Dear Parents/ Guardians,

SOCIAL MEDIA'S NEGATIVE IMPACT ON READING SKILLS

Lately there has been much written in educational circles about the effect of social media on young adults and teenagers and their learning. A by-product of the surge in social media usage by young people has been a decrease in reading capacity. The flow on from this has been an impact on the writing capacity of students. Those who regularly read have a better vocabulary and writing ability.

PISA AND THE IMPORTANCE OF READING

PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is one of the international assessments of the National Assessment Program (NAP). The NAP is part of a national strategy to monitor and report on student achievement, in a comparable and consistent way. This allows Australian governments (Federal and State) to monitor progress against the Melbourne Declaration Goals for Young Australians.

It is useful to note that PISA data can tell us much about student progress across multiple subject areas and it can show factors that impact individual achievement.

One common finding in PISA tests in recent years is the exceptional importance of reading and how, if regular, it can enhance student learning outcomes.

DAILY READING

While there is a multitude of factors that can impact achievement (e.g. the quality of instruction, access to learning resources and contextual family information), there is an extremely strong correlation between the time spent reading each day and learning growth and achievement.

In the most recent PISA test data, an analysis of close to 200,000 students, revealed that there was a very strong connection between reading engagement and reading performance in all 32 countries examined.

Students who were in the habit of reading regularly, read diverse texts and regarded reading as valuable, scored higher on PISA’s combined reading literacy scale.

Of particular interest was that a student’s ‘level of reading engagement’ was found to be a more significant factor than gender or socioeconomic status. Students with high reading engagement scored significantly above the international average on the ‘combined reading literacy scale’. Therefore, students by taking the initiative with reading, could and can overcome traditional barriers to achievement.

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US ? 

Students at St John’s read regularly in their English classes BUT we know that if students read every day for at least 20 minutes SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT can result.

Reading is enjoyable. Reading widely ensures that balance exists in a person’s life and that we don’t miss out on gaining greater general knowledge required in our lives.

Twenty minutes of reading every day can extend a student’s vocabulary considerably, but it can also enhance learning engagement, literacy skills and positively impact on a student’s capacity for critical thinking.

Students have access to many physical books from our School Library and they also have access to a broad array of digital texts. I prefer an actual book that I can take around with me, this is a personal choice and digital platforms have a broad and diverse range of material. So, regardless of the format, let's encourage reading!

We wish all families a wonderful winter break and a safe and happy time away from school. See you all on Tuesday 23^rd July (Monday is a Staff Development Day).