Introducing Sparx Reader to your department

1. Use department time for training

We recommend using some department time or a staff meeting to introduce Sparx Reader to your department. If possible, you could bring along the member of SLT who attended your Sparx Reader introductory meetings. 

Once you have introduced Sparx Reader to your team, we strongly recommend that all teachers complete their Sparx Reader training modules.

2. Explain the benefits of Sparx Reader for your students and teachers

Our aim in Sparx Reader is for all students to engage with meaningful, independent reading each week. Students will have access to eBooks chosen for their level and teachers will gain visibility over exactly what books students are engaging with each week. Below we have listed some benefits for both students and teachers for you to share with your team.

Benefits for students:

• Sparx Reader provides checks for your students to ensure that they are reading carefully. These will come up after every section and teachers will have visibility over how students are doing in these checks through the Hand-in page.
• Sparx Reader Points are personalised to each student by working out their reading speed. This ensures that points are awarded fairly to students of all abilities.
• Students will have access to a wide range of eBooks on the platform from a variety of genres.
• Students will have privacy over what they are reading through the use of the eBooks, which is not always possible when choosing a physical book with their peers.
• Students will be able to change their settings to ensure that the site is accessible to them. More information can be found in this article: What accessibility settings does Sparx Reader have?
• Students will have access to a 'League Table' where they can compete with other students for the most Sparx Reading Points.

Benefits for teachers and school staff:

• Complete visibility over what students are reading each week through the Hand-in page. Here you will be able to see their full reading history as well as the books they are reading as part of their weekly homework. This will enable you to have meaningful book talk with your students about what they're reading.
• Useful Insights into how students are doing with their reading, including a reading age estimate that evolves as students read on the platform.
• Access to a Sparx Reading Test to set for students that will produce a downloadable report of all student reading ages.
• Access to a variety of different downloadable reports that can be filtered to allow you to analyse the data for your own school's needs.
• Access to all of our ready-made resources, such as certificates and badge templates, to support you in ensuring Sparx Reader is a success in your school.
• Reduced teacher workload with homework being able to be set over multiple weeks, across the whole academic year in one go.

3. Set expectations of what you want to achieve

It is important in this meeting to set your expectations of how you see Sparx Reader being implemented in your specific school context and how you expect your teachers to use the platform. 

Below we have listed some things to think about prior to this discussion: 

• How long do you want the homework to be each week? Will this be different for different year groups? 
• What days will your hand-out and hand-in be? We recommend this is consistent across the school. 
• How often do you expect teachers to be checking on the hand-in page within Sparx Reader?
• How will this fit in with your current homework policy? You can find more information about homework policies here: Creating a department homework monitoring policy
• Will you have rewards/sanctions to encourage completion?

4. Show them what it looks like for a student using the Student Demo

When you log in to your Sparx Reader site, on the menu on the left, you can click More > Student Demo. This will allow you to experience the initial training book that your students will see, and then let you select a book and start reading in Sparx Reader as a student would. This is a great way to show the wider department the student experience, and can also be helpful when getting your students set up.