Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of

counselors, and the most patient of teachers’. -Charles W. Elio-

A child's reading skills are important to their success in school as they will allow them to access the
breadth of the curriculum and improve their communication and language skills. In addition, reading can
be a fun and imaginative time for children, which opens doors to all kinds of new worlds for them.

As part of our curriculum review at NAISAK, we have identified ‘reading’ as a key area for development
and will be included in the school’s strategic development plan. With a busy timetable, teachers
currently do not have enough time to listen to their children read as much as they would like to. That
said, from today we have made some adjustments to the start of the day with the registration period
being extended to 20 minutes, with a slightly shorter first lesson. This will allow students from across the
Primary Stage to all start their day reading to either their teacher, learning support assistant, buddy or
on their own. Additionally, all Primary teachers, including the Leadership Team, have new reading
timetables allowing them to listen to individual readers who have been identified as needing extra
support for a number of hours per week. We are hopeful that the changes made to both the students
and teachers’ timetables will prove impactful and will help to accelerate reading progress across the
Primary School. We will continue to update you over the coming term with further reading initiatives.

Why is reading so important?

Studies show that reading for pleasure makes a big difference to children’s educational performance.
Likewise, evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in
reading tests than those who do not, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general
knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures.

In fact, reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their
social or economic background.

What difference can I make as a parent?

You can make a huge difference! Parents are the most important educators in a child’s life – even more
important than their teachers – and it is never too early to start reading together.
Even before they were born, babies learn to recognise their parents' voices. Reading to your baby from
birth, even for just a few minutes a day, gives them the comfort of hearing your voice and increases
their exposure to language.

Building vocabulary and understanding

Learning to read is about listening and understanding as well as working out what is printed on the page.
Through hearing stories, children are exposed to a wide range of words. This helps them build their own
vocabulary and improve their understanding when they listen, which is vital as they start to read. It is
important for them to understand how stories work too. Even if your child does not understand every
word, they will hear new sounds, words and phrases which they can then try out, copying what they
have heard.

Irrespective of whether your child is only just beginning to learn to read or whether they are fluent, you
can play an important role

https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/our-schools/al-khor/parent-resources/our-school-enewsletter/
primary/the-importance-of-readin

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING

Reading enhances our life in several ways:

EXERCISING YOUR MIND

One of the advantages of reading is that it engages various parts of your brain. When you read, you
exercise your comprehension abilities and your analytical abilities. It fires up your imagination and
stimulates the memory centers of your mind. It helps recall information as well as stabilize your
emotions.
The importance of a reading habit is that it strengthens mental muscles. Reading is one of the best
mental workouts there is. It’s been found that regular mental stimulation can slow down and possibly
even prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. Reading keeps the mind agile and young.

THE ROLE OF READING SKILLS IN COMMUNICATION

Swedish-American writer Frans Johansson, in his book The Medici Effect, explains how creativity is
intersectional. Ideas born in one medium and industry can be used as inspiration for others.

Reading and writing work in similar ways. Reading improves your writing style and flow. Writers learn to
perfect their craft by taking inspiration from other writers. It’s impossible to be a good writer if you
don’t read. Acclaimed author Stephen King is said to carry a book with him wherever he goes. He even
reads while eating.

Another vital role of reading skills in communication is perfecting your oratory skills. Reading teaches
you new words and perspectives. It helps strengthen language and sharpens sentence structure. It gives
you a better command over the language. All of these are critical to being a good speaker.

FINDING YOURSELF

Books work as portals to newer worlds. They have the potential to broaden your perspective, shape
your attitude towards others and life, and open you up to new ways of thinking about everyday life.

One of the several advantages of reading is that it helps shape your identity. When you read, you decide
who you want to become. You borrow bits from fictional characters you hold dear. For example, reading
Sherlock Holmes can inspire you to become a detective or simply become more observant and
analytical.

BECOMING A WELL-READ INDIVIDUAL

Well-read individuals are held in awe. The words “well-read” are often used to denote a learned
individual, full of wisdom.
Before the internet, books were the only sources of information and knowledge. Books contain the
collective wisdom of our times. The more you read, the more you will learn about the world and the
people in it. One of the great benefits of reading is that it helps you evolve your understanding of the
world.

KEEPING CALM AND ENTERTAINED

Books can be a perfect escape from reality. They can cheer you up when you’re down, motivate you
when you’re sad, and even keep you company when everybody else is busy.

One of the benefits of reading is that it relaxes your mind and body. You recharge your energy levels
much faster when you read. Reading is the best way to end the day on a calm note. It may even help you
fall asleep much faster.

ADVANTAGES OF READING

The points above demonstrate the importance of maintaining a reading habit. Here are a few more
benefits of reading regularly:

IMPROVES YOUR THINKING SKILLS AND ANALYTICAL ABILITIES

There are times when you read a book and realize there are loopholes in the plot. You figure out who
the murderer is before the book tells you. Somehow, your mind works faster when you read.

