reader. You may decide to read alot of the content in order to work through the text.

Scenario 9: If a child reads without fluency.

If this occurs, the student is unlikely to be comprehending the text.

Recommendations ~

Try to get the child to see groups of words.
Get them to move their eyes ahead as this is training them to see the next group of words, ready to read them.
Try rereading parts so that they can improve their speed, and fluency, when reading.

Fluency is crucial to comprehending the text. If a child is reading laboriously and with no expression, it is not pleasurable for them or the listener.

Scenario 10: If a child reads very quickly.

This is common amongst boys, especially if they don’t enjoy reading. We have to look at why – is it because they want to rush through it? Is the text too difficult? The answer lies in whether they are comprehending what they are reading.

Recommendations ~

Ask the child reread a part of the story more slowly and with expression. Explain that this makes it more interesting for the listener.
You can try modelling reading to the child: do it once very quickly and rushed and again with expression, moderation and fluency.

If reading quickly doesn’t affect their comprehension, then this may be ok.

To sum up…

Praise certain reading behaviours in order to reinforce those behaviours. Struggling readers may not know what they are doing wrong so specific feedback is useful eg I liked how you moved your eyes ahead so that you can read smoothly or I liked the way you changed your voice when you read as the character.

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive FREE resources for your classroom and home ie ‘Turn & Talk’ Comprehension Cards, 100 Writing Prompts and many more…..

Looking for a program to engage and further improve your learners’ literacy levels?

Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids have been adopted in over 50 schools around Australia, NZ, and the Asia Pacific. Contact us for a FREE trial in your school. See for yourself how our engaging programs are boosting literacy levels in the next generation!

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Super skills of Reading: How to help your child become a better reader

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

Identify comprehension gaps with these reading cards

Note for Teachers and Parents

Are your students easily confused when reading texts on their own? Boost every boy’s comprehension skills with these visually appealing A4 cards.

These cards make reading more interactive for boys. By ‘turning-and-talking‘, these cards get boys talking about what they are reading DURING reading! These cards are an excellent way to scaffold reading comprehension, but you can also use each one after reading (except the ‘prediction’ card).

Many teachers ask their students to read texts outside of school. Older students need scaffolding when reading texts independently, and that scaffolding should come in various forms – not just annotation. If you know your students (or son) are going to examine a difficult text ~ one that you anticipate will have elements of confusion ~ it’s best if you cover the text in class (rather than assign large parts as homework). (I advise parents to also read the text independently so that you can offer help if asked.)

These cards will help every reader in your classroom. Utilise them in the following ways: students reading silently, with a partner, with a small group, listening to the teacher read, or an audio recording.

When you approach a section of the text that you think will confuse students, pause and have the boys complete as many ‘turn-and-talk’ task cards as you’d like.

Here are some ideas on how to use this resource:

our digital copy means that you can project the questions on the screen
ask a student to come to the front and draw a card
ask a student to read a prompt off a card from his seat
use them in literature circles
do you use book clubs? these work well with this format
or have them flip through the cards with a partner

Another option is to scaffold boys’ independent reading experiences by assigning chapters. For example, I recently taught The Merchant of Venice. On the day the chapters were ‘due’, give each student a different card. Have the boys get into pairs or groups according to like numbers. They can discuss their answers as groups and then report to the class. This technique has proven successful as providing a safe place for students to identify and discuss areas of confusion with complex texts.

The versatility of these cards is that they all focus on essential reading comprehension skills that you can apply to both fiction and non-fiction texts! Use them with short stories, plays, articles, plays and novels.

When you use these turn-and-talk discussion task cards, you’ll get a better idea of what is confusing your students; therefore, you’ll be able to help the boys get back on track and comprehend the text more efficiently.

Reading comprehension strategies targeted in this product include predicting, connecting, summarizing, visualizing, inferring, questioning, analyzing, evaluating, and more.

This product contains 20 different discussion task cards, each of which targets a different reading comprehension strategy.

