Introducing Sparx Reader to your department

1. Use department time for training

We recommend scheduling a training session during department time or a staff meeting, ideally with a member of SLT. Once you have introduced them to Sparx Reader, ensure that all teachers to 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. Here are some of the benefits for students and teachers:

Benefits for students:

• Regular question checks ensure they are reading carefully.  
• 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.
• Access to a wide range of eBooks on the platform from a variety of genres.
• Privacy over what they are reading through the use of eBooks (this is not always possible when choosing a physical book with their peers).
• Ability 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?
• Access to a 'League Table' where they can compete with others for the most SRP.  

Benefits for teachers and school staff:

• Complete visibility over what students are reading each week and their full reading history through the Hand-in page.
• Insights into how students are doing, 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.
• 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 to set your expectations of how you see Sparx Reader being implemented in your school and how you expect your teachers to use the platform. 

Below we have listed some things to think about before 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

Find this under More > Student Demo. This will allow you to experience the platform from a student's perspective including the initial training book and selecting and reading a book from the Sparx Reader library. as a student would.