Reading sends your analytical and critical thinking abilities into hyperdrive. Each book becomes a puzzle
your mind races to solve. With each book, it keeps improving its score.

These same abilities also apply to the real world. A reader’s mind is trained to notice tiny details. It puts
the pieces together and can find connections. It is more adept at identifying patterns and solving
puzzles. It learns how to synthesize knowledge better. In Harappa Education’s course on Reading Deeply,
this aspect is covered in the module on Post Reading.

HELPS YOU BLOCK OUT THE NOISE

Short attention spans are the order of the day as lives become a constant stream of interruptions and
activity.

You are expected to manage your WhatsApp messages and check your email and interact with your
colleagues, all at the same time. Juggling such tasks reduces focus and lowers productivity.

But when you read a book, all your attention is focused. The importance of reading in our digital age
cannot be overstated. It is perhaps the only way left to improve focus and attention.

HELPS MASTER A LANGUAGE

Reading is one of the best ways to learn a new language or gain mastery over a known one. Also, when
you learn through stories, you learn much faster.

Learning about words through context is one of the most organic ways to understand their meaning and
improve your vocabulary. This also helps gain knowledge about colloquial terms.

CONNECTING WITH OTHERS

Books can be great conversation starters and can help bond with new people.

Readers can have multiple stories to tell or topics to discuss, and can easily become the

https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/importance-of-reading/#:~:text=One%20of%20the
%20advantages%20of,well%20as%20stabilize%20your%20emotions.

This program is designed to assist students who are challenged by the acquisition of early reading skills
or older students with continued reading difficulties.
Academic difficulties have several potential causes. All struggling readers require explicit and
comprehensive interventions delivered with sufficient intensity. When a student expresses frustration or
difficulty with reading, or avoids the task, it is often a sign of a deficit that requires intervention.

“Poor readers, in the beginning stages of learning to read, most commonly have a language-based
learning problem that is interfering with progress in word recognition (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes,
2019; Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003).”

Neurocognitive research shows that the brain changes in response to interventions for struggling
readers and that those changes extend into young adulthood. At Evoke, we begin remediation by
identifying the weak component(s) of the student’s reading so that appropriate intervention can be
provided using systematic and evidence-based instruction, strategically targeting deficits. Intervention
efforts are directed toward removing the hurdles that are preventing the student from reading. Initial
problems in reading will normally persist without intensive intervention and individualized tutoring.

To read effectively, students need both the ability to recognize words easily (decoding) and strong
language comprehension (assembling information accurately). If there is impairment in just one of these
skills, reading will be impacted. Reading comprehension strategies cannot compensate for an inability to
decode words accurately and instantaneously. The ability to understand letter-sound combinations frees
the brain to move from foundational reading skills to higher-order reading processes, such as extracting
meaning from text and learning new vocabulary. Many students appear to be reading when they are
actually whole-language reading (compensating) and therefore not understanding what they read.

“For weak readers to close the gap, they have to accelerate their progress to a rate of growth that is
faster than their typically developing peers. Fortunately, research has demonstrated that this is possible
(Torgesen at al. 2003).”

https://www.evokelearning.ca/reading-remediation/reading-remediation-for-students-grades-1-12/

The Importance of Efficient Reading Interventions

By angela@readinghorizons.com No Comments Follow ReadingHorizons

Tags: Teaching Reading Tips

fast-reading-intervention

Remedial reading teachers all share the same instructional goal: help students become fluent readers
who understand what they read.

The idea is to reach this goal as quickly as possible because studies show that the longer struggling
readers wait to “catch up” to grade-level reading, the further they fall behind in their overall education.
This is especially important because the older the struggling reader becomes, the less likely they will be
to ever advance to reading at grade level. For example, only one-in-six middle school readers who are
two grades or more behind their class ever catch up to their peers.

That’s why it is critical that reading intervention programs work quickly. More importantly, the reading
curriculum and methodology must be something that the teacher can learn and convey in record time.

However, fast can often lead to a rushed, ineffective process.

How can you get the benefits of fast remediation without letting quality suffer?

Recent research has found that intensive, 12-week phonemic awareness training is actually more
effective for struggling readers than longer, traditional reading remediation. In the study, children that
were given this type of intensive remediation performed better in every reading assessment (word
decoding, spelling, reading speed and reading comprehension) than the children that were given
traditional remediation.

Phonemic awareness training was used in the study because as Ulrika Wolff of the University of
Gothenburg explains: “Most researchers agree that the underlying problem [for struggling readers] is a
limited phonological ability, in other words, limited awareness of the sounds that make up spoken
words.”
How can you replicate this program for your students?

Here is what was included in the 12-week intensive training used in the study. 40 minutes of daily
training on:

Letter blends (grapheme and phoneme combinations)

Phonetic and decoding skills

One-on-one reading practice (both aloud and silent)

It's important to note that this study was only effective because the instruction was effective.

https://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2011/03/15/fast-remedial-reading