Reading Together is a research-based workshop programme for parents, children and teachers. It is designed to help parents (and/or caregivers) support their children's reading at home more effectively (and thereby also support teachers in their classroom programmes).
The workshop programme has been shown to raise children's reading achievement in a sustained manner, and to improve relationships between children and parents, and between parents and teachers (the original research was a randomised, controlled trial - the gold standard used by US federal authorities)1,2. It has been successfully implemented by teachers in various parts of New Zealand for more than 20 years, and teachers find that the programme is practical and manageable3,4.
Reading Together is a low-cost programme comprising five hours (4 x 1hr15min sessions), spread over seven weeks. Sessions are generally held in the early evening (around 7pm) and can be run by an interested classroom teacher or literacy specialist.
If you would like more information, the article Reading Together: A programme which enables parents to help their children with reading at home is available for download below. This article:
- summarises the research design and results of the Reading Together programme
- outlines its successful implementation throughout New Zealand since 1982
- identifies reasons for the programme's success
- links Reading Together with current research and the Ministry of Education's Schooling Strategy 2005-2010
Additional evidence about the effectiveness of Reading Together is contained in the report on a research study funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Education5. The in-depth study investigated the ongoing implementation (since 2005) of Reading Together at St Joseph’s Primary School, Otahuhu, Auckland. The research revealed:
- statistically significant gains in students’ levels of reading comprehension,
- positive and constructive changes in parents’ relationships with their children, and
- positive shifts in children’s independent reading and relationships between teachers and parents.
The report of the St Joseph’s Otahuhu research study is available for download below (and is also available on the Education Counts site). Information about the implementation of Reading Together at St Joseph’s is also contained in the article Reading Together: St Joseph's Otahuhu 6 (available for download below). Written by Liz Horgan (Principal), Cathy Franich (DP) and Marian Wards (AP), this article describes the successful implementation of Reading Together at St Joseph's and provides feedback from workshop participants.
The resources for the programme were revised in 2004, and can be ordered here.
1 Biddulph, J. (1983). A group programme to train parents of children with reading difficulties to tutor their children at home. MA Research Report. University of Canterbury, Christchurch.
2 Biddulph, J & Tuck, B. (1983). Assisting parents to help their children with reading at home. Paper presented to the New Zealand Association for Research in Education. Wellington.
3 Biddulph, J. (1993, May). Teacher-parent partnership to support children's reading development. Paper presented to the New Zealand Reading Association Annual Conference, Christchurch.
4 Biddulph, J. & Allott, J. (2006). Reading Together: A programme which enables parents to help their children with reading at home - Overview. Reading Forum NZ, Vol 21, No 3, 20-27.
5 Tuck, B., Horgan, L., Franich, C. & Wards, M. (2007). School leadership in a school-home partnership: Reading Together at St Joseph’s School Otahuhu. Research and paper completed with the financial support of the Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme and the Pasifika Schooling Improvement Division of the Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand.
6 Horgan, L., Franich, C. & Wards, M.(2007). Reading Together: St Joseph's Otahuhu. Reading Forum NZ, Vol 22, No 1, 35-40.