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Reading gains have been hard-fought these past eighteen months. Most schools have performed admirably during such a difficult time, but we’re not out of the woods yet.Â
The loss of regular face-to-face learning will have an impact on students for some time to come. When students re-sit examinations, there is often a miss-match between the chronological reading age and the reading age that is required to answer exam questions. When this is the case, success will be curtailed. Â
The reading age gap was growing well before the challenge of the pandemic, and it is not closing itself. Despite a herculean effort on the part of teachers to make all points of contact result in rising grades, the literacy gap is going to undermine everyone’s best efforts to achieve the exam results that they deserve. Â
In the next round of testing, many students will not confidently access examination questions. This is because their reading fluency levels have suffered. To succeed in examinations there needs to be equality between students’ ability to read and their ability to process and comprehend the text in front of them. When this equation is balanced, knowledge can be tested fairly. Â
“In the next round of testing, many students will not confidently access examination questions.”
For students whose processing speeds are slow (but not slow enough for extra time) there is a need to review their equality of access and make provision. Where students misread words or misinterpret context, perhaps through skipping or not adequately decoding, we must review their equality of access and make provision. This is because weak interpretation undermines the ability to answer the question. We don’t want to be testing students on their ability to read a question, we want to test them on their knowledge and understanding.
Fortunately, there is an assistive technology that can help. The ExamReader is JCQ approved and can be used in all examinations. Deploying scanning pens in class and exams means that your students will be able to decode and read when human support is not available. Â
Decoding questions takes time, particularly when literacy difficulties like slow reading or slower speeds of processing are experienced by the student. There is a spectrum of dyslexia that ranges from mild to very severe. For anyone on this spectrum, additional support for examinations is a very welcome gift.
“Human support is important. However, it’s not always practicable.”
The good news is that there is no need for diagnostic work to have taken place for these individuals; the equality offered by ExamReader scanning pens can be taken up by any student. The only criterion is that there has been time to practice and embed using this tool as a normal way of working prior to the examination. Â
Human support is important. However, it’s not always practicable. If we provided all the support required for reading at the point of need, classrooms would be full of helicoptering adults whirring around. There would be a continual buzz of supporting comprehension, validating understanding, decoding key words, and reading tricky texts aloud. There would not, however, be any genuine development of learning independence.
In most classrooms, students do not ask, they do not reveal their reading difficulties and they do not want to be identified as having a difficulty. Â
Assistive technology is an important way forward and, fortunately, there are lots of excellent accessibility tools available through the big platforms. There are also tools like the ExamReader and ReaderPen that provide independent learning support without the need for computers or Wi-Fi. These are scanning pens that will read the text on the page at home, in classroom and examination without the need for additional access arrangements provided.Â
“Reading questions under pressure can be very stressful and often result in errors of decoding and understanding.”
Students who learn to use the ReaderPen have a personal support that can lift them from confusion and dependence to clarity and independence. When adopted confidently, it can be the tutor that was otherwise unavailable or too expensive.Â
The ExamReader is an assistive technology tool available to anyone. At one end of the spectrum, it alleviates the need for a human reader to go into the exam with the student. At the other, it provides the security of knowing that a word or sentence has been read correctly.
Reading questions under pressure can be very stressful and often result in errors of decoding and understanding what is required. This is because working memory is adversely affected by stress and examinations are a hot bed of stress. Â
“Listening while reading promotes comprehension and confidence.”
By presenting the student with tools that foster independence by discreetly reading back the examination question, we are supporting the literacy difficulty and increasing wellbeing and self-esteem. Both are critical through the duration of the exam. Working memory is scaffolded by the ExamReader’s function of providing text that is highlighted while simultaneously giving audio feedback.Â
This is because listening while reading promotes comprehension and confidence. For thousands of students, the support of scanning pens is valued every day. Â
There is still time for an ExamReader to be deployed to support students who have literacy difficulties and give them the decoding advantage that will make a difference to their final grade. There is still time to embed the use of ReaderPens in your classroom. There is a shift from dependence to independence that can be provided.  If you would like to find out more contact geraldine@scanningpens.com or visit www.scanningpens.co.uk. Â
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