Meet Sade
We’re delighted to introduce one of our Reading Plus Champions, Sade, a Year 6 pupil from Sunnyside Spencer Academy.
Vice Principal Verity Lee said: “Sade is a Reading Plus Champion because she recognises the impact reading has on her life beyond Sunnyside. She is an excellent role model and champions other children as they make progress with their reading. Her passion for learning is infectious.”
The role of Champions
At Reading Solutions UK, we are devoted to accelerating reading progress while instilling a love for reading in our students. One way in which we do this is by appointing Reading Plus Champions who have the opportunity to complete additional exciting tasks, including:
- Reviewing new (and unseen!) texts to be added to Reading Plus.
- Sharing their experience of Reading Plus in a blog titled ‘My Reading Plus Journey’.
- Collaborating with us on interviews with children’s authors.
We’re delighted to publish Sade’s first blog about her Reading Plus journey – ‘A passport to the world through the love of books’.
I’ve always had a love for reading since I was young. I vividly remember being three or four years old and reading books designed for six and seven year olds. I was always seeking more of a challenge, but my love for reading started to drift. As I moved through primary school, I could not find a book that I enjoyed or could take me to places where my imagination could run wild. It wasn’t until Year 4 that I was introduced to Reading Plus.
Miss Lee, our Vice Principal, suggested that I join the Reading Plus programme because it would give me challenges and access to a vast range of genres. At first, I was hesitant, but I was willing to give it a go. Then in Year 5, I completed the Reading Plus programme.
I always used to be very closed-minded about what I would read, and I think that is partially why I stopped reading as much when I was younger. Through my use of Reading Plus, I found out that I loved stories about travelling, the world, and going on adventures. These stories always stuck out to me. I was also inspired by texts about inspirational women from around the world. I enjoyed many of the texts, but my favourite must be ‘Role Models for Girls and Women of Colour’.
I could relate to this because I’m a British Caribbean girl and felt like these women could inspire other girls just like they did me. I remember reading about Michelle Obama in ‘A South Side Girl’s Journey’, her journey to be a lawyer as well as the first African-American First Lady. Her story was nothing short of an inspiration and pops to mind every time someone mentions Reading Plus. Her battles throughout her life have made her the strong woman she is today, and hopefully, one day, I can be inspirational to the younger generation.
I also felt a connection to ‘A Pitch For Equality’ – a text I read about the USA national women’s team. I have a love for sports, especially football.
After the Women’s World Cup and reading A Pitch For Equality, I am so proud to represent the future generation of women, and hopefully, one day, I will be one of those women.
After completing a few Levels on Reading Plus, I became determined to complete the programme. Every free minute at school, I spent on Reading Plus. I finished all the Levels and only had to finish the Vocabulary. On the Vocabulary component, I learned many words that helped me with my SATs.
Reading Plus always used to be, and still is, something I enjoy. Even when I got low scores, I always wanted to keep reading on to better myself. I used to have a schedule that I did in Year 5, where I read every night at home. I even remember asking my teacher to increase my weekly stories to ten because I was finishing the five texts really quickly! I never felt like Reading Plus was a task – more like an activity to come in to in the morning. It opened a new door to reading that I hadn’t explored before.
Reading Plus has taught me so many things, some of them not being related to learning. One of the main things it taught me is resilience. Going through all the Levels was hard, but I never gave up! All the hard work has paid off – I completed the programme and got this great opportunity to write my own blog.
My advice to anyone is that a book is a passport to the world. It will open your mind to many different adventures, and you can find your inspirational person in a text. Like Michelle Obama said:
“When you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you.”
An adaptive programme
Every Reading Plus journey will be different as our adaptive programme places all students on a personalised learning path to success.
Students begin with an adaptive assessment, which provides a baseline and a data-driven starting point. These results place each student at the right level in the programme before creating a learning pathway to accelerate their strengths and improve their weaknesses.
Over 1,300 high-quality and age-appropriate informational, fiction and non-fiction texts are then available for students to self-select from to develop comprehension and vocabulary knowledge.
These engaging texts, instant feedback and gamification features keep students motivated.
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.
Book a free four-week pilot to see first-hand how Reading Plus improves fluency, comprehension and vocabulary in your school.
Talk to one of our Reading Development Consultants.
Call:
0191 389 6078 (option 1)
Email:
info@readingsolutionsuk.com