Guest Posted April 15, 2011 Posted April 15, 2011 Hi all, anyone got any ides on how to evaluate a new reading scheme and its impact.Thanks in advance
Guest Posted April 16, 2011 Posted April 16, 2011 There is a reading test who's name I have forgotten - not so much help. When I worked as a TA, we got a new programme, and we tested children's reading age before and then at intervals. All made more months progress than the time that had passed, some huge jumps forward. We didn't have a control though or a comparison against another scheme.
AnonyMouse_3307 Posted April 18, 2011 Posted April 18, 2011 I'm not sure that scheme makes for all the impact - quality of reading/phonics teaching and children's engagement with reading can make a huge difference! Any scheme will work I reckon as long as there's QFT in place too and lots of opps to apply in different contexts. How would you factor for other differentials in this?? Cx
Guest Posted April 19, 2011 Posted April 19, 2011 I'm not sure that scheme makes for all the impact - quality of reading/phonics teaching and children's engagement with reading can make a huge difference! Any scheme will work I reckon as long as there's QFT in place too and lots of opps to apply in different contexts. How would you factor for other differentials in this?? Cx This question was fired at me and I really didn't have any measurabe evidence just plenty of unmeasurable stuff. There is an all wales reading survey that may help. Thanks
Guest LornaW Posted April 19, 2011 Posted April 19, 2011 YoJoJo I do agree with Catma it is not so much the reading scheme that makes the difference to children's learning to read but the way they are taught, attitudes of the teachers and TAs and the involvment of the home learning environment. I haven't read the All Wales report but I am very very long in the tooth and have taught children to read over the years using a variety of schemes and real books! Over the last few years I have been very heavily invovled in training teachers and schools in Letters and Sounds and I know that when teacher knowledge is secure in the process then children make progress. If you speak to the reps from many of the reading scheme companies they will convince you that their scheme is the best and but it is Quality First Teaching that is the key! You may find it useful to look at Bookbands and also some of the Cliff Moon research in your quest. Good Luck Lorna
Guest Posted April 19, 2011 Posted April 19, 2011 Did they mean the 'scheme' as in how you organise your books or a particular scheme? We have just moved to organising our books from different ways in different year groups to Book Bands - has made everything much simpler and the TAs have found it easier to use and understand. Like Lorna W we have a mix of schemes otherwise they become used to seeing a particular font and styles plus we have far too many children to share the books between to buy into just one scheme. If I had to evaluate our scheme as in how our books are organised, then I'd say it has made things much simpler and easier for everyone to understand and ensures continuity across the year groups etc. In terms of evaluating a reading scheme, we had a sample of new one in - supposed to be amazing and fantastic for struggling KS2 boys according to the rep but we found it a bit 'young' for our children and the illustrations were already dated - our evaluation comprised of gut instinct and could we imagine X or Z reading it? I'm sure the publishers have some data for their scheme but you would need another scheme to it to. Again as LornaW says, there are other factors to take into account, support from home, attitudes from teachers/TAs/parents too. Good luck Bluesheep
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