To encourage reading amongst schoolchildren, Maria and I handed out reading passports in May to the pupils in the classes we teach (Years 3–5).
Signatures are collected on the reading pass. For every 15 minutes of reading aloud, the pupil receives a signature. Once the reading pass is full with 33 signatures (equivalent to 8.25 hours of reading), the pupil receives a small gift from the school as a reward. Another ‘gift’ the pupil receives is improved reading skills.
Unfortunately, not all pupils took part in this initiative. The aim of the initiative was to encourage pupils to read aloud and thus practise their reading. Most of the pupils who took part were already able to read at a moderate to good level. Pupils with reading difficulties largely stayed away. However, some of them did take part.
Among the pupils who completed their reading pass honestly, a noticeable improvement in reading performance was evident. For example, a boy who found reading very difficult still managed to improve his reading performance by 3 per cent, whilst some girls even improved their reading performance by 24 per cent.
The picture clearly shows that girls are in the majority. This is also reflected in the classroom, where girls perform better than boys.
