At Erasmus Darwin Academy reading is embedded into school life. Our staff and students all understand the importance of reading as a tool to improve not only our academic successes, but also our compassion, empathy and understanding.
Throughout the school day and the school there are many initiatives to promote reading and the enjoyment it can bring. Some of these are:
- Drop Everything and Read – At the beginning of every period five lesson, after lunch, all students will read a book of their choosing for 10 minutes. This allows students to engage with the text they are reading and embeds a reading culture into our curriculum.
- Accelerated Reader – All Year 7 and 8 students have access to the Accelerated Reader programme. The programme provides them with a range of short comprehension questions based on the book they have been reading, this in turn allows teachers to check their understanding.
- Library Lessons – All Year 7 and 8 students have one library lesson a week as part of the English curriculum at EDA. In these lessons students read a range of different texts, both fiction and non-fiction, and they also have the ability to develop their confidence in reading aloud.
- The Literacy Assessment Tool – In Year 9 and 10 students’ reading ages are monitored through ‘The Literacy Assessment Tool’ and this enables us to monitor reading ages in the qualification stage.