On the way to work this morning I was listening to Stephen Heppell’s #LWF talk. As a side step on self-directed learning, he highlighted Planet read and the use of Same Language Subtitles? (6 mins 50) SLS?
I knew nothing of SLS, I had not even heard of the acronym before…. but the idea seemed so obvious. I had no idea of the scale of Planet Read or the depth of available research evidence underpinning its success but after scraping the surface I delved into the research.
Here is a summary of the most convincing evidence for me to invest more professional time in SLS. Take a look at the graphic.
- The year end rating (Blue / grey) is followed by a performance dip in reading performance attributed to the summer break (white).
- there is gradual and expected improvement or ‘growth pattern’ in reading performance in all three groups, leading up to the dark green SLS intervention.
- notice the sharp rise in the low ability readers following the 12 week SLS intervention (bright green).
The Results
- the SLS activity did not take time away from classroom reading activities, but rather added to the time spent “reading.” With total reading activities increasing from 29% to 60% as a result. In other words, time spent on the SLS intervention, was not seen as reading by the students.
- as a result of improved reading ability, the SLS group teacher was able to slowly increase time students spent on more recognised reading activities
- and that students were then more engaged and focused in their classroom reading activities
Same-Language-Subtitling (SLS): Using Subtitled Music Video for Reading Growth
(The graphic and content is taken from Greg McCall’s and Carmen Craig’s paper, presented at the World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (EDMEDIA) 2009)
The Hard Sell
- the majority of students in on-going SLS groups experienced at least a TWO year gain in proficiency levels and that gain was maintained for students in subsequent years.
- The gains in SLS were maintained even when students moved on to other academic placements, remember SLS targeted low ability readers.
- students who participated in SLS had a higher chance of becoming proficient readers when compared to “struggling readers” who were not exposed to SLS.
- additional small gains in focused reading-times
Clearly, SLS has enormous potential impact on reading development of “struggling readers” as well benefitting near-proficient readers.
What Now? Who, Where, When and How?
First step, share this research via Twitter and in conversation at school. Was anyone using SLS? There were few positive responses, a few teachers did play video with subtitles and there was a genuine feeling that it helped.
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I also shared SLS with our Assistant Headteacher and learning specialist. She was very excited about the possibility of an SLS reading experiment.
Who? I have a few students in my Year 7 English Class who loathe reading. I have provided bespoke reading content (skooters / gaming), converting webpages to pdfs with pdfmyurl but that level of support is just not sustainable. On the flipside, it is the favourite English activity of some of their class peers. Is it appropriate to repurpose their entire groups library time for SLS? I don’t think so, so the SLS will be a select group.
Where? SLS is flexible, screen and subtitles however I have a few ideas I wish to explore so additional IT facilities would be useful.
When? As a bespoke group, it may well have to be during extra support lessons or during mentor times.
There is still more research required here, however, I am already thinking about SLS activities in additional to SLS television and films. For example, I did connect SLS with changing the language settings on games platforms like XBOX and PSPs. A possible ‘Create a Karaoke Track’ learning project with Karafun.
Meanwhile, sharing ‘SLS tips for parents.” and because SLS appears to be one of the few interventions I have researched that works effectively in both mixed ability sets or ability sets, a short pitch to colleagues and a whole school subtitles policy should be put forward.
I hope to come back to you later in the year with a programme, possibly even some results.
http://licorize.com/projects/Kristianstill/Same-Language-Subtitles
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