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What is Reading Plus?

Reading Plus is an adaptive, online reading development programme. With a readability range from Year 2 to beyond GCSE, it serves the needs of a wide range of students.

We aren’t here to replace books. Our purpose is to:

  • Create stronger readers through evidence-based, adaptive technology.
  • Support teachers with comprehensive data on students’ reading progress and identify skill gaps.
  • Provide free training and support to make teachers’ lives easier.
  • Make a difference in school and student outcomes.

The need for Reading Plus

Reading Plus supports students in shifting from the learning-to-read to the reading-to-learn stage of reading development. It is for students who:

The programme also focuses on students’ intrinsic motivation for reading by providing highly engaging texts and measuring their self improvement belief, confidence, and interest in reading. All of these components come together to develop reading proficiency.

How does Reading Plus work?

For students
For teachers
For multi-academy trusts

How it works for students

The results place each student at the right level in the programme before creating a learning pathway to accelerate their strengths and improve their weaknesses.

We recommend:

  • Students access Reading Plus for 30 minutes three times per week.
  • Weekly assignments are composed of five reading and one vocabulary task.
  • Students are presented with a range of texts at their ‘just-right’ level.
  • To develop fluency and stamina, they read the text using the Guided Window.
  • Once finished with a text, students answer ten comprehension questions.
  • The more texts they complete and the more questions they get right, the more it will help them to progress.

As students progress through their adaptive, personalised path:

  • Their fluency, stamina, comprehension, and vocabulary improve – as does motivation.
  • Cross-curricular subject knowledge improves due to the variety of text types and topics.
  • They become curious and confident readers who are more likely to read for pleasure.

How it works for teachers

They will:

  • Upload class data.
  • Create the students’ and educators’ accounts.
  • Train staff on usage and reporting data.
  • Be in regular contact with you about your student’s progress.
  • Guide you to make the most of your licence.

When students first log on to Reading Plus, they sit the baseline InSight Assessment. This summative assessment will provide you with an overview of your students’ levels of:

  • Vocabulary.
  • Fluency.
  • Comprehension.

You can easily attain which students require support and in which reading skill.

After completing the baseline assessment, students can begin reading on the programme. Once students read a short text, they will answer ten comprehension questions. If students read the recommended five texts per week, they are exposed to 50 comprehension questions testing their knowledge of summary, retrieval, inference, etc. These formative assessments ensure students are constantly reading age-appropriate and ability-level texts. You can also use this data to evidence progress.

Students work independently on Reading Plus at their just-right levels, meaning you will have:

  • No need to plan for guided reading lessons.
  • More time to do what you do best – teach.

For students requiring additional support:

  • Printable intervention materials are available within the programme (worksheets/lesson plans).
  • You can provide one-to-one or small-group interventions with peace of mind that the rest of the class is focused on Reading Plus.

Formative and summative assessment data is easy to interpret and access. Our Customer Support Team also offers progress reports for class, school, and trust levels – saving you precious time.

How it works for multi-academy trusts

Reading Plus is proven to work. Over 100 research studies validate our programme’s ability to develop students’ reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

As a multi-academy trust, you will benefit from a lower cost per student.

Supporting the National Curriculum, Reading Plus aims for students to:

  • Read easily, fluently, and with a good understanding.
  • Develop the habit of reading widely and often – for pleasure and information.
  • Acquire a vast vocabulary.
  • Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.

Reading Plus achieves this through adaptive technology, high-quality and age-appropriate texts, and giving students the autonomy to control their reading journey.

In-built formative and summative assessments allow trusts to access student, class, and academy-level data – at a glance.

Our Customer Support Team provides monthly reports for trusts so leaders can evidence impact with board members and trust senior leaders. You will see:

  • Summative benchmark progress.
  • Formative progress (usage, average year-level gains, the average increase in reading speed, total number of words read, etc.).
  • Question level analysis per academy.
  • Recommendations to encourage usage and motivation tips.

Trust-wide implementation is easy thanks to our support offering. Our Customer Support Team uploads student data, creates accounts for students and educators, and offers training sessions as and when required – all free.

Our Marketing Team have several engaging initiatives and competitions throughout the year to encourage usage, motivation, and reading for pleasure.

Arun

Lower comprehension & vocabulary - lower fluency

Arun is an inefficient, relatively slow reader who struggles to read and comprehend year-level texts.

Hannah

Lower comprehension & vocabulary - higher fluency

Hannah reads quickly but gets frustrated trying to comprehend year-level texts.

Jacob

Higher comprehension & vocabulary - lower fluency

Jacob can read and comprehend content at or above year level, but he would benefit from support to develop fluency.

Aisha

Higher comprehension & vocabulary - higher fluency

Aisha is a proficient and efficient reader and benefits from Reading Plus as enrichment.

Understanding your students' reading gaps

Students sit a baseline assessment when they first start on Reading Plus, which places them at their just-right level on the programme.

This comprehensive in-built assessment allows teachers to see:

  • If students are below, at, or above year-level expectations.
  • Which students need additional support in fluency and/or comprehension.

The image shows an example Screening Report; click on each student to view their reading needs.

Learn more about the Baseline Assessment Report

Increasing fluency and stamina

To model good reading behaviour, students will see texts presented using the patented Guided Window feature. This tool:

  • Keeps their eyes focused on reading the relevant material.
  • Utilises a moving box – set at a speed just right for them.
  • Is adaptive and will increase in speed as students progress.
  • Improves fluency and stamina.
Guided Window in action – the speed in this example is set at 185 words per minute; this is the expected level for a Year 6 student.

  • I would 100% recommend Reading Plus to other schools based on outcomes at Ribbon, which have been incredibly positive - they stand for themselves.
    Ashleigh Sheridan
    Headteacher, Ribbon Academy

Giving students autonomy

Students reading below, at, or above their year level all need content and tasks that build critical thinking skills. They also need instruction that:

  • Matches their individual learning abilities.
  • Prepares them for future success.
  • Builds and sustains their interest and motivation.
  • Broadens their horizons and increases their cultural capital.

Over 1,300 high-quality and age-appropriate informational, fiction, and non-fiction texts are available for students to self-select to develop comprehension and vocabulary knowledge.

Hear from Year 6 pupils Nick and Leena from Elmridge Primary School as they discuss Reading Plus.

An evidence-based programme

Reading Plus is built on decades of foundational research in:

  • Silent reading development.
  • Vocabulary and comprehension improvement.
  • Decoding practice.
  • Reading stamina.
  • Efficiency development.

Read more about the theoretical framework and research behind Reading Plus here.

*In an efficacy study with Derby Research School and Spencer Academies Trust, students eligible for pupil premium made, on average, 97% more progress with Reading Plus than in the control schools.

Read the Derby research study

Try Reading Plus at no cost for four weeks!

Choosing a new reading programme is a big decision. That’s why you can try Reading Plus – with support from a dedicated Reading Development Consultant – at no cost for four weeks.

See for yourself how Reading Plus is different to other reading programmes.

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