International Literacy Day – Creative ways to engage your students

Published on 07/09/2022

It’s International Literacy Day (September 8^th) and we are celebrating the power of Literacy and promoting the importance of reading and writing for all children. Below we take a look at some creative ways to engage your students with Literacy.

• Update your reading list – one way to encourage your students to read and ensure their interest in reading is maintained as they get older is to be adventurous in the books you bring to their attention. Include books with diverse characters that represent all your students and stories they can relate to. Also include books from different genres and times to spark interest.

“Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.” ― Vera Nazarian

• Story Writing – task your students with writing a story about their summer holidays. Encourage them to be creative in the way they produce the story. For example, through pictures, drawings, and words.
• Use games to memorise words – play games with your students to memorise challenging and sight words. Word fishing is a great example which involves using magnetic fish cut-outs with words on the back of them. Students then fish using a magnetic rod and read the word out aloud as they pick-up fish. This helps students master the words and is a lot more fun than memorising from paper or whiteboards.

• Word search bingo – playing word search bingo when you are reading to your students helps to engage them rather than just sitting and listening.  Hand your students a list of words that are in the book chapter and ask them to circle the words as you read the book. At the end of the chapter ask your class to discuss the words they found.
• Comics – some students learn better through pictures than words. Bringing comics or magazines into the classroom or getting students to create their own will inspire engagement and fun. Comics are a great way to teach attention to detail and other important skills.

• Combine the above strategies with interventions for students with additional needs or who need a bit of extra support to ensure learning is maintained and they progress to a higher level.

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