- Larkmead School has a clear focus on improving the literacy of all our students and we have been exploring innovative ways to engage reluctant readers in developing their literacy skills and inspire wider reading. Art workshops at Larkmead School have been promoting the idea of reading for pleasure with KS3 students with low-level literacy. Students were given the opportunity to read in a variety of different settings and approach texts through the medium of art, improving confidence and literacy levels. Workshops were based around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Twilight, as well as the Guinness Book of Records as part of Abingdon Library’s summer reading challenge ‘Record Breakers’.
The groups focused on key literacy skills throughout, taking part in small exercises to develop knowledge and understanding. Progress was monitored using student’s reading ages at the start and end of the project. Students really engaged in the project and attitudes to reading became more positive and literacy levels rose, with over 70% of students improving their reading age. Workshops included: - Working with metaphors and quotes
- Collaborative reading
- Using old book pages from different stories and selected words from the page that could combine to create ‘random’ but ‘readable’ sentences
- Exploring the characters in the texts and using descriptive writing to illustrate their thoughts and ideas, before creating their Art related pieces
- Learning about onomatopoeia words and using them to help come up with interesting names for their chocolate bars, which they constructed using papier mache
- Designing and creating large 3D food sculptures and a Twilight book
- An information research challenge – utilising information research skills to find information within non-fiction books (use of references, contents & index)
- A Reading skills challenge – to read up on an area of interest from Guinness Book of Records & summarise it for the project, representing it visually with their own artwork on a record ‘medal’
The successful project has resulted in an exhibition of large sized papier mache sculptures and Record Breaker medals made from upcycled music records in Abingdon Library throughout July and August.
The Guinness World Record’s mission is around inspiring and celebrating achievement and personal best, which reflects the ethos of Larkmead School, The Reading Agency and the Summer Reading Challenge. Feedback from students following the project includes:
“I can now see how good fun reading is and enjoy reading more than before”
“I’ve improved my reading skills and am able to read aloud without too many mistakes”
“Reading can help you learn new words and what they mean”