New reading course

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32869, 18 March 1972, Page 18

New reading course

(By our education reporter)

Tape recordings, films and film strips, newspapers, magazines and books form part of a new reading scheme introduced at Hagley High School this year to give pupils aged 13 and 14 a chance to improve their reading ability.

The course has been described by a lecturer in education at the secondary division of the Christchurch Teachers’ College, Mr C. A. Wright, as an attempt, unique in New Zealand to grapple with the problems of the young reader who is dissatisfied with his reading achievement.

Traditionally, secondary schools do not attempt to

teach reading, assuming that this skill has been dealt with at the primary and intermediate levels.

In practice, however, many young people entering secondary school lack, for a variety of reasons, some of the important reading skills, allows pupils to choose a subject in which they wish to work for six monthly intervals.

Reading is one of the subjects offered in the new third and fourth-form courses which are a radical departure from the traditional divisions of commercial, academic, technical, homecraft and vocational courses.

All third-form pupils take the same basic course, and, in addition, study four subject options In one year. NOT JUST “LITERARY”

The reading option seeks to stimulate a pupil’s interest in the whole field of reading and not just for “literary" pursuits. The new course is designed to show a pupil that reading fluency affects all his subjects. The course, which was initiated bv the principal of the school (Mr I. D. Leggat), a SEMESTER SYSTEM The introduction at Hagley High School this year of a semester system in the third and fourth forms has allowed die school to begin the new reading programme, as the semester or option system teacher at the school, Mr R. Harris, a lecturer from the primary division of the

Christchurch Teachers’ College, Mr D. B. Doake, and Mr Wright, draws heavily on the resources of the college, using students to give individual attention to pupils. Mr Wright said yesterday that most other schools were only “tinkering about” with reading instruction within their English programmes. Mr Wright and Mr Harris both emphasised that the new course was not for remedial readers but one for those who wished to improve their ability.

“Too many of these young people in the past were just left to drift along until they left high school,” Mr Wright said. “MUST CATER FOR ALL” “Whether we like it or not, secondary schools cannot just offer elitist courses—they must cater for all,” Mr Wright said.

One of the most significant parts of the new reading plan was the element of choice open to the pupils, said Mr Wright. “There is a feeling of involvement because they want to do this course, not dominated by examinations, but for their own good. Given proper parental assistance and the help we have had from primary and intermediate schools, the success of this work seems assured. Certainly the school hopes to rescue children who are poor readers, for, unless they are helped, they will be crippled as far as later social contacts are concerned.”