How Storytime Can Improve Literacy
We are proud to be publishing a magazine that helps children improve their literacy – we’ve summarised some research below that you might be interested in.
Why Read Magazines?
Storytime works really well as a completely new way of getting children interested in stories – it bridges the great book/magazine divide.
Magazines are the most commonly read form of printed media amongst children, reaching 53% of all children (Statista, 2013). This is particularly true of reluctant readers. Some may be intimidated to pick up a book, but a magazine format is familiar. Plus magazines arrive periodically and can be habit forming. As far as reluctant readers are concerned – any reading is a good thing.
“Magazines have a unique ability to help develop children into confident readers. Outside the classroom, more children read magazine media at least once a month than any other media. That’s a demonstration of the power of magazines to inspire young minds.” Platforms for Prosperity: Nicholas Coleridge on Literacy, 2015
Teaching and Learning Toolkit
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), founded by The Sutton Trust, aims to improve knowledge and extend the evidence-base on what works to raise the attainment of pupils in schools in England.
Their Teaching and Learning Toolkit provides guidance for schools on how to use their resources. Topics are summarised in terms of average impact on attainment, the strength of the evidence supporting them and their cost.
Storytime magazine can support a number of these interventions.
| Intervention | Improvement | How we can help |
|---|---|---|
| Parental involvement | + 3 months | The active engagement of parents in supporting their children’s learning at school. This includes general approaches to encourage parents to support their children to read. Storytime's magazine and short story format make it easy for parents to pick up - it’s really easy for a parent to spend 10 minutes a day reading with a child. |
| Early Years Intervention | + 6 months | Early years interventions are approaches that aim to ensure that young children have educationally based pre-school or nursery experiences which prepare for school and academic success, and Storytime is perfect for reading with very young children, and engaging them in a magical world of stories. |
| Oral Language interventions | + 5 months | These emphasise the importance of spoken language and verbal interaction in the classroom. Storytime is great resource for targeted reading aloud and discussing stories with young children, and explicitly extending pupils’ spoken vocabulary. |
| Reading Comprehension Strategies | + 5 months | On average, reading comprehension approaches improve learning by an additional five months’ progress over the course of a school year. Successful reading comprehension approaches carefully select activities for pupils according to their reading capabilities, and ensure that texts provide an effective, but not overwhelming, challenge. |
| Peer Tutoring | + 6 months | Peer-Assisted Learning can be a structured approach for reading with short sessions two or three times a week. Storytime is a great resource for learners to work in pairs or small groups to provide each other with explicit teaching support. |