Sharing Effective Practice session on Reading Together®

Liz Horgan, Principal of St Joseph's School Otahuhu led a Sharing Effective Practice session on Reading Together® at the 2014 NZEI Conference (NZ's largest education union). A summary of Liz Horgan's session is on pages 45-46 of the document available here. Some extracts follow:

We have been implementing the Reading Together Programme at St Joseph's Otahuhu since 2005. At least one programme a year and frequently twice a year reaching a total of over 150 families.
Consistent positive feedback from parents every time we run the programme:
- Improved confidence and skill in supporting their children’s reading; better able to choose appropriate reading material; using community libraries more confidently and regularly; believe the programme should be made available to other parents.
- Children became more independent/read more regularly/enjoyed reading at home/liked help with reading at home/gained confidence and used libraries more frequently.
Teachers gained a greater awareness of the family literacy practices and experiences that individual children bring to school / realised the value of smaller scale activity based meetings with a specific focus and manageable activities.
Librarian involvement has been extremely valuable in many respects and has enabled them to strengthen links with their diverse communities and support parents and children who might otherwise not use libraries.