[senco-forum] Re Literacy

To back up what you suggest:
  For some of my pupils, it's not just that they don't do any reading when they are not in school - they don't do anything they don't want to do.
  I asked a Year 8 pupil who could not sit still for ten minutes at the beginning of September if he had had to sit at a table since July and the answer was 'no'.  The longest he could remember sitting down for was for a two hour car journey!
  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

Olanys at aol.com wrote:
  I think a possible answer to the apparent reading age "dip" between primary 
and secondary schools may be that, over the summer, children tend to relax 
and not do any academic work or indeed, for the most part, any reading, as they 
are out playing and socialising in the sun, away on holiday, doing things 
that children should be doing to relax and refresh their minds, more so that in 
the winter holidays when they cannot go out as much and may even be tempted 
to curl up with a comic, magazine or book and those who read for pleasure 
will do so anyway and also tend to be the more competent readers through cause 
and effect.
Many computer / playstation / online etc. games, which they may tend to play 
more in cold or bad weather, usually contain text on which to practise their 
skills, so in the summer even they are less freuqently used. Possibly lack 
of regular reading practice, to my mind, may cause a lowering of reading 
levels in less that confident/competent readers.

Another factor may be that the tests used are, I assume, different tests in 
primary to that used in secondary schools...if same tests are used then what 
is the point in testing twice? In that case testing at secondary intake 
alone would make far more sense and for whatever the cause of the "dip" would 
give a far more reliable level to work from. 

Best wishes,
Aly

Chair Auditory Processing Disorder in the UK/APDUK
www.lacewingmultimedia.com/APD.htm 
www.apduk.org

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall