New Middle School Literacy Program

One of the greatest gifts we can give our students is to instil a love of reading. It is not enough to simply teach the importance of reading.  We need to provide them with a variety of literature that will make them wonder, make them laugh and transform them to other worlds.

Many educational experts agree that there is a high correlation between reading for pleasure and academic success. The University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education researcher Professor John Hattie’s research has shown that repeated reading programs can have an effect size of 0.75. The effect size refers to the impact an activity or intervention has on an outcome. Anything above 0.4 is considered worthwhile, and anything with a 0.75 effect size is regarded as having a large impact. A very rough rule of thumb is that an effect size of 1.0 is suggested as improving the rate of learning by 50%.

We are excited to announce that at the beginning of Term Three, all St John’s students in Years 7 to 9 will commence the individualised reading program called Literacy Pro. Developed by Scholastic, the program is specifically designed to encourage students to read texts matched to their abilities, allowing them to gain valuable reading practice and build comprehension skills.

During the first week of Term Three, students will sit their Literacy Pro Test – this provides them with their Lexile level. The Lexile level assists students with matching the right books with their interests when browsing the library collection. We also welcome the opportunity for students to engage with texts they currently have at home or would like to borrow from their local library; they just need to check it is part of the Literacy Pro collection.

When students complete a Literacy Pro book, they are encouraged to take a short 10-question quiz that measures their comprehension of the book they have read. Literacy Pro is a great way for teachers and parents to monitor and motivate independent reading. Together, we can view their reading record, detailing how many words they have read and more importantly, celebrate when they reach an individualised goal or certificate level.

We look forward to the wonderful reading journey ahead for our Middle School students.