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Use of ipads for Reluctant Readers

Year 7 students at Bispham High School were loaned 10 ipads from the CLC to use with reluctant readers.  The objective was to raise reading ages and 5 ipads were allocated to 7P4 and 7Q3.

The ipads have had a positive impact on reading in Key Stage 3 in the following ways:

• They have generated a lot of enthusiasm for reading from hitherto reluctant readers
• Readers with a low reading age were able to read fairly basic texts
• Were able to buy some attractive and appealing texts from the Rising Stars Range
• As only 10 ipads were available students were happy to read in pairs
• Many staff have become more familiar with the ipads.  In English, 3 staff have used them regularly in lessons and 2 others have used them occasionally.  Staff from other faculties have borrowed the ipads to explore how they could make use of them in their subject areas

Conclusion

• The greatest impact of the loan of the ipads was the enthusiasm for reading they generated
• The impact in improving reading ages was hard to measure because of the limited amount of time any individual had reading exclusively on the ipad
• The loan has meant that the pupils became familiar with the use of the ipads and their potential use in English and the school knows they would be a worthwhile purchase should the opportunity arise.

These students reading ages were monitored between January 2011 and July 2011.  This experiment was to be compared with existing interventions i.e Renaissance Reading.