We trialled these with teachers and here’s some feedback:

“The comprehension task cards are very colourful and engaging, which appealed to the boys. The questions are very helpful in guiding discussions.” (Trish)

“My class has enjoyed using the cards in discussion groups. This has proven, at least for my students, to be a great motivator for reading and building upon their confidence.” (David)

Looking for a program to engage and further improve your learners’ literacy levels?

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Super skills of Reading: How to help your child become a better reader

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

How to Get and Keep Your Learners Engaged in 12 Ways

As we enter the latter part of the year, it can be challenging to keep your learners engaged. Unfortunately, there’s no magic list for captivating students in a lesson, but I’ve compiled 12 Active Learning Strategies that I hope you’ll find helpful.

Before we start………..engagement is not always easily visible. Also, we know that not all learning activities will be high-octane “fun”. Engagement means students see the value of the learning and are mentally engaged with the information, actively thinking, and forming meaningful associations. Their thinking is extended and challenged.

Over many years, I’ve tried and tested a number of reliable and engaging strategies to use with middle primary and high school students. Let’s take a look.

1. Model Engagement

Getting kids reading is perhaps the biggest challenge ~ for both parents and teachers. Wanting to engage students in independent reading? Show them how you are enjoying a book. Share your thoughts. Read some of it to them. Read when they can see you doing it.

Trying to engage reluctant writers? Model your struggles and frustrations. Show them how to write a bad hook just to get something down on paper and then revise it. Smile the whole time! Ask thoughtful questions. For example, “I’m not loving this rough draft of a hook, but I’m so glad that I at least have something down on paper. I’d love your help! Who would like to help me make this better? Suggestions?

2. Incorporating Music

Think about a great memory or the last time you felt truly inspired. Was music a part of the experience? Music has a way of bringing dull moments to life and can be a valuable teaching resource. Not sure how? Here are some examples:

a) Teaching point ~ Write a question on the board that relates the song to the literacy skill that the students are currently learning. Songs make for adding engagement to texts. Try “Fly” by Nicki Minaj for parallelism in grammar or “Jolene” by Dolly Parton for repetition, figurative language, or characterization.

b) As a timer ~ Timers in the classroom can be great: when students only have a few minutes to respond to a task, when you’re transitioning between tasks, or when it’s clean-up time. Use music! Ask your students for their favourite *clean* song and create a playlist os songs that you can quickly pull up and move through.

c) To teach Figurative Language ~ this is one of the core Comprehension strategies in our online programs and music can connect kids with examples. Show students the difference between figurative and literal, and help them see how a text’s impact would be lessened without it (and we want them to transfer this into their writing!). “Stereo Hearts” by Gym Class Heroes is excellent for metaphors, “Love Song” by Taylor Swift for allusion, and “Grenade” by Bruno Mars for hyperbole.

3. Ownership of their Learning

If we really want to engage students in learning, we need to give them ownership: voice and choice. Involve them in making decisions about what happens in the classroom and about their learning. Ask for their feedback about lessons and units. Have them evaluate their work and progress. Research around reading always mentions the value of choice. It’s why our online programs have been so successful in both classrooms and at-home learning – kids get to choose the topics that interest them, which builds on their reading confidence so that they can tackle content that they don’t know much about. Let students choose as often as possible. Create and display posters that showcase their ideas.

4. Make it Relevant

Students are more engaged in learning when lessons are relevant to the real world. Connect literature to essential questions that help students understand life. Choose books in which they can see themselves or their culture present. Try passion projects or genius hours. Teach real-world writing skills like email conventions and journalling. Plus, of course, bring in elements of pop culture whenever appropriate ~ kids love short films, music, commercials, and more to teach literacy analysis.

5. Using Visual Elements

Visuals can captivate students. Graphic organizers provide them with naturally differentiated entry points for discussion. Plus, the design of many graphic organizers (see the above link for our Hamburger one!) elevates thinking more than a traditional worksheet. Don’t forget Word Walls – all students benefit from these.

6. Movement

I’ve found that any time that we can incorporate movement in our classrooms, engagement tends to increase. Whether we are having students participate in a gallery walk, manipulating task cards or sorting information to categorize it, when students are standing and moving around, they are more likely to be engaged. I really value learning stations as a great way to incorporate movement because students get to practice many skills related to the learning objectives…all from different learning perspectives.

