Overview
The great thing about the High Interest Series from Robinswood is that you'd never think that the books were anything other than just regular books. They look like, feel like, and read like regular books.
But there's a lot of meticulous development behind each title to make the books attractive to readers right across the reading range in the classroom – from the avid to the much more reluctant. This is invaluable for integrated classroom discussion, especially when reviewing the books with the material in the Teachers' Handbooks.
Each book is developed, designed and laid out with great care to work really well with any reader – whether in the classroom or at home. It's then extensively tested and refined in the classroom environment to make sure that it will get read, that students won't give up on the story through over-challenging text, and that they'll get the satisfaction of having completed the book.
Also, as they look just like the any other novels already in the classroom, library, or bookshelf at home, there's less risk of these titles being rejected (some hi-lo books attract a 'stigma'). There are no end-of-chapter questions. No simplified child-like illustrations. No 'reading level' indicators. Just gripping, well-illustrated, pacy stories.
The Main Ingredients
The success of this series rests upon the following features:
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exciting stories that keep readers hooked, page after page, chapter after chapter.
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topics and characters to which students can immediately relate.
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sufficient illustration to help students visualise the charcters and events.
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stories tested and revised, with feedback from all levels of readers.
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reliable, accurate control of reading level.
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text designed to eliminate unnecessary hyphens and lengthy white spaces between words.
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absence of difficult words used in isoltaion (98% from basic list of common words and phrases).
In addition, without any over-emphasis, each story conveys a social message which can be used to stimulate discussion in subjects other than just literacy.
Reading Levels
Proven techniques include controlled reading levels every 100 words – a student who can read page one can read every page of the story. [For more details, see Developing a High Interest Novel - coming shortly]
Theatre Scripts
To bring these wonderful stories to life with your teenage students, you may wish to download the following theatre scripts to use with your students [Coming shortly]:
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Against All Odds
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Avalanche
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Dark Ryder
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Ghost House
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Scarface
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Street Scene
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Student Narc
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Three Feet Under
Renaissance Accelerated Reader Programme
All the High Interest novels have been tested under the Renaissance Learning Accelerated Reader Programme. The AR Quiz Number, Reading Level and AR Points are shown alongside each title with the corresponding Robinswood Reading Age and Interest Age details. [Coming shortly - comprehensive table of AR and Robinswood data for Primary Series Novels.]
About The Authors of The High Interest Series
A number of authors have contributed to the High Interest novels for Primary School age and Teenage students. For author biographies, click here. [Coming shortly.]
Assessments
You can also download here the Teacher Assessment Checklist or the Student Self-Assessment worksheet (also printed in many of the Teachers' Handbooks) for use in the classroom. [Coming shortly.]