Everyone's a winner: the six book challenge in colleges by Genevieve Clarke & Kathryn...

Everyone’s a winner the Six Book Challenge in colleges

Genevieve Clarke, The Reading Agency

Kathryn Wallis, Peterborough Regional College

The Reading Agency

• Independent national charity

• Mission to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping them to become enthusiastic and confident readers. Because everything changes when we read

• Formal partnership with public libraries

• Work with broadcasters, publishers, government at national level

• Work with libraries, schools, colleges, prisons, workplaces at local level

“Books have no place in this course; it’s about learning to read!” Basic skills tutor

“The students didn’t think they could learn through reading. It’s been a revelation to them

that they could enjoy a book and still be learning.”

Skills for Life tutor, Tameside

Learners engaged in (more) text

Learners enjoy

reading

Learners practise

skills

Learners improve

skills

Learners want to

read more

Why?

• 5.1 million adults of working age are STILL at the level expected of an 11 year old (moved from 16% to 15% since 2003)

• 14.8 million adults would not achieve a GCSE at A* - C grade (improved from 39.5% to 28.5% since 2003)

2011 Skills for Life Survey: Headline findings

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Dec 2011

• 16-24 year olds in England are rated 22nd our of 24 countries for literacy.

• They have slightly worse skills than people aged between 55 and 65.

Survey of Adult Skills (PIACC), OECD, Oct 2013

Policy context

• Colleges in their Communities – May 2012 • Emphasis on partnership but where are libraries?

• Move from Skills for Life to Functional Skills

• Rise in participation age

• 13/14 – to 17; 14/15 – to 18

• Focus on GCSE

• Emphasis on English and Maths

• Imperative to achieve Grade C

Support from The Reading Agency

• Advocacy for libraries’ role

• Links with national initiatives eg Quick Reads, BBC campaigns

• R & D – reading for pleasure at Entry Level, potential for using digital games

• Reading Groups for Everyone, Mood-Boosting Books

• World Book Night

• Practical schemes – Six Book Challenge

What is the Six Book Challenge?

• An invitation to read six books or other ‘materials’ and record reading in a diary

• Library support for choosing what to read

• Creative activity such as reading groups

• Incentives to increase retention

• Certificate for those who read six books (participation certificate for less)

• A proven way of engaging and motivating adults to improve their literacy skills

Our vision

• That people’s attitudes to reading, both in print and online, are changed by taking part in the Six Book Challenge, whether or not they are already readers.

• Priority audience – those who struggle with the written word

• Also powerful for lapsed readers

Six Book Challenge 2008-13

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

2008total7000

2009total9000

2010total

13,500

2011total

18,000

2012total

23,500

2013total

35,000

Public libraries

Colleges

Prisons

Workplaces

2013 headline results

• 35,000 people registered

• 13,000 through public libraries and partners

• 13,500 in over 100 FE and sixth form colleges

• 7000 in prisons

• 1500 in workplaces

• 90% of survey respondents said they felt more confident about reading

• 65 organisations achieved more than 50 completers – 23 colleges

Colleges

Completers at Westminster Kingsway College

Kathryn Wallis Learning Resources Co-ordinator,

Library+

Peterborough Regional College/

University Centre Peterborough

kathryn.wallis@peterborough.ac.uk

The Six Book Challenge

Who are we?

• Peterborough Regional College

• Library+

How did it start?

• What other colleges do

• Thinking big or thinking small?

What did we want?

Curriculum liaison, making links:

• A “friendly face”

• Marketing “sideways”

What did we get?

The negatives

• Organised chaos!

• Disappointing completions

The positives • A great time

• Real heroes

• A learning experience...

...and this year...

Don’t forget!

Everyone who has completed the

Six Book Challenge is invited to a

celebration on

Wednesday 11th June at 12pm @

University Centre Peterborough

room 015.

It is essential you reply to reserve

your place

Please reply to Library+ in person,

by phone (01733 762137)

or e-mail

library@peterborough.ac.uk)

by 21st May at the latest!

...and this year...

Our Six Book Challenge Celebration

...and this year...

Added value:

• Very good relations with sectors involved

• Fiction reflects student requests

• OFSTED recognition

Top tips...

• Get teaching staff ‘on board’

• Integrate into English courses

• Treat challengers as VIPs – encourage them

• Make it fit your needs

• Sell to staff as relaxation

• Hang on to the diaries

• Have a party!

• Get stuck in!

Kathryn Wallis Learning Resources Co-ordinator,

Library+

Peterborough Regional College/

University Centre Peterborough

kathryn.wallis@peterborough.ac.uk

The Six Book Challenge

Six Book Challenge 2014

Six Book Challenge 2014

• Support from Martina Cole as Ambassador

• Packs to promote the Challenge and run it with 50 people January – June 2014

• Discounts for multiple packs and reading diaries

• Prize draws deadline Monday 30 June

• Data return deadline Monday 7 July

• Gold/silver/bronze award scheme – 25 learning providers in 2013

NEW Six Book Challenge website

• www.readingagency.org.uk/sixbookchallenge

• Sponsored by mobile company Three

• Adding a digital dimension to the Six Book Challenge

• Participants can create a an online profile, log, rate and review what they read

• Search for next read in our unique Find a read database – nearly 700 items (pre-Entry – Level 2)

• Printed books PLUS ebooks, audio, large print, newspapers, digital games

Selection criteria

• Readability level – SMOG formula

• Length, design, layout, type size

• ‘Proper’ book – no comprehension exercises, no ‘easy reader’ label

• Hook to engage reader/interest factor

• Straightforward structure, short chapters and paragraphs, simple sentences

• Beginner readers NOT beginner thinkers!

Emergent reader publishers

• www.quickreads.org.uk

• www.accentpress.co.uk

• www.newisland.ie

• www.barringtonstoke.co.uk

• www.ransom.co.uk

• www.axiseducation.co.uk

• www.newleafbooks.org.uk

• www.gatehousebooks.org.uk

• www.readwellroad.com

Tips for colleges

• Partnership across the college

• Profile for the library

• Promotion

• Prizes

• Persistence

• Party!

Six Book Challenge 2013-17

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

2013 total35,000

2014 total37,750

2015 total40,000

2016 total45,000

2017 total50,000

Public libraries

Colleges

Prisons

Workplaces

“When improving students’ life chances by gaining a GCSE in English is seen as the door that opens up opportunities for young people and adults, it is so important to establish reading competency but also reading fluency and enjoyment. The Six Book Challenge is helping to establish reading as a pleasurable activity and demonstrates its impacts on students skills development.”

Joy Mercer, Policy Director (Education), Association of Colleges

New developments and questions

• New design ‘Read anything. Read anywhere.’

• Ambassadors?

• Timescale change to cater for colleges • 19 June – announced new materials

• 14 July – order deadline for September delivery

• 7 October – Early Bird deadline

• Fully integrated website

• What works best for colleges?

Contact

• www.readingagency.org.uk/sixbookchallenge

• Genevieve Clarke genevieve.clarke@readingagency.org.uk 0871 750 2104 / 07500 010 620