1. What is the aim of TextNow®?
TextNow® adopts an innovative approach to engage young people in reading through encouraging enjoyment of reading. Through enjoying reading and gaining increased understanding of what they read, young people are likely to read more, and through this improve their reading skills and increase their access to education or training.
2. Who is TextNow for?
TextNow is aimed at young people aged 11-19 who lack confidence in reading and have low reading attainment.
3. What is TextNow?
TextNow is a reading motivation programme that offers young people one-to-one support from a coach for 20 minutes every day for ten weeks. The intensive nature of the programme is critical to its success.
4. Where can TextNow be offered?
TextNow can be offered in a range of contexts and by any organisation working with 11 to 19-year-olds that is able to deliver to the TextNow model. Examples of organisations that have offered TextNow include secondary schools, youth offending teams, training providers, pupil referral units and those working with looked after children.
5. How many young people can I have on the TextNow programme?
The expectation is that each site offering TextNow will work with ten young people on average, but this may be varied and sites may run the programme with up to 50 young people or more depending on circumstances.
6. What is provided for me to deliver TextNow?
You will be provided with access to essential online training for coordinators and coaches, a ‘starter’ library, diary resources for young people and coaches, downloadable resources, awards for young people through MyChoice!, monitoring and evaluation.
7. What does my organisation have to provide?
You will need to provide a coordinator to manage and monitor delivery of TextNow and provide data for evaluation purposes, sufficient trained coaches to enable young people to receive daily 20-minute reading coaching for ten weeks, and recruitment and selection of young people.
8. Who can become a coach?
Each organisation will identify coaches according to their own needs and resources.
- Schools may choose to use teaching assistants, non-teaching staff or peer coaches, eg sixth-formers.
- Those working with looked after children may draw coaches from foster parents or care workers.
- YOTs may use volunteers, for example university students or volunteers recruited by the YOT.
Online training is available to enable a range of people to successfully coach on the TextNow programme.
9. Do the young people get any awards?
Yes. Awards are offered by way of books that can be ordered by young people using the points they earn on MyChoice! Points earned are the equivalent of 50p a day.
The guidance to coordinators is that awards should be based on:
- attendance records as evidenced on the Quality Assurance System which generate points on MyChoice!
- participation (fully or mostly) during the session (as evidenced by the coach’s diary entries)
- the young person has shown evidence of engaging in reading activity in addition to the sessions.
10. Where can I find out more?