Anyone had experience of a great ICT project to help improve reading at KS1/KS2?

[Bookbrain]

I'm currently working as a volunteer at my kids' school, helping out with ICT.

The Head is focusing on improving reading, particularly among the KS2 boys, but across the school as a whole. He'd like to use ICT to support this and I said I would go and look for some ideas.

Has anyone had experience of anything, either as a teacher or as a parent, which has been a real success? Am looking at either one-off projects or ongoing schemes or resources which we can implement.

Sorry if this is a bit vague. I do have some ideas and could say "I am thinking about something like x" but I would love to hear any experiences, so don't really want to influence replies to only be about projects similar to x.

Thanks anyone who can help.

In school, we have used Rapid Reading - a computer-based reading and comprehension scheme [there are books, which are expensive ... and which we don't use at all, so definitely don't use those] with great success as a 1 to 1 intervention for reluctant reader boys in upper KS1 / lower KS2.

Definitely a 'specific, targeted' thing, not a 'lots of pupils lots of the time' thing, but we have seen really good results in terms of progress and motivation for those boys.

We use the books (but not the software)
We use Bug Club e books (also by Pearson) for all pupils from reception to Y6

You could use ICT to "create audio books for younger children". Prehaps the children could make a powerpoint presentation with the story in it. They could either make it so that individual words are read when they are clicked on or a whole sentence/ paragraph is read if a different button is clicked on. The children could have fun illustrating the story in power point and practicing reading with expression for the recording.

More able children could download free ebooks from www.gutenberg.org/ and less able children could work with simpler text.

Mrz, interesting to hear that you use the books but not the software. I have to say that it's the sheer 'techiness' of the Rapid Reading software that REALLY hooks the boys, and they clamour to use it [has really boosted their comprehension skills as well as their pure 'decoding']. It's been particularly useful for some boys from families / groups where men / boys just don't read books - to be seen with a book is a real social 'no' for them, even within school, but reading from a computer, that's completely different.....

We do have an electronic reading scheme (Bug Club) which is widely used but have never really had a problem with boys and reading. We've used the Rapid books for 5 or 6 years and have just purchased the new Rapid Phonics

Thanks everyone, I'll have a look at the electronic/computer-based reading scheme resources that you've mentioned.

reallytired that sounds like a great idea. I'd had a similar idea of using the video camera for recording either a story or a lip-synch to a favourite song, where the children all have key words that they hold up for the camera whenever they occur. Then showing their work back to the class.

We've been using this system at home with good results. You could do it at school, butyou would need a computer with headphones and you need someone to sit with th echild while they are doing it. 10-15 mins per day.

I think they do group deals for schools - call and talk to them. It works with any other synthetic phonics and really entrenches decoding with no guesswork at all. Immediate confidence boost IME. Computer only - no workbooks which is why Ithink it's such a success with reluctant readers.