How a robust programme of assessment and literacy support can increase engagement and build key reading skills.
Products: Star Reading, Accelerated Reader, myON
Region: Singapore
Curriculum: British
KEY TAKE AWAYS
- Accurate and detailed assessment data supports teachers in tracking reading progress, improving learning outcomes and celebrating success
- Motivating tools like Accelerated Reader and myON help to stimulate independent reading that builds reading stamina, word recognition, and language comprehension skills
- EAL students benefit from the personalised support, targeting their reading level and interests to ensure purposeful reading practice
“The students are really engaged with their learning and I’ve seen an increase in their excitement to read.”
Brighton College (Singapore) is a leading international school, part of the Cognita School Group. They are committed to inspiring young minds and nurturing problem-solving, social responsibility and a love for learning in children from 18 months through to senior school. Students study a broad and dynamic curriculum, based on the English National Curriculum, enriched with cross curricular activities in the arts, music and sports.
With a diverse student population, many for whom English is not their first language, reading and literacy is a key focus. In the primary years, the team were looking to introduce a structured programme that would allow them to track each individual student’s reading levels, help practitioners support the development of literacy skills for EAL learners, and foster a love for reading across the cohorts.
Tracking and motivating reading
The school now use a range of Renaissance tools to assess, monitor and guide their students’ reading journeys.
Star Reading provides a comprehensive online assessment that allows schools to monitor and evaluate students' reading progress, guiding decisions in the classroom with simple, reliable reading data. Accelerated Reader (AR) helps schools to monitor, manage and motivate reading for pleasure with structured opportunities for reading across the curriculum. myON’s digital reading platform provides unlimited access to high quality reading materials, supporting reading practice and helping students to become fluent readers.
Jessica Sellers, Year 6 teacher and English specialist at the school, explains more: “At Brighton College (Singapore) we use AR and myON within the class setting at Year 2, then from Year 3 onwards we use Star Reading, AR and myON to motivate, support and track reading progress right through to Year 6.
“We deliver the Star Reading assessments twice each term to track reading progress. For AR, we’ve set up the whole library system in the colour bands, so students are aware of their own colour levels and ZPDs and can actively choose their own books. We can then use the reporting to monitor their activity.”
The Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD is a range of book levels that are related to the student’s current reading level. They offer just the right amount of challenge and help support successful reading practice and goal setting.
“myON is great to use for those transitional times when students don’t have access to the library and can be looking at books either at home, or in the classroom. I know that parents really like that it can be accessed at home or when they’re away.
“The primary school is really focusing on encouraging reading for pleasure – so AR and myON allow the students to have ownership of their reading, which is a really important factor.”
Increasing engagement
Since introducing the Renaissance tools, the school has seen an increase in students’ engagement and their enthusiasm for reading. Jessica explains more: “My classroom is right next to the library, so I can see that there’s more of a conversation going on around reading now. The students are really engaged with their learning and I’ve seen an increase in their excitement to read and their excitement to challenge themselves with their reading.
“From a teaching perspective, the Renaissance resources have been great tools to use to look at any reading interventions that are needed. The data supports conversations with both students and parents – we can look at the reading ages, the progress and the targets that are being put in place, and have informed discussions.
“I found the data really valuable for informing me on which of my students need interventions – I use the Star Reading data to track progress over the year, and any students that are not making expected progress, or who may have a dip, then those are the ones that I can look into further. The reports are really helpful as we can go into depth on what specific areas of reading they’re struggling with.”
The school has launched initiatives like the ‘Millionaire Club’ which tracks how many words the children have read on both AR and myON, and has been set up as a race to one million words.
Jessica goes on: “One of my Year 6 students has actually read five million words! She’s an avid reader, but we’re making sure by looking at the reports that she is reading books that have the right level of challenge and have good variety.
“Within the Millionaire challenge we can check that students are quizzing appropriate level books, as initially some were reading lots of words, but not at the right level. It was good to have that conversation with them, and show that we’re monitoring things. When they saw how carefully I’m monitoring their work, then this led to the students taking more ownership of their reading. The fact that AR and myON are interlinked has made it so much easier for us, with everything in one place.”
“We have a poster in the classroom which is a FormulAR One track which we use to measure how many words the students have read on AR and myON – by term and by year. We announce the progress in our newsletter, which really helps to get the parents involved as well.”
Improving reading comprehension
The school has seen an improvement in students’ comprehension skills. AR supports these skills through quizzes that assess a variety of comprehension strategies, including questions that require students to draw conclusions and make predictions based on the text.
Jessica explains: “The students’ inference skills have really developed. Within my own discussions in class, students are now able to zoom into particular words, find the themes and the choices that the authors are making. That is down to being able to read the appropriately challenged books and then test it themselves on AR, so students are regularly practicing those deeper thinking skills.
“Being able, through AR, to practice clarifying, predicting and summarising are all the skills that I can now see being used more confidently within my class.”
Supporting EAL learners and struggling readers
The functionality on myON makes it ideal to support EAL learners. The audio function allows the text to be read out, and students can also record themselves reading a book out loud, then listen to themselves and self-assess both their miscues and their strengths as readers.
Jessica explains: “I particularly like on myON how we can use the record function, which has really helped a lot of the EAL students to develop their pronunciation and vocabulary.
“Students on our PCP course (a preparatory course for primary school which helps EAL students transition into the British curriculum) also use AR to develop their vocabulary and have benefitted from using the vocabulary quiz tests.”
The team have also seen a big impact for struggling readers.
“A real benefit for us is being able to track the progress of defiant or struggling readers. We have a lot of students who have a number of activities on and have a very busy day – so to get them to slow down and to read has been a huge thing for us. Looking at the data, being able to see their progress, and celebrate that progress, is wonderful.
“For example, last year one EAL boy in my class was able to show real progress. Even though he was reading smaller books with less words, he was really committed to it. He ended up being the one at the end of the year who had read the most books and made the most progress – and because this was something that we could track, we could help him to engage with more complex texts. Previously he wasn’t at the expected standard, but by the end of the year he was up to the Year 7 standard.”
In conclusion
Brighton College has seen a positive impact on their students’ reading, using the insights from the Star Reading assessment data to identify learning gaps, measure each student’s progress, and determine whether they are on track to meet expected standards. AR and myON complement the data to provide a personalised learning plan for each student, helping them find a ‘just right’ balance between reading success and challenge.
Jessica explains: “The Star Reading assessments are so impactful, providing immediate results and data that gives me insights into my students’ progress.
“The fact that it then ties in with myON and AR is just fantastic for the students to get involved with. They do their Star Reading test, then go to the library and straight away can go to books that are for their zone and level. It’s a great way for them to take responsibility for their learning journey. It’s also important for me to be able to make sure that any gaps are being filled and there's no students being left behind in making progress.
“The Renaissance tools have made such an impact on the culture in the school, getting students engaged with reading and celebrating their achievements – because you can measure the achievements so quickly and so easily!”
