Balwearie High School

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Read to Succeed!

You will have been told by teachers and parents that reading is important. It is! There have been many studies suggesting that the more you read, the better you will perform in a range of subjects (including English, obviously!) Reading develops your vocabulary, exposes you to new ideas, builds up your knowledge of the world, helps improve your analytical skills and helps you escape from everyday life for a while. It will not surprise you to learn that we place great importance on it in our department.

 

In S1 and S2, we start every period with ten minutes that are devoted to you reading a text of your choice. This can be a novel, non-fiction book, graphic novel, whatever – as long as you are enjoying reading the text, we are happy.

 

We also use Accelerated Reader, a web-based programme which is a way of motivating you to read as widely as possible When you finish texts, you will complete online quizzes which help to check your understanding of what you have read. This helps us to monitor your improvements as a reader, as well as to recommend suitable texts for you to try next.

 

In S1-3, you will also have a regular visit to the library built into your time in English. Mrs O’Donnell, the librarian, will introduce you to the resources available in the Information Centre, as well as explaining how the library works. There are thousands of books, graphic novels and even some films that can be loaned out to you.