How does Sparx Reader support lower-attaining students?

Sparx Reader offers a wide range of books for students with lower reading ages 

We have over 350 books on the platform, catering for students with reading ages between 6 to 17+. 

We know that older students who are struggling readers are less likely to engage if they feel their book isn’t age-appropriate, babyish or boring. To support these readers, we have a large number of high interest age, low reading age (Hi-Lo) books (from publishers such as Badger Learning). These Hi-Lo books handle mature content while still being accessible for them to read. This makes them much more appealing and helps to keep older readers with lower reading ages, engaged in their reading. 

Sparx Reader ensures books and questions are appropriate to the student's reading age

We offer books to students that are appropriate for their reading age, meaning students with a lower reading age will be offered more accessible books such as those mentioned above. 

In our lowest reading age books (5-6), the questions will differ to support these readers. For example, we do not always include a ‘Not in story’ option as we are mindful of managing these readers’ cognitive loads, and for novice readers, it isn’t always appropriate or helpful to include this option. Instead, we vary the nature of the questions by providing gap-fill options, still in a multiple-choice format. In lower-level books (reading age 5-7), while the distractors are there, they are all lifted from the text itself so that the novice reader’s working memory isn’t overloaded with yet more new information. 

For pupils with a low reading age, the frequency of the checks will differ too. For our weakest readers, questions appear more frequently and can be as often as every 50-100 words providing them with regular check-in points and constant feelings of success. They will also be presented with fewer questions at each check than those with a higher reading age. 

As a reminder, the questions are carefully designed and are based on the most important events, characters and themes from the section the student has just read. This means it should be easy for students to pass if they have read carefully. The language used in the questions is also pitched at the same level as the text itself. 

Students will be rewarded for careful reading regardless of their level

Sparx Reader Points are adapted to each student's reading speed, meaning that weaker readers have the same likelihood of gaining SRP as their stronger counterparts. By rewarding pupils for how carefully they are reading - regardless of text level - and not how many words or how quickly they’ve read, we are levelling the playing field. All students have the opportunity to experience success. 

Sparx Reader helps to develop students' working memory 

There are several ways in which Sparx Reader supports lower-attaining students to increase their stores of background knowledge which, in turn, benefits their working memories:

• As mentioned above, for weaker readers, the questions appear more regularly. This can encourage the student's working memory to pay attention to certain aspects of the text. In time, they can learn to anticipate the kinds of things that they should look out for. 
• The questions are designed to help weaker readers process information as the questions focus on narrative threads, recurring themes, salient plot points and prominent character traits, and never draw their attention to insignificant or distracting details. In a sense, they are scaffolding the reading process. 
• Attention is another key factor to becoming a good reader, in this case as it activates working memory. For example, if you are often asked questions about how a character is feeling, then you will start to pay more attention when a character’s feelings are mentioned, and this makes it more likely to be processed by the working memory.
• By rewarding students with points for getting questions right, and attaching feelings of success to the reading process, students are more inclined to build resilience and persevere in paying careful attention to the text.