Hello! My name is Fatima Malik and I am a BSc Psychology student at the University of Leeds. This summer, I am working on a research project titled "Reading through gaming in primary schools" with fellow scholars @Helen Henwood and @Wong Seng Ying Amber . Whilst, this is my first post on this platform, we're at the halfway mark of our 6-week project. Therefore, I thought I'd share a mix of introductions and reflections on our journey so far.

Project Overview

"Reading through gaming in primary schools" extends the research of Dr. Peter Hart and Dr. Paula Clarke's ‘Connecting & Comprehending Through Play’. Their work explores how games can support students' inference skills and language comprehension. Our project narrows this focus, investigating whether games can develop reading skills in primary-aged children, similar to how graded reading books are used.

In UK schools, advanced reading schemes grade books to appropriately challenge students: too easy, and there's no growth; too hard, and motivation drops. Our research aims to create a grading method for games that matches a child's assessed reading level. This system will help schools and families choose games that provide the right level of challenge for each individual child. We will test this grading scale with children to ensure its accuracy.

Progress So Far

So an update, how is it all going? In short, to plan!

Week 1: We familiarised ourselves with the Hatcher grading system by grading books and websites, and spending afternoons gleefully playing various board games.
Week 2: We critically evaluated board games for suitability in schools and created an adapted version of the Hatcher grading system to grade these games. We also trained to conduct running records in schools.
Week 3: We visited a primary school to test our grading system, teaching children how to play the games and conducting running records to assess their reading levels.

Reflections:

Reflecting is a process that inevitably places us in a vulnerable position. We are forced to introspect and critically analyse our observations and experiences, often with an emphasis on our shortcomings and failures- and all in all, as beneficial as it can be, it is equally as daunting. The past three weeks have been a true learning experience for me. Often out of my comfort zone, with two brilliant minds by my side, I have had to overcome any imposter syndrome that creeps up and have had to adjust my learning speed to my peers. I have developed a new found love for board games, but I must admit this may be a result of my current losing streak with Helen & Amber;) As a team, we have hit road blocks, retraced our steps, scrapped hours worth of work, yet somehow every step felt rewarding. I am looking forward to the latter half of our project, which, given that it involves data analysis, will undoubtedly push me out of my comfort zone, and provide the perfect opportunity for growth :)