Reading and Writing

Why reading is a must

Reading is a core skill that will improve with practice. As a student your job is to develop your skill as a reader so that ultimately you'll become an independent learner and a skilled communicator. It's a big part of what a high school education is all about. Your ability to read increasingly sophisticated texts will be exercised in every subject in your school journey.

How to achieve reading success

Two factors have been identified by research as critical to reading success, they are:

1. Choice to read what you like
2. Reading Enjoyment: reading is pleasurable!

Our College is a place to develop your reading skill. We have dedicated reading time in the library for Years 7-10.  Our library collection and programs aim to support your choice and reading enjoyment. If our library doesn't have the book you want, let us know and we'll get it.  

If you’re not a natural-born reader, then, having a positive mindset will help. A student with a positive mind set says, “I don’t like reading YET”.

Reasons to read

If you need inspiration to read, this list is backed by research:

• It's fun
• Contributes to academic success
• Expands your vocabulary
• Entertains & stimulates
• Boosts your reading & writing skills
• Faciliates independent learning
• Enhances mood & reduces stress
• Improves concentration & focus
• Increases your knowledge of yourself and the world
• Develops creativity
• Nutures empathy
• Associated with more successful life outcomes
   

Research on why reading is good!

Table 1 shows how reading books is by far the richest source of content for language and vocabulary acquisition.
Table 3 shows how time spent reading per day is correlated with academic achievement. Students in the top 98 percentile read the most words per day while lower ranked student read much less.

Source: Cunningham, A. Stanovich, K. 2001, What Reading Does for the Mind, Journal of Direct Instruction, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 137-149. 

CAUGHT READING: the Barron Bear