7. Use Colour and Art

I greatly admire those artistic teachers who can freehand draw and create amazing displays! Know that colour brightens moods, lessons and learning. And not only on the walls – get your students to colour-code on paper, for example, details in a paragraph when writing. I ask my students to highlight their sentence starters – are they varied?

Use art in your literacy displays to pique students’ interest. For example, I love encouraging students to think critically by using coloured sticky notes to draw vocabulary connections. Ask them to analyze and evaluate graphic design elements by looking at illustrators in picture books or using art to capture reflections about a text. Utilise photographs or project images related to a text before reading.

We recently developed these image-rich 51 Writing Prompts for our teachers and they’ve been a huge hit with their learners to stimulate writing:

8. Stop and Jot

Sometimes we are so busy trying to impart information that we don’t stop and pause and allow learning to sink in for our students. Thinking is essential for engagement. Remember to include brain dumps, stop and jots (a simple word doc with appealing images works well) as a way for students to write down what they remember as you move from one topic to another or between parts of the lesson. This type of activity is also helpful in removing “dead time” in the classroom, which decreases engagement.

9. Consider a podcast

I really enjoy a good podcast and they require a different type of listening. Students can build their listening comprehension while learning auditorily from an informational text. Podcasts are especially engaging when the topic is intriguing or relevant to students. Here is a list of 19 podcasts for the classroom from Common Sense media.

10. Retention

In order to engage students in learning, they need to experience the excitement of retaining new information. When learning is tangible, or measurable, students tend to be more motivated.

Vocabulary is my jam. Whether you are passionate about teaching it or not, I have so many fun vocabulary activities to share with you. If you love vocabulary, these will complement any word list. If you don’t enjoy teaching vocabulary, you may just find these put a skip in your step. Improved vocab leads to improved writing so it’s a win-win.

The trick with teaching vocabulary is figuring out how to make it effective so that students are both ENGAGED and RETAINING their new words. Pop onto our website Literacy for Kids

and sign up for my email list through the form to access a free library of resources, exclusive for teachers and subscribers.

11. Collaborative Learning

We sometimes skip over collaboration when we need to cover content. And it does take time! However, the social nature of learning is so important for our students. To promote engagement, regularly ask students to work together to share ideas about what they are reading, to revise their writing/planning, to respond to one another in verbal discussions, and to join in research projects.

12. Challenge your students

Boredom is a classroom killer. Students appreciate the type of challenge that makes them think but doesn’t frustrate them. Ask questions that challenge students’ thinking in developmentally appropriate ways. Encourage them to participate in some metacognition, but always avoid busy work.

True student engagement is not the same as participation. With participation, students may be doing what we ask them to. They may be raising their hands at the appropriate times, but that doesn’t mean they are mentally and emotionally engaging or connecting with the lesson.

We need to intentionally build active learning into our classrooms. Engagement increases students’ attention, sharpens their focus, motivates them to think at a higher level, and promotes meaningful learning.

Looking for a program to engage and further improve your learners’ literacy levels?

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Super skills of Reading: How to help your child become a better reader

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

‘Reading for pleasure’ programs boost student academic achievement

Sharing an article from Education Review which aligns so closely with our message here at Literacy for Boys and Literacy for Kids.

How ‘Reading for pleasure’ programs boost student academic achievement

An academic has called to mandate ‘reading for pleasure’ at school as a new study shows the correlation between reading enjoyment and academic performance.

Integrating 30 minutes a day of reading for pleasure in the classroom could improve student’s results, help them eliminate stress associated with testing and develop their readers’ identity.

According to lead study author and Associate Professor of the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education at the Australian Catholic University, Laura Scholes, reading for pleasure is vital to student learning and should be integrated into the curriculum.

“We need to have a reading for pleasure agenda in schools,” Scholes said.

“There is value in developing children’s enjoyment long term because it correlates with their reading outcomes and all of their learning across the curriculum as they progress through schooling.”

Currently, Australia’s education sector encourages students to read as much as they can, but hasn’t included reading for pleasure as part of the curriculum.

In her study, Scholes delved into the reading habits of primary school students and completed a comprehensive three-year study which revealed that boys weren’t as proficient in their reading skill development.

It also showed a correlation between the decline in reading achievement in the PISA test and the plummet in reading enjoyment over an 18-year period.

Following the study, Scholes has called to mandate reading for pleasure at a policy level, which would help support teachers through the task and develop their skills and resources.

She suggests that Australia should look at the UK model which focuses on having updated library collections in schools across the country, enabling all students to access and read what they are interested in.

“Children will have more opportunities to engage with the books that they love and have a broader repertoire of experiences as learners.”

In order to encompass reading for pleasure, schools will need to determine a structured time during the day where educators could share their love and passion for reading.

To make reading more engaging, teachers could read aloud to students, create lesson plans tailored to reading for pleasure as well as activities for the kids to talk about the books they are engaging with.

“We need to build a community of readers that involves teachers with high level knowledge of children’s literature, students, parents and the wider community.

“We urgently need a balance in developing reading skills and the will to read,” Scholes said.

In addition to linking reading for pleasure with academic achievement, the study also challenged the longstanding myth that boys prefer non-fiction, as a majority showed more interest in fictional books.

Summing Up

Research indicates a powerful correlation between students’ reading enjoyment, motivation and achievement. From my experience as a teacher, tutor and mum I know that kids’ reading interests vary widely. In advocating for access to great reading content, student choice and improved literacy skills we developed online programs with these goals in mind.

To quote one of our 13-year-old students (who is using Literacy for Kids at her school):

“Hi. I’m a 13 teen year old girl and I’m in high school Grade 7. I love this website because it challenges you to be the best you can possibly be.” (Hannah)

Here are some tips to bring a love of reading into every child’s life.

Model good reading behaviour.
Read together before bedtime.
Utilise your Teacher Librarian ~ I find their help invaluable! At home, get a library card & use the library app to reserve books ahead of time (a great time saver).
Read what they read. A brilliant strategy ~ listen to my interview with ABC Canberra Radio where I covered this:
Activities, such as e-book loans and virtual story times.
All reading is good reading.
Create a reading nook.
Read with friends.

Looking for a program to engage and further improve your learners’ literacy levels?

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Super skills of Reading: How to help your child become a better reader

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

Sleep and technology: achieving better sleep health for our kids

The purpose here is to explore what impact evening media use has on our students’ schoolwork and/or sufficient healthy sleep. Does it compromise students’ ability or aptitude for positive academic success?

Technology is increasingly relied on by modern society. Parents, kids, and teachers alike all
use technology for work and during downtime. Researchers from the US estimated that the average
young person spends 7.7 hours on handheld screens each day (Nagata et al., 2020). With these technologies only relatively new, research is looking to better understand how these behaviours impact our lives and the importance of establishing some healthy guidelines.

The Research

Studies have linked technology use with poorer diet, fitness and mood. Additionally, technology has been hypothesised to have an impact on young people’s sleep in particular. Recent studies have shown that students who use technology achieve less total sleep time than students with stricter lights out policies (Bartel et al., 2019). As such, technology is increasingly a topic of discussion for everyone —adolescents, educators, parents, and researchers.

While technology is often portrayed negatively by the media, there are many ways
that technology is being used positively! Our literacy programs co-join the four elements of literacy learning (comprehension, spelling, grammar and punctuation) with technology. We see the benefits of technology to engage and motivate students to improve their reading skills.

Additionally, tech can be a great medium to connect: texting with family, video calls with grandparents, and social media to stay up-to date with friends. These activities are all valuable ways to improve students’ important connections with others. Many apps such as Smiling Mind , which is a non-for-profit web and app-based meditation program developed by psychologists and educators, helps to bring mindfulness and wellbeing into the life of young people.

Screen time is linked to a host of insomnia symptoms in pre-teens and teenagers. Let’s look at 3 impacts:

1. Melatonin

Each evening, our body produces melatonin. This hormone allows us to feel drowsy, assisting us to
fall asleep. By delaying the release of melatonin, screen time pushes back bedtime and leads to less restful sleep.

2. Exciting and Emotive Content

Engaging in exciting or violent content before bedtime, or using social media, can boost alertness and impede sleepiness. Texting with friends, playing video games and scrolling through social media can be stimulating, exciting and emotional.

Alertness and melatonin levels can also be affected by passive technology, such as a television running in the background or a smartphone that emits sounds, vibrations, and light.

Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to quieten their mind and drift off to sleep after putting the phone down. Try to develop a relaxing routine before bed for your teen, allowing them to ‘switch off ’.

3. Eroding sleep time

As the majority of teens have strict school start times, a later bedtime usually results in less sleep overall and increased next-day sleepiness. Over time, consistently late weekday bedtimes and catch-up sleep on the weekend disrupt the circadian rhythm. Put simply, time on technology steals sleep time.

Take home message….

Tech before bed is a battle in our house, and that of most parents. While technology is essential for modern life, excessive use is linked to poor outcomes. Students, parents, and schools should look for ways to maximise the benefits of technology, while taking steps to reduce negative impacts on sleep.

Teens do best when they are given the chance to participate in creating their own guidelines, so consider sitting down and making a “screen time plan” together. As part of the ongoing mission to improve a teenager’s screen use habits and sleeping environment, consider:

Set boundaries for educational and leisure screen time.
Choose an age-appropriate bedtime, keeping in mind that teens need eight to ten hours of sleep.
Agree on a “screen curfew” and encourage your teen to reduce screen use earlier in the day when possible.
Decide where to charge smartphones, ideally outside of the teen’s bedroom.
Discuss the consequences of sleep deprivation and remind your teen that less screen time gives them more time for socializing, family time, homework, sports, and extracurricular activities.
Create a calming bedtime routine to replace screen use, including activities such as reading or chatting.
Follow sleep hygiene advice and keep the bedroom cool, dark, and quiet.
Dim screens, choose night modes, and switch to warm household lighting in the lead-up to bedtime.
Listen to your teen’s worries, such as the fear they might be missing out on social updates, and find ways to work solutions into the media plan.
Be aware of your teen’s technology use and talk about how to use the Internet safely and responsibly.
Extra Note: Blue light glasses have been useful in our house. My children comment that their eyes seem ‘less fatigued’ or ‘less tired’ when they use them with screens.

We hope that you find these tips helpful in finding some structure and means of protecting your teens’ health in the realms of electronics and sleep.

Looking for a program to engage and further improve your learners’ literacy levels?

Check out our blogs for more ideas and tips.

Research confirms that early reading boosts literacy

Six Powerful Reasons Why Kids Need to Write

Brought to you by Tanya Grambower

10 Tips for Teachers for Working with Struggling Readers and Writers

Over the past 18 months we have seen a surge of enquiries from teachers and schools wanting a program to address the literacy demands of a wide range of readers and writers in the upper primary and secondary years. Compounding the challenge for teachers is the reality that today’s classrooms are filled with students with increasingly diverse needs, stemming from differences in their home languages, learning abilities, literacy experiences, and the undeniable effects of covid interruptions.

All teachers are teachers of literacy. Teachers in both primary and secondary industries know that literacy overarches every subject area. Let’s look at 10 ways how you can help your individual learners who may be experiencing some difficulty in their reading and writing.

1. High levels of student engagement and providing choices

Student engagement is a vital factor in student performance and academic growth. Ask students to sit where they can see, hear and participate. Student engagement can be achieved through instruction that fosters motivation, strategy use, the use of a variety of activities and instructional approaches, and social interaction. Break down long, complex tasks into smaller sections.

There are two powerful instructional elements to improving reading motivation and comprehension:

Student access to many books
Personal choice of what to read

Consider a limited, yet meaningful, choice of reading topics. When given choices, students become active participants in their own learning, thus becoming more invested in the reading and related activities (Moore, et al. Adolescent literacy: A position statement for the commission on adolescent literacy of the International Reading Association.)

2. What can your students do? Build on their strengths

Teach them to use what they know and work from there. Have high expectations for student performance; be sure that tasks are within students’ control.
Assign tasks they can accomplish and expect that they will perform. In reading, writing and literacy tasks, present students with work that they can do with your support. That includes reading texts that offer only a few challenges and writing about topics that they possess some knowledge about and understand.

3. Time, organization, and classroom management

Small-group instruction is a critical literacy component for struggling learners and writers. Some small groups comprise students with similar reading abilities, and texts and instruction are matched to the readers so that the level of challenge is sufficient but not overwhelming. The small-group format enables teachers to more easily maintain the focus and attention of students who may otherwise be disengaged, and it makes it easier for them to monitor the students’ reading behaviours.

Time: Take extra time to walk students through the procedures of each new task and provide support until they know how things go. Make sure students participate in flexible, diverse groups, such as research groups, literature circles, oral reading groups etc.

4. Read aloud

This is an underutilised strategy, particularly in the secondary domain. Students should have regular opportunities to listen to a fluent adult read aloud. Listening to an adult model fluent reading increases students’ own fluency and comprehension skills, in conjunction with expanding their vocabulary, background knowledge, sense of story, awareness of genre and text structure, and comprehension. Reading their drafts aloud should be actively encouraged as this gives them insights into things such as the use of punctuation (or lack of!), sentence structure, and repetition (have they repeatedly used the same sentence starter? for example)

5. Opportunities to talk with their peers about reading and writing

It’s a nice break from pen and paper! Conversations with their peers does improve comprehension and engagement with texts. Ask your students to analyse, comment, discuss, predict and compare – in short, to think about what they’ve read, rather than merely focus on recalling or retelling what they have read.

6. Make certain that students engage in successful reading practice

Use meaningful texts that are at the student’s independent reading level. Regular and intensive practice is the single most important ingredient in helping all learners improve their reading fluency and confidence. It’s not just the time spent with a book in hand, but rather the intensity and volume of high success reading, that determines a student’s progress in learning to read (Allington, 2009; Kuhn et al., 2006). When students read accurately, they consolidate their word-recognition, decoding, and word-analysis skills. Here’s the important message ~ they are likely to understand what they read ~ and, as a result, to enjoy reading.

Use technology to support students, for example, many of our schools use Literacy for Kids and Literacy for Boys with their students – either with small groups or for whole class instruction. It is compatible with talk-to-text software thus assisting those students with difficulties.

7. Explicit teaching of text structure

This is connected to the above point. Be aware that for some students, reading a wide variety of genres will not be sufficient for them to internalize the different characteristics of various types of writing. Student awareness of text structure is highly related to reading comprehension. Explicit teaching about text structures specific to the genres will help your students find important
information in texts in a more systematic, organized way.

Interesting findings around brain research have been consistent for the last 50 years ~ Regardless of their focus, target population, or publisher, interventions that accelerate reading development routinely devote at least two-thirds of their time to reading and rereading rather than isolated or contrived skill practice (Allington, 2011).

8. Modeling effective reading behaviours

I’m a huge advocate for this – both in our home and with the students that I teach! Many students do not come from homes where reading is practiced or discussed. It is difficult for them to see that reading can be meaningful in their own lives and that it can be a source of pleasure and entertainment. You can provide an excellent role model by discussing books you are reading, thinking aloud as you demonstrate the use of comprehension strategies, and providing a model of fluent reading when reading aloud.

9. Opportunities for writing tasks to be personally relevant

Struggling writers need to write more. Invite them to talk about their writing before they sit down to write. The use of a computer may make writing and editing easier. When students write about something that is personally meaningful, they hey have to think about what words will best convey their ideas to their readers. This is an important process for those who are striving to improve, as it produces a comprehensible text that the student can read, reread, and analyse.

10. Classroom environment

“How do you keep struggling readers and writers feeling part of the class?”

We can only help these students develop a real sense of belonging if we enable them to be active learners, and this means we must ensure that they are given materials and tasks with which they can be successful. Provide extra support to help them practice so that they can participate fully in the classroom and this will bolster their growth as readers and writers.

To sum up….

To help students tackle the writing of whole texts is a monumental task. It is why the teaching of writing is hard! There are many foundation skills ~ spelling, grammar, punctuation, the composition of sentences ~ and these need to be regularly practiced before students tackle the Mt Everest of writing.

Teacher Resources